istartedsomething

For large parts of the world, not only is English not the primary language but the localized text is not even composed of Latin/Roman characters. Besides the fact that most IBM PC-standard keyboards only have Latin characters, it’s physically impractical to design one for languages such as Chinese with thousands of unique characters.

That’s where Input Method Editors, or IMEs, come in. Now an experimental Microsoft Translator Labs project “Universal Text Input” is beginning to port an IME to the web, independent of the operating system. Currently only a small set of languages are available: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Greek, Japanese and Russian.

It is worth noting Microsoft is not the first to do this, Google already has a transliteration IME available and integrated into many of its services. Both systems use a combination of Javascript that sends users’ characters to a JSON-powered web service that attempts to translate the Latin characters into the desired language. Both also offer a bookmarklet to enable this functionality on any website.

However, one difference in Microsoft’s system is that it also offers English as-you-type corrections. Unfortunately the latency to the web service makes it quite difficult to use fluidly.

Although desktop-based IMEs are already more advanced than both of these solutions with prediction algorithms, I anticipate web-based IMEs will have the upper hand in the near future when it comes to crowd-sourcing telemetry and updating its algorithms to become smarter the more people use it.

I came across this handy free Windows Phone 7 app over at xda-developers, “Flashlight-X” is one of the first real LED flashlight apps on the Windows Phone Marketplace. No flickering, no shutter focus, just an undisturbed stream of intense white light.

So how does it work? I asked Rafael Rivera to do some auditing for me and it turns out it doesn’t use the popular but undesirable video camera activation trick. Instead, it uses System.Reflection to access an undocumented portion of the Mango camera APIs to activate just the LED lamp, skipping the code handling actual video recording.

I didn’t know this was Marketplace-worthy, but it turns out so. I wonder what other API treasures lingers in uncharted territories.

So I was watching this Microsoft video…

Update: Microsoft has since replaced the video with one that has been re-dubbed to say the correct name. However since the video is still synchronized to the original recording, the lips are out of sync.

Made with Dan Awesome's Rage Maker.

It should come as no surprise to anybody that there are lots of talented software engineers at Microsoft. Even amidst all the geekery, many of them also have other talents. Earlier this year, Microsoft employees pooled their best photographs in a special photobook for a charitable cause.

The hardbound 300-page photobook titled “inspired” – now its third publication for three years running, is just a one example of employees taking initiative as part of a set of Microsoft corporate responsibility programs to promotes employee volunteerism and private donations.

Each October, the “Employee Giving Program” encourages employees to organize donation fundraisers through fun activities and projects. Throughout last year, they raised $96 million in donations.

Charlie Owen, program manager on the Expression Blend team, took notice of the photobook last year at the company store and decided to put his name forward to make it even better this year. He wanted “to partner with a group of folks to accomplish a good greater than I could do on my own.” He along with 11 other employees were responsible for the book’s planning, organization, design and printing.

Seeking contributions from the 2500-member strong Microsoft photography club email list, the organizers asked 25 judges to sort through over 2000 submissions from 706 employees from various product groups. They ranged from amateur photographers to serious professionals.

A two round selection process narrowed down the final set to just 300 photographs of the highest standards. Even Charlie’s own photo didn’t make the cut, although it is featured alongside all the photos submitted in a double-page thank you page.

Make no mistake, these aren’t just your average cat pictures (that’s a separate charity project). A quick flick through the book reveals page-after-page of gorgeous landscapes, interesting macros, inspiring portraits and even National Geographic-standard nature photos. Each is also accompanied by a story provided by the author and some handy EXIF data.

With 2,000 copies printed, all sales generated by the book will be matched by the Microsoft “Matching Gifts Program” dollar-for-dollar to be donated to the United Way organization.

Unfortunately due to the nature of the matching policy, only US Microsoft employees are able to purchase the book from the company store. Since I know many in the general public will no doubt be interested, I’ve asked them to investigate the opportunity to expand the book’s availability in the future. Of course Microsoft employees can contact charlieo@microsoft.com to learn more.

Update: Apparently the public can order the book, through the online store.

• Visit https://shop.ecompanystore.com/mseppstore/Login.aspx
• Create a new account by clicking the ‘All Other Shoppers, Signup Here’ hyperlink.
• Once logged in, search on the word ‘inspire’ to find the book.

Although there’s no substitute for the smell of fresh ink on paper, here’s some more photos of the photobook (photo inception).

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When something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. With a few exceptions.

When I first read about WOWee’s One Slim portable speakers with patented “Gel Audio” technology which claims to produce bass when placed on flat solid surfaces, an eyebrow was raised. Now having actually played with it, I wonder why don’t phones have this.

This tiny little rechargeable device might not look like it has what it takes, but then again you don’t see the interesting gel surface at the bottom unit you flip it over. All I can tell you is you can actually feel a little bit of the bass when placed on a table or against the wall from it. As a demo, here’s one of the better YouTube demos I found.

Obviously I’d be lying if I said this device sounds as good as a home cinema or even a good car audio system, but for its portability it has its uses. As other reviews have also noted the speaker itself has issues with high volume mid-tones, there’s no doubt still room for improvement for future models. Otherwise it’s a great demo for the gel technology.

The company which licenses the Gel Audio transducer technology claims to target mobile phones as a potential application however it doesn’t appear anyone has signed up. I can only hope a Windows Phone manufacturer could give it a try. Samsung, HTC, Nokia, anyone?

In an age where most movie/TV scenes involving computer screen interactions are digitally manipulated beyond recognition of their real product counterparts, it’s delightful to see the latest Microsoft “Family” campaign not just advertises, but also informs.

Behind each of the ads shown so far (“Epic Share“, “Dog.PPT“, “Their Wedding“) is also a behind-the-scenes YouTube clip that acts as a tutorial to replicate the scenario step-by-step. First it shows what the software can do, then it teaches people on how to do it. Neat.

Upon seeing the latest “Keep Shopping” commercial, Rafael Rivera and I decided to put this to the test. Following the steps illustrated, we were able to replicate the same shopping list experience using OneNote Mobile and the desktop app, continents apart. Not only was the scenario reproducible but it’s also practical to a lot of people, including enthusiasts like ourselves.

In light of this, maybe Microsoft would consider adding a “Do try this at home” message at the start of the ads because people should.