HueStones

If Disney's Tarzan were made in modern times it would be Avatar. Its director James Cameron has put in a lot of creativity into this film and designed a world you would want to go to.

Steampunk is a form of art where modern day objects are transformed to look like 19th century steam powered devices. An example is this laptop complete with its power-on key. Rich Nagy the creator of this beast sums up his passion for tinkering with technology "[Computer technology] was robbed of the fleeting, wonderful period right after invention, where it is celebrated and honoured by the finest craftsman, artists and creative minds and given a structure befitting its potential and greatness."

There is so much noise around LEGO Mindstorms on the web with enthusiasts and universities all attempting to do the NeXT big thing that it is hard for kids wanting to do more with their Mindstorms kit to figure out what is happening.There are three different Mindstorms kits and on top of this there is a plethora of tools for programming, different versions of NXT firmware and NXT software. Plus LEGO has changed the Mindstorms update pages on their website since release of NXT 2.0, so most old links don’t work any more, including links provided within the kit 8527 software. This article provides concise information and resources to budding Mindstormers.

In the last few months I've had a hard time finding a reasonably priced dual core processor laptop in the consumer PC market. Most of the models I loved have been discontinued and moved off the shelves. You would think that they have been replaced by more powerful models, but no. Computer manufacturers are taking a step back in time and actually building slightly less powerful laptops but instead offering more portability and style. I take a trip down memory lane and look at the philosophy behind the next generation of laptops.

In the recent CEATEC Japan 2009 exhibition Sony presented a conceptual prototype of the future VAIO laptop that would use the flexible OLED technology or FOLED. While these may look and sound fairly futuristic, FOLEDs could become common in mainstream electronic devices of the future.

It seems that wireless devices are taking over our lives. Starting with wireless internet most other computing devices are now also wireless. We have wireless keyboards, wireless mice, wireless telephones, wireless headphones and wireless CCTV. Companies that sell these devices are fairly quick to point out how convenient it is to use the wireless device and how long the wireless range is, but very few of them actually publish information about if the wireless communication on the device is secure.

C++ (not C, nor C#) has a convenience feature that allows programmers to specify default parameters on functions when declaring them. The compiler uses the default value if no value is supplied by the caller for that parameter, instead of complaining about a missing parameter value. I am not going to discuss the mechanics of declaring these default parameters; any C++ book will explain this. I’m going to delve into what problems happen overtime when using default parameters during software maintenance phase as code ages and changes hands between programmers.

Security is a increasing source of concern for home owners today. Bad economic times have led to an increased risk of home breakins and theft. Most security installations are done by professional organizations which will charge you a hefty sum and provide you will iron clad security. However what many home owners need is a simple deterrent system, that will stop the street thief from getting in and wiping the house clean. There are an increasing number of security products in the market which you can install yourself, but it is important to understand the advantages of using each because incorrect use could create a false sense of security while actually leaving your home more exposed than protected.

The DVD player market is plagued with DVD players all of which seem to perform the same function i.e. play video DVDs. However some players will also play other kinds of DVDs and CDs like MP3 CDs. Here I take a peek at a class of the most versatile DVD players which will play almost kind of disc you throw at them.