Interesting work on brain implants by BrianGate

Controlling a cursor on a computer screen to follow an indicated object is now possible. This is a cool feat and perhaps countless who have lost control of their hands either through disease or an injury.
This work was carried out by a group called BrainGate with the one liner, "Turning Thought into Action". It's a group of high profile professionals from different areas that include neurology, engineering, computers, etc. Details of this team here:
http://braingate2.org/researchTeam.asp

They appear to be heavily funded by quite a large number of funding agencies.

This recent work shown in this video is so cool! This present work was related to helping patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).




Read more information here:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-29/watch-two-people-with-brain-implants-control-computers-with-their-thoughts

Google launches Nexus phones with latest Operating System

The two phones are manufactured by two different companies but both use the Android Marshmallow OS (Android 6.0).

• Nexus 6P form Huawei ($499)

 

 

 

 

 

• Nexus 5X from LG ($349)

 

Pictures: Copied from Google site.

The main thing is that Android OS has captured the Mobile OS market (phones tablets) and Microsoft Windows 10 has to strive very hard to get there.

The new phones have Android Pay (payment technology) with improved privacy and power saving capabilities. Hey! There is a new personal assistant as well, the Google Now on Tap.

New feature round up:

• Finger print sensor (aka Nexus Imprint); not in the front but on the back
• Cameras: 12.3 Pixel for back facing, for front-facing (5x has 5MP and 6S has 8 MP)
• Processor: 65-bit QUALCOMM
• New input: USB Type-C input for charging and data (new cables! may be)
• Service provider: Project FI wireless service
• Body and display: 6P aluminum and 5.7" and  5X Plastic(?) and 5.2"

 

Apple's banner day at Kahala Mall in Honolulu

New Apple phones went on sale today at the Apple store in Kahala Mall in Honolulu (there are two Apple Stores in Honolulu). I went there a little after 1:00 p.m. The crowd was not more than what is normal for this store. Sales assistants told me there was a crowd in the morning. As most of the people pre-registered there was no queue to buy.

Phones looked real good. I took some pictures using the main camera and sent them to my email address using the phone. They never reached me. Pictures looked gorgeous and with very good resolution on the phone.

I checked out the 3D touch. It's OK and perhaps a little too tough to copy by copy cats but they will find a way. You can set up the camera to take selfies but you need to activate the 'flash' icon before you do. Do not press the camera button too much; it takes a very soft tap to activate the flash. You can feel the flash and the picture get saved. I tried out a couple of loaded apps they all worked faultlessly.

 Here are two shots taken at the store. A bunch of curious people were looking at the cameras:

How long does it take to install Windows 10 on a tablet?

The tablet I have which has Windows 8.1 on it is the Toshiba Encore 2 WT-10A. It is a pretty good tablet and there is a brief review here.

I started installing Windows 10 by clicking the Windows icon (the Windows logo) in the notification area at the bottom of the screen. If you had registered before hand you would have this icon.

The installation started immediately by downloading the required files. This really took long on my Wi-Fi connection and finished after 1:30 hours. Then there was a chekcing phase after which the installation started.
You get a warning that the computer may restart several times during the installation. The installation took something like 45 minutes.

There were no error messages and it was smooth. After the installation an express setting was chosen and there was no need to do anything else. Most of the earlier apps were still there.

Windows 10 looks much better than the Windows 8.1 and Microsoft Edge (ME and not IE) looks nice with all its features. ME is not a browser supported by Google sites.

Here are some screen shots taken during installation with a camera.

 

Get entertrained using this freee iOS app, eBaum's Daily Digest

eBaum Daily Digest promises to put entertainment in the palm of your hand. The app expands pat its popular website with this mobile option. The app is specially designed for iOS platforms.

The highlights as seen on their website are:

- Daily content handpicked by Ebaum’s World's staff
- Visually stunning user interface with simple navigation
- Real-time notifications and alerts for users
- Social component + conversation; fun and fast for users
 The developers are Tel Aviv based PeakApps.
Here is the eBaum World website:

 

Spotting a Hawaiian Monk Seal at Laie

While spending a weekend at Laie beach in Oahu's northern shore we spotted a Hawaiian Monk Seal (endangered species) basking in the sun at the villa's (Tiki Moon Villa) private beach where we were staying.

It was not moving very much keeping to itself but the wild life folks had planted flags on either wide of the sleeping seal to warn visitors not to disturb. After a couple of hours it just slid into the waves and went away to where it came from. Here is video taken by Jannet Lee Jayaram.

The villa we stayed at is opposite the Polynesian Cultural Center separated by the Kamehameha highway. It is in a very convenient location. Bus number 55 takes you to Polynesian Cultural Center or Drive along Kamehameha Driveway and you can reach the beach where you can find the sea lion.

When can you find it? I am not sure on that one, perhaps we got lucky on this day the 18th of September.

Things may change for this area drastically in the future if developers get their projects going. Polynesian Cultural Center itself a highly commercial enterprise and if you expand turtle bay further you may have traffic/environmental problems in addition to other habitat related issues.

Read this interesting article:
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Jun/19/op/FP706190303.html

Read about Laie, the district where we found the sea lion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laie,_Hawaii

Even if you do not meet the seal the beaches are gorgeous and coast line is terrific.

This one is a must have app on your computer with windows 10

I have been using Notepad for writing notes for a long time. I have neither been attracted to OneNote nor have I found Notepad 8 an attractive substitute for Notepad which remained as Notepad for all versions of Windows. Notepad 8 made its debut in Windows 8, but frankly it was quite bad.

Windows 10 comes, out-of-the box with a program called Windows Journal. This is quite a good one and its presence may not be quite obvious.

Click on All apps and scroll down to letter W. You can see Windows Journal after expanding Windows Accessories (3rd from bottom).

WJ_00

When you click this you will be greeted with a message. The message window is on top of the Windows Journal's default note, Note1 as shown.

WJ_01

You agree to install and click Yes. It might require permission and after which the driver is installed.

WJ_02

It is now ready to use. You can insert text (after clicking Insert | Textbox) and start typing in the box. You can format it anyway you want, size, font, color etc. You can insert an image from your computer or you can sketch out something with the minimalist drawing tools. Here is an example of what I did.

WJ_03

You can save it and it gets saved to the Notes folder as shown. Of course you can choose another location.

WJ-04

You an also send it over to someone by email as, a journal note (opened by Windows Journal of the receiver);a web page (,mht) that you cannot edit; or a black and white image(.tiff)

Do not forget to check out the Help menu item.

I think this is a cool tool since Notepad was lacking in some many features and MS Word had too many less used features.

Hands-on event Honolulu: Introduction to Structured Query Language (SQL)

The above course will be offered again as a non-credit course by the Pacific Center for Advanced Technology Training.

Course summary:
Databases, organized repositories of information, have become indispensable and in fact even more relevant despite the emergence of Big Data in today's world.
In this introductory course you will learn about relational databases and the basics of Structured Query Language (SQL) including sorting; grouping result sets; using DDL, DML, DCL, and TCL. All SQL statements will initially be written for one table. Most practical, modern and relational databases will include a large number of tables and SQL queries have to access information from several tables. This course will then introduce you to querying more than one table. With this skill you will be able to query two or more tables in a database. This is a hands-on course which will take you from installing SQL Server 2012; learning the ins and outs of SQL Server Management Studio and of course a full dose of SQL.

  During each meeting the students will be assessed for their knowledge, competency and proficiency in SQL.

New this session:
SQL Azure Database: SQL Server in Microsoft Cloud
Windows PowerShell for SQL Server


Schedule:
Sept 22 - Oct 22, 2015; Tuesdays and Thrusdays; 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm; 10 mtgs
Contact: PACTT or treinen@hawaii.edu

Apple shows off

Microsoft Edge was able to play the streaming video from Apple site. Watched with interest at this Apple's special event. There were lots of things Apple showed off. There was the phones, the watch, the iPads and the Apple TV.

I only watched couple of minutes. Here are some stills from the streaming video on my Windows 10.

+ 

The Windows 10 Technical preview for Phones also runs Microsoft Edge. It still has lots of edges (no pun intended) like freezing up,  stopped videos etc but works most of the time OK. Needs switching off the phone the hard way and switch again to reset whatever that went wrong.

Here are some still captures on my Windows 10 Technical Preview for Phones:

So you want to watch Apple live event tomorrow

Tomorrow is when Apple unveils goodies for you all for which you have been eagerly waiting. The wait is finally over. The live streaming event starts tomorrow at 10 a.m. PDT.

Here is the requirements list to watch streaming live event  directly from Apple Site .

Requirements:

• Live streaming uses Apple’s HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) technology. HLS requires an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with Safari on iOS 7.0 or later
• a Mac with Safari 6.0.5 or later on OS X v10.8.5 or later, or
• a PC with Microsoft Edge on Windows 10.
• Streaming via Apple TV requires a second- or third-generation Apple TV with software 6.2 or later.

This is a very good point

I am not political in the sense that I am not aligned to any one party. I do believe in a democracy with multiple parties although it may amount to delays in taking decisions. I basically do not favor a two party system and it will be healthy to have multiple parties.

I was listening to Trump this morning  and there was an unmistakable piece of logic in what he was saying. It reminded what my father was saying about getting help. If someone gives you, say $100, be sure he will be expecting $100 plus more from you. Nothing is free. If you are financed by vested interests they are expecting you to pay back in favors.

Trump can say that since he has the resources and probably he does not need money.

Since I like multiple parties to have voice, I am disappointed with him going under the shade of the Republican umbrella. I suppose that is political reality.

Here are some of the pictures from the TV if you missed the press conference. Each picture shows the high-point of the conference speech.

Tokyo 2020 Olympics scandal results in withdrawing the Olympics 2020 logo

 Legal action by a Belgian artist against the winning logo design for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics resulted in the Japanese artist withdrawing the design. Now the Japanese Olympic search committee needs to get a new design. The Japanese artist has withdrawn his work but he is standing by his design.

The picture at the top is from this site.

Here is a related video from Yahoo/Sports site (this video renders slow):

Take these steps to print to your Canon printer using Windows 10

Printing is important although most of us have gone peperless. Printing via Wi-Fi is even more important as you do not print to a printer on a ethernet cable.

Ok. Now to the steps:
Can you print to your Canon MX 430 printer from your computer upgraded to Windows 10?
If the answer is yes, you need read no further. You are OK.

If not you may get this error message, even if your printer appears in the devices list.
PrinterProblem.png

This generally means there is a 'driver' problem. Your previous operating system(OS) had a set of files that are no longer compatible with Windows 10. You need to download 'drivers'.

The driver you need is available here:
http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/support/consumer/printers_multifunction/pixma_mx_series/pixma_mx432#DriversAndSoftware

As you notice, if you have a different Canon printer you can find them as well. You need Model name that you find on the body of your printer to get the correct driver.

Download and run the program. During this process your printer should be ON and connected to your printer with a USB cable.

You will find more details here:
http://hodentekhelp.blogspot.com/2015/08/how-do-i-make-my-canon-mx430-printer.html

Wes Craven dead at age 76

The master director-writer of horror films Wes Craven dies at 76.  He was famed for his 'Nightmare on Elm Street' and 'Scream' series. He made 'Freddy Kruger' a name to remember with terror.

He was awarded lifetime achievement awards by the New York City Horror Film Festival and the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films.

If you never saw one of his creations watch this video:

I liked the couple of early ones but later on got tired. I experienced  getting to sleep for a few days.
Probably I watched only one of the 'Scream' series.