It may be the world's largest computer and technology fair, but the recent CeBIT exhibition wasn't necessarily all about selling products. It actually offered visitors plenty of chances to both marvel and to smirk.
Among the products on display, for example, were a telephone within a telephone, the world's largest plasma display, and software intended to make controlling a networked household into child's play.
The employees of Alpha Com from Hamburg boasted that their exhibition included a world record: They scanned a 29.13m-long, 91.3cm-wide piece of paper containing oversized images and blueprints for the cruise ship Jewel of the Sea.
The process took a bit longer than nine minutes, and created a computer file that was 2.57 bigabytes in size. Scanners like this are naturally not intended for normal consumers, given their purchase price of around US$14,000.
Such devices are most typically used by architects to scan blueprints, explained Marcus van Leeuwen, the sales director at Alpha Com.
The display at Sweden's myDOQ Technologies AB included a telephone inside a telephone. The "myDOQ station" looks almost like a normal telephone found on a typical writing desk. Yet it is actually a docking station for a cellular phone.
For times when mobile phone users are actually in the office, they can set their devices into the "myDOQ station." When a call comes in on the cell phone, the user can then pick up the docking station's headset -- connected by a cable -- and carry on the conversation.
The device currently supports cell phones from Sony Ericsson and Nokia, but models from other manufacturers are expected soon.
The average household is already chock full of electronics, and more and more devices are being designed to join in the networking fun.
To allow consumers to keep a handle on it all, the Fraunhofen Society has developed the PECo digital assistant. PECo stands for Personal Environment Controller.
The developers set their sights on the conference room of Darmstadt's Fraunhofer Institute for Graphic Data Processing, a room teeming with technology.
Until now, use of high-tech meeting space required the assistance of specially trained technicians. Now a handheld equipped with the PECo software can do the job.
The remote control works not only in the conference room itself, but also over larger distances via WLAN.
Presenters at the CeBIT fair showed how tapping on the PDAs screen there in Hanover affected the room's lighting and projector back in Darmstadt.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique