Software Trained to Determine Meaning of Dogs Bark

Hungarian researcher Csaba Molnár from Eötvös Loránd University has developed software in an attempt to determine what a dog's bark means. According to Telegraph.co.uk "The software has learned the nuances of woofs, howls, yaps, snarls and growls in various situations and is now able to classify dog barks with reasonable accuracy, along with the identity of the animals themselves." Molnár says "If we could find the acoustic characteristics of barks which reflect to certain emotional states of dogs we could gain information about the dogs' "well-being" which would have several applications on the animal welfare field." but don't get too excited, the accuracy is only 43% in detecting six different states: 'stranger', 'fight', 'walk', 'alone', 'ball' and 'play' and the research has only been conducted on one breed. No word on when they'll try to figure out cats!

New MacBook and Backup Drive Introduced at Macworld

A slim new notebook computer and a wireless hard drive are the big products being introduced at this years Macworld. While not the big announcement of last year's iPhone, the MacBook Air is touted as the "world’s thinnest notebook." “We’ve built the world’s thinnest notebook—without sacrificing a full-size keyboard or a full-size 13-inch display,” Steve Jobs is quoted as saying in an Apple news release. “When you first see MacBook Air, it’s hard to believe it’s a high-performance notebook with a full-size keyboard and display. But it is.”

Apple's Time Capsule is an 802.11 n WiFi enabled base station / hard drive that is available in either 500 GB or 1 TB models. According to the Apple website "Time Capsule is a revolutionary backup device that works wirelessly with Time Machine in Mac OS X Leopard. It automatically backs up everything..."

In addition Jobs has announced that there are some new software updates coming for the iPhone.

Photographer Allowed Into Worlds Not Viewed by Many

I've rediscovered my love for photography with the recent purchase of a Canon S5 IS. With this renewed affection, I find myself spending a lot of time on Flickr gazing at shots of all sorts of things and finding beauty in the strangest of subjects. I am definitely taking more pictures than ever before, and my photo abilities are benefiting from the practice and study of the works of others. Perhaps this is why I find this Wired article about photographer Taryn Simon so fascinating? Simon convinced authorities to grant her access to some very secretive research facilities and government offices usually hidden from the public and set about to photograph her exploits. There are some interesting pictures even though some of the subjects are disturbing.

MySpace and States Agree on Safety Guidelines

According to the Globe and Mail, and many other sources, MySpace and 49 state Attorney's have agreed on a broad set of guidelines to help protect youth online. "MySpace, ..., agreed to take further steps to ensure safety, including developing an e-mail registry that would allow parents to prohibit their children from creating an online profile for the network, according to the attorneys general." With 110 million global users and much popularity with the younger set, MySpace was a natural target for the states. “This is an industry-wide challenge and we must all work together to create a safer Internet,” MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam said in a statement. Texas was the only holdout state.

No iPhone for Chinese Market

G4's The Feed blog is reporting that talks between Apple and China's largest cellphone provider China Mobile have broken off with no explanation. Apple had been hoping to tap into the 350 million user market but it doesn't look good! Perhaps the revenue sharing model is not as appealing to China Mobile as it was to AT&T?

Gizmodo Punks CES - Reaction Mixed

In this post, Gizmodo comes clean on pranking CES and provide a video as proof. Apparently armed with a TV-B-Gone remote control device, they ran amok turning screens off through out the show. The really interesting thing is the reaction they received in the comments to their post. I'm along with the group who laughed a bit but think they crossed the line in messing with the Motorola presentation. I'm constantly telling my children that a joke is only funny the first time or two, and gets really annoying after that. Interfering with someones presentation is, in my mind, taking things too far! We used to have a saying when I worked in the mining industry... "don't mess with any one's paycheck or their lunch" and in this case some body's paycheck could very well be on the line. To quote SNEAKY from the comments "Have fun getting press passes to another trade show."

I Love Lego Mindstorms!

While I was in Florida I had a chance to visit the Lego Store at Downtown Disney. To my dismay they did not stock the Mindstorms NXT, I'd probably be building robots and not blogging otherwise. I could have spent hours there, but it was busy and we had plenty more to see. Here is a great Mindstorms project that showed up on YouTube:

and here is a picture I shot at the Lego Store:

Canon S5 IS

I've posted some pics from our vacation at Disney World in Orlando to my Flickr site, more to come but just wanted to say that I'm really loving my Canon S5 IS. Many of the shots in the set that I've uploaded where taken during the Safari at Animal Kingdom. If you've ever been on the Safari you'll know that the vehicles never stop... so these shots were taken while in motion! I'm very pleased with the results.

Stealthy Windows Virus Looks For Bank Info

The BBC Is reporting that security experts are worried about a particularly stealthy new virus that seems to be after bank account info. The Mebroot virus as it has been dubbed is a rootkit virus that hides itself deep in the Master Boot Record and later downloads other malicious programs such as key loggers in an attempt to hijack banking information. It is suspected that a Russian hacking group is behind the virus which was detected on about 5,000 machines in December, mostly in Europe. The virus installs itself via booby-trapped websites that use vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. Yet again another reason to use Firefox!

College Coaches to Vote on Texting as a Recruiting Tool

College basketball is competitive on many levels, least of which is the recruitment of top ranked high school players. For many coaches trying to recruit, text messaging or texting has become a valuable tool which reaches the young stars in a manner that they are familiar and comfortable with. There is a fine line however and some students have begun to complain that all of the messages are costing them time and money leading the N.C.A.A. to put a ban on the practice for Division I colleges last August. Today during their annual convention, representatives from the N.C.A.A.’s Division I members are expected to revisit the issue after 34 of the 329 colleges asked for an override vote. Some are suggesting that governing body reinstate the practice but put restrictions on the use of texting similar to those imposed on placing phone calls to the recruits. What an interesting dilemma! Sort of like that which we all face when we get those annoying telemarketing calls, only for these kids there are real benefits to staying in touch with certain coaches while others with whom they have no interest still want to be heard. The New York Times has the story here.