Google has new service in store
Google already knows what you do and where you shop. Now the Big G wants to store your computer data.
The search engine giant is reportedly looking to launch a service that would allow computer users to store their hard-drive info on Google’s servers. Users could access these files via the Internet from computers and mobile devices with one password, and share the information with friends, the Wall Street Journal says.
Google currently offers storage separately via its Docs applications, Gmail, and Picasa (its Web photo-hosting service), as well as the option to purchase up to 400GB of additional storage. The new endeavor, however, will reportedly link those services together with a single search box.
A Google spokesman said the company is not ready to announce anything but noted it continues to move forward with efforts in “cloud computing” — the storage of data on assorted data centers spread around the globe.
The power of thought
People with severe paralysis could find new opportunities from doing business to making new friends in the virtual world of Second Life by just thinking about it, if experiments being conducted by a Japanese university bear fruit.
A story on the Reuters news site reported Junichi Ushiba, an associate professor at Keio University and head of the project, showed how electrodes attached to the scalp can pick up the electrical changes associated with brain activity.
The data can be interpreted by a computer, allowing a user to manipulate an online persona, or avatar, around Second Life without a keyboard or mouse.
“When people are paralyzed, of course their lives become restricted,” said Ushiba. “But with this technology we can interpret their intention to move, allowing them to go shopping in Second Life or even set up a business.”
San Francisco-based Linden Lab says about half a million people regularly visit Second Life, where commercial transactions can be carried out in Linden dollars, convertible to U.S. dollars.
HD map of Antarctica online
An international science team unveiled a new high-definition, interactive map of Antarctica recently, capping an eight-year satellite mapping project.
An MSNBC.com story said the Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica, or LIMA, is the most geographically accurate depiction of the continent ever made — and it’s freely available over the Web.
Researchers can use the true-color map to plot their expeditions, geologists can get a better fix on remote rock formations, and the general public can get its best view yet of a continent that looms large in the imagination as well as real-world climate science.
The main Landsat site is http://lima.usgs.gov/ while a second site, http://lima.nasa.gov, is a user-friendly education site.