Google Desktop Search

The Google Desktop Search package has been out for quite some time now and considering its high-profile parent company, (Google) I find it downright astonishing that some people still have never installed or in some cases not even heard of the Google Desktop search engine.

In short, Google Desktop makes an index of all the files on your drive, HTML, email, documents and in combination with (mostly free) third party plug-ins, Google Desktop indexes practically every file type imaginable. It is like having a personal assistant watching over your shoulder the entire time.

Looking-up information with Google Desktop is a breeze. Just type whatever you are looking for and the results will pop-up in internet explorer split seconds later. When you use Google on the web it will also show you a link to the desktop search results on your PC, an extremely handy and powerful feature although it confuses some people into thinking all their documents have been transmitted to Google.com. Of course, this is not the case.

The product does not send back your indexed information over the internet but instead uses IE (Internet explorer) to offer its search service exclusively to the local users of the Laptop or Personal Computer. Technically speaking Google is running a web server on your PC that only allows local access. This is also where our problem with Google lies.

Google’s desktop search product has had some serious security issues while in Beta and received a lot of media hype because of this. Using a carefully crafted URL it was possible to get information from a Google Desktop engine whilst being connected from another computer through the internet! Even though the potential hackers would not be able to access the documents directly they could potentially “query their way through” the document using the Google engine that normally should only be accessible to local users. This was a serious security hole and we suspect this might very well happen again in the future.

To block this and a lot of other types of internet attacks we suggest using a personal firewall. Windows XP Service Pack 2 (WinXP SP2) users will have their WinXP firewall enabled by default. Even if there would be a serious vulnerability in Google Desktop search, using a personal firewall makes it impossible for hackers to contact your local Google engine. We highly recommend users of Google Desktop search to install a personal firewall before installing Google desktop.

Be careful with installing Google Desktop search on multi-user PCs as well. Because Google indexes everything you do it can cause some embarrassing moments if one is not careful. You have been warned!

Conclusion: Google Desktop is a very powerful product and works exactly as advertised. Because of the nature of search engines we do not recommend using this product on public-terminals and shared PCs. If you are the only user on a PC and have installed a personal firewall you should be fine security-wise and you’ll find Google Desktop Search an invaluable tool in everyday computing.

AirScooter II, beam me up Scotty!

Now this is something cool! The AirScooter II is a personal helicopter that weighs less than 140 kg. It doesn't require a pilot's license to fly it in the USA but I think getting permission in Europe will be a nightmare. A pair of rotors propels the AirScooter II, which its maker says is easier to fly than an ordinary helicopter.

The price tag for this incredible machine is yet to be determined, but current pricing estimates by AirScooter Corporation are under $50,000. Impressive, especially when compared to the price of most land-bound vehicles or small helicopters. Even more impressive when considering the substantial savings from having an aircraft engine that operates on gasoline instead of expensive aircraft fuel and the fact that just the licensing required to operate a conventional personal helicopter could cost about $50,000 alone!

Designed as a recreational vehicle, the AirScooter II looks like it would be easy to park at the mall. It's expected to be available this year.

Google Picasa 2

Picasa 2, Google's image organizer that does not take .gif image files...

‘What kind of useless image organizer is this?’ is the first thing that popped my mind when I read the specifications. No .gif support for an image catalog program is like selling a car without wheels. Because of Picasa’s everyday low pricing (free) I decided to give it a go anyway and tested Picasa 2 in combination with Hello Picture sharing and the Picasa Blogger plug-in.

The Hello and Blogger plug-ins are free components designed for use in combination with Picasa 2. The quality of these so called plug-ins is not very good as they do not keep track of images posted on a site. Before I knew it I was out of web space because of left-over Hello Zombies. The solution: To use another program to clear up the mess Hello left on my web space. Hello!

For transferring pictures from your camera and organizing them on your PC, Picasa 2 does an excellent job. For most people this is all that they need. In that case, you'll love Picasa's timeline feature that basically is a chronological list of all the pictures in your folders. There’s red-eye reduction as well as some other basic photo editing tricks. Very handy, great fun too, but nothing new.

Overall I think Picasa is a nice program but...... It's lack of .gif image file support I find unforgivable for an image catalog program and if people want to use Picasa to share pictures with friends, look for other tools as Picasa's Hello and Blogger tools just don't cut it.

VOIPvoice CyberPhone K

I was not expecting much when I bought my first Cyberphone for use with Skype. Within two weeks I bought four Cyberphone handsets for close friends. I must say that one of them was dead on arrival but the others worked just fine.

To use the cyberphone, you need to download a driver from www.voipvoice.com to make the keypad work with Skype. Then plug the phone into your computer’s USB port and use Skype with the CyberPhone K just as you would a normal telephone.

Dial SkypeOut numbers from the phone, and assign quick keys to your Skype contacts on Windows (only sound functionality on Mac OS X).

This is a perfect entry level phone. It is not wireless and you need to be near your computer to make calls but the sound quality is very good and overall I can highly recommend the Cyberphone K.

Casio GPS Pathfinder Watch. You are here...

The idea of having a watch with a built in 8-channel GPS antenna (Global Positioning System) was so space-age in the year 2000 that I immediately bought it without thought. After all, even batman did not have a toy like this!

The GPS watch is really big, has a super-high geek factor and is a little complicated to use. You will need to read the manual before you know what’s going on inside the watch. Once you have read the manual, the watch is easy to use nut you need to know a lot of little details before you can actually use all of its features.

Basically the watch tells you the time, date and location. Because there is no way to download maps from a PC, the only reading you will get is a numeric reading. The GPS watch can memorize 200 locations known as landmarks or waypoints.

To plan a trip, select your waypoints and start the GPS receiver. The display will show a circle with the word ‘satellite’. The first time you use the watch you need to set the area where the watch is otherwise it will be unable to find out where the satellites are.

Once a couple of satellites are found, the display will change and the watch will tell you the direction to the next waypoint. It can tell you what direction you are going and at what speed you are traveling. Pretty cool stuff considering this functionality would at least be the size of a shoebox in the cold-war era. I loved using it whilst skiing in France. I memorized several locations early in the week and the watch could tell me where I was in relation to say, the hotel or mountain-café.

The functionality of the watch and the resolution of its low-res LCD screen is in no way comparable to any pocket PC or Palm OS based navigator currently (2005) on the market but despite this limitation, five years later it is still a great watch although I must admit that I hardly ever use the GPS feature. The reason for not using the GPS anymore is that the Casio GPS watch only lasts four hours on a five Euro battery. The watch is purely a statement of anti-fashion. It is so ugly you start loving it.

The watch comes with a massive manual, a quick reference guide, and several little pamphlets explaining the preprogrammed landmarks, notes on the GPS functions, and directions on using the watchband. All printed documentation is scarier looking than it actually is, because everything comes in 10 languages. I counted only 32 English pages so that is doable.

This watch is highly recommended to all Casio Watch collectors and geeks alike. It is very seldom that a gadget still has its WoW factor after 5 years. Unfortunately Casio no longer sells this watch.

Casio Wrist Audio Player (mp3 watch)

The first time I saw this watch on the internet in 2000 I immediately fell in love with it. Imagine, summer 2000, new millennium just started and a watch that can play your favorite mp3 tunes in digital stereo!

Just like my other Casio geek watches this one also had the cheap plastic design-look but that did not matter much as it was the first and only mp3 watch on the market. To get my hands on it I had to fork down a hefty 300 Euro because it was the only place in Amsterdam that sold it and back then.

As with all mp3 players, the digital circuitry provides, non-skip playback, even when the Wrist Audio Player is subjected to strong vibration or impact. A water-resistant design means you can wear your Wrist Audio Player when playing sports, dancing, challenging the great outdoors, or doing just about anything else.

The Wrist Audio Player has enough memory to store approximately 33 minutes of CD-level quality sound in the High Quality Mode, 44 minutes of near CD-level quality sound in the Medium Quality Mode, or 66 minutes of FM broadcast-level quality sound in the Low Quality Mode. This is certainly not acceptable in 2005 but in 2000 this limited capacity was not a problem at all.

Flashback Title scrolls through song titles and artists on the display, one character at a time. Title and name text must be input using software on your computer, and both letters and numbers can be used. Motion Graphic feature shows different display movements to match song playback Animated Motion Graphic characters that match each track are downloaded automatically to the Wrist Audio Player.

The character dances in one of 10 different styles, including the Twist for rock and other fast music, and the Wave for pops and other lively tempo tunes. The dance style is selected in accordance with the type of music that is playing. The watch has a built-in USB interface for data communication. It takes about 70 seconds to download one four-minute track. Approximately four hours of continuous playback. Basic timekeeping includes current time, alarm, stopwatch, and more.

Did I like the watch? Unbelievable but I did, for about a week until the headphone-adapter (the blob on the left side of the watch) got lost as this is a separate click-on part of the watch. It was impossible to order a replacement headphone adapter from Casio while with a design this faulty; they should have known people would want to order more adapters.

Furthermore, the supplied software for transferring the tracks from PC to mp3 watch, crashed frequently and a newer software version was never released. This is a problem with all Casio products that ship with software.

Despite its high price at the time I do recommend this watch to Casio gadget watch collectors. If you are looking for a nice portable mp3 player, look elsewhere. The Casio Wrist Audio Player is limited on memory and transferring files can me a total nightmare.

NASA World Wind

This free-for all program is truly amazing! NASA World Wind is an interactive spinning globe. Using the wheel on your scroll-mouse you can zoom into any part of the world and the system will then download satellite images and project them onto the NASA World Wind globe. Users get to look-up any large city in the world and the globe will spin into position.

Programmers can create so-called third party plug-ins that to project custom data onto the spinning globe so the program can be used as a geo-mapping engine. This feature is what will make NASA World Wind a very useful tool for countless different applications in the future but for now, the spinning globe is already worth the download and shear fun to use.

The service is currently experiencing some growth problems. Downloading of images is notoriously slow and this part of the program needs a redesign. Ideally downloaded maps and satellite images should be shared over BitTorrent or some other Peer2Peer network to ease bandwidth requirements for the NASA World Wind image servers. Right now, all images are downloaded from a limited number of central servers and given the popularity of the program lately there is no-way this will ever be scalable without the clever use of some peer-2-peer network technology.

Conclusion: Get your copy of World Wind today. Do check if your PC and broadband connection are technically advanced enough. Otherwise, buy a new PC as the NASA World Wind application is some serious eyeball-popping material.

Skype VOIP telephony

Just when you thought internet telephony was gone forever, Skype entered the voice over IP arena.

In short: Skype lets you talk over the internet for free to other Skype users. For a very small fee you can call non-Skype users on their regular telephone and for another low fee Skype gives you voicemail and a telephone number in a growing number of cities around the world.

Skype-out call rates to old-style telephones are extremely cheap at about 1/10th the price of the traditional telephone operators. In combination with a supported VOIP phone, you get the same call experience as a regular phone call at a fraction of the cost. If you want to try Skype first, a regular headset will do just fine but you will miss the telephone-like experience and miss out on ease use.

For a free program, Skype has a feature set is pretty impressive considering it contains no spyware or other forms of ad-serving rubbish. Sound quality of Skype telephone calls is one of the best on the market and often beats the quality of the regular phone network. Besides, conference calls are thrown in at no extra cost and the software is very good at finding a way out through corporate firewalls and other potential network nasties that could ruin your call experience.

Conclusion: An absolute must have product for international travelers and long distance callers alike. Get a proper USB style Skype phone for the most natural calling experience and get some Skype-Out credit to get you started. The USB-phone and Skype credit will pay itself back in no-time because of increased savings on long distance calls.

Sony Aibo ERS220A Entertainment Robot

What was I thinking when I bought this 2150 Euro toy? My expectations of the Sony Aibo where high but they where not lived up to... Read why...

I bought my Sony Aibo ERS220A robot at Capi, the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport electronics store. When I got home I found out that robot was broken and could not hold its memory stick. Cost: 500 Euro (!) unless I could fax the proof of purchase. I had to send the robot to the French Aibo Clinic (sic!) to get its core CPU brick replaced.

Repairs and accessories are hideously expensive and Sony Aibo software is overpriced and lacking innovation. If you desperately want one anyway, get one on e-bay, order some pink memory sticks from Sony (copy protected, only Sony!) and load the open-source programs called dogs-life and disco Aibo.

Be careful with the pink Memory Sticks Sony uses in the Aibo entertainment robots. Sony copy protected these (16Mb!) memory sticks so they could charge you through the roof for storage. Format them once and they are no longer usable in Aibo and your 100$ memory stick becomes a useless 16Mb memory stick at the blink of an eye. Thank you Sony! Somehow I already expected this.

Conclusion: Seriously overpriced, gets truly boring after about a week or so. The best thing I got it to do was dance to the Madonna track called Vogue. At 2150 Euro (excluding, battery, software, bag and memory sticks) this is a rather expensive toy.