Windows 7 is here - launch party

Well its finally here, and i had mentioned about this a couple of posts back that Windows 7 is arriving in style with everyone I know who has tried it giving it a thumbs up. So the logic is simple, if an OS / application / tool does what its supposed to everyone will love it.


Watch the launch of Windows 7 video - you will need a Silverlight  plugin for this. And that reminds me, I am fascinated with what Silverlight as a technology offers and the potential it has, but havent really gotten down to blogging on it. I must write a review on Silverlight soon (althought its much delayed - by almost 2 yrs ), but till then check out the Windows 7 launch party video.

Now thats an HP I want

Well, I have alway shied away from HP products and stuck to Dell, for no apparent reason actually, just a personal preference. When i saw the first Touch Smart PC from HP a year or so back at the new Reliance Digital (Cunningham Road, Bangalore) I was really really tempted. But then at a hefty price tag and slag on the touch, I was'nt fully convinced. Also the piece seemed hefty and not sleek like a Mac Desktop, also the display didnt impress me that much either.

But now, while I'm weighing an option of buying a plasma or LCD TV for the bedroom, I am tempted to think, why not the new 23" Touch Smart with Windows 7. Now the only deal is - how big does the 23" really look as my viewing distance is about 10 ft, and would it be smart enough on my part to go touch again (since I'm already in love with the iPhone's touch screen and dont think any other phone will do for me)

Google buys reCAPTCHA

Well google is know for its smart acquisitions of smart starup companies and unleashing it to the world for free. Google recently acquired reCaptcha a system originally developed by Carnegie Mellon University and is quite popular as a authentication mechanism on a large number of sites.

Deep rooted is a smart idea as it takes help of users to help decrypt words unrecognizable by even modern day Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technologies. It challenges users to decrypt two words instead of the usual one and one of the word the system actually recognizes itself and the other word it expects people to recognize it and type it in. Based on enough set of matches entered by other users who were challenged, it equates that unrecognized word to a correct popular word. I guess the idea has always been there with Amazon's mechanical turk, google images etc to make use of random users to help decipher hidden data in images and content using intuitive and innovative techniques.

Read the complete new on at google's blog.