Google Print Cloud

To print out a document, you rely on your local operating system, which must have a driver installed for the printer you intend to use. Most of the time, it’s not an issue; at home, you probably have one printer and all of your PCs have the required drivers.

Things get a bit more complicated when you want to print something from a mobile device, like an iPad, or from a laptop based on Google’s Chrome OS, which relies entirely on web apps and services. This is why Google () is working on Google Cloud Print, a service that enables “any application (web, desktop, or mobile) on any device to print to any printer.”

Google Cloud Print is still in the early days of development, but Google made the code and documentation public as part of the Chromium and Chromium OS projects. The documentation reveals how Google plans to solve some of the issues it will inevitably face, such as making Cloud Print work with legacy printers.

“The ideal experience is for your printer to have native support for connecting to cloud print services. Under this model, the printer has no need for a PC connection of any kind or for a print driver. The printer is simply registered with one or more cloud print services and awaits print jobs. Cloud-aware printers don’t exist yet, but one of our main goals in publishing this information at an early stage is to begin engaging industry leaders and the community in developing cloud-aware printers and the necessary open protocols for these printers to communicate with cloud print services.

“We want users to be able to print to legacy printers via Google Cloud Print. This is accomplished through the use of a proxy, a small piece of software that sits on a PC where the printer is installed. The proxy takes care of registering the printer with Google Cloud Print and awaiting print jobs from the service. When a job arrives, it submits the print job to the printer using the PC operating system’s native print stack and sends job status back to the printer.”

There are obviously some obstacles ahead, but it’s an amazing idea. If print jobs are handled in the cloud you won’t need drivers, and most of the problems users have with printing from devices like smartphones and tablets will be solved.

Read the whole story at Mashable

Following Oracle’s acquisition of Sun, Gosling had taken on the role of chief technology officer for Oracle’s client software group after holding the position of chief technology officer (CTO) for Sun’s developer products group.

He confirmed his resignation on his blog this weekend but kept his reasons for leaving a little more mysterious.

“As to why I left, it’s difficult to answer: Just about anything I could say that would be accurate and honest would do more harm than good,” wrote Gosling.

Gosling did not give a reason for his departure, other than to say that frankness about the situation might “do more harm than good.”

Said Gosling:

“Yes, indeed, the rumors are true: I resigned from Oracle a week ago (April 2nd). I apologize to everyone in St Petersburg who came to TechDays on Thursday expecting to hear from me. I really hated not being there. As to why I left, it’s difficult to answer: just about anything I could say that would be accurate and honest would do more harm than good. The hardest part is no longer being with all the great people I’ve had the privilege to work with over the years. I don’t know what I’m going to do next, other than take some time off before I start job hunting.”

The suite features new tools to improve your art (such as Photoshop CS5’s new 3D extrusion tool Repoussé, right), and mundane but useful productivity aids (such as InDesign’s Gap tool) that make using the suite that bit smoother.

Read the detail Adobe Creative Suite 5 Review

Plink’s founders, Mark Cummins and James Philbin, are both joining Google to work on Google Goggles.

Plink makes visual search engines that let users find out more about something by taking a photo of the subject. The group’s first product, PlinkArt, enables users to identify paintings and artworks with just a photo from a phone’s camera. Once an image is recognized, users can read information on the artwork and artist or order a print.

Plink was launched four months ago, and already has more than 50,000 users.

Read the whole story at WSJ.com

Less than two decades ago, before Google was a verb, the only central location to access information was the library. Reading the newspaper or calling Moviefone was the only way to find out what time a movie was playing.  The Weather Channel cable network was the only place that provided meteorological data.

In the mid-nineties, Web portals and Internet service providers, like AOL and Netscape, became the bazaars for the Internet.  Before Google, while search was still in its infancy, Web users relied on these portals to aggregate content – content that was nearly impossible to find by the average person.  In little over a decade, however, Google’s search technology has grown to dominate the Web experience. Now, the search engine is now the first place many users go to find information online.

Read the whole story at 247Wallst

Researchers have developed software allowing a robot to fold towels without human help, a feat previously not accomplished in robot history due to the complexity of handling non-rigid objects. The researchers will present their findings at the 2010 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers International Conference on Robotics and Automation May 3 to 8.

Read more at DailyCal

“I recognize that the actions we’re taking are difficult. But in the end, they will make CA stronger and more competitive,” CEO Bill McCracken said in a memo to employees on Tuesday. The job cuts are expected to occur mainly in North America and to be mostly completed by the end of September.

Read the whole story at FinancierWorldwide

BigBlueButton is an open source video conferencing application which is specifically built for remote learning but can be used for standard meetings as well. It enables universities and colleges to deliver a high-quality learning experience to remote students

The application enables multiple users to login & share their webcam or communicate via VOIP at the same time.

It is a very ideal application for presentations as users can upload PDF or office documents & keep everyone in sync with their current page, zoom, pan, mouse pointer etc.

Also, users can share their desktop with others easily.

There are three user roles in BigBlueButton: viewer, presenter, and moderator

Viewer: are users who have no authority within the conference; their primary role is to view the presentation as well as chat amongst other participants. In a course the viewer would be the students.

Presenter: has all the same capabilities as a participant, with the added features of uploading presentations and sharing their desktop

Moderator: has all the capabilities as a participant, with the added features of uploading presentations and sharing their desktop.

Users can raise hands to get the attention of the presenter, mute any other participants they want & chat between themselves in public or privately.

BigBlueButton completely relies on open source technologies & it can be improved further with the API provided.

Requirements: Linux-based Server
Website: http://bigbluebutton.org/
Demo: http://demo.bigbluebutton.org/

The IE9 has a new JavaScript engine which performs much better than IE8 & some other browsers.

Another good news is, it supports HTML5, CSS3 & SVG almost completely.

The website includes speed, HTML5 & graphics demos besides the comparisons of the features with other browsers.

This new release requires Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7 which hopefully changes with the stable release (otherwise, IE may continue to be a barrier on new standards as XP will probably live long).

Read the whole story at Microsoft Website

The new solution beings major advances in data integration to enterprises that require data synchronization across multiple databases, remote administration, advanced security options and an easy way to monitor and compare replication results.

“DBMoto 7 is a significant step forward in data integration for large organizations where heterogeneous databases share operational workloads,” said Giacomo Lorenzin, CEO, HiT Software.

“We recognized that a data integration solution with built-in synchronization and advanced conflict resolution across multiple servers is critical for data availability. As well, DBMoto 7 empowers regional administrators through support for remote management and security—providing large organizations with confidence that their data is accessible and protected at all times,”  Lorenzin added.

DBMoto 7 is scheduled for release in the second quarter of 2010. For more details, please contact HiT Software or your local reseller. DBMoto 7 offers multi-server capabilities, Increased Security for Data Management, Data Auditing and Increased Database Support for Transactional Data Replication and Customizable GUI.

Read the whole story at TMCNet