Google Street View

Google Street View, is a feature where you can view over 100 cities worldwide from a "street" view.   Google has accomplished this by teaming up with Immersive Media to capture the hundred of thousands of pictures needed to create this spectacular feature. Using special cameras (see right) they take continuous pictures from atop a moving car. After mashing them all together, it creates a realistic view as though you were actually walking down any given street.  Although this seems like a very cool, interactive feature which everyone should enjoy, there has been quite a bit of controversy over whether google should be allowed to continue with it.  Because of the outcry for privacy, Google has started blurring out people's faces and license plates to protect the privacy of the general public.  Although Google has "filmed" over 100 cities worldwide they have just recently introduced it to Canada.  Google expects the feature to be fully functional in about 2 to 3 weeks for Canadian cities. Check it out at www.google.com/streetview.

Falcon Northwest Mach V

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This is obviously a powerful machine. With a terabyte of storage, two graphics cards, and 12 gigabytes of ram it is at the top of its class in gaming computers. Some people might think this is overkill. I do not. When innovating a new frontier, whatever it is, there are always basic models, but there are also higher-end models which test drive all the features the standard models will likely have in the future. This is a great example. Most desktops nowadays have anywhere from 150GB of storage to 500GB of hard drive space. The Mach V has one terabyte (1024 gigabytes.) As the general quality of pictures, songs, and movies get higher, thus taking up more storage, the demand for bigger hard drives will increase. Plus, nobody can argue with that extremely stylish red finish. For more information about Falcon Northwest products visit http://www.falcon-nw.com/

Dell Adamo

Dell has recently clashed with Apple on the high-end netbook front. Rivaling the famed MacBook Air, Dell introduced their latest product: the Adamo. Neither of these are true netbooks, but neither can they be considered fully fledged laptops. "Adamo", originally a code name for the product, is a Latin phrase which means "to fall in love with." Although you have to pay top dollar for this machine ($2,700) you are getting some of the best engineering, craftsmanship and components available on the market today. Although I am a devoted Apple fan, I have to admit, this is an amazing feat of engineering and copycat design. For more information and a spectacular tour visit: http://www.adamobydell.com/ca

One Trillion Dollars...

With the economy such a hot topic these days we often hear politicians throw around large sums of money like "700 billion dollar bail out plan" and the such as if they were discussing what they had for breakfast. But what does a billion dollars really look like? This guy used google SketchUp (http://sketchup.google.com/) to demonstrate that 1 billion dollars is not a term that should be thrown around lightly. Find it here: http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html.

Photosynth

I recently came across a fascinating web based program called photosynth. The website, http://photosynth.net/Default.aspx allows users to virtually explore a place such as the Great Pyramid of Giza or the Lincoln monument. Using the hundreds of thousands of photographs of a particular piece of art, monument, or tourist attraction photosynth mashes them together to create a stunning Triple D replication. What's so neat about this software (you do have to download a small application) is its ability to take even the smallest part of an attraction, even a picture of a picture, and use it to recreate it. For a stunning demo visit http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/blaise_aguera_y_arcas_demos_photosynth.html.