News Link Blog

Since I was a child, I have loved playing basketball.  Sure, I wasn’t the best player by any means, but even though you are not the best at something, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t play.  Except for gym class, I would never play basketball as a team sport any other time in my life.

Instead of playing the game in my adult life, I made a point of getting NBA tickets whenever I could so that I could watch the games in real life.  They were rather expensive for me, but each game that I was able to attend was just amazing.

My parents knew of my passion for the sport and they would buy NBA tickets for me for my birthday each year.  Sure, they were cheap NBA tickets, but just the fact that I could watch the game, no matter how far away I was, it was still worth it.

While I was running down town to go and get a condo insurance quote, I was in a slight car accident. No one was hurt, with the exception of Betsy, my car. The accident had been completely my fault, so my pride may have been hurt just a little bit as well. I had never been in an accident before. I was so frustrated. The guy that I hit was thankfully very nice and understanding.

What was so frustrating is that I should have taken this trip down town about a month ago to get an auto insurance quote. I did have insurance, but the coverage was not great and I knew that I had taken it for granted that it was all taken care of. I would certainly know better the next time around.

I decided that I certainly could not put off going to get the home insurance quote. The accident just goes to prove that you never know what is going to happen and that my pipes could burst or my basement could flood at any time. I made sure that I had absolutely all of the coverage I would need and left being at least satisfied about that.

3D Glasses

3D Glasses manipulate the brain to distort reality. The flimsy 3D cardboard glasses, with their cellophane like red and blue filters, are innocent predecessors to an upcoming world that will incorporate using 3D images to manipulate images in the brain into our daily lifestyle.   There’s no doubt that 3D images have numerous practical applications, even today.  But what about tomorrow?  Will our definition of “practical application” change?

Security is a practical application of the use of 3D Glasses and 3D Images in virtual reality.  Flight simulators have long been used since at least WWII.   Today, contracts listed at the US defense website list millions of dollars worth of contracts specializing in “modeling, simulation and stimulation.”  Technology companies battle for million-dollar defense contracts, as virtual gaming contracts become standard in Military budgeting for training and development, which amounts to approximately $50 billion dollars of the $480 billion dollar budget .  

The United States Navy and  other military branches use 3D images through specially crafted 3D glasses to produce a virtual reality that gives the trainees a far more advanced training, and a truer realization of the “nature of the beast”  they will be battling.   3D glasses aren’t the only method for simulation techniques.  Color, angle and motion all affect the binocular vision that our eyes and brain communication systems are naturally programmed for. The defense department uses a combination of these techniques to provide a variety of simulations, ranging from terrain and battle simulations to stimulated training techniques for welding and educational purposes. The defense department defends it expenditures on virtual gaming in department reports that claim virtual training reduces injuries, costs, and training hours.

The 3D glasses that have paved the way for 3D computer graphics have also brought about many practical applications in the health industry.  Active members in the forces that use prosthetic devices participate in 3D movement experiments that demonstrate the actual movement of their body in relation to the prosthetic device, allowing them to more accurately control their body movements. Virtual-reality labs allow patients to stand on moving stages while digital cameras flash at faster than 120 times per second to capture movement on a 3D screen. This simulates the patients’ movements in motion, such as standing on a moving boat. Studying these simulations allow doctors and patients to work together to improve their muscle control and accuracy.

3D Glasses are innocent enough to be affiliated with gaming. Optical illusions and 3D images during gaming provide a source of entertainment that is now a part of our expectations in the industry. Simulating reality certainly has its advantageous applications. But the question is, will we begin stimulating a reality to our enemies using these same techniques? Will science lead us to the capabilities to stimulate a vision of pain and suffering that is non-existent, but yet very real?  Does virtual reality have the potential to end war and produce a civilized society, or will it only encourage it?

Scientists must continue to use their safety glasses to discern the long-term effects from virtual reality.  3D glasses might just help them do that.

Emergence of Digital Picture Frames

With the dawn of the 21st century and the ever expanding digital age, the creating, sharing and of portraying of photos have gained a new momentum. Old wooden frames have become absolute and a new frame has emerged with high potentials. Yes………..we are talking about digital picture frames.

Indeed, the latest craze to hit the consumer technology market is Digital picture frames. They are indeed magnificent gadgets to share and display pictures. People with minimum sense of technology will fall in love with these gadgets in no time. Digital picture frames are useful, beautiful and effective. Moreover, they fulfill many aspects of home appliance.

The question is what is a digital picture frame? Well, the digital picture frame is an LCD monitor enclosed by conventional frames displaying a single photo or multiple photos in a slideshow sequence. In plain terms, these frames hold images, otherwise known as pictures. It can be family picture, graduation picture or even a picture with your boss. Good thing is, you can have multiple pictures in the digital frame. The pictures will come in a sequence, one by one.

Digital picture frames mostly screen pictures in JPEG format. The images can be uploaded from a camera or a computer. Newly modeled digital picture frames are also able to send images directly to printers using Bluetooth technology. Digital picture frames can also play multimedia contents. Being an electron gadget, digital picture frames possess a variety of functions that enhance the clarity of photos. It means, you have a lot of options to choose from. If you want the hard copy of the photo, just print it out. You do not have to transfer the photo to the PC; you can do it directly from your digital picture frame.

Not only the digital frames work as frames, they can be your audio player, torchlight and portable DVD player. You can watch DVD movies with the portable digital frames. It means, during a long drive to your parents’ house, you can spend time by watching movies rather than being bored in the car.

Most Digital Picture Frames support compatible memory cards such as SD, MMC, MemoryStick, xD etc, so that you can watch instant picture slideshows, directly after taking pictures with your digital camera.

There are quite a few variations available in the market, depending on the quality and features. For example, there are 8 inch digital picture frames and 10 inch digital picture frames. Most of these digital picture frames have 800 X 600 resolutions. However, different brands have different functions and features. For instance, some of the brands come with style of acrylic and black wood frame. If you search well, you will find digital picture frames with build-in internal memory of 128MB and a remote control.

It is a fact that digital picture frames are still very expensive, and more of a rarity in average households. But, when has price ever stopped a technological revolution? Eventually, Digital Picture frames will be found anywhere, and everywhere. People will buy them no matter how much they cost. The more popular digital picture frames become, the less expensive they will be.

Cheap concert tickets

There are more than a few numbers of ways to get cheap concert tickets to see your favorite band or artist. You could do it the old fashion way of standing in queue at the box office, but some of the best and easiest ways to obtain cheap concert tickets are through the internet.

The first step is to find out when and where the event is going to take place. To find news on upcoming concerts websites such as pollstar.com, citysearch.com and livedaily.com are great information resources on the internet.

You can even subscribe in the artists/band’s official website, to receive instant notifications and updates on upcoming concert dates and venues. Major box office websites such as Tickets.com and Ticketmaster have vast listings of many upcoming concerts, and you can join these too to receive updates. And lets not forget the old fashion way of listening for adverts on the radio.

Many radio stations have online websites where you can become a member to receive information regarding upcoming shows, and can also participate in an array of call-in contests to win free or cheap concert tickets.

Radio stations and websites may also provide presale cheap concert tickets for many. Here again you will be required to sign up, since there are a limited number of presale tickets available, and is awarded on a first come first serve basis.

Tickets for the most popular concerts are always in very high demand, and they sell out very soon after they are made available. Sometimes if you are a member of an artist/band fan club, you can get your hands on premium presale concert tickets, or even get 15% cheap concert tickets.

Many theatres and concert arenas have special clubs that you can join. These clubs give you the privilege to purchase cheap concert tickets even before they are made available to the general public. Then again, ticket numbers are very limited. Moreover, memberships at these clubs may cost hundreds and thousands of dollars, and there are always additional costs included in the concert ticket prices.

Another way to buy cheap concert tickets is to buy tour/season tickets your favorite concerts and shows. Even though they require you to pay out a rather hefty sum initially, on the whole you are spending less on each concert ticket. I would recommend this method if you are a passionate concert lover.

Even after all this, you might end up with no ticket at all because the tickets might get sold out too fast, it might be that you missed the sale. Do not be disappointed, because there are still ways in which you can get your hands on those valuable tickets. Ticket prices would be generally higher than the usual and the prices as the ticket holders may sell at any price they wish taking advantage of a free market situation. The ticket prices otherwise are also generally determined by the amount of tickets available and the popularity of the event. These tickets are listed on popular websites such as eBay, and StubHub.

Bottom line is, there are effective ways of collecting cheap concert tickets. If you are wise, you can get is easily. Good luck.