Sony suspends SOE gaming following PlayStation hack
Sony Online Entertainment's Fortune League is a Facebook-based multiplayer game
Showing posts with label Programs and games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Programs and games. Show all posts
Monday, 2 May 2011
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Could 3D television be dangerous to watch?
Could 3D television be dangerous to watch?
Nintendo said its new 3D device was not suitable for children under six
Thursday, 11 November 2010
Unlocked iPhone 4G 32gb,HTC Touch HD2)ArabPhones
Unlocked iPhone 4G 32gb,HTC Touch HD2)ArabPhones
EL-EID FITRI SPECIAL OFFER IN JEDDAH SAUDI ARABIA ONLY....
EL-EID FITRI SPECIAL OFFER IN JEDDAH SAUDI ARABIA ONLY....
Thursday, 4 November 2010
Samsung Omnia 7 and HTC HD7 review
Samsung Omnia 7 and HTC HD7 review
Dan Simmons looks at two of the first phones to offer the new Windows Phone 7 operating system and finds that they have both clever touches and limiting drawbacks.Sunday, 31 October 2010
Why is a universal translator so elusive?
Why is a universal translator so elusive?
By LJ Rich - BBC Click
With a global economy and flights that can take you all over the world in hours, why is it that we still struggle with a language barrier that technology is finding hard to break down?
Turn on a TV in a Tokyo hotel room and you will get, if you do not speak the language, a jumble of incomprehensible symbols.
And from the moment you touch down in Japan, chances are you will be faced with a world that is difficult to decode.
Some of the world's most untranslatable words are Japanese. For instance, the word "naa", used in the Kansai area of Japan to emphasise statements or agree with someone, is placed third in a list of the most difficult words to translate - so what can be done when confronted by information that you are unable to process?
Translators are expensive and while useful in getting out of sticky situations, they are often out of the reach of the regular tourist.
So a gadget that was the perfect translation tool would be ideal. If only it were that simple.
Science fiction has always circumnavigated the problem of language with clever devices which act as universal translators - Doctor Who's Tardis, the Babel fish in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - but in reality it has been a lot more tricky.
There are already a clutch of reading aids on the web - most notably, and now in over 50 languages, Google Translate. For access to websites beyond your mother tongue, just enter the web page address and the tool does all the hard work.
The problem is that, so far, it is quite literal with its translations and lacks the nuance of someone who speaks the language. Google itself says "while we are working on the problem, it may be some time before anyone can offer human quality translations".
Another site called dotSUB lets members add their own subtitles or translations to videos - think YouTube meets Wikipedia - and the free version allows people to translate through 400 languages, though there is no formal quality control.
Kanji understand?
Japanese is particularly challenging as there are three different types of writing.
One alphabet is especially for foreign words and if that was not complicated enough there are also over 50,000 symbols - Kanji - which are actually pictures of whole words.
You need about 2,000 of them to get through daily life in Japan.
An iPhone app called WishoTouch lets you enter Kanji by hand then gives you a dictionary definition. But you will need to know the stroke order - although the add-on lets you photograph your mystery Kanji, one character at a time.
So faced with the thought of dinner, and a whole load of symbols in a row, you are going to wish for a quicker and less painful way to help you find out what is on the menu.
One translation tool that deals with written text is called a Quicktionary and it is a character reader. It looks similar to a pen and when swiped across text it will give you a translation. At least, that is the idea.
This device is impressive but only works with two typefaces - a problem shared by most text readers.
And perhaps the most comprehensive gadget on a market is a 126-language cross translator made by Ectaco.
"It all started 20 years ago with the Russian market," says Greg Stetson, product manager of Ectaco.
"In Russia there were a lot of immigrants coming into America and [our product] started off as a Russian electronic dictionary - after that it evolved from electronic dictionaries to more language learning products - and from Russian it had to expand into different languages."
Artificial intelligence
Even soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq have used mobile translation when talking to local people. Voxtec's Phraselator has been the choice of the US military for years but, with a price tag of thousands of dollars, this is unlikely to transfer into success in the mass market.
Even if a machine can eventually translate speech in real time across hundreds of languages, it would still need some artificial intelligence to work out what people are actually implying - as everyone knows, no matter what country we are in, we do not always say what we mean.
"The Japanese prefer to speak in a roundabout way," says linguist Takafumi Shimizu, of Sophia University Tokyo.
"So if a taxi driver said to you it's difficult to get there in 10 minutes, he actually means it's impossible. Likewise when Japanese people want to refuse a request or invitation, they would say I'll think about it but do not expect a preferable answer later because the actual meaning is 'I'm refusing'."
And even if you get the right words, you might get them in the wrong order - luckily if you're speaking to Professor Shimizu, he will probably understand you anyway.
"In English, the basic word order is subject, verb, object," he says.
"In Japanese the best word order is subject, object and then verb. So for example 'I bought tea leaves at Harrods yesterday' would be, in Japanese, 'yesterday Harrods at I tea leaves bought'."
In Star Trek, their universal translation device was not invented until the latter half of the 22nd Century and even then it was not flawless. Let's just hope we do not have to wait that long for something similar in real life
Turn on a TV in a Tokyo hotel room and you will get, if you do not speak the language, a jumble of incomprehensible symbols.
And from the moment you touch down in Japan, chances are you will be faced with a world that is difficult to decode.
Some of the world's most untranslatable words are Japanese. For instance, the word "naa", used in the Kansai area of Japan to emphasise statements or agree with someone, is placed third in a list of the most difficult words to translate - so what can be done when confronted by information that you are unable to process?
Translators are expensive and while useful in getting out of sticky situations, they are often out of the reach of the regular tourist.
So a gadget that was the perfect translation tool would be ideal. If only it were that simple.
Science fiction has always circumnavigated the problem of language with clever devices which act as universal translators - Doctor Who's Tardis, the Babel fish in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - but in reality it has been a lot more tricky.
 Because of different fonts, written text can be very difficult to translate |
The problem is that, so far, it is quite literal with its translations and lacks the nuance of someone who speaks the language. Google itself says "while we are working on the problem, it may be some time before anyone can offer human quality translations".
Another site called dotSUB lets members add their own subtitles or translations to videos - think YouTube meets Wikipedia - and the free version allows people to translate through 400 languages, though there is no formal quality control.
Kanji understand?
Japanese is particularly challenging as there are three different types of writing.
One alphabet is especially for foreign words and if that was not complicated enough there are also over 50,000 symbols - Kanji - which are actually pictures of whole words.
You need about 2,000 of them to get through daily life in Japan.
An iPhone app called WishoTouch lets you enter Kanji by hand then gives you a dictionary definition. But you will need to know the stroke order - although the add-on lets you photograph your mystery Kanji, one character at a time.
 The translation device used by the US military costs thousands of dollars |
One translation tool that deals with written text is called a Quicktionary and it is a character reader. It looks similar to a pen and when swiped across text it will give you a translation. At least, that is the idea.
This device is impressive but only works with two typefaces - a problem shared by most text readers.
And perhaps the most comprehensive gadget on a market is a 126-language cross translator made by Ectaco.
"It all started 20 years ago with the Russian market," says Greg Stetson, product manager of Ectaco.
"In Russia there were a lot of immigrants coming into America and [our product] started off as a Russian electronic dictionary - after that it evolved from electronic dictionaries to more language learning products - and from Russian it had to expand into different languages."
Artificial intelligence
Even soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq have used mobile translation when talking to local people. Voxtec's Phraselator has been the choice of the US military for years but, with a price tag of thousands of dollars, this is unlikely to transfer into success in the mass market.
Even if a machine can eventually translate speech in real time across hundreds of languages, it would still need some artificial intelligence to work out what people are actually implying - as everyone knows, no matter what country we are in, we do not always say what we mean.
 Japan's three types of writing make the language especially hard to translate |
"So if a taxi driver said to you it's difficult to get there in 10 minutes, he actually means it's impossible. Likewise when Japanese people want to refuse a request or invitation, they would say I'll think about it but do not expect a preferable answer later because the actual meaning is 'I'm refusing'."
And even if you get the right words, you might get them in the wrong order - luckily if you're speaking to Professor Shimizu, he will probably understand you anyway.
"In English, the basic word order is subject, verb, object," he says.
"In Japanese the best word order is subject, object and then verb. So for example 'I bought tea leaves at Harrods yesterday' would be, in Japanese, 'yesterday Harrods at I tea leaves bought'."
In Star Trek, their universal translation device was not invented until the latter half of the 22nd Century and even then it was not flawless. Let's just hope we do not have to wait that long for something similar in real life
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
Saving the planet one gadget at a time
Saving the planet one gadget at a time
New iPhone apps connect with smart meters to tell you your energy use
Saving energy in a home full of gadgets can seem impossible but the latest home energy technology can help you save the planet - and money.
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
What would you do with gigabit internet speeds?
What would you do with gigabit internet speeds?
South Korea is already ahead of the global technological curve but it is looking to forge even further ahead by boosting broadband speeds across the nation.
South Korean broadband speeds let content almost fly onto the screen
It is not aiming at 100, 200 or even 500 megabits per second (Mbps). Instead it has devised a national plan for 1,000Mbps connections to be commonplace by 2012.
The government is encouraging enterprise to spend the 34 trillion Won (£19bn), required to complete the scheme. By way of a comparison, that figure is roughly the same as the nation's annual education budget.
In theory, this idea will give many homes in South Korea a connection speed 500 times faster than is guaranteed in the UK.
In practice, South Korea is already considered the country quickest for broadband. The current average connection, according to a report by web firm Akamai, is 12Mbps - the highest in the world.
The Kung family are just one of the families reaping the benefits of blisteringly fast broadband.
Click visited the family to find out how it used the high-speed link. On a typical day twenty-something Kevin would be in his bedroom immersed in multiplayer online gaming, an activity which South Koreans have adopted as something of a national sport
In the living room, Eunice and her toddler might be enjoying the television. Thanks to the fast connection they can watch and interact.
With a £12-a-month ($19) subscription to an internet TV service, the family has access to dozens of regular channels, tens of thousands of movies on demand, interactive services like Twitter, and English learning through subtitles and karaoke.
"At home I'm using 100 megabits right now and that satisfies me a lot because it's fast," says Eunice Kung.
"But 1,000 megabits in three years? That'll surprise people but I think it's a very natural conclusion because South Korean people are very impatient, they need everything quickly, quickly, quickly. They need more, all the time."
In the UK, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said that Britain will lead Europe into the era of super-fast broadband by 2015.
Some companies are already promising speeds of around 50Mbps and the government has guaranteed a 2Mbps connection for everyone by the end of the current parliament.
But what can a 1,000Mbps super-fast connection be used for?
Firstly, it is about speed - Hollywood blockbusters can be downloaded in 12 seconds or the entire James Bond back catalogue can be delivered whilst the kettle boils.
Super HD
And one thing that is becoming increasingly common is streaming television. While a Department for Media, Culture and Sport spokesperson in the UK says that "two megabits is sufficient" for streaming services, the next generation of hi-definition content will stretch the bandwidth limits worldwide.
According to the Blu-ray Disc Association, it takes a 40Mbps connection to stream full HD content but that is only the tip of the iceberg.
3D images, by their very nature, require a quicker transfer rate and Super HD, to be introduced over the next decade, goes even further.
It has 16 times as many pixels as today's high-end HD and the compressed version needs a minimum bandwidth of 320Mbps. The uncompressed stream requires 24 gigabits a second.
The quickening pace of fixed line and wi-fi services seems not to cater for the growing trend of mobile users. In South Korea, a network of LTE - advanced cellular data networks - is being introduced.
But Lee Suk-Chae, chairman of Korea Telecom, says that these networks alone will not be sufficient to meet our needs.
"I think in the future we will really see a data deluge - data will explode over the network," he says.
"And you cannot handle that data traffic only through the mobile internet. Although there will be LTE, still you won't be able to handle all that traffic.
"Fixed line is essential to support that traffic and in that sense, I think people want to watch the content they want anywhere, anytime, and to satisfy their demands you need to have a strong network, maybe a gigabit internet."
He says that only 10% of data transfer is through 3G networks, 70% coming through wi-fi - which is not that surprising when you consider the number of hotspots in South Korea's urban areas.
And with a nation full of early-adopters, it seems only a matter of time before Koreans are surfing the net at speeds the rest of us can only dream about.
The government is encouraging enterprise to spend the 34 trillion Won (£19bn), required to complete the scheme. By way of a comparison, that figure is roughly the same as the nation's annual education budget.
In theory, this idea will give many homes in South Korea a connection speed 500 times faster than is guaranteed in the UK.
In practice, South Korea is already considered the country quickest for broadband. The current average connection, according to a report by web firm Akamai, is 12Mbps - the highest in the world.
 | How quick is a 1GB connection? Download Tolstoy's War and Peace: 0.002 secs (2mbps: 1 sec) Download a 45-minute album: 0.05 secs (2mbps: 26 secs) Download a 90-minute HD film: 3 mins 36 secs (2mbps: 30hrs) Watch 1-minute of Super HD: 6 mins 40 secs (2mbps: 200hrs) |
Click visited the family to find out how it used the high-speed link. On a typical day twenty-something Kevin would be in his bedroom immersed in multiplayer online gaming, an activity which South Koreans have adopted as something of a national sport
In the living room, Eunice and her toddler might be enjoying the television. Thanks to the fast connection they can watch and interact.
With a £12-a-month ($19) subscription to an internet TV service, the family has access to dozens of regular channels, tens of thousands of movies on demand, interactive services like Twitter, and English learning through subtitles and karaoke.
"At home I'm using 100 megabits right now and that satisfies me a lot because it's fast," says Eunice Kung.
"But 1,000 megabits in three years? That'll surprise people but I think it's a very natural conclusion because South Korean people are very impatient, they need everything quickly, quickly, quickly. They need more, all the time."
 Wireless networks are seen as key to the future of mobile data |
Some companies are already promising speeds of around 50Mbps and the government has guaranteed a 2Mbps connection for everyone by the end of the current parliament.
But what can a 1,000Mbps super-fast connection be used for?
Firstly, it is about speed - Hollywood blockbusters can be downloaded in 12 seconds or the entire James Bond back catalogue can be delivered whilst the kettle boils.
Super HD
And one thing that is becoming increasingly common is streaming television. While a Department for Media, Culture and Sport spokesperson in the UK says that "two megabits is sufficient" for streaming services, the next generation of hi-definition content will stretch the bandwidth limits worldwide.
According to the Blu-ray Disc Association, it takes a 40Mbps connection to stream full HD content but that is only the tip of the iceberg.
3D images, by their very nature, require a quicker transfer rate and Super HD, to be introduced over the next decade, goes even further.
It has 16 times as many pixels as today's high-end HD and the compressed version needs a minimum bandwidth of 320Mbps. The uncompressed stream requires 24 gigabits a second.
 South Koreans are often seen as an entire nation of "early adopters" |
But Lee Suk-Chae, chairman of Korea Telecom, says that these networks alone will not be sufficient to meet our needs.
"I think in the future we will really see a data deluge - data will explode over the network," he says.
"And you cannot handle that data traffic only through the mobile internet. Although there will be LTE, still you won't be able to handle all that traffic.
"Fixed line is essential to support that traffic and in that sense, I think people want to watch the content they want anywhere, anytime, and to satisfy their demands you need to have a strong network, maybe a gigabit internet."
He says that only 10% of data transfer is through 3G networks, 70% coming through wi-fi - which is not that surprising when you consider the number of hotspots in South Korea's urban areas.
And with a nation full of early-adopters, it seems only a matter of time before Koreans are surfing the net at speeds the rest of us can only dream about.
Saturday, 28 August 2010
Ship Simulator Extremes-SKIDROW [Full ISO/Simulation/2010]
Ship Simulator Extremes-SKIDROW [Full ISO/Simulation/2010]
![Ship Simulator Extremes-SKIDROW [Full ISO/Simulation/2010]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uy8_0DtSvrvLoqCKj29jcPrgWMAdbivAWCYE_brBAt-qPP7IDmSZ2E5tgaQdAeNfv7HU9H9u588jnBdMWABDxkfy9RYSQ=s0-d "Ship Simulator Extremes-SKIDROW [Full ISO/Simulation/2010]")
![Murder, She Wrote [FINAL]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uiMP-XtRqRYiC39pfE3UcHym7MBtBCIK5DQdXcEOW1OOm3sk70-X8rRo2ii1MuS0wGbEIluQLGBcz5WoXv_WoZ1tjmpe4=s0-d "Murder, She Wrote [FINAL]")
Efficient Diary 1.95 Build 92
Efficient Diary 1.95 Build 92
Efficient Diary 1.95 Build 92 | 5.13 Mb
With its unique and powerful flash full-text search technique, you can simply enter a word in the diary to quickly find the corresponding entries! The product has a strong edit function similar to that of Microsoft Word. You can insert various items such as tables, pictures, emotions, URLs or even attachments. You can set the background color, background picture of each diary entry separately so your diary can be rich and colorful. The login password is encrypted by the irreversible algorithm of SHA; besides, the content of the file itself is encrypted so that your private information is fully protected. Except for managing diary entries by date, you can also manage it by hierarchical grouping. There is a Recycle Bin in the software so you do not need to worry that you may delete a diary entry by mistake. It also provides various unique features such as you can specify a weather icon and an emotion icon for each diary entry, can specify importance for diary entries, and can copy and paste diary entries, etc.
Efficient Diary 1.95 Build 92 | 5.13 Mb
With its unique and powerful flash full-text search technique, you can simply enter a word in the diary to quickly find the corresponding entries! The product has a strong edit function similar to that of Microsoft Word. You can insert various items such as tables, pictures, emotions, URLs or even attachments. You can set the background color, background picture of each diary entry separately so your diary can be rich and colorful. The login password is encrypted by the irreversible algorithm of SHA; besides, the content of the file itself is encrypted so that your private information is fully protected. Except for managing diary entries by date, you can also manage it by hierarchical grouping. There is a Recycle Bin in the software so you do not need to worry that you may delete a diary entry by mistake. It also provides various unique features such as you can specify a weather icon and an emotion icon for each diary entry, can specify importance for diary entries, and can copy and paste diary entries, etc.
Time marches on, while with Efficient Diary, we can record our perceptions and experiences along the way. Spend some time with Efficient Diary each day - looking into today's feelings, recalling the memories of the past, and expecting the happiness in the future. A happy life can't be without Efficient Diary!
Why Choose Efficient Diary?
Multiple Interface Styles
8 interface styles are provided to meet your individual needs! They have various tones of color like blue, green or metallic, and have Vista standard and XP standard windows appearances separately.
Easy to Search
Efficient Diary has powerful search capabilities so you can quickly find your information.
Powerful Document Editor
Efficient Diary has embedded a powerful document editor similar to MS-Word, which can be used to write your diary. You can insert pictures, emotions, tables and etc. to make your diary more colorful and vivid.
Information Safety Safeguards
There is a Recycle Bin in this software, you do not need to be worried that you may delete some important information by mistake. The functions of Backup and Restore can help you conveniently save and migrate data.
Efficient Diary 1.95 Release Date : 2010-08-27
Bug fix: the software sometimes can not minimize to the system tray in Windows 7.
Added languages: Korean and French (Canadian).
Other improvements are made and bugs are fixed.
Why Choose Efficient Diary?
Multiple Interface Styles
8 interface styles are provided to meet your individual needs! They have various tones of color like blue, green or metallic, and have Vista standard and XP standard windows appearances separately.
Easy to Search
Efficient Diary has powerful search capabilities so you can quickly find your information.
Powerful Document Editor
Efficient Diary has embedded a powerful document editor similar to MS-Word, which can be used to write your diary. You can insert pictures, emotions, tables and etc. to make your diary more colorful and vivid.
Information Safety Safeguards
There is a Recycle Bin in this software, you do not need to be worried that you may delete some important information by mistake. The functions of Backup and Restore can help you conveniently save and migrate data.
Efficient Diary 1.95 Release Date : 2010-08-27
Bug fix: the software sometimes can not minimize to the system tray in Windows 7.
Added languages: Korean and French (Canadian).
Other improvements are made and bugs are fixed.
Efficient Diary 1.95 Build 92 Fast Download
Multiloading USB Reanimator From EdCop v1.0 x86 & x64 (2010/ENG)
Multiloading USB Reanimator From EdCop v1.0 x86 & x64 (2010/ENG)
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X5 15.1.0.588 DVD With Extras MULTiLANGUAGE
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X5 15.1.0.588 DVD With Extras MULTiLANGUAGE
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