Project Natal: Kinect

I was very interested on today's tech news report about Kinect, so I decided to do some more research on it. Kinect, previously known as Project Natal, is a new experience for Xbox users coming out just in time for the holiday season. It is a add motion detection/voice recognition/camera device that connects to your Xbox. With this device you can play games and control the Xbox completely controller free. Additionally, you can talk to you Xbox and tell it what to do, and it recognizes your specific voice. Also, like the Wii, this device allows the user to be more active and physical. This is a completely new type of video game technology that hasn't been introduced to the public yet. As a video game enthusiast and Xbox user I'm really excited to see if this device can do all that it says it can.

Here is a great video that shows you how kinect works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qlHoxPioM

Cookies and Cache

I always wondered what exactly cookies and the cache are. I knew cookies had to do with visiting certain cites, but I didn't know your computer remembers information from each page you visit. I never took the time to research cookies and cache myself, but now I don't have to. I will now be more aware of both when it comes to my computer's internet privacy settings.

Microsoft Access

Tuesday in class was the first time I have ever used Microsoft Access. I definitely see how important databases are to companies and how companies used databases. I was surprised how easy it is to make a basic database and how user friendly Access is once you learn the basics. However, I still can see how difficult databases can be if you put a lot of data into them.

Open Source

Following up from my last post, I did recently download an open source program for my mac. As you probably know macs do not come with a add/remove program or application remover. So, although dragging applications into the trash can on macs deletes most of the applications contents, it doesn't remove all of its contents. So unnecessary files take up valuable space. So I downloaded an open source program, called appcleaner, that is an application remover and it works great. I can't find any contents left over when I delete programs now and can free up some space on my computer. It is very easy to do, you can either drag the application directly into the program and it deletes it or you can browse their your files and delete them that way. I highly recommend this to people with a lot of applications and downloads on their mac.

Class Video: Open sources

I found the class video about the different sites very helpful. I even wrote down some of the sites to download some of those open sources. This is very helpful especially for college students because programs in stores (Photoshop,Adobe, and Microsoft Office), could cost you a good chunk of change. So just like anything else when it comes to computers, why buy it when you can download it for free. And when its it comes to these open sources, download it legally. Although these open source programs aren't always the best, they can still get the job done.