The phrase "Web 2.0" is generally considered to mean a web where the users are able to easily create content that becomes part of the web. Blogs, YouTube, Flickr, all that stuff is part of the browser experience for anyone visiting any reasonably current part of the web these days. It's been a great change for the better, too. For those of you who don't recall or weren't on the web at the time, websites were for the most part extremely static because most people had yet to realize the possibilities that hooking a database up to a dynamic web page could do (not to mention all the multimedia now available). In other words, extremely boring unless you were a true geek such as myself. Slowly at first, and then explosively, this changed as content became dynamic seemingly overnight and the Net became a lot more fun as a result. I hope - and expect - the same will happen to MMO games in the future. The players really will be active participants in creating the content for content-driven games and not just sandbox environments like Second Life. While there are definitely challenges to making it work, I think it can be done.
In the field of USB missile launchers, there is a bit of competition. This year I was able to conduct side by side tests of two of the more well known missile systems: The Chinese V2 Foam 3-G Missile Defender and the Dream Cheeky USB Missile Launcher. In a strange twist of fate, both systems arrived within days of each other and I could finally perform a comparison between the systems without either manufacturer giving my some line about how it was an old model. These are fresh, right off the line, state of the art USB missile launchers and neither brand will have any leeway from me during the analysis. At this time, I am not aware of any other entries to this sector so this may very well be the first and only product comparison ever made on the subject. This article will determine which of the two is the winner in the contest for USB Missile Launcher of the Year, 2006.
Net Neutrality is a subject that is extremely important and we would all benefit from having as many people as possible understand what it is and why it is so important. The Internet has always been a neutral entity, serving as an open line between computers and ultimately people across the globe in a way that facilitates commerces and creativity. But times have changed and now the businesses that operate the communication infrastructure are doing everything they can to make the Internet an ally in their quest for profit at incalculable expense to our society. Technology has advanced to the point that these businesses now have the ability to charge us based on who we are communicating with, instead of how much of their capacity we actually consume. It is similar to if a gas company charged more for fuel because you drive a car made by a someone the gas company didn't have a marketing arrangement with. Or simply wouldn't provide fuel at all to cars unless the car manufacturer paid off the gas company for the privilege of using their fuel. This is not unlike the Net Neutrality debate going on today and it is an abhorrent business practice that should be illegal. But it isn't, at least not yet. That needs to change.
I recently felt the urge to view some PDF documents on my Playstation Portable. If you've wanted to read PDFs on a PSP, you already know there is no built in support for this. If the PDF is converted to a series of PNG files (they are more clear/smaller than JPG for this), the PSP's photo viewer can be used to read the converted PDF. It's not perfect, but it is a functional way to accomplish this.
For the technically inclined, this article describes a way to do this conversion using free software resulting in readable images on the PSP.
You will need the following: