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    Cisco Brings 3D Holographic Projections To Center Stage
    Sometimes it seems as if I have no reason to go meet with people. If I have a question or want to contact someone I just use text; send them an email, text message, instant message or direct twit. If I need to hear or see them I call them at their office, on their cell, skype them or video chat.

    While none of these forms of communication reach the emotional level of actually hanging out or having a face to face conversation. I have never believed technology could replace that experience, until now. Guy Kawasaki tipped me off to this video of the guys from Cisco and Musion presenting the most advanced communication platform ever made. When I first saw Cisco's(CSCO) telepresence system, I thought it was pretty gimmikee. I can see how a major corporation with a giant budget might get a couple, but thats about it.

    After watching this video showing conversations between holographic projections and real people, I feel communication may never be the same again. If Cisco is right, and within the next 10-20 years everyone has one of these systems in their home, that might just make Cisco one of the best tech investments around. Help me Obe One Kenobi you're my only hope.


    Click to see the video
    30 May 2008
    Disqus Comments »


    About The New Disqus Commenting System
    Disqus-LogoI spent some time today installing and customizing the Disqus comment system you see below. I am super impressed with this company and thought I would "Disqus" how it works and some if its benefits.

    At it's core, Disqus is a commenting with advanced features such as voting and threaded commenting. Aside from being a simple commenting tool, Disqus adds various social aspects to your site allowing your community to better interact with one another.

    After creating an account, your profile travels with you to every website that uses the Disqus system (and the number of them is growing at a rapid rate). Your comments will display your avatar, link to your accounts on other social websites such as Twitter, Facebook etc. and most importantly, it displays the recent comments you made on other websites using Disqus. This makes Disqus a great tool for finding similar websites you might be interested based on where other people are commenting.

    Disqus also offers publishers a bunch of cool widgets they can add to their blog including: recent comments, popular threads & top commenters. On the back end, Disqus gives you a simple, beautiful interface for managing your comments and interacting with your website's community.

    Not only is the look of your comments fully customizale with css, but I was able to customize the threading so that whichever link you are viewing this post from, the comments stick together. I have always been a fan of CuteNews, but one problem has caused me endless headaches and thats the multiple URLs for every article.

    This post alone can be viewed at:
    http://www.brainbackup.net/rss-index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1210730609&archive=&start_from=&ucat=3&

    http://brainbackup.net/post/about-the-new-disqus-commenting-system.html

    and

    http://brainbackup.net/tech_webdesign/post/about-the-new-disqus-commenting-system.html

    As you can see, all of the comments still stick together no matter what url you use. I documented the Disqus/CuteNews integration over at SplitP if you are interested.

    Special thanks to Danial Ha for helping me get this up and running to perfection. With such a dedicated founder, and amazing product, I see a very bright future for the Discus system.
    13 May 2008
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    Browser Issues
    I have been having some serious problems with my browsers lately. I have always been a big FireFox fan, but then I switched to the new safari and loved it. When I started having some issues with safari, I downloaded the new FireFox beta and gave that a try. No matter where I go or what I do, browsing just isn't the same anymore.

    I honestly don't like the new FireFox yet. And this is not a case of just not giving it a fair chance because I did. First there are barely any compatible extensions which is understandable considering it is in beta still. But what about the default skin!? It is so bubbly. Why does everything need to be beveled and dropshadowed: OVERKILL.



    Before it sounds like I just don't like the new FireFox because it is ugly, here is the main reason. It is slow and laggggy. Maybe this isnt the case with the PC version, but I have read articles comparing it to Safari and I must say, not a chance. Now I am not clocking them or setting up super sophisticated software to compare but the user experience is definitely not working.

    So since I don't like the new firefox I have been using Safari. For the most part, safari is fast and I love it. I miss the extensions that firefox offers, but after a while without them you forget they ever existed. Am I the only one having serious problems with Safari and cookies!? It seems to have something to do with logging in and user accounts. Sometimes when I have had Facebook open for too long, when I come back and click something it tells me to log back in. So I try to log back in and I get rejected. Then I need to go into Safari Preferences, delete my Facebook cookies and come back again. I log in again and get a different error "Cookies not enabled". Then when I login the third time it lets me back. Whata painnn! In short I have been having similar problems with my Google Account.

    I hope these browser guys get things back to normal. I miss the days when I didn't have to worry about the most important program on my computer acting up. Maybe I'll just have to switch back to Internet Explorer =)
    01 May 2008
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    Feeling Twittchy
    twitter-logoSo the newest web 2.0 company to take over my life is twitter. Basically twitter is just a text messaging platform in hyperdrive. The simplicity and openness of it makes it super attractive to developers and we are seeing lots of fun apps. Some cool apps which I have been using are: PocketTweets Twhirl, TwitterFeed & Twistori. There are a ton more but those are the ones I have played with so far.

    If you are on twitter or just want to check it out, follow me at:

    twitter.com/Greg_Gerber
    29 Apr 2008
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    Up On Technorati.com
    I have never really gotten into www.technorati.com. In fact, for about 2 years I thought it was "Technocrati.com". Either way it seems to of come a long way and it looks like a good way to get my post noticed and increase my subscribers/readers. You can check out my Technorati profile here.
    28 Apr 2008
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    New Site Design
    So as you can see I decided to redesign the site. First off, it was starting to look a bit cluttered and I think the new layout fixes that. Second I just had an urge to do some web-dev. It's been a while since I built a website and I just wanted to make sure I still remember how. For those die-hard fans out there who have trouble migrating to the new design, you can still view my site with the old design here. =)

    So what do you think of the new layout? What do you like? What don't you like? Any suggestions? Bugs? Let me know in the comments.

    PS. Don't forget to subscribe the the RSS Feed (top left corner).
    27 Apr 2008
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    With the explosion in gaming, media PCs and Apple computers, There is no better place to be than the high end graphics market. In their May 10th quarterly earnings report the CEO stated that the company's "strategy is clear and focused -- to be the world leader in GPUs and capitalize on this exciting opportunity." It must be exciting when you virtually OWN your market.

    When it comes to high end graphics there are only two names in the business, ATI and Nvidia. ATI (Nvidia's only competitor in the high performance GPU market) was recently bought by AMD in an attempt to compete against Intel in the server market. All AMD wanted was ATI's patent portfolio for virtualized graphics. Since servers don't have graphics cards, this was basically AMD's big move into the server market.

    The big problem here is that AMD has cut ATI's R&D budget and is not focusing on its high end cards. The computer manufacturers noticed this and they are all fazing out ATI options.

    The only two ATI cards available from Apple are the Radeon X1900 XT in the Mac Pros, and the ATI Radeon X1600 in the 17" iMacs. Take a look at Dell's notebook line and you will see only 2 of the 7 GPU options are ATI (The rest are Intel).

    The only competition left for Nvidia is Intel. Intel has yet to get into the high end GPU market because it goes against everything they are trying to accomplish. Intel's goal is to get both the graphics and the processor on the same chip. This works for mobile and simple computers(like Mac Books. ), but when it comes to hi definition video and advanced gaming, it takes a serious card.

    Rumor is that Intel is planning on coming out with a high end graphics chips. When that happens it could scare investors out of NVDA, but it will most likely not even dent NVIDIA's market share.

    When researching Nvidia I was wondering where they stand in the mobile movement. I was surprised to find out that NVIDIA supplies the graphics chips for most of Motorola's phones including the RAZR.

    The tie between Apple and NVIDIA is stronger than ever. Just look at the graphics card line ups for the new macs. You can not get arguably the best notebook of all time with an ATI card.
    So who's side would you rather be on?



    Numbers don't lie and I will use them to back up my thesis, NVDA is going higher. A 44% increase in profits this quarter, profit margins set an all time record of a whopping 45.4% and at the same time R&D increased by 29%. The icing on the cake was NVDA's reason for this boost in rev/profit/margins. "Nvidia 1Q Profit Surges 44 Percent on Strong Market Demand for GPUs."

    This has been a good stock for a long time but here is why NOW is the time to buy. First, the trend reversal has been confirmed. The 50 day moving average has just crossed the 200. Second, this stock's PEG Ratio is only 1.18. Stocks are said to be "expensive" when the PEG gets closer to 2.0. The sell off in early January was justified because the stock moved 100% in 4 short months at the end of the year. The profit taking is over and investors love a monopoly.
    13 Jun 2007
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