SATURDAY SHOW EDITION

WHY SHOULD YOUR BOSS HAVE ALL THE FUN?
(via Geek Press)

A new trend emerging is people outsourcing their own jobs to India! The Times of India is reporting that indivuals who telecommute have discovered that they can hire an equivalent dopleganger in India to do their work for 1/4th of what they get paid in the US. All without their bosses even knowing. Some, are taking on second jobs and hiring on more help.

Only in America.

DON'T TRIP OVER THE VIRTUAL OTTOMAN
(via linkfilter)

Who knew that Dick Van Dyke is a maverick Computer Animator? Self taught, Dick has created a virtual Dick who dances with him on stage. Opens up tremendous possibilities for a virtual Mary Poppins, I think!


BACK TO THE FUTURE
(via gadgetmadness)

When BACK TO THE FUTURE II came out, everyone wanted the hoverboard that Marty McFly used to escape Biff and his gang of ruffians. In fact, an urban legend was born saying that Universal was going to license the technology to sell them. But it was just movie magic. UNTIL NOW.

Someone has figured out how to build a hover board and has published the HOW TO on the net. Get it here.


SPAM, WONDERFUL SPAM
(via slashdot)

Slashdot has an interesting article on the day in the life of a spammer. Turns out that about 1 in 20 AOL users actually respond to it. WHAT'S WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?! It also comments that the federal CAN SPAMM act is turning the US into the SPAM capital of the world. You're tax dollars at work.

MARK'S BUY OF THE WEEK - 19" LCD Flat Panel Monitor
Looking for a big flat panel monitor? Prcineton 19" lcd monitor, built in speakers, 700-1 contrast, 1280x1024 res, digital analog inputs. $439 after rebate at http://www.ecost.com

VISUAL COMMUNICATOR STUDIO
A Television Studio in a box ... and more.

They've done it again. It wasn't a few years ago that Serious Magic's Visual Communicator got the nod as E-R's software of the year. After a sophmore effort which largely focused on web capability, Visual Communicator Web, Serious Magic is back with a vengeance with it's STUDIO version of the award winning Visual Communicator.



Early efforts making good use of the ability to produce videos that could be downloadable from a the web, or burned to DVD, for more traditional distribution. And while it touted itself as a "television studio" in a box, what VC lacked was a multi-camera format.



Well, Visual Communicator Studio changes all that. Visual Communicator Studio’s live output adds the ability for users to self-produce live corporate broadcasts, conferences, distance learning courses, campus-wide newscasts and more. Video can be streamed to the Internet or Web server in real time, or displayed live on a large projection screen, monitor or TV, without expensive hardware or technically complex set-ups. Users can also publish their videos to video-embedded web pages without learning HTML, and add chapter markers and web links, which can display web pages, pictures or PowerPoint slides alongside the video.

Multiple camera support, enables users to provide for a more professional look by moving between different camera angles much like high budget professional newscasts and to use interview-style formats. Up to three camera sources are supported, and all can be used with Visual Communicator’s "VScreen" virtual sets and green-screen effects.

And with a full screen enhancement to their teleprompter, reading copy is much easier for the user, and as such, cuts down on rehearsal time.

With upgrades that really places itself in High gear, Visual Communicator Studio not only takes the next step in it's evolution, it does so with a giant leap.

Basic Requirements
Windows® 2000 or XP
933 MHz Intel® Pentium® III processor or equivalent (including Intel® Pentium® 4, Intel® Celeron® 2, AMD® Athlon® or Athlon XP®, or AMD® Duron®)
256 MB RAM
CD-ROM drive
300 MB available hard drive space
Standard PC sound card
16 MB AGP graphics card with 3D acceleration

Additional Requirements for Live Streaming
Intel® Pentium® 4 processor at 2.4 GHz or higher
NVIDIA GeForce or ATI Radeon based AGP video card
USB webcams are not supported for live streaming. Use DV or analog video capture cards.


Price $695 - though users of previous versions can get an upgrade price.

For more information, please visit www.seriousmagic.com.

A CLASH WITH CONTENT
Service Pack 2 Clashes with a variety of PC programs
(via ZDNet)

Redmond's headaches haven't ceased with the release of XPs Service Pack 2 as a list of more than 40 programs are now known to CLASH with the fix which promised to plug a myriad of security holes in the OS. Ironically, SP2 also causes such AntiVirus programs as Symantec's Norton AntiVirus to crash.

The list even includes many of Microsoft's own programs including SQL and Visual Studio.Net. Many games run afoul of the fix including the popular Unreal Tournament and the playbook seems to call for Redmond to blame the game producers for not having a fix in place to fix the fix.

A complete list of the programs that conflict with XP SP2 and how to resolve the problems can be found on Microsoft's website, here.

LO, I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS ...
... even in cyberspace?
(via linkfilter)

POCKET CHAPEL allows the faithful to create an altar on their desktop for worship. Users can customize the look of the altar to reflect their concepts of the Christian faith. Users can download a democ version here. No word if the creators plan other religious altars, as Islam may prove problematic if your computer at work isn't pointed towards Mecca. However, perhaps this is the way to curb the tide of internet porn.