Kogan, the Aussie company behind such gadgets as the fist-sized Bluetooth GPS watch and gesture-controlled IPTV, is adding a Chromium OS laptop to its family of Google-powered Agora products. The 11.6-inch computer has a spec list rivaling the midrange notebooks of 2006, including a 1.3 GHz Celeron processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 30GB SSD. That’s not a lot of oomph, but with cloud-based storage and Google’s open source Chromium running the show, this thin client laptop should be in decent shape. There’s also a 3.5-hour battery, SD card reader, webcam, Bluetooth, and an HDMI output. Like all Kogan products, the Agora is only available in Australia (AUD 349, about 2) and the UK (£269, about 0), so if you live down under or across the pond and don’t want to install the open-source (free) OS yourself, look for the laptop to hit Kogan’s online stores tomorrow.

Continue reading Kogan Agora is world’s first Google Chromium OS laptop, ships next week

Kogan Agora is world’s first Google Chromium OS laptop, ships next week originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Jun 2011 11:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you ever get tired of poking away at your smartphone’s screen like a doorbell, you’re not alone. The forward-looking folks over at Microsoft Research have been working away at a new touchscreen system designed pick up on more natural, whole-hand movements, effectively allowing users to break free from the finger-based paradigm that governs most tactile devices. Developed in coordination with engineers at Microsoft Surface, the company’s Rock and Rails interface can detect three basic hand gestures: a balled fist, which holds items on the screen, an extended hand that can align objects (see the cell marked “d,” on the right) and a curved paw, around which users can pivot images (see cell b). This taxonomy opens up new ways for users to crop, re-size or generally play around with their UI elements, though it remains unclear whether the display will trickle down to the consumer level anytime soon. For now, it appears to operate exclusively on the Surface, but more details should surface when the system’s developers release a paper on their project, later this year. Hit the source links to see a video of the thing in action.

Microsoft’s Rock and Rails touchscreen lets you massage your photos with both hands originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 00:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cement, building lime, building plaster, clay and black binding materials are called binding materials. They are a part of solutions and concrete. Distinguish air (clay, plaster, building lime) and hydraulic (the cement, special binding materials).

Cement. Cement is necessary for preparation of building solutions and manufacturing of concrete designs. Getting cement, pay attention to its mark. Depending on durability cement is divided on following marks: 300, 400, 500, 550, 600. For building we recommend to you to use cement of last three marks, because it, unlike the others, possesses higher durability and speed of hardening. If you don’t know the mark of cement you have, you can define its quality as follows: compress cement in a fist if it flows out at once between fingers — cement qualitative, if in a fist there were small slices in size about a pea — cement has the lowered durability.

Building lime is required for preparation of solutions. For whitewashing use air, and for a laying of concrete and daubing use hydraulic lime.

It is necessary to apply to work only slaked lime, because unslaked lime at contact with water strongly heats up and can become a cause of the fire. Lime is the same as also other building materials, should be high quality. Make the following experiment: on a solution of structure 1: 3 (one part of lime on three parts of a clean sand) combine a column from eight red corpulent bricks, in four days a column cautiously lift steeply for the top brick. If it does not collapse (will not break), can be assured that lime is of high quality and is suitable for daubing and a laying of walls.

Building plaster stone (alabaster) — a light powder, which receive from plaster raw materials by burning and a grinding. Added in a limy solution, plaster stone accelerates it stiffening and increases durability. The products made of plaster stone, have small density, possess incombustibility and a number of other valuable properties, but are afraid of high humidity, because their durability in this case decreases.

Clay is applied to preparation of clay solutions, irreplaceable at manufacturing of a brick, a waterproofing, daubing. Clay happens various colors thanks to the maintenance in it of some minerals. For building works it is required to you getting thin, average and fat clay. In lean clay it is not necessary to add sand, it is better to use it in the pure state.

Tar of dark brown or black color and various kinds of bitumen concerns black binding materials. They are added in building solutions for waterproofing works. These substances possess such valuable properties, as water resistance, elasticity and firmness to the atmospheric phenomena. Black binding materials by means of heating can be softened, and at cooling become more viscous and firm.

If you need car garage – this site will help. Lots of samples of car garage products and direct access to the car garage sellers. All contact info on the site.

P.S. And don’t let laziness to stop you from finding the best deal about car garages. Don’t forget that we are living in the world where knowledge quickly enhances the quality of our life.

Due to this if you are properly armed with the knowledge in your topic you can be sure that you will always find the way out from any bad situation. So, please make sure to visit this site on a regular basis or – the easiest way to take care of it – sign up to its RSS feed. In such an easy way you will have your hand on the pulse of the freshest info updates here. Blogs can be helpful, you just need to understand how to use them.

It is said that your personal space reflects who you are. Whether that notion is true or not, it’s very important to make your house clean and neat. Your front yard is one important area to keep clean and presentable since it is the fist area that people see. There are many people passing by or stopping by at your house and they usually get to see your front yard before anything else. You need to learn how to beautify your front yard so that people will have a pleasant impression of your house. This page will give you advise on how to beautify your front yard.

It is of utmost importance that your front yard is cleaned daily. Have an everyday check-up to see there is no garbage left on the ground. Make sure to pick up food wrappers, rake leaves and remove other debris.

Next, you must make keep yard simple as much as possible. If there are a lot of decorative pieces or plants in the front yard then it might look like a shop. It is best to have a focal piece that will be the center of your yard.

Trimming your plants is also a good idea. Living plants and grasses continually grow so it is best to cut the grass and remove dead leaves and branches regulary. Remove dead leaves of plants because they do not look good. So, do not forget to cut grass around your front yard.

And lastly, place plants that make a beautiful decoration on your front yard. Flowering plants give a touch of loveliness to any house. You can also put flowering plants in lovely pots to add aesthetics. This idea will surely create a colorful, lively front yard.

So there you are, some tips to have a lovely front yard. Just follow these tips so you can have a lovelier home.

Make sure to use experts in masonry with our San Diego masonry contractors.  Where your yard will look beautiful with our unique designs at landscape design San Diego company.

Ah, the fist-bump. First a hip replacement for the high-five, then a way to share contact information, and now the futuristic way to tip a maitre’d for a good table.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

Do you like novelty keychains? Do you like classic gaming titles such as Street Fighter II? Do you like novelty keychains that produce the sound effects from such classic titles as Street Fighter II? You must! You’re reading CrunchGear!

This Bandai keychain must be for you. It has the style and grace of a retro gaming controller, but the the buttons activate sound effects from the game. Best yet, you actually have to preform the moves to get the sounds to work.

For instance, press down, down, right, right + P (punch) it gives the sound effect of Ryu’s ‘Fist Wave’. Awesome, right? There are three different versions, each featuring three different SFII characters. $10 in Japan. [asovision via NewsLaunches]