alexmikro.net » Technology/Internet

Reinventing reading? Probably not…

Alexander Mikroyannidis — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:23:14 +0000

So the new iPad was finally unveiled this week, giving an end to loads of speculations and high hopes… The device is essentially just a large iPod Touch, lacking basic features someone would expect from a tablet, like multitasking, a usb port, or even a camera. Criticism has been ruthless so far, from mocking the device’s unfortunate name to comparing it with… a stone

Reinventing reading (?)

Alexander Mikroyannidis — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:57:24 +0000

In anticipation of the big announcement of the new tablet / e-reader by Apple next week, Jason Bradbury of the Gadget Show wrote a very passionate piece in his blog:

Let me place my neck squarely on the block and predict the most important dimension of the next Wednesday’s launch: it will change publishing, forever.

I’ll just say I hope even half of what Jason believes comes true (and judging from Apple’s history this might just happen!).

1 year old…

Alexander Mikroyannidis — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 10:07:07 +0000

A year ago, I was starting this blog, after taking a break from loads of christmas food… just like today!
Here’s to another year of blogging! Cheers!!

Finding your way in Google Wave

Alexander Mikroyannidis — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:02:44 +0000

If you’re lucky enough to hold a Google Wave account, or just want to learn more about this exciting new technology, there is a guide out there by Gina Trapani, editor of Lifehacker.com. The guide is freely available under the Creative Commons licence and can give you a pretty good idea of what the Wave is all about, from basics to a bit more advanced capabilities.

A tribute to GeoCities

Alexander Mikroyannidis — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:37:31 +0000

As of today, GeoCities belongs to the past. After almost 15 years of offering free web space to anyone with “creative” ideas, GeoCities is no more. Yahoo! has decided to permanently terminate the service, as it was surpassed by the booming blogging and social networking sites.

Like many other internet users of my age, my very first web page was hosted on GeoCities. Half-coded in HTML and half in Frontpage, with lots of GIFs and different colours, my page was not very different from the rest of the GeoCities world!

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for your eyes!), I haven’t kept any of the early versions of my GeoCities page. I only managed to retrieve the last version, which is not too dreadful! Here’s what the home page used to look like:

Note: The monkey was “evolving” into a human sitting in front of a PC, through a home-made GIF

Goodbye GeoCities! We sure had a lot of fun together!

I am in control

Alexander Mikroyannidis — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 16:06:45 +0000

I’m not much into gaming consoles, but we are talking about a real breakthrough here. Last week at E3, Microsoft unveiled a revolutionary controller for the Xbox 360 console: the human body! Project Natal aims in abolishing all conventional game controllers and replacing them with… nothing! The system uses sophisticated algorithms to capture human motion and translate it in real time into input for the console. The software actually does a lot more than that: it also recognises faces, voices, and human expressions. Seems like it comes out of a sci-fi movie, but it’s real: