Wiki in a JAR

I like using the huge amount of projects in sourceforge, so I have just decided to use this blog to recommend some of the projects that I use.

The first one is a great project that makes a wiki available to you by just invoking a JAR file. It is called "Wiki in a JAR" and you can find it here. Try it and do not tell me that it is hard to deploy and use. As you launch it, it will tell you in which TCP port the wiki is available.

Great to have it in your USB memory!

Toward a unified ontology of Cloud Computing

Although the title of the document/presentation sounds a bit pretentious to me, this is a nice and brief starting point to clarify the concepts related to the well-worn expression "Cloud Computing".

Thank you very much to Lamia Youssef, Maria Butrico and Dilma da Silva.

Chinese Democracy

Since today and for the next ten days, this is my status in the different IM protocols (ICQ, Yahoo, MSN, GTalk, ...) and social web communities (Facebook, Twitter, Jaiku): http://web.gunsnroses.com/splash.jsp.

I know it will not be the same as the old true band but they deserve the attention in hommage to what once was.

Google Gadgets in Blogger blogs

A new feature is available when designing or modifying the template for your blog in Blogger. You can now add Google Gadgets to your blog, as it is revealed in this YouTube video:

I hate Device Diversity in gaming arena... but there are reasons to eat the bait

Being a fan of Guitar Hero since its first release on PS2, I thought that everything would be wonderful in PS3 in what regards to music band simulation. Then came Guitar Hero III and the wonderful Rock Band. But Rock Band did not come with the same flavour to Europe: no pack with the BD and the instruments, which had to be bought separately and individually. That means much over twice the price in the USA even accepting a 1€=$1 conversion.

And hell has been raised even hotter and wilder taking into account the lack of compatibility between the peripherals of both GH and RB worlds. A patch has been announced for Rock Band support of the GH3 guitar but I do not know if it is true. There is no news about Activision trying the same (well, no news further than Activision meaning to sue Harmonix for the patch).

Taking into account how much I hate that Sony does not standardize music peripherals and that I would like to pay once for a guitar or a drum set and be able to play both games, what is the reason that tempts me to acquire another music band simulator?

For example, an expansion like this :-)

[ADDED ON 2008-11-01] Gosh! You can also buy Motley Crue's classic album "Dr. Feelgood"... Aaargh!

Geolocation in urban areas using WiFi

Although there have been previous and successful experiences using WiFi signals from the different access points detected by a mobile device, as Fraunhofer showed in the last IADIS Wireless Applications and Computing in Amsterdam (to which I attended and presented some work that I will talk about someday), Google includes this in its My Location service in its Google Maps mobile app, as they announced in their blog.

The greatest thing is that they provide support for this technology in their Google Gears Geolocation API. Awesome!

I am wondering if Fraunhofer holds some IP and how it might affect the deployment of services based on this technology O:-)

By the one, the news is that someone offers WiFi geo-location, Google is not the only one exploiting this technology.

Physical keyboard in a touchscreen

Also seen in Xataka Movil. An interesting design for a touchscreen that raises parts of ths surface as the buttons of a keyboard. It this is technically possible, I buy it.

Interesting form factor for a MID

As seen in Xataka Móvil, Intel presented their new Moorestown platform incarnated in a prototype of a Mobile Internet Device.

A video is better than a million words, so take a look below: