Handle all your instant messaging in one program

I was looking to start instant messaging again and I downloaded AIM and after I was using aim for a while I wanted to get in contact with people from each of the instant messengers. But I did not want all that memory being taken up on my machine so I began searching for an alternate way of doing so, and that was when I found Trillian.

After a fairly easy install I came to a screen where I entered a nickname to use on Trillian and then it gives you the option of what accounts you want to login to. You can easily manage your accounts from account management, allowing you disconnect,connect,add and remove accounts. Trillian allows you to connect to AIM,MSN Messenger,yahoo messenger and IRC.

Trillian is quite good at memory utilization, the picture below shows how much memory they are running on my machine.

The above shows them when they are minimized, ICQ should not even be on there I completely exited the program after I couldn't find any trace of my icq number. Yahoo is just unacceptable, AIM isn't too bad when it is collapsed or open. The sum of all the programs is where Trillian really comes in handy. I am sure anyone who has done any instant messaging knows whats its like and Trillian is the solution.

There are some quirks with trillian for one thing if someone sends you a link, you cannot click on it, you have to copy and paste, it does however copy and paste as soon as you highlight keeping you from needing to a right then left click. Also you can not send people messages when they are offline.

Trillian supports Microsoft Windows 98, 2000, ME, Windows XP or Windows Vista and If you upgrade to Trillian pro it also allows you to connect to Yahoo webcam. Cerulean Studios the creator of Trillian has released a new version called ASTRA that is in Alpha Stage right now and it is a private sign up for its testing



Check out ceruleanstudios.com to get Trillian

Cyc artifical intelligence, who is using it?

Cyc (pronounced psyche)

The Cyc project was founded in 1984, by Dr. Douglas Lenat at Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC). It was a lead project there with goal to create true artificial intelligence. They set out to create AI with a large amount of human knowledge, facts, commonsense and problem solving skills.CYC started out a as a dream when Alan Kay was at Atari’s research center and asked Lenat for something to add to his project. When Atari had financial problems Lenat moved the project to MCC.


Cycorp founded in 1994 was funded by many large corporations including Microsoft, Apple and the Department of Defense. The largest application that has spawned from the Cyc knowledge base is Cycsecure. Cycsecure gives a computer the ability to distinguish the difference between regular file use and file use that may affect the security of the systems. There are other features that Cycsecure has and they may seem about the same as modern applications created after 2003, but Cycsecure is for mission critical activities and of the highest regards when it comes to technology.


Today Cycsecure seems to have all the same attributes that common home and professional security applications have. The AI is what makes it possible for probing a computer for risk assessment and fixing it before a human can compromise security. That is one thing what AI makes possible, now although Cycsecure is not known to be available for purchase by the average person. Cyc does have a open source version of their technology. I have not been able to find any other program that is based on Cyc technology. The reason I became interested in Cyc is because I always wondered what would happen if a application was programmed to know everything that existed then it would be smarter than any human.


Cyc seems to have done that and people have been building a database of knowledge since the 80’s and I am sure that’s part of what makes computer so great today. But I wonder how many programs are written include or use this extensive knowledge base? Search engines seem to have a lot of knowledge information but in a much unorganized way with most of it obviously being input from people and not having a true standard to conform and the only AI implemented is to allow for the finding of your information. A program that has organized knowledge input, and what if statements, is common sense reasoning. That is where AI has been born and that is what many applications seem to have.


Video Games is where this is really noticeable for example a well known game like Grand Theft Auto. This can seem almost life like not meaning the graphics but the reactions to your actions in the game. The reason a video game is so limited in its reaction is because limited amounts of knowledge are input. A video game developer only has reason to create AI that will react according to the circumstances of the players action and the goal of the game.


There are many other places AI can be found like Microsoft Words’ spell checker. Actually anytime you are on a computer you are more than likely dealing with AI, but once again the applications build is limited to its purpose and intended use. I also know the amount of time it takes someone to build an application for a any specific use on a computer can be exhausting and only something being worked on for a long period of time could amount to something that could be human-like artificial intelligence.



I have not looked into the openCyc too much mostly because my programming skills are a skill that I do not pack. I do believe however that Human like AI is where the technology world is heading inevitability. I think any programmer could find openCyc a very interesting endeavor for them.

For tutorials and files visit these sites
http://www.opencyc.org/
http://www.cyc.com/cyc

Here is an essay and a bit of a history lesson and is cited as a source of some of my information. But not any direct quotes have been used.
http://www.itmweb.com/essay540.htm#1

Kompozer Free Web Authoring Tool

Kompozer has a very stable version of their WYSIWYG out. It does not come as an .exe file, it comes as .zip binary file. Just extract the file and your ready to being making your site in HTML,XML,CSS and Java Script. The Kompozer website claims it is "The easiest-to-use, most powerful Web Authoring System available for Desktop Linux, Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh users. "


Kompozer has a CSS editor, that allows you to create and manage your style sheets and view them live as you apply them to your page. Things like a mark up validator and spell check will keep you happy as will all the other features from Kompozer.


I noticed a simple looking GUI and tool setup,upon first glimpse I noticed all the important tools that are in Microsoft Frontpage and Adobe Dreamweaver, I don't think its features are as complex as Dreamweavers, but I'm sure it can hang with Microsoft's Frontpage and lame Web Publisher that comes with Office.


Kompozer is version 0.7.10 right now and its free as it probably always will be since it is from The Mozilla Foundation, and as you probably already know they created the popular FireFox and the not so famous Thunderbird that rival Microsofts Outlook. I would recommend giving Kompozer a try but not making it your sole Web Authoring Tool since it is not as featured as Dreamweaver is and differs greatly in layout.



Go to Kompozer.net to take a look.

Google Chrome Is Here and Beta

Google launched Google Chrome today, a new open source browser intended to create a better web expierence for users. Google Chrome has a really simple and basic layout taking out all the the things that the average user may not need. It is available in BETA version in 40 different languages.

“We think of the browser as the window to the web – it’s a tool for users to interact with the web sites and applications they care about, and it’s important that we don’t get in the way of that experience," said Sundar Pichai, Vice President of Product Management, Google Inc.

you can get google chrome at google.com/chrome

Maxthon, Great Web Browser With Many Features

Maxthon 2.1.2

Well I have tried Internet Explorer,Mozilla FireFox, and Opera, but I have never tried Maxthon until today. Upon starting the application after a quick and simple install and account setup. I entered into tabbed , highly customizable, multi language, tabbed beauty. (as Eric Griffith and PC Magazine Staff said in their March 2008 issue.) The highly customizable part was right on target. The Maxthon browser settings feature seventeen pages of customization options.

Some options are the ones you find in most browsers only with their own flavor, by displaying them in their own tab with a web page like layout. The pages also contain settings for a rss reader that is called Feed Reader. The Feed Reader is easily accessible from a collapsible sidebar in the browser as is your account, favorites, and a Facebook Sidebar. After that, I noticed Magic Fill a feature that allows you to select,save and name information that you put into a website, so it can auto fill the information in for you later on. The information is easily managed through the settings tab.

Innovation

Maxthon has many great features for the mouse and keyboard like customizable keyboard shortcuts and mouse settings. The mouse settings is where I was in awe, not only does it allow you to change what a single click and double click will do it also has mouse gestures.

Mouse Gestures are a feature that allows you to navigate websites without the use of browser buttons. For example you simply right click and hold down the mouse button then move the mouse to the left to go back and forward to go forward. Not only does it allow you switch back and forth it also allows you to scroll up, scroll down, switch between tabs and close tabs. You can also add your own gestures just as you would if they were keyboard shortcuts.

Security

You might be wondering that with all this fancy stuff how is the security of the browser? Well Maxthon has its own ad blocking called Ad Hunter and a security feature called Maxthon Guardian that allows you edit your trusted program list. The File Sniffer will help you track down bogus websites by checking files such as a flash file on the fly.You will also be able to select what browsing history you would like to delete on exit. So whenever you decide to exit the program the history is deleted automatically.

The photos below were taken with Maxthons built in screen capture tool
and it is one of the many great features that comes with Maxthon. (Windows XP)


Maxton Version 2.1.2 Windows Vista (click for larger view.)
taken with Maxthons Screen Capture tool

I chose the glass green skin to spruce up my browser and it looks great. There are also a host of plug ins and language packs available for download to accompany this already feature rich program. I would highly recommend Maxthon to anybody who surfs the net, it is well worth the download. Maxthon supports both Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Vista.

Visit Maxthon.com to take a get this web browser.

AMD Releases Worlds Fastest Video Card 2008

AMD anounced on August 12,2008 that the worlds fastest video card, the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2, is getting close to eye-definition computing gaming and cinimatic expierences. The card boosts 2.4 teraflops of processing power. The card is also being set at acceptable price point.

Combining two ATI radeon HD 4800 series GPUS, based on the PCIe 2.0 standard,plus two gigabytes of memory. The most in any currently available consumer graphics card. This series of video cards are perfectly suited to make the most hardcore graphics ever seen at high frames per second.

The ATI Radeon HD 4800 X2 series was in New York City, where AMD discussed and demonstrated eyedefinition computing. Eye-definition is basically the ability to create something that looks very real and is interactive. The fist application demonstrated by AMD is cinema 2.0. The demonstration provided showed cinema quality graphic with interaction.

The ATI Radeon 4850x2 is expected to be relaeased in september at about $399.

Check out these videos of Ati Radeon HD 4800 Series.

11 Second clip of cinema 2.0
Explanation Of Greatness
Developers Talk About Graphics

Visit AMD.com

Microsoft Video Editing For The Future

Microsoft is developing a new application called Unwrap Mosaics. The new video editing software sounds as if it will revolutionize special effects for the masses. Using the application you will be able to edit an entire clip simply by making changes to just one frame. For example if you were to draw a scar on someones face it would be there the whole way through the video. Videos are made up of many frames. Think of a picture book you flip through it and it creates a motion picture. Well before you had to edit each individual frame. Now with this software it will make it much easier by adding it to each frame automatically. The software creates a 2-d image (much like a texture in a video game) then wrapping the 3-d object back up whenever you are done editing the image thus creating a full motion video with special effects.

Check out some videos of this new software http://research.microsoft.com/unwrap/

Free Microsoft Office Replacement

Openoffice.org is a really nice program that has almost all of the features that Microsoft Office has. I learned about it whenever a friend of mine was almost late turning in his report and needed to type his report up and it had to be in Microsoft Word format. The school he was attending did not provide any software for him to use. They just told him it had to be in word format. I looked around the net to try and find something I could use. Then I found Openoffice and at first glance I was not sure if it was going to work because of it being a different program and all, but sure enough we were able to save it in Microsoft Word format. I thought this was great because it meant I didn't need to get word for myself either. Openoffice allows you to open and save Microsoft Word files and I think that would be a .doc, it also has its own format of course. Openoffice.org has won the award for Best Of Open Source Software Award 2008. If you don't have any kind of office software I would recommend getting this because it has full functionality for most of your office needs. Office.org can serve as a replacement for Database,Spreadsheet,Powerpoint,Word and also for making PDF files.


Click here to visit openoffice.org