World is no more closed !

Most of the people confuse Open Source movement as something confined to the software and related areas, but in reality Open Source is not only the making of a license free software world, it's beyond that. Let's see how Open Source ideas are taken into fields other than computing and software.There are several Projects and Communities motivated by the Open Source ideology. Like Open Source Hardware and BlinkenLights Project. These things shows us how Open Source technologies can better the life experience in much better and creative ways. Yeah the world is no more closed to creative ideas. Express yourself with Open Source Technologies.

BlinkenLights

BlinkenLights Project is one of the best examples for how crazy and creative Open Source ideas can be, and how it can change the way the world works.
On September 11th, 2001 the famous "Haus des Lehrers" (house of the teacher) building at Berlin Alexanderplatz has been enhanced to become world's biggest interactive computer display: Blinkenlights.



The upper eight floors of the building were transformed in to a huge display by arranging 144 lamps behind the building's front windows. A computer controlled each of the lamps independently to produce a monochrome matrix of 18 times 8 pixels. There was an interactive component, which enabled users to play old arcade classic Pong using the mobiles or placing love letters or animations on the Screen.Even a software called BlinkenPaint was created and made available as Free software which enabled users to create their own animations.

Free Beer (I'm not kidding!)

The project Free Beer, originally conceived by Copenhagen-based artist collective Superflex and students at the Copenhagen IT University, applies modern free software / open source methods to a traditional real-world product - namely the alcoholic beverage loved and enjoyed globally, and commonly known as beer.



The recipe and branding elements of FREE BEER is published under a Creative Commons (Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5) license, which means that anyone can use the recipe to brew their own FREE BEER or create a derivative of the recipe. Anyone is free to earn money from FREE BEER but they must publish the recipe under the same license.

RadioVeRVe

RadioVeRVe is an internet radio station operating out of Bangalore, India. It differentiates itself from other FM and internet radio stations by focusing exclusively on independent music from India.


Even though It's not an open Source project. The infrastructure for the radio station has been completely based on open source software.

Open source hardware

Open source hardware/Open source Electronics refers to computer and electronic hardware that is designed in the same fashion as free and open-source software.

Open source hardware is part of the open source culture that takes the open source ideas to fields other than software. An example of this is the Simputer project.

XKCD - A webcomic of romance,sarcasm, math, and language.

XKCD, a geek humor comic created by Randall Munroe a former contractor for Nasa. XKCD is Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License . This means it's free to copy and share these comics




There are so many such open projects, that are currently involved in changing the world from the way it worked. May be you will be the one behind next major project :). Happy Open Sourcing.

Geekboard! or Keyboard ? You decide

Wow! iPhone 3G is creating a technological revolution with its innovative touch screen. So I just googled to know if there is any touch-screen keyboards available yet. The search God gave me the answer - Optimus Tactus, a concept design by artlebedev.com. Artlebedev.com is famous for another keyboard Optimus Maximus (pretty sure you read about them, if you are a geek.Hmm a little bit costly).

Okey okey I know you are curious to know what is important about this keyboard, Yeah it a truly next generation keyboard. So, can you guess what ? hmm... Optimus Tactus does not have physical keys.It means unlimited customization (hey,there are no restrictions on their shape and size), truly unlimited huh! .Any part of the keyboard surface can be programmed to perform any function or to display any images or even videos.

Optimus Tactus is still a concept design the major problem while making it from a dream to reality will be 'Making of an one sensor display keyboard'. Hey feel free to contribute if you have some geeky solution :)

You can find more details about Optimus Tactus on the official site
Checkout their blog too ..

Hey I just thought I need share this ,how do you feel about this one .. Cool, right ?

iPhone Launch in India

It is expected that the much awaited launch of Apple iPhone in India will take place later this year.No Sooner Apple unveiled their next generation 3G iPhone at the WWDC,the two carriers -- Airtel and Vodafone have announced that they will bring the iPhone to Indian customers, however the price or launching date is not specified.

So no more cracking and crashing the Indian techies are going to have that ultimate Phone experience with all new 3G iPhone.

What is new with iPhone II, it is not only the new 3G networking capability added to iPhone. There is a plenty of new features,let us check them out...

iPhone 3G is introduced with fast 3G wireless technology with GPS mapping and support for enterprise features like Microsoft Exchange and a New App Store.. and yeah Apple spiced up this little cutie with a lot more features.

High Technology : iPhone one of the most innovative product as PC World told now with all new features like 3G,Multi-Touch,GPS,Accelerometer and Sensors.

Technical Specifications :

• Display - iPhone boasts of a 3.5 -inch diagonal widescreen display that is rich with its innovative Multi-Touch and a 480 -by -320 -pixel resolution at 163 ppi.
  
• Audio - iPhone is an iPod integrated phone and there for I'm pretty sure that it does not need any further explanation but still it has a frequency response of 20 Hz to 20k Hz and it supports Audio formats like AAC,Protected AAC,MP3,MP3 VBR,Audible (1,2 and 3),Apple Lossless,AIFF and WAV (still you need to look out for some good converters to listen to your favorite WMA files).
• Headphones : Stereo earphones with built-in microphone with and IMpedance of 32 ohms.
• Video formats supported : H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
  
• Camera and Photos : iPhone really disappoints when it comes to the camera, the iPhone is features with a 2.0 megapaixels camera (which is so disappointing) and Photo geo-tagging features and integration support for third party applications.
• Power and Battery : Built in rechargeable lithium-ion battery which supports Talk time up to hours on 3G and up to 10 hours on 2G,standby time up to 300 hours,apple says that it will last 6 hours when used for browsing with Wi-Fi and supports 7 hours of Video playback and 24 hours of Audio playback time.
• Sensors : Accelerometer,Proximity sensor,Ambient light sensor

• Size and weight¹

  Height:

  4.5 inches (115.5 mm)

  Width:

  2.4 inches (62.1 mm)

  Depth:

  0.48 inch (12.3 mm)

  Weight:

  4.7 ounces (133 grams)

  
• Color

• Capacity ^{- 8 GB and 16 GB Flash}
• Cellular and wireless : UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz),GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz),Wi-Fi (802.11b/g),Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR

System Requirements :

Mac :

• Mac computer with USB 2.0 port
• Mac OS X v10.4.10 or later
  
• iTunes 7.7 or later

Windows :

• PC with USB 2.0 port
  
• Windows Vista; or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 2 or later
  
• iTunes 7.7 or later

Visit Apple india official site for more details.
Lookout for this great gadget... c you in the Apple store ;)

iPhone 3G - Twice as fast and Half the price

Apple introduced the all new iPhone 3G. With fast 3G wireless technology, GPS mapping, support for enterprise features like Microsoft Exchange, and the new App Store, iPhone 3G puts even more features at your fingertips. And like the original iPhone, it combines three products in one — a revolutionary phone, a widescreen iPod, and a breakthrough Internet device with rich HTML email and a desktop-class web browser. 

iPhone 3G.It redefines what a mobile phone can do. - Read More