Soft District

I don't have anything against Microsoft, really! I don't know if I told you this before, but I haven't, here it is. The only thing I really hate about Microsoft lately is its lack of innovation, but now I finally got something to make me happy. Coming from Microsoft Live Labs and the University of Washington, Photosynth is a software able to analyze your digital images and build a 3D point cloud of a photographed object. Pretty cool, huh? Well, this is only a quick description, so here's the whole story...

For now, Photosynth.com seems to be the only way to create "synths"(the 3D point clouds I mentioned earlier), and these are the limitations published on the site:

1. All synths are uploaded. They're big, so you need to use a broadband Internet connection.
2. All synths are public. Your photos will be visible to everyone on the Internet.(no kinky ones for now, all right?)
3. Like the viewing experience, the "synther" only runs on PCs (XP and Vista).
4. You'll need to Sign Up for a Photosynth account. It uses Windows Live ID."

The software that needs to be installed has 8MB in size, and Microsoft claims that if you have at least a DirectX 7 compatible video card with 64MB of memory, everything will be just fine. Also, Photosynth may run on some DirectX 6 cards with as little as 32MB of memory, but that depends on how lucky you are...

"With nothing more than a digital camera and some inspiration, you can use Photosynth to transform regular digital photos into a three-dimensional, 360-degree experience. Anybody who sees your synth is put right in your shoes, sharing in your experience, with detail, clarity and scope impossible to achieve in conventional photos or videos.

Synths constitute an entirely new visual medium. Photosynth analyzes each photo for similarities to the others, and uses that data to build a model of where the photos were taken. It then re-creates the environment and uses that as a canvas on which to display the photos."

I don't know about you, but I think I'm going to give this a try right away!

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Still remembering Microsoft's Mojave Experiment? To be honest, I am still stunned by seeing so many positive opinions about it, but I don't have anything against them, just because mine is different. This entire deal is like beer with lemon flavor - most people hate the idea, but they end up with a passion for that drink in a lot of cases. Unfortunately, Vista is much more expensive than a beer, and the time and resources required to switch to it, or stick with it once you get it preinstalled with a new computer can't be compared with the "time and resources" required...to drink a beer! Anyway, here's the latest news about the $300 million campaign Microsoft is doing in what I can call a "desperate try" to push Vista inside our computers...

Now, Jerry Seinfeld is joining in, and he's not the big man inside the whole campaign, he's only a small piece of a much bigger picture. I won't ask why, because most of us probably figured that out already - there's no point in asking why, Microsoft is going berserk in the advertising battlefield, instead of admitting the error, keeping Vista around for a while as they did with Windows Millenium, and work as hard as possible on the next version. After all, we should all look forward and learn from our past mistakes, and not try to cover them in a camouflage net, shouldn't we, Mr. Ballmer?

According to the Wall Street Journal's sources, Seinfeld could be joined by Will Ferrell and Chris Rock, among of multitude of other personalities, in one of the largest campaigns Microsoft has ever initiated, expected to begin on September 4. The news ads will revolve around the "Windows, Not Walls" slogan, but let me tell you something - walls can keep you in, but people can fall through windows!

There are a lot of suppositions for now, but nothing certain. Oh, wait - there is something certain! Here's what I know for sure - Windows Millenium worked fine for me, and Vista also works great, as I have never seen a blue screen or any strange system freezes, BUT I still use Windows XP for over 95% of the time. Why? Ask those millions doing the same, you'll surely find your answer!

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As soon as you start browsing the Internet, you'll get a headache. A big one. The reason is not any of my spells, because I can't cast any spells, and even if I could, you are not my enemies, so...it's all about being on the right side of the "legal content" wall, my friends. I know it's sad, but the fact that downloading music is illegal gets closer to becoming reality with each day. No, we're not talking about the "Is downloading music illegal?" question, we're talking about RIAA's actions and their result. Do you want to know what they did lately? Here's the news...

Once upon a time, there was a nice site, called Muxtape. As you can see by visiting the link, now it's unavailable, and they claim it's only going to be for a short time, until they "sort out a problem with the RIAA." It's good to see they are optimistic about that, but let's see what happened this time, shall we?

Created this March by Justin Ouellette, with a initial funding of $95,000 provided by Jakob Lodwick, Justin's former boss at Vimeo.com, Muxtape was(let's hope it will also "be" the same, as soon as the RIAA pulls back) a website allowing its users to upload entire MP3 playelists, based on the idea of a mixtape. The funny part is that the funding contract was written on a napkin, but the serios part is that RIAA is currently targeting them because...downloading music is illegal, we all (don't want to) know that!

Everyone was expecting for the RIAA to kick in Muxtape's door, but here's what Ouellette had to say about the idea behind it, and the difference between Muxtape and the likes of Napster - "Its intended purpose is to introduce you to new music that you would then hopefully go and buy." He also said that many record labels are excited about the ability of the site to bring new music to consumers, but it seems Muxtape is not the only one of its kind, since imeem, SeeqPod or Anywhere.FM offer about the same user experience, only that...

...Muxtape needs to find a way out of this, and quickly! The scenario that has most chances of happening is that Muxtape will sign an agreement and pay licensing fees, but since even the big ones like Pandora are already considering closing the gates due to high royalty rates...could it be any chance for Muxtape to find a way through? Well, that remains to be seen, but...

...the sad truth seems to be this - RIAA is slowy turning enjoyment into a real pain, and if you really want to stay away from trouble, as a user, you should remember that downloading music is illegal...as long as you're not paying for it!

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When looking for free DVD player downloads, you should check what you have inside your computer already, because you may end up with a few big surprises! Don't worry, I am not going to state the obvious here - we all know that Windows Media Player is capable of playing DVDs, but it's far from being perfect, and - if you ask me - its interface leaves a lot to be desired. Even worse, Windows Media Player doesn't exactly come for free, since you need Windows to run it, so let's get busy going through a few free DVD player downloads for everyone, with some of them being available on all platforms, just as...

...VLC is! Don't know what VLC stands for? VLC media player is a cross-platform media player AND a streaming server, coming with support for an impressive amount of audio and video formats, and the downloads counter on its official website is getting closer to the 100,000,000 mark!

Its interface is rather basic, and most people may find themselves lost inside VLC's maze of settings, but there are a lot of rewards coming with this program, like speed, portability (most video and audio file work without the need of installing any additional codecs), and a very nice feature for the Mac version, that allows you to browse Internet TV and Radio stations. Priceless!

VLC is free to download and use for all platforms you can think of, and a few extra ones, and some of its minor drawbacks, apart from the user friendliness missing in action, are the inability to jump inside FLV files, some minor issues with DVD menus that occur sometimes, and poor performance when playing HD MKV files. All in all, VLC is a great choice!

The interesting part is that, where VLC fails, GOM Player fills the gap wonderfully. For example, this one has much easier to use image and sound adjustments, it easily jumps through FLV files, and also plays DVDs pretty well. Unfortunately, it's only available for Windows, and sometimes needs codecs, when VLC doesn't. Well, nothing is perfect, but VLC + GOM Player is one of the best "2 in 1" free DVD player downloads you can get!

Both players above can handle incomplete or damaged AVI files, and they are both free to download and use. Unfortunately, Mac and Linux users will have to be happy with VLC and other programs, but both platforms have a pretty rich offering of free DVD player downloads, so it's not a hopeless cause.

At last, I have to tell you about one of the favorite free DVD player downloads of my friends, namely KM Player. This one is probably worth more than VLC + GOM Player, only that I didn't manage to dig in deeper just yet. Since this is also a free program, I am talking about its value in features, of course, and here's what you can get with it: compatibility with an impressive number of video and audio formats, including QuickTime, RealMedia and DVDs, as well as the capability of capturing audio, video, and screenshots, audio and video effects, a wide range of skins, and an insane amount of settings. Despite the above, it still manages to be quite user friendly, and since it's free...I hope you know what to do!

My friends, these are the free DVD player downloads I've been able to offer you today. If I think well, you don't even need more than the above, but if you do, just ask...I got a feeling some may need DVD ripping and burning tools, and that's something not too easy to find in the free DVD player downloads realm...

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Sometimes, I don't have a clue when things should be obvious, but at least I am lucky this doesn't happen too often. I won't give you any detailed examples regarding the above, but I think it's enough to say that once, it took me about 5 years to notice a scratch. Well, at least I understand jokes faster than most blondes...but I must confess that, if one would come to me and tell me "Free the Airwaves," I wouldn't guess in a million years that this is something closely related to Google. Fortunately, I have Google to find out a lot of things, and so we can easily talk about FreeTheAirwaves.com or .org!

"One of America's most valuable natural resources is our "white spaces" -- the radio airwaves, or spectrum, that have long carried analog TV signals. Three-fourths of the white spaces are completely unused today, and -- especially once TV is broadcast in digital only starting in 2009 -- could be used to kick-start a revolution in wireless technology, including universal wireless online access and numerous new products and services that can't even be imagined today."

Well, it may be true that Google's Android didn't manage any breakthrough yet, but this initiative looks pretty interesting. Just read this: "This fall, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will decide whether to make this spectrum available for anyone to use. At Google, we think more open access to the white spaces is essential, not only for companies like ours, but for society in general. But this outcome is far from certain, so we've joined a broad coalition of public interest groups and industry peers who are working to convince the FCC to free the airwaves and unleash the next generation of Internet innovation. We hope you'll add your voice to the debate by signing our petition and helping spread the word about this campaign."

So...can I have some broadband wireless for myself? Yummieee! It's not exactly like that, but...

"Google launched this website because we believe strongly that freeing the white spaces is crucial to the future of the Internet. Make no mistake: open access to this unused bandwidth would surely be good for our own bottom line (not to mention those of many of our industry peers); better access to the Internet means more people doing web searches and using our software products."

In the end, this will also accelerate the growth rate of portable computers' market share, I think. After all, what could be better than have 100% free WiFi coverage? 3G coverage for your iPhones, I know, but that's not the point now...

For now, this is only about signing a petition, and making yourself heard, but the future may prove extremely interesting for Google and those following them in the "Airwaves Initiative," if I can call it this way...

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