Review: Mind's Eye

Mind's Eye by Douglas E. Richards
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Techno-thriller worth spending time with!

Protagonist gets ESP powers + some more supernatural powers because of some experiments, but has no history.
How he got the power, how it affects his life, what was his life is the story.

Many of us would have dreamt of ESPs. That is something many of us would be happy to possess. But after reading this, you might think again. The pros and cons are well explained!

Would have gave 5 star for blending technology and ESP with thriller in proper proposition. But the moment I learnt antagonist (who I have guessed for sometime) is Muslim (again), I just lost it..
Why these people are so obsessed in showing Muslims as villains? The last three four novels I read from American author featured Muslim as antagonist.

Books are reflection of lifestyle. Might be in different timeline, different perspective. But what it does is just reflect minds/mind's capability. After reading such novels, now I know why there is so much buzz around Muslims issue in America!

How can people find eternal love so easily?! Hero meets heroin by accident, saves her life and she is in love with him from there. That too he falls for the only girl he know, who he cannot (mind)read. Great!! But the other love mentioned is pretty causal. It looks normal and possible sort of story.

Technology. ESP. Thriller. Chase-run. No history Hero. Grandmaster villain. High profile people involvement (both good and bad ones). This is mixed up with romance, politics, philosophies and some funny scenes here and there.




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Never miss a program due to sleep - Never

Worried about dozing off during your favorite TV show? You might be able to remove it from your worries list in near future. 

Two young students, Ryan Oliver(15) and Jonathan Kingsley(14) were given a task by Virgin media. The task is our problem description. They need to find a solution for missing TV shows due to sleep. And these two young kids are now working with KipstR wristband. 

At first many people wondered why Virgin media asked two ordinary young kids to be partners with them in a task like this. These two kids are young, definitely not ordinary. These two have been working together for long time. They have been creating software, helping big brands with solution for critical problems and unique ideas since they were around nine years old.


So what is KipstR? A simple wristband-like device that will record the TV shows when you fall asleep while watching it. This device, which is now a prototype, will do this by measuring the blood flow and amount of oxygen in blood with the help of pulse. It communicates to Virgin media TiVo box through a wireless sensor.

This device is currently just a prototype. These kids are planning to give it a trial this Christmas. Interested UK customers can register their interest in KipstR band here.

Why just UK customers? Because this band is currently limited only to UK customers of Virgin media. It is expected that upon successful functioning, Virgin media will make it available to worldwide market within an year.

No more worries of missing favorite TV shows. Just wear KipstR and watch them. You don't have to wake whole night, suffer your next morning and you won't miss the programs too.


To know about another fascinating wearable device, click here.

Selfie @ your Wrist

Selfies are the trend of photography now. When no one is there to capture a moment for you, you go for a selfie. What if you yourself can't take a picture (selfie) but you desperately need one?
This thought gave rise to a $500K worth Idea.

Nixie - the wearable camera drone, won $500K as prize in Intel's Make it Wearable contest. Christoph Kohstall is the guy who came up with this idea and this prize might help him to move this idea from prototype to reality.

What is basically Nixie ? It is a Quadcopter with a camera which will get attached to wrist. Just like a Wrist watch. When initiated by a gesture - Nixie will leave your arm, go to a reasonable distance, take a picture of you and return back to your wrist (like a Boomerang).

 
This technology is currently just a prototype. But the designer was able to impress the tech giant Intel with just a prototype. When it becomes a complete product, there might be lot of people waiting for this new Selfie stuff's release. May be it might become a part of our wrist watches in future!!!

Rooms - The new Social Media in town

We are in the era of Social Media and last Thursday (24-Oct-2014) Facebook added a new entry to the long list of Social networks. A new initiative called "Rooms".

What is the specialty of this new app developed only for mobiles? To be precise, this is a more developed version of Facebook Groups. You don't have to be member of Facebook to use this app and it allows anonymous usage!
 

Rooms allow the user to create unique chat rooms (like forums/ Facebook groups) specific for something. It allows the creator to share the QR code of the group (generated during Room creation) which can be used by other users to join a particular chat room.

This app also allows the creator to design his/her chat room theme like unique background, changeable emoji for traditional Facebook Like buttons, etc. The creator can remove any user @ anytime and they won't be allowed to join the group again. He/She can also decide whether to have the Room discoverable (so that it will be suggested for the new joiners) or secret.


Though new joiners might have trouble in finding groups, it provides a great sharing platform with ultimate privacy. Users can discuss any information that they want only their team to know (Of-course Facebook will know, so be specific on what you share). Creation of discoverable general forums is also possible and if you want to be anonymous on a general forum, that too is possible.

This Rooms app is a glorified version of Facebook groups which might become viral in near future, if it beats Whatsapp groups which is currently trending among people of all ages. As of now, Rooms app is available only for IOS 7.0 or above (Rooms for IOS). The android version is expected to be released by next year (2015). 

History of Windows Versions

WINDOWS 1.0 ---------> 16 Bit Os (1985)

WINDOWS 2.0 ---------> 16 Bit Os (1987)

WINDOWS 3.0 ---------> 16 Bit Os (1990)

WINDOWS 3.1 ---------> 16 Bit Os (1992)

WINDOWS NT 3.1 ------> 32 Bit Os (1993)

WINDOWS 95 ----------> Used WIN32 API (1995)

WINDOWS NT 4  (1996)

WINDOWS 98  (1998)

WINDOWS ME  (2000)

WINDOWS 2000 (or also Known as WINDOWS NT 5) (2000)


WINDOWS XP (or also Known as WINDOWS NT 5.1) (2001)

WINDOWS SERVER 2003

WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONAL ----->Supports 64 Bit (2005)

WINDOWS VISTA (WINDOWS NT 6.0) (2007)


WINDOWS 7 (WINDOWS NT 6.1)  (2009)
------->WINDOWS ­­ 7 ULTIMATE
------->WINDOWS ­­ 7 HOME PREMIUM
------->WINDOWS ­­ 7 HOME BASIC
------->WINDOWS ­­ 7 PROFESSIONAL
------->WINDOWS ­­ 7 STARTER
------->WINDOWS ­­ 7 ENTERPRISE

WINDOWS SERVER 2012  (2012)


WINDOWS 8 (WINDOWS NT 6.2) (2012)
------->WINDOWS ­­ 8
------->WINDOWS ­­ 8 Pro
------->WINDOWS ­­ 8 ENTERPRISE
------->WINDOWS ­­ 8 RT (FOR TABLETS)

NOTE :

XP-EXTENDED PROCEDURE
NT-NEW TECHNOLOGY
RT-RUNTIME