• Microsoft Photosynth is Microsoft technology that lets you manipulate extremely large amounts of visual data. Our buddy Marc writes, "If you've ever seen or played around with Jef Raskin's Humane interface, this is pretty much the older brother, on steroids. The demo showed a high resolution newspaper, a book where each chapter was a column, and an extremely large image of the US where you could zoom and out on every street. There's also an online Photosynth demo where they took every image they could find on the Notre Dame (on Flickr) and stitched them together to recreate it. Really sweet." Robert's hooked... check it out.
• We got a little excited about online maps after that Photosynth demo... Google Maps Street View, and Add destination, which lets you add multiple stops when you 'Get directions.' (Look at the bottom of the Search Results on the left hand side of this link.
• Did we mention excited? We forgot to run the Viewer Tech Pics in this show. We'll catch up on Tuesday...
• Map24.com was the first site we saw that offered multiple destinations on one trip.
• Maps.Live.com has the best traffic conditions, tho, right down to little yellow triangular accident/road condition markers, and has some outstanding satellite imagery.
• Can an LCD burn in? Don't worry, Rune. Rob says playing some video (in full screen mode), or just turning it off for a couple hours will usually clear that ghosting you see if you leave a window open for hours on your monitor.
• Instant Charging Station For Your Gadgets: callpod's Chargepod can charge up to six devices at once. Looks nifty, costs $49.95 with a single adapter. (Additional adapters are $9.95 each.)
• "The palm rest on my notebook is discolored from use. Can I repaint the laptop myself? Is it a difficult process? Can you point me to a tutorial or have some tips?" Guillermo, this is your lucky day. (Tho you should try cleaning that palm rest, first.)
• Painting Your Notebook Lid, or just about anything with a rattle can. (aka spray can) 1) Read the directions on the can. 2) Prep: use a fine sand or emery paper to scuff the surface you're painting, wash off any grit, dirt or fingerprints before you start painting. 3) Hold the can level above what you're painting. 4) Push the button to the side of the product, then move the spray over your project. (Check the video, it makes more sense.) 5) Lots of thin coats of paint work better than a single gloppy one. 6) Be patient... and work in a well ventilated room far away from anything nice you don't want to get paint on!
• Would you rather have a professionally painted notebook, Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, iPod PC? Check out ColorWare, they'll paint your gear if you send it in, or sell you a new device painted in one of dozens of colors. Want some seriously custom work? Smooth Creations does some seriously high end airbrush work!
• Worried the spray paint might melt your gadgets? Krylon Fusion is formulated to spray directly on plastic, tho I've had good luck with regular paints from Rustoleum... I just start with primer, then drop the color on.
• Oh... y'all hit us with a ton of questions about the Drobo. We answered as many as we could: Michael, Drobo only uses SATA drives. Roger, it's 'infinitely expandable' in the sense that you can keep replacing drives with bigger ones. Bill, it's Mac compatible. Daniel, the whole point of the Drobo is that it will automatically rebuild your data if a drive dies... all you have to do is slide it in the box.
• Got a tech question? Email us at dl.tv@ziffdavis.com!
• Go Team DL.TV: Folding@Home: DL.TV is #66 of 69040
• As always... thanks for watching... if you enjoyed the show, tell a friend about us!
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