Here's another serious competitor for ASIMO. I just came across this article on IEEE Spectrum and was pretty amazed by how natural some of this robot's moves are. And it actually looks pretty neat too! The wrist + finger movements / control impressed me the most.

Labels: Artificial Intelligence, Electronics, Engineering, Kool, Mechanics, Mechatronics, Robotics, Technology

Norooz.... it's here again. =) Time goes by fast, doesn't it? Well, I have to admit, it's been a very interesting year. A lot of interesting events happened this year, in many various contexts and directions. And from what I see right now, the coming year is probably going to be even more adventurous. Some crazy things are in the making, lets just say that for now. ;)

Tomorrow at 1:35 PM Toronto time, 6:35 PM Zurich time, and 9:05 PM Tehran time, the Persian year 2569 [1389] starts. Happy Norooz everyone, and wish you all a fantastic new year. =) 

Labels: Aasemoon, Iran, Life, Norooz, Persian

Oh my world... it this amazing or what? Superb work of art created by "Daniel Rozin", an artist who's art responds to the people viewing the art. More info here. Thanks to this guy for the link.

Labels: Amazing, Art, Creativity, Electronics, Technology

Finally updated my OPML. Here it is:

http://opml.Aasemoon.com

[You can see it in your browser, I've created an XSL for it so it looks like something other than just code...]

Labels: Data Portability, OPML, XML

And I am not the least bit surprised. After all, we all saw this coming... didn't we.   

About a year ago I came across Evri. After I played around with it a bit and did some inspection, I realized it was simply not interesting. It doesn't do anything special that hasn't already been covered by another 10,000 more complete and useful services out there.

With everything that went down with Twine in the past year, it was predicted by a lot of people that I spoke with, that Twine.com had pretty much always been for sale, if you catch my drift. The only thing is, I guess a part of me was always hoping that some big cool company would come along and acquire Twine, and perhaps that way Twine would finally be made into what it was originally supposed to be [or at least what the pitch was!].

Well, the Radar Networks finally got bought today. Twine.com finally got owned today, and as a result we now have a combination of 2 completely lame projects. On one hand I find this very disappointing. On the other hand, I find it very laughable. =P  What I find even more amusing, is the little "Evri + Twine" logo that they've stuck on the top of the Twine pages. It looks to me like it's saying "here's how you know we have successfully made a bloody mess of things".

I can not believe where Twine started, and where it is now, truly and finally, ending.... 

More info here and  here.

Labels: Grotesque, Semantic Web, Twine, Web

A few months ago, a neighbour's cat walked right into my bedroom when I opened the flat door to come in. After inspecting my bedroom for a bit, he found himself a comfy place on a mini table under my window, and that was that. The cat didn't seem to want to go out! =) I tried picking him up and putting him on the floor and leading him to the door, but he just turned around and went right back to where he was. Then I sat down and started doing some work on my notebook, and the cat would just circle around my chair and rub his fur to my feet. =)) Any attempts of getting him to get out was completely unsuccessful. Until finally after about an hour of playing around in my bedroom, he finally "accepted" to go back home.  

If you know anything about raccoons, you probably know that they never let you get close to them. They raid people's backyards and if one of them finds its way to your kitchen, you should probably say goodbye to any food you had in there. =) And they seem to detect human presence from kilometres away, 'cause the only thing you get to see of them is their cute behinds jumping up and down running away from you with the speed of light. =) And then, once when I was sitting under the rain, in my aunt's backyard, I noticed one of these cute creatures slowly walking towards me... I was expecting it to just turn around and go away at some point, but that didn't happen. It walked right to the spot where I was sitting, and then it climbed up my jeans all the way to my knee, so that it's eyes were looking directly into mine. It was extremely odd! I even petted the raccoon's back a bit. So it was just sitting there on my knee for some minutes.. I don't even know how long. And then it decided to leave..... it was a very cute encounter. =)

Yesterday, I noticed that a couple of pigeons were in the balcony again... up to some mischief. I love them really, but they make a bloody mess in the balcony that seeing how I'm on the 23rd floor, is slightly difficult to get cleaned. ;) Anyway, I knocked a few times on the glass door to the balcony... quite certain that they would be scared and leave. Well, that didn't happen! So I stepped in the balcony, excepting them to fly away any second now. That didn't happen either. At some point, I found myself face to face with the pigeons... close enough that I could see all the shiny pretty colours in their eyes. And I was laughing my head off too, seeing how they were just.. standing there watching me! =D So at the end I gave up... and walked back in.... it's as if they knew the threat was simply non-exiting! =P I swear, one of them was totally giving me the "yeah, right" look! =)))))

And these are just a few..... so... what is it with animals and me anyway? Any theories? =)))

Labels: Aasemoon, Animals, Funny, Life, Nature, Thoughts

Today's Garfield strip.... awwwwwwwwwwwwww... hehehehe.... =D

Labels: Comics, Cute, Funny, Garfield

A while ago I wrote here that I was no longer certain whether or not MS Courier is still going to come to reality. Well, happily, I just saw this article on Engadget, with some new news on Courier. Apparently this very neat gadget is very much in development, and below you can get an idea of how it will look like. =) YAAAAAAY! Honestly I'm impatiently looking for this one to arrive, I totally want [well, more like need! =))] one!

Labels: Electronics, Gadgets, Kool, Microsoft, Technology

As I've been going through yet another one of those extremely busy periods, I've been out of the loop with some of the latest developments in the world of social networks and legal patents. So I hadn't read or heard about FB's recent work of art till today. Today I had a conversation with a Good friend, Twain, who kindly brought me in the loop with what's been going on. Apparently, Facebook has been awarded the patent for "Dynamically providing a news feed about a user of a social network". Check this link, and this link for the full story.

Well, I'm honestly shocked at what they seem to be getting away with. Actually, on a second though, I basically don't think they'll be getting away with this. As I told my friend, I think this is very much like stealing a piece of the ladder that everyone is, or wants to be climbing. And a good number of online services out there have in fact been climbing this ladder as long as Facebook has, if not longer. Orkut is an example of a social network that's been providing the news feed for a long while now. There are also services with a more specific purpose that do the same.. Last.fm and Goodreads would be examples. And I could bring a dozen other examples just of the top of my head.

So, exactly how does Facebook think that they have a right to be doing this? How is it that they managed to get this patent? Oh well, I think there are reasons I don't get too close to the worlds of business and law. I'm better off with engineering, math and code. Things that make some logical sense...

But even though I don't have much of a view on the topic, I have a firm belief that other online services are just not going to accept this. I have a feeling that Facebook has just brought together the ingredients for an upcoming fiasco. Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see.....

Labels: Facebook, Technology, Thoughts, Web, Web Development