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New LED Streetlamp Reduces Light Pollution

There is a reason astronomers prefer to set up their largest telescopes in high areas that are scarcely populated: light pollution from large urban agglomerations prevents them from getting a clear view of the sky. Researches have now come up with a new LED streetlamp design that has the potential to considerably lower light pollution.


The new lamp is designed to produce a concentrated beam that shines only where needed, unlike current street light systems which leak the light into unwanted areas, thus wasting energy and obscuring views of the sky and stars. This is due to the fact current street lights generally use sodium or mercury lamps that produce non-uniform light patterns, scattering up to 20% of their energy.


New LED Streetlamp Reduces Light Pollution


But the research team, based in Mexico and Taiwan, believes that the waste of energy can be prevented by controlling the light beams. The research was based primarily on LED lamps as their light is easier to direct, since it is emitted from a smaller area. While LED streetlamps already on the market waste about 10% of their energy by directing it vertically or horizontally, the new design can significantly reduce the waste to only 2%, the scientists say.


The joint Mexico-Taiwan research project has three major features ensuring that the light will be directed to only the needed areas: a special lens for total internal reflection which allows all rays to travel parallel in a single direction, a reflecting cavity for the LED lamps which can reuse any errant rays, and a diffuser to eliminate the glare. This design will allow the new streetlamp system to project a uniform beam of light over any given area.


Tests also indicated that the new system can reduce energy consumption by 40-60 percent. The researchers are working on a prototype, which they plan to have ready by October, in order to being practical installations of the new system next year.


[Image via Gizmag]


The post New LED Streetlamp Reduces Light Pollution appeared first on TechBeat.






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5 Tips to Customize “File Save” Page in Microsoft Office Applications

There is no doubt that Microsoft Office is one of the most popular and widely used software created for Windows OS. Most of us regularly use Microsoft Word and other Office applications to create our documents, presentation slides, etc. There are many people who have switched to the latest Office 2013 version. On the other [...]



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First Braille Smartphone in the Works

A new smartphone developed by an Indian scientist is giving the visually impaired the possibility to use their phones for more than just taking or making calls: with the help of the special Braille display, users can also read emails and text messages.


The device, dubbed the world’s first Braille smartphone until it gets an official name, was developed by Sumit Dagar, 2011 TED Fellow, and is currently in its late testing stages. Dagar, a National Institute of Design post-graduate, teamed with the IIT Delhi and the LV Prasad Eye Institute for the project, launched three years ago.


First Braille Smartphone in the Works


The screen of the phone is comprised of a grid of pins that can move up and down whenever an email or a text message is received. The pins form into Braille characters and shapes which the visually impaired user can read through touch.


Previous applications designed for visually impaired users, such as Siri or SayText, albeit very useful, were only based on sounds and provided limited interaction between the user and their smartphone. Other specially designed products such as Qualcomm’s RAY phone or Android application Georgie also rely heavily on voice commands and sound alerts.


Dagar’s invention is also greatly supported by the fact that it uses a type of technology named Shape Memory Alloy: the idea is that each pin remembers and reverts back to its initial shape after expanding to help form a Braille character.


The Brailled smartphone also makes various sounds and vibrates when it goes through different functions. According to Dagar, the team received an impressive response during tests and the device can be seen as more of a companion to the user than a simple phone. The inventor said he is planning to release more advanced versions of the smartphone in the near future.


If all goes well, expect the first model to be available for purchase by the end of the year. The Braille smartphone will be sold for a retail price of about $185.



[Image via nvisionapp]


The post First Braille Smartphone in the Works appeared first on TechBeat.






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Electronic Touch Pen Makes TV Set Interactive

It appears we are living in an increasingly tactile world. No matter where we look, we are bound to see something with a touchscreen: a smartphone, a tablet, a laptop and so on. A Japanese company is working on technology designed to turn any flat surface, starting from magazines or newspapers, into touchscreens. And it seems there is an increasing demand of touchscreen TVs as well.


Several tech manufacturers have already developed touch pens for their TVs in the last couple of years. The most recent member of the club is Panasonic, which unveiled its electronic touch pen for TV screens in January this year. Two years before, LG released a similar product, the Pentouch, which works with various plasma TV models.


Electronic Touch Pen Makes TV Set Interactive


The touch pen allows you to write and doodle on screen, but also to capture an image and save it. With the Panasonic electronic touch pen, you only have to touch the tip of the pen to the TV display to do a screen capture. You also get the opportunity to edit the captured image on screen by drawing anything you like on it.


Which is all very nice but the big question remains: what is the actual use of such a system? Panasonic believes the device is a great way of getting you and your entire family to gather around the interactive TV and have fun together. If you want to, that is.


Electronic Touch Pen Makes TV Set Interactive


The system could also be used by businesses as a whiteboard or for work presentations, as it would allow users to easily highlight data on the screen. But is this really necessary, you may wonder. It seems indeed a fancy alternative to the traditional whiteboards or presentations used in business meetings today. Think of it this way: if you want to impress the meeting participants, the electronic touch pen and plasma TV set is definitely the way to go!


The touch pen is for sure a cool gadget, but we’re not sure that is enough to guarantee high sales and success. After all, you can do a screen capture and doodle on the screen of your tablet just as well. The Panasonic gizmo will sell for roughly $80; would you be interested in giving it a try?



[Images via gsmnation]


The post Electronic Touch Pen Makes TV Set Interactive appeared first on TechBeat.






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Toshiba USB portable hard drive is also online file server

WinRAR 5.00 Beta 2 (32-bit)

WinRAR is an archiving utility that completely supports RAR and ZIP archives and is able to unpack CAB, ARJ, LZH, TAR, GZ, ACE, UUE, BZ2, JAR, ISO, 7Z, Z archives. It consistently makes smaller archives than the competition, saving disk space and transmission costs.





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BitTorrent 7.8 Build 29614

BitTorrent is a torrent client for sharing data via the BitTorrent protocol. The software enables users to share, search, download and upload application, music, video, document, picture and other files. BitTorrent supports download of multiple files in parallel from different peers. For every download or upload the interface shows download and upl...





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DivX Play 9.1.1

DivX® 9 for Windows is a free download that provides everything you need to enjoy high-quality digital videos on your computer, including HD H.264 (.mkv) videos with AAC audio and videos created using all previous versions of DivX technology. You can also play your DivX files (.divx, .avi) on millions of DivX Certified® devices today. Look for DivX...





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FileZilla 3.7.0 RC1

FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with lots of useful features and an intuitive graphical user interface.





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K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 9.90

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K-Lite Codec Pack 9.90 (Full)

The K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of DirectShow filters, VFW/ACM codecs, and tools. Codecs and DirectShow filters are needed for encoding and decoding audio and video formats. The K-Lite Codec Pack is designed as a user-friendly solution for playing all your audio and movie files. With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play all the po...





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Dell in Dire Straits after Blackstone Exit

Blackstone Group LP has finally withdrawn their bid for PC maker Dell. The group had been weighing up the price it should offer for buying Dell but eventually decided to remove itself from the race. Until then, it was a three-way battle, with the other major contender being founder Michael Dell who has made a bid in conjunction with Silver Lake. Now that the Blackstone Group is out of the picture, it seems as though there is no stopping Michael Dell from retaining ownership and control of his company.


Dell in Dire Straits after Blackstone Exit


However, it was being anticipated that Blackstone would be able to outbid the coalition and buy Dell. This seemed to be the case with the investors as well. As soon as the news broke out regarding Blackstone withdrawing its bid, the share prices of Dell plummeted. In fact, the fall was so steep that the price reached its lowest level in the past two months. The nearly 4% drop caused the price per share to fall to $13.40. The last time the price had been this low was in early February.


The main reason Blackstone has cited for withdrawing its bid is that the market for PCs is contracting. There is nothing untrue about this at all. Rather, the financial projections for the future aren’t encouraging. Despite being the world’s no.3 PC maker, Dell is expected to face tough time, considering the fact that it isn’t as popular as some of the other companies in the market, like Microsoft and Apple. So, it does appear as though Blackstone is justified in its decision.


The share price after Blackstone’s withdrawal is quite significant. For one, it is much lower than the price offered by Blackstone in its original bid. The group had offered to pay $14.25 per share. On the other hand, Michael Dell and Silver Lake are offering $13.60 per share. Given that the stock price fell steeply, it does seem as though they would be able to win the bid. Before the fall, Blackstone’s offer was ideal, with the shares trading at close to $14.


The third party in the race, Carl Icahn, is offering a higher share price. The issue is that Icahn doesn’t want more than 58% of the company. Dell would have to contemplate the $15 per share offered by Icahn when deciding whether they want to sell part of the company or not. It is bound to be a tough decision for the review committee as they aren’t inclined towards giving away control of the company to Michael Dell. Yet, Icahn doesn’t want the whole company.


The issue with Michael Dell is that he wants to remove the company from the public markets and turn it into an entity providing enterprise services only. By buying out the company, he would be free to do as he please as there would be no investor pressure. Blackstone may have done him a huge favor by withdrawing its bid just a month after submission. Still, the company wishes to close the deal before June which puts Michael Dell and Silver Lake as the frontrunners for winning the bid.


[Image via bloomberg]


The post Dell in Dire Straits after Blackstone Exit appeared first on TechBeat.






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Lego City Undercover The Chase Begins Review

Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins is a follow up to the initial Lego City Undercover, developed by TT Fusion and released for Wii U a few weeks ago. The game strives to offer gamers a similar playing experience as its predecessor and boasts being the first open world adventure for the portable 3DS platform. Unfortunately, it is exactly the restrictions of the 3DS that keep The Chase Begins from fulfilling its true potential.


In terms of storyline, the game is actually a prequel to the Wii U sandbox action adventure, and centers on charming rookie cop Chase McCain as he explores a huge city, battles gangs, tracks down collectibles and engages in the occasional high speed car race. Players will be able to control Chase while through several boss fights and while utilizing the powers offered by different outfits.


Lego City Undercover The Chase Begins Review


The game manages to retain a great part of the humor and relaxing gameplay that made its Wii U brother so successful. Too bad none of the awesome voice acting of the Wii U version could be worked into the 3DS, as that lost some of the original game’s unique sense of humor.


In fact, this is where the developers erred with this game. The 3DS version seems to be just a stripped-down version of the Wii U game, that required plenty of concessions to get where it is. Granted it is still a charming game that is particularly appealing for kids, but adults will enjoy it more if they have also played the first Undercover City and still have its mood and wit in mind.


The Chase Begins also inherits some technical flaws from the original Undercover, in that it sometimes struggles with framerate issues and lengthy loading times, which risks taking some of the fun out of exploring an open world.


In conclusion, even if it fails to deliver the same style and quality of gameplay as the Wii U version, The Chase Begins is still a fun and engaging game that can keep you occupied for ten hours and can be quite a success with young gamers. If you have a 3DS and are looking for a good game to play, you should definitely give it a try.



[Image via GenGame]


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So You Don't Want to be a Programmer After All

I get a surprising number of emails from career programmers who have spent some time in the profession and eventually decided it just isn't for them. Most recently this:


I finished a computer science degree last year, worked about a year in the Java EE stack. I liked requirements engineering and more 'management stuff' in university, but let's face it: you tend to be driven to be a programmer.

I enjoy programming itself. I'm not doing it that badly, I even do it better that some people. But it's too frustrating to me. Stupidly complex stuff (that people consider "standard" even if it's extremely complicated!), fighting against the computer, dumb errors, configuration, and stuff that people even worse than me implemented and I have to take care of. New stuff which is supposed to be incredibly easy, and it's just one more framework.


I think I realized I don't want to program because I landed at a company where people are quite good. And I honestly think I won't achieve that level, ever. And I don't enjoy programming as hobby.


I'm sure that I'm good enough to be able to make a living continuing as I am … but I don't want to.



And this:



Since the first year of studying programming at university I have known in my heart that computer programming is not meant for me, but I was afraid to do anything about it and here I am now 12 years later programming with no passion. I am a career programmer and an average one at best.


I come to work every day with no passion I just do it to pay the bills. I have done some good projects but I am not at all into it.



It was always our hope that concrete, substantive programming career questions like these could be asked on Stack Overflow, and some early ad-hoc community polling indicated that career questions might be accepted by the community, but if you look at later poll results, it's clear that the career questions came out juuuust under the cutoff point as determined by the Stack Overflow community.


Well, what about the rest of the Stack Exchange network? How about our sister site at programmers.stackexchange.com which is less about programming problems with source code and more about whiteboard style conceptual programming questions? Apparently, career questions are not welcome there either. But wait! Surely programmer career questions are a fit on a site that's explicitly about career related topics? The very same question was asked on workplace.stackexchange:



I'm graduating soon with a Bachelor's in Software Engineering, however during the course of getting my degree I decided I do not want to be a programmer.


I minored in Business Management and really enjoyed that, particularly the management side of psychology and the basics of the processes involved with restructuring a business, but don't really want to throw away my programming degree either.


Is there a field for someone with a Software Engineering degree who wants to get into business management instead of programming? I'd like to combine my knowledge of making software with some kind of business process oriented work. How should I go about changing to this field? Is this possible without going back to school?



Nope. Sorry. That was closed, too, either because it was seen as a 'recommend me a job' or because it's too specific to programming. Pick your interpretation.

I am sympathetic to this quandary because career questions, by their very nature, tend to be so narrow and opinionated that they are frequently only useful to the person who asked – which is completely counter to the goal of Stack Exchange. You know, endless permutations of things like "My boss Jeff is a total jerk, he constantly changes my code without asking and overrides me all the time with his BS arbitrary decisions, should I quit?"* I can understand deciding to outlaw the entire class of career questions because they're frequently soft, opinion-y, and highly specific to the person asking. It's easier to just throw out the whole category than do the painful work of sifting through them all to find those few rare workable gems.


We want questions that are as useful to as many people as possible, and actively close (sorry, "put on hold") the ones that are not. I will now reprint my favorite diagram, ever, which attempts to explain this:


Who does your question apply to?


The colored part in this target that says "All Programmers"? That's the goal at Stack Exchange.


We try our best to teach you to ask questions that help you hit this sweet spot: questions that get you the information you so desperately need, yes, but also help others along the way without devolving into meaningless opinion honeypots. Overshoot and you get either "Too Broad" or "Too Localized". Hitting that target with our questions – or at least making a best faith effort to attempt to, anyway – is how we maximize the results of our collective efforts. Write once, read many.


But back to the topic: what career options are available to programmers who no longer want to program? I feel there is a way to answer this question that would be helpful to many other programmers, that is supported by facts and data and science.


Programming is indeed a field that does require some passion. If you've been programming for a few years and haven't developed a taste for it by now, it seems doubtful to me that anyone would suddenly develop one overnight. However, if you were able to stick with doing something you're not very enthusiastic about for a period of years, maybe there's still a kernel of something there to work with. Or perhaps you're just wearing golden handcuffs.


Environment plays a big part in any job, no matter how intrinsically amazing that job might be. Who do you work with? What are you working on? What kind of environment do you program in:



  • A startup?

  • A small business?

  • A big business?

  • A consultancy?

  • Freelance?


The "programming" in each of these situations, and the other peer programmers you'll be working with, will be radically different. Consider if the environment and peers may be the problem. Have you tried changing those up, first, before conclusively deciding you need to leave the field forever?


Beyond that, there are lots of related fields where programming skills are advantageous, without having "sit down and write code all day" as part of the job description. So let's think. What jobs exist where …



  1. Programming skills and a deep technical background are typically in the hiring requirements.

  2. There is a documented record of ex-programmers moving into these positions and being successful.

  3. There are a reasonable number of such jobs available worldwide.


Here's where I really wished I could have asked this on Stack Exchange, because I'd much rather crowdsource data to support the above three points, but the best I could come up with on my own is:



In many of these roles, people that truly know the nuts and bolts of programming are quite rare. That's unfortunate, because a deep technical background lets you actually understand and explain what is going on, to customers, to business stakeholders, to peers on related teams. At the very least nobody can dazzle you with technical BS, because you're equipped to call their bluff.


I've seen the less "adept" programmers self-select into related roles at previous jobs and do very well, both financially and professionally. There is a lot of stuff that goes on around programming that is not heads down code writing, where your programming skills will come in extremely handy.


Career questions are tough, because ultimately only you can decide what's right for you. But if you're a programmer who no longer likes to program, your technical background can at least open the door to a number of related professions.


* Yes, you should quit. Jeff is a total jerkface.






[advertisement] How are you showing off your awesome? Create a Stack Overflow Careers profile and show off all of your hard work from Stack Overflow, Github, and virtually every other coding site. Who knows, you might even get recruited for a great new position!





via Coding Horror http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2013/04/so-you-dont-want-to-be-a-programmer-after-all.html

Chrome 123 to Replace GoogleUpdate.exe with New Updater.exe Tool

SUMMARY: Chrome 123.0 and later versions will use a new version of Google Update tool. The previous GoogleUpdate.exe will be replaced with n...