Scopetech

Bloglines is still the preferred RSS reader for some even though it has been pretty much outdone by Google’s Reader product feature-wise. Now, Bloglines has finally come out with a Beta that could quite possibly shake things up a bit. The interface is very appealing to look at, almost Mac-like.

While services like Google Reader and Bloglines are considerably different from sites like Netvibes or Protopage that line is now being blurred as Bloglines now allows for you to track specific feeds with drag and dropt boxes very much like Netvibes. It’s an interesting mash-up having the functionality of both sites.

Bloglines’ beta now also features the one thing I have been clamouring for: the ability to drag and drop feeds into folders as you want. For some reason Google thinks it’s labeling is better when it serves to do nothing more than confuse me. The beta can be used by anyone and may actually get me to switch back to Bloglines…again. Check the beta out here.

Contrastream has nothing to do with Contra, the 2-Dimensional shooter of our childhoods. Instead it’s a site with digg-like features allowing users to find the latest and greatest in independent music through user recommendations. The site creators have decided that relying on magazines to find out about this music isn’t enough as the volume of good music out there just isn’t being covered.

The Fresh Albums section shows the highest quality albums that are most hyped by the site’s users while the fresh albums section show the albums that are about to reach fresh album status. Users can also view albums by the latest submitted into the system. Contrastream focuses on 3 specific genres, Indie Rock underground hip-hop and indie electronic.

Users can comment on albums, share albums with people on blogs, set up a site profile and participate in the forums as well as vote on albums by “hyping” them. In keeping with the underground/independent theme, if a user thinks a certain band/artist is too mainstream or not inauthentic they can be flagged as a sell-out. Expect the site to launch soon.

Online software options grow with the development of Flowchart.com. Searching for a new way to enhance documents or to create charts for business needs? Flowchart.com has several options you can use for that and more! Unlike some applications that need plug-ins, other software, and/or require a download Flowchart.com has an easy to use interface and nothing else is needed! Just register and you are ready to start creating your charts.

Chart Manager

Upon logging in, you will be presented with the Chart Manager. This section organizes your charts, displays thumbnails of new and existing templates and shared charts.

Design a new chart or use one of the several existing templates:

Engineering
Flowcharts
Mind maps
Networks
Organizational charts
Project Management

Within each template category, there are thumbnail samples that can be seen by hovering over each one. If you design a new chart, you can make it a template, too. Once you choose a chart, then you are given options to customize it such as add a chart name, choose options for page size and set the DPI.

My Images

My Images allows you to upload images for your charts and for sharing with others. You can also browse and choose images uploaded from other users. Uploading JPEG images is discouraged in favor of using PNG for bitmaps and SVG for vector graphics. This area seemed very lacking in content, but I assume once live this deficit will disappear. Users can even add a price for their images if they choose. If you do not have a need for charts, you could make some money by selling your images! However, the terms and conditions have not been added yet, so I am not certain as to the specifics.

Design Area

The design area is a real time editor and it displays typical word processing options with additional flowchart features for lines and shapes. Since I felt a little let down in the My Images section, seeing the large selection of clip art and other objects was appealing.

The collaborate feature was pretty impressive. Individuals working on team projects, especially when they are not located in the same area, should find this convenient. When collaborating, the changes one user makes can be seen by the other and they can discuss it in the chat environment.

Another nice feature was the preview window, in which the document remains intact as you move the preview window around to view various areas. The inability to see the entire document in the design area was frustrating, but the creators of the site assure users that they are working on a fix to this for version 2.0. This feature also has a Properties tab for details on selected images/objects such as position and size. The History tab is a nice addition to the application. After getting carried away with too many changes/additions, having this feature is reassuring. With one click, you can go back to a certain point and the changes are erased. For most instances like that, this can be a lifesaver.

The features were user friendly and the site design simple but effective. There is a nicely developed demo on their home page, I recommend checking that out for a visual demonstration of the features of Flowchart.com. Overall, the benefits seemed to outweigh the drawbacks. Once the site goes live I expect users will find few, if any, negatives. This application should enhance user experience in creating flowcharts without the need to purchase new software, download plug ins or any type of file.

I’ve recently seen Transformers for the second time now, and every time I see a movie about evil (or even well-intentioned) robots trying to enslave the human race, I can’t help but think that my work in AI falls into a morally gray area.

My thoughts fall once again to the dangers of creating an intelligence that rivals (and would inevitably surpass) our own. Imagine the seemingly innocuous process of automobile design and manufacturing. Being a software engineer, I see large, complex processes as units or agents that can be moved or reused easily, so I might say something like, “just slap a steel mill on the front of it” (edit: I’ve ended up saying exactly that). The point is, I’m not used to the limits of the physical world; my tools are abstract and usually homemade.

Automotive construction has become almost entirely automated. Engineers and designers are now also experimenting with computer aided design, the least of which uses computers as platforms for collaboration. Engineers are using complex drafting tools to design cars for minimal drag and fuel usage, while also maximizing interior space. Though I’m not sure if there is any research going on in the field currently, I could certainly imagine analyzing body styles of popular vehicles and using them to create entirely new designs, either by melding the designs or by actively avoiding things that have already been designed.

Now, machines are building designing the cars, and machines are building them, but there’s still one gap: whose building these machines? That task still lies, at least partly, in the hands of human ingenuity. Factories still need to be retooled to build new vehicles, so there will never be a design that accidentally gets built into a fleet of vehicles by marking the wrong check-box on buildthiscar.ford.com .

But now imagine taking current-day rapid prototyping technologies and building a general purpose factory, that can build a car from an adequately detailed power point presentation, but could also build the 8^th generation iPhone, and also switch between the two with little to no human interaction (or interference, some might say). Now, slap a steel mill on the front of it, and you’ve got a machine, or more accurately, set of machines, that can design and create anything from scratch.

For the most part this is still just a tool, but that’s how all these stories start. If you were to give the design system a parameter to optimize passenger safety, it may (and this is far fetched) conclude that the best way to ensure the safety of your passengers is to equip vehicles with cannons to blast obstructions off the road. A silent feature at first, the system monitors passenger safety statistics, realizes that the feature isn’t being used, and automates it. All of a sudden, we have an epic battle between Ford and GM over the carpool lane.

The moral of the story? People need management, so anything created in humanity’s image will need management too. We should never intend to create things and allow them free reign over their domain. This becomes more evident with stores like the one above, where reign over the machine domain bled into reign over the world as we know it. Responsibility is key, with todays track-record of owning up to ones mistakes, the outlook is bleak.

Sharogle is an interesting search engine that gives users money for using the search engine. According to their About page - the search industry is a multi billion-dollar industry, so the money is there and instead of wasting money on advertising, more will be gained by giving people money to use the search engine which will in turn make you get more people to use it.

One gripe I do have with the service though is that the search results look like Google’s adsense advertisments.

For starters, the homepage isn’t too much to look at, going with a green and white colour-scheme.

A referral system will be put in place to help you make money through doing that as well as through doing searches.

As of this writing, the company blog has not been updated since July 11th, 2007, but it’s still good that there’s actually one since I’m sure some of you reading may be wondering about the legitimacy of the site. Admittedly, we did not try making any money with the site but it seems like an interesting take on making money with search. If anyone sees it fit to try out and want to report back to us, contact us and let us know.