StickiWidgets

Low Quality Videos a Thing of the Past?

Aug 31 2006

Of course we are referring to image quality and not overall appeal. MotionDSP, a software company with video processing technology, aims to improve web cam and cell phone videos. Originally researched and developed at UC Santa Cruz for the military, MotionDSP plans on bring this technology to the consumer and mass market.

According to the report from TechCrunch, “Startup Uses Military Tech to Fix Low Res Video”, the company is anticipating a consumer beta release sometime this year. The software developed by MotionDSP compares multiple video frames and reconstructs them with improved clarity. However, the technology currently produces optimal results on still or slow moving videos. A web based interface will allow users to upload videos and then download the reconstructed videos. The company will also be targeting partnerships with video service providers like YouTube.

Check out the demo page for side-by-side comparisons or search YouTube for more samples. Of particular interest is the wedding example. The description on YouTube says the original was taken with a Motorola Razr. If we are to expect that type of quality improvement from the Razr and MotionDSP, we will definitely be trying out the service when it is released. We just picked up a couple of Motorola Razrs a couple of weeks ago.

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Categories : Video
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Stickam WP Widget - Squash Them Bugs!!!

Aug 30 2006

A small bug was discovered in the Stickam WordPress Sidebar Widget. During our efforts to improve the back-end systems, we overhauled parts of the data mining code. The performance updates resulted in a slight change in the data structure which broke the ability of the widget to match Live user data. We have made the necessary change to the WP widget and fixed the problem. The bug did not break the widget per se; it just failed to display Live friends for the Friends Tracker function.

Go to the appropriate page for details and the latest download file. The Stickam WordPress Sidebar Widget is currently on version 7.

We apologize for any inconvienence this may have caused. Thank you for your support and understanding.

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Categories : Social Networks, Widgets, WordPress
Tags : Stickam

Will Start Pages Be Around for Long?

Aug 30 2006

Read/WriteWeb has a great write-up on “Business Models For Start Pages”. It’s definitely a good read for those of you interested in the various companies and the business around it. In particular we like the following paragraph regarding “The Widgetizing of the Web”.

So widgets/gadgets are ramping up to be a key part of the Web platform going forward, which all the start pages (big and small) are ideally placed to leverage. And the smaller start pages have certainly not shied away from building up their platforms. Pageflakes now has 100 “flakes” (i.e. widgets) and recently introduced more customization options. Likewise, Netvibes is putting in a lot of work on their module ecosystem. - Read/WriteWeb

The article puts the start page products and services in very good light and with a decent future ahead. Time will tell…

For those of you less concerned about the business and more interested in start pages as a user, you should give the post and its comments a quick read for links to various products and services. Give them a spin, you might find one that you like.

Don’t forget that we have a widget for managing and staying in contact with your Stickam friends. The widget is currently in preview mode and has been tested to work with Pageflakes, Netvibes and other services.