IT GEEK HUB
2015/05/02
2015/04/08
2014/05/30
2014/05/29
Is This The Best Quadcopter Pilot In The World?
And he’s Australian!
Quadcopters, quadrotors, drones, remote-control helicopters, appcessories. No matter what you call them, they fly and they’re awesome. It takes a certain level of skill to pilot one of these bad-boys, and that’s what this pilot has: skill, grit and nerves of steel.
One of the Lumenier test pilots took a four-rotored drone out in a Victorian national park and put it through its paces. The camera footage shows that his skills are second-to-none.
Tricky manÅ“uvres through the trees, speedy ground skimming exercises and even a few tight squeezes through safety gates are executed in this awesome video, and we’re happy to call this guy the best quadcopter pilot in the world. Anyone want to challenge his skills?
The Ultimate Guide for Creating Strong Passwords
When you create an account on a website, you may have the “password dilemma” for a second. The dilemma is whether you should provide a weak password that is easy to remember or a strong password that is hard to remember. Following are the rules and guidelines that may help you in overcoming the password dilemma and help you in creating a strong password that are secure. These are the things that I’ve used over years based on my own interest in the area of keeping the password safe and secure.
I. Two essential password rules:
Following two rules are bare minimal that you should follow while creating a password.
Rule 1 – Password Length: Stick with passwords that are at least 8 characters in length. The more character in the passwords is better, as the time taken to crack the password by an attacker will be longer. 10 characters or longer are better.
Rule 1 – Password Length: Stick with passwords that are at least 8 characters in length. The more character in the passwords is better, as the time taken to crack the password by an attacker will be longer. 10 characters or longer are better.
Rule 2 – Password Complexity: Should contain at least one character from each of the following group. At least 4 characters in your passwords should be each one of the following.
- Lower case alphabets
- Upper case alphabets
- Numbers
- Special Characters
I call the above two rules combined as “8 4 Rule” (Eight Four Rule):
- 8 = 8 characters minimum length
- 4 = 1 lower case + 1 upper case + 1 number + 1 special character.
Just following the “8 4 Rule” will be a huge improvement and instantly make your password much stronger than before for most of you who don’t follow any guidelines or rules while creating a passwords. If your banking and any financially sensitive website passwords doesn’t follow the “8 4 Rule”, I strongly suggest that you stop everything now and change those passwords immediately to follow the “8 4 Rule”.
II. Guidelines for creating strong passwords:
- Follow “8 4 Rule”. Like I mentioned above this is the foundation of creating a strong password.
- Unique Characters. Should contain at least 5 unique characters. You already have 4 different character if you’ve followed “8 4 Rule”.
- Use Password Manager. Strong passwords are hard to remember. So, as part of creating a strong password you need a reliable and trustworthy way of remembering the strong password. Using password management tool to store passwords should really become a habit. Anytime you create a password, note it down on a password manager tool, that will encrypt the password and store it safe for you., a free, easy and secure password manager that works on Windows, Linux and Mac.There are lot of free password manager tools available, choose the one that best suites your taste and use it.
- Use Passphrase. If you don’t want to use password management tool, Use Passphrase to easily remember the passwords. You can use initials of a song or a phrase that are very familiar to you. for e.g. “Passwords are like underwears, change yours often!” phrase can be converted to a strong password “Prlu,Curs0!”
III. Guidelines for avoiding weak passwords.
Avoid the following in your passwords. Even part of your passwords should not be anything in the following items.
- Password same as username or part of the username
- Name of family members, friends or pets.
- Personal information about yourself or family members. This includes the generic information that can be obtained about you very easily, such as birth date, phone number, vehicle license plate number, street name, apartment/house number etc.
- Sequences. i.e consecutive alphabets, numbers or keys on the keyboard. for e.g. abcde, 12345, qwert.
- Dictionary words. Dictionary words with number or character in front or back
- Real word from any language
- Word found in dictionary with number substitution for word look alike. for e.g. Replacing the letter O with number 0. i.e passw0rd.
- Any of the above in reverse sequence
- Any of the above with a number in front or back.
- Empty password
IV. Common sense about passwords:
All the following points are nothing new and very much common sense. But most of the time, we tend to ignore these items.
- Create unique password every time. When you are changing a password for an existing account, it should not be the same as the previous password. Also, do not use incremental passwords while changing it. i.e password1, password2 etc.
- Change your passwords for all your accounts once every 6 months. Since passwords have a fixed length, a brute-force attack to guess the password will always succeed if enough time and processing power was available to the attacker. So, it is always recommended to change the passwords often. Schedule an recurring appointment on your calendar to change your passwords once every 6 months.
- Never write down your passwords. Creating a very strong password and writing it down on a paper is as bad as creating an easy to remember weak password and not writing it down anywhere. There are several interesting surveys done on this subject, where it was found that several people write down the password and keep it somewhere next to the computer. Some of them think keeping the post-it note below the mouse pad is secure enough. You should never write down the password on a paper. If you want to carry your password along with you all the times, use a password manager tool that runs from USB stick and take that with you all the times.
- Don’t share with anyone. Anyone includes your friends and family. Probably you might have heard the phrase “Passwords are like underwear, don’t share with anybody”. We teach our kids several things in life. Teaching them about online safety and not sharing the password with anybody should be one of them.
- Never keep the same password for two different sites. It is very tempting to create one set of passwords for all your emails, another password for all the banking sites, another password for all the social networking sites etc. Avoid this temptation and keep unique passwords for all your accounts.
- Don’t type your password when someone is looking over your shoulder. This is especially very important if you type slowly and search for the letters in the keyboard and type with one finger, as it is very easy for someone looking over your shoulder to figure out the password.
- Never send your password to anybody in an email. If you follow #3 mentioned above, this should not be an option. But the reason I’m specifically saying about this is because several hackers send emails as a support person and asking for your user name and password through email. Legitimate website or organization will never ask you for your user name and password either via email or over telephone.
- Change password immediately when they are compromised. Even if you have the slightest doubt that someone might have stolen your password, change it immediately. Don’t even waste a minute.
- Don’t use the “Remember password” option on the browser without setting the Master Password. Don’t use this feature of the browser to store your username and passwords without enabling the “Master Password” option. If you don’t set master password on the firefox browser, anybody who uses your firefox browser can see all the passwords that are stored in the firefox browser in plain text. Also, be very careful with this option and say ‘Not Now’ in the remember password pop-up, when you are using a system that doesn’t belong to you.
- Don’t type your password on a computer that does not belong to you. If possible, don’t use someone else computer that you don’t trust to login to any website, especially to very sensitive website such as banking. It is a very common practice for hackers to use key loggers that will log all the key strokes on a system, which will capture everything you type including the passwords.
Please leave your comments about this post. If you follow different methods or rules for creating a strong password, please share them with everybody in the comments.
15 Awesome Google Search Tips and Tricks
This article is part of the on-going Productivity Tips for Geeks. In this article let us review 15 awesome google search tricks that will improve the quality of your online life.
Note: Also, check-out our earlier article about15 Awesome Gmail Tips and Tricks, and 15 Essential Gmail Lab Features.
1. Identify Local Time for Any City in the World using Google
If you want to know current local time in a particular city, use the following method. To see the current local time in Los Angeles do the following. Go-ahead and try this yourself for your local city and see how it works.
Syntax: time in PLACE
time Los Angeles
Fig: Find out current time of any worldwide city
2. Exclude Keywords in the Search
If you want Google to exclude a word while searching the web page, use – (minus) before the search as shown below. This example searches for the pages which has the word ebooks, and without the word free.
ebooks -free
3. Search for Keywords with Similar Meaning. Include Synonym Keywords in Search
Instead of searching for only the given word, using ~ before the keyword you can instruct Google to search for webpages with the exact given word or the words which has same meaning. In the following example, giving ~tutorial also searches for keywords: guide, manual, reference etc.
nagios ~tutorial
(or)
debian installation ~tutorial
4. Match Any Single Word in the Search Using *
While searching, if you are not sure about which keyword to be placed in the phrase, you can match any single word using *.
For example, if you want to search for examples of vim substitution, and you are not sure whether to search for “vim editor find and replace examples”, or “vim editor search and replace examples”, then use * , which will match either find, search or any other word, as shown below.
For example, if you want to search for examples of vim substitution, and you are not sure whether to search for “vim editor find and replace examples”, or “vim editor search and replace examples”, then use * , which will match either find, search or any other word, as shown below.
vim editor * and replace examples
Note: You can also match multiple words by using multiple number of *’s respectively.
5. Use OR in Google Search
Using OR operator in between the words makes the following kind of search possible in Google. Following example will search for bash examples or bash programs.
bash examples OR programs
Note: The keyword OR should be in uppercase
6. Identify Definition a Word
To view the definition of a word use the following method.
Syntax: define: <word>
define: tech savvy
7. Search for a Range Using ..
If you are looking for a product in a specific price range use the following. It will search for the pages with text PDA, and Rs52,126.98 to Rs58,642.86 ranged text.
Syntax: text $100..$125
PDA $400..$450
8. Mathematical Calculations using Google
Normally for doing the metric conversions we will be using some online conversion websites or conversion softwares. However just by using Google search box you can do calculations, unit conversions and money conversions as explained below.
You can use the Google search box as your scientific calculator as
sqrt(10)
9. Unit Conversion using Google
The following will show the equivalent pounds for one kg.
kg in pound
So when you want to know what is the equivalent pounds of kg you can view it as:
Fig: Online Unit Conversion using Google
Following are few other possible conversions. Click on these link to see the results.
- km in mile
- inch in feet
- acre in square feet
- sec in ms
- kilobyte in byte
- You get the idea now. Try your own conversion and see how it works.
10. Money Conversion using Google
Following converts US Dollars in Euros (or) US Dollars in Rupees.
USD in Euro
(or)
USD in INR
Fig: Currency Conversion Using Google
11. Searching within a Specific Website
You can search for a text in a specific website. The following example shows how to search only within our blog – www.thegeekstuff.com.
examples site:www.thegeekstuff.com
Note: There is no space between site: and the website address.
12. Google Search for a Given Keywords (both without and with sequence)
Basic Search for a Given Keywords – Without Sequence
The very basic feature of Google which everybody is using today is searching for pages which has the given text as:
linux command line history examples
Fig: Basic Google Search for Keywords with no specific sequence
Note: Highlighted words are not in the order as we given in the search box.
Basic Search with Keywords In a Given Sequence
If you want Google to show only the pages which has the words in the given sequence, then double quote that search string as:
"guide to install php5 from source"
Fig: Basic Search for Keywords in a specific sequence
Note: Highlighted words are in the same order as we given in the search box.
13. Search Based on File Type
The following examples searches only the matching keywords inside a Power Point presentations. In the same way, you can search for the doc, pdf and other file types.
linux introduction filetype:ppt
14. Google Advanced Search Page
If you are not able to remember some of the advanced search syntax mentioned in this article, then use the Google Advanced search page as shown below.
15. Identify Local Weather for Any City in the World using Google
To see the current weather in Los Angeles do the following. Go-ahead and try this yourself for your local city and see how it works.
Syntax: weather PLACE
weather Los Angeles
Fig: Find out current weather forecast of any worldwide city
20 Awesome Google Chrome Browser Tips and Tricks
Probably most of you are already using Chrome as your primary browser. If not, switch to it immediately. Chrome is extremely fast when compared to any other browser.
These tips will help you to get most out of the Chrome browser.
When you pin a tab, it minimizes the tab to display only the icon. When you have several tabs opened, this feature is very helpful, as the Tab title displays only the icon and takes only little real estate.
Before pinning:
After pinning 1st two tabs:
By default, chrome doesn’t display the ‘Home’ button in the toolbar.
Click on the ‘Wrench Icon’ on the right-hand corner of the browser to get to the “Customize” option for Chrome browser -> Preferences (or Options) -> Select the check-box for “Show home button in toolbar”
This will now display the ‘Home’ button in front of the URL field. Click this button to go to your home page quickly.
The URL address bar (also called as Omnibox in Chrome) in the Chrome browser is not only to enter your URL. Just type the keyword you want to search and press enter, which will perform a google search.
You can also perform calculations or conversions directly in the Omnibox. Try typing any one of the following in the URL address bar and press enter to see the results yourself.
7 + 200
7 * 200
1 lb in kg
2 miles in km
Incognito mode is for private browsing, where Chrome doesn’t record your browsing history, download hisotry. Any cookies that are stored during the incognito mode is deleted when you close the browser.
You can launch incognito by pressing Ctrl + Shift + N, (or) Settings -> New incognito Window, (or) right mouse-click on a link from a regular Chrome session, and select “open link in incognito window”.
One of the practical use for this mode (apart from private browsing) is to login to the same site using two accounts.
For example, if you have two gmail accounts, login using the first account in your regular Chrome browser, and login using the second account in your Incognito mode on your Chrome browser. This way, you can be logged in to two gmail accounts at the same time on Chrome browser.
If you’ve closed a tab by mistake, you can open it by pressing Ctrl + Shift + T, (or) right mouse-click on the empty area in the title-bar -> and select “Reopen closed tab” as shown below.
There are various about command that you can type in the address bar.
chrome://histograms
chrome://memory
chrome://cache
chrome://dns
etc.
Read more: 12 Most Useful Google Chrome Browser chrome:// CommandsTask manager displays the memory and CPU usage of the Chrome browser, broken down by each and every Tab. If you have multiple Tabs open, and when your system is slow, you can use task manager to identify which Tab is causing the issue.
Right click on empty space in the title bar and select “Task manager”, (or) Press Shift + escape key to launch it as shown below.
Type “amazon” in the address bar AND press “Tab”, which will change the address bar to “Search amazon.com:”, any keyword you type after this will be searched in the amazon.com and it will take you to amazon.com website.
You can also change the default search engine. Right click on the address bar -> and select “Edit search engine”. From here you can choose other search engines.
As you already know, when you right click on a link, and say “Open link in a new tab”, it opens it as a new tab (next to the current open tab).
However, if you want the link to be opened at a specific tab location, you can hold the link, drag it and drop it as a specific tab location. You’ll see a small arrow when you drag and drop the link. In the following example, I tried to drop the link at 2nd tab location.
If you are using multiple computers (at home, at work, etc.), you don’t need to worry about trying to setup the Chrome browser in the same way on all the computers you use. Instead, setup your bookmarks, extensions, themes, settings, etc, on your Chrome browser on one computer, and select “Sign in to Chrome” from the settings menu as shown below.![Sign in to Chrome](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_v3Sl_pkndjxMrugiRziCyZl899XoK4ow1jrC5BLlVm1Vuo5OBYqROoC93fgk7AkntCThu4N6LUQhCspcq0ieGjJyGBMNeRogM-ygEGvrFuLRcIYByIVHZpGYaD-PC6DUkkQdrLv6aYPEqs7uFPWUgNwvX6Z9E=s0-d)
This will ask you to enter your google username and password. This will save all your chrome settings on your google account. Next time when you sign-up from another machine, all your chrome settings will be visible on the new system. If you make any changes to your chrome settings on this new system, it will be available on your other computers too. Use this feature only on the systems which you trust and not on public computers.
Once a file is downloaded, you can just drag and drop the file (from the Chrome download window) to your Windows explore, or any other file browser that you are using on your system.
Press Ctrl-H, or go to Customize -> History, to launch the history window. From here you can search for a specific website from your history, delete all your history, or delete only selected items from your history.
If you like to create a shortcut to the website that you are currently viewing, go to Customize -> Tools -> Create application shortcuts. This will ask you where you like to create the shortcut for this website, as shown below.![Create App Shortcut](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_srIekPp5413_gn0zn2Tw39tL87_df0_t9ZSLaPGsPuhDgyl8pklukmzcgFuoqoMNqOL9U3E_2OcuMGtjjVmlTk5dHdeODaLJNcYUaTFm_-ugZOg6e8GLjw7xgkL_-YTVXA6YJo2lSOASS_NH2FX7s5IKdtOWpecg=s0-d)
Once you create a application shortcut, next time when you click on it to open it, it will open this site in a Chrome browser without any tabs, url location bar, etc.
- Use Ctrl+Tab to navigate Tabs one by one
- Press Ctrl-1 to go to 1st Tab
- Press Ctrl-2 to go to 2nd Tab
- ..
- Press Ctrl-9 to switch to the last Tab
You can also resize a textarea that you see on any website. Please note that you can resize only the textarea and not a textbox. At the bottom right corner of the textarea, you’ll see two slanted lines, use your mouse, hold this, and drag it to resize the textarea on the screen.
You can try this yourself on the comment box (which is a textarea) located at the bottom of this page.
If you have multiple Tabs opened, and like to detach a single tab as a separate Chrome instance, just drag the tab anywhere outside the browser, which will detach the tab and run it in a separate Chrome browser window.
When you are browsing a website, if you come across some word that you are not familiar with and like to perform a google search on it, just double-click on the text to high-light it, right mouse-click, and select “Search google for”, which will open a new Tab and search for the selected text. This saves some time.
You can use the autofill option to enter one or more addresses that you can use to fill-up any web forms. You can also use this feature to store one or more credit card information that can be pre-populated on web forms. Don’t use this feature on a computer that you don’t trust.
Go to settings -> Options -> Personal Stuff -> Click on the check-box “Enable Autofill to fill out web forms in a single click” -> Click on Manager autofill settings -> Click on ‘Add new Address’ and enter the information.
Go to Settings -> Options -> Under the Hood -> click on sign into “Google Cloud Print”.
Once you setup your printer using Google cloud print, you can print to it from anywhere. i.e You can print to it from your mobile, other PC at work, or any other system that is connected to the internet.
The following are some useful shortcuts:
- Alt+F – Open the wrench menu (i.e chrome settings menu)
- Ctrl+J – Go to downloads window
- Ctrl+H – Go to history window
- Ctrl+Tab – Navigate Tabs
- Alt+Home – Go to home page
- Ctrl+U – View source code of the current page
- Ctrl+K – To search quickly in the address bar
- Ctrl+L – Highlights the URL in the address bar (use this to copy/paste the URL quickly)
- Ctrl+N – Open a new Chrome browser window
- Ctrl+Shift+N – Open a new incognito window (for private browsing)
- Ctrl+Shift+B – Toggle bookmark display
- Ctrl+W – Close the current Tab
- Alt+Left Arrow – Go to the previous page from your history
- Alt+Right Arrow – Go to the next page from your history
- Space bar – Scroll down the current web page
1. Pin Tab
2. Display Home Button
3. Omnibox
4. incognito – Secret Mode
5. Reopen Recently Closed tab
6. Chrome:// commands
7. Task Manager
8. Change Search Engine in the Omnibar
9. Open a link at a specific Tab Location
10. Carry your Chrome Settings with You
11. Drag and Drop Downloaded file
12. History
13. Create a Shortcut of the Current Tab
14. Navigate Between Tabs Quickly
15. Resize TextArea
16. Detach a tab
17. Highlight a Text and Search
18. Autofill
19. Google Cloud Print
20. Google Chrome Browser Shortcuts
Will robots take over the world???
2029: the year when robots will have the power to outsmart their makers
Ray Kurzweil, Google expert in artificial intelligence, predicts that by 2029 robots will make jokes and flirt.
Garry Kasparov versus Deep Blue in 1997. The computer won - as Ray Kurzweil predicted. Photograph: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images
Computers will be cleverer than humans by 2029, according to Ray Kurzweil, Google's director of engineering.The entrepreneur and futurologist has predicted that in 15 years' time computers will be more intelligent than we are and will be able to understand what we say, learn from experience, make jokes, tell stories and even flirt.
Kurzweil, 66, who is considered by some to be the world's leading artificial intelligence (AI) visionary, is recognised by technologists for popularising the idea of "the singularity" – the moment in the future when men and machines will supposedly converge. Google hired him at the end of 2012 to work on the company's next breakthrough: an artificially intelligent search engine that knows us better than we know ourselves.In an interview in today's Observer New Review, Kurzweil says that the company hasn't given him a particular set of instructions, apart from helping to bring natural language understanding to Google."My project is ultimately to base search on really understanding what the language means," he said. "When you write an article, you're not creating an interesting collection of words. You have something to say and Google is devoted to intelligently organising and processing the world's information."The message in your article is information, and the computers are not picking up on that. So we would want them to read everything on the web and every page of every book, then be able to engage in intelligent dialogue with the user to be able to answer their questions."
Kurzweil's prediction comes hot on the tail of revelations that Google is in the throes of assembling the greatest artificial intelligence laboratory on Earth. The company has bought several machine-learning and robotics companies, including Boston Dynamics, the firm that produces lifelike military robots, for an undisclosed sum; and the smart thermostat maker, Nest Labs, for Rs417.02bn (Rs414.69bn).This month it bought the cutting-edge British artificial intelligence startup DeepMind for Rs52,818.85m and hired Geoffrey Hinton, a British computer scientist and the world's leading expert on neural networks.Kurzweil is known for inventing devices that have changed the world – the first flatbed scanner, the first computer program that could recognise a typeface, and the first text-to-speech synthesiser. In 1990 he predicted that a computer would defeat a world chess champion by 1998 (in 1997, IBM's Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov), and he predicted the future prominence of the world wide web at a time when it was only an obscure system that was used by a few academics.
For years he has been saying that the Turing test – the moment at which a computer will exhibit intelligent behaviour equivalent to that of a human – will be passed in 2029. "Today, I'm pretty much at the median of what AI experts think and the public is kind of with them," he adds. "The public has seen things like Siri [the iPhone's voice-recognition technology], where you talk to a computer. They've seen the Google self-driving cars. My views are not radical any more."
Kurzweil had been working with Google's co-founder, Larry Page, on special projects over several years until Page offered him a job. "I'd been having ongoing conversations with him about artificial intelligence and what Google is doing and what I was trying to do," he notes."And basically he said, 'Do it here. We'll give you the independence you've had with your own company, but you'll have these Google-scale resources.'"
In 2009 Kurzweil co-founded the Singularity University, partly funded by Google, an unaccredited graduate school devoted to his ideas and the aim of exploring exponential technologies.
Agricultural Drones
Relatively cheap drones with advanced sensors and imaging capabilities are giving farmers new ways to increase yields and reduce crop damage.
The advent of drones this small, cheap, and easy to use is due largely to remarkable advances in technology: tiny MEMS sensors (accelerometers, gyros, magnetometers, and often pressure sensors), small GPS modules, incredibly powerful processors, and a range of digital radios. All those components are now getting better and cheaper at an unprecedented rate, thanks to their use in smartphones and the extraordinary economies of scale of that industry. At the heart of a drone, the autopilot runs specialized software—often open-source programs created by communities such as DIY Drones, which I founded, rather than costly code from the aerospace industry.
Drones can provide farmers with three types of detailed views. First, seeing a crop from the air can reveal patterns that expose everything from irrigation problems to soil variation and even pest and fungal infestations that aren’t apparent at eye level. Second, airborne cameras can take multispectral images, capturing data from the infrared as well as the visual spectrum, which can be combined to create a view of the crop that highlights differences between healthy and distressed plants in a way that can’t be seen with the naked eye. Finally, a drone can survey a crop every week, every day, or even every hour. Combined to create a time-series animation, that imagery can show changes in the crop, revealing trouble spots or opportunities for better crop management.
It’s part of a trend toward increasingly data-driven agriculture. Farms today are bursting with engineering marvels, the result of years of automation and other innovations designed to grow more food with less labor. Tractors autonomously plant seeds within a few centimeters of their target locations, and GPS-guided harvesters reap the crops with equal accuracy. Extensive wireless networks backhaul data on soil hydration and environmental factors to faraway servers for analysis. But what if we could add to these capabilities the ability to more comprehensively assess the water content of soil, become more rigorous in our ability to spot irrigation and pest problems, and get a general sense of the state of the farm, every day or even every hour? The implications cannot be stressed enough. We expect 9.6 billion people to call Earth home by 2050. All of them need to be fed. Farming is an input-output problem. If we can reduce the inputs—water and pesticides—and maintain the same output, we will be overcoming a central challenge.
Agricultural drones are becoming a tool like any other consumer device, and we’re starting to talk about what we can do with them. Ryan Kunde wants to irrigate less, use less pesticide, and ultimately produce better wine. More and better data can reduce water use and lower the chemical load in our environment and our food. Seen this way, what started as a military technology may end up better known as a green-tech tool, and our kids will grow up used to flying robots buzzing over farms like tiny crop dusters.
It’s part of a trend toward increasingly data-driven agriculture. Farms today are bursting with engineering marvels, the result of years of automation and other innovations designed to grow more food with less labor. Tractors autonomously plant seeds within a few centimeters of their target locations, and GPS-guided harvesters reap the crops with equal accuracy. Extensive wireless networks backhaul data on soil hydration and environmental factors to faraway servers for analysis. But what if we could add to these capabilities the ability to more comprehensively assess the water content of soil, become more rigorous in our ability to spot irrigation and pest problems, and get a general sense of the state of the farm, every day or even every hour? The implications cannot be stressed enough. We expect 9.6 billion people to call Earth home by 2050. All of them need to be fed. Farming is an input-output problem. If we can reduce the inputs—water and pesticides—and maintain the same output, we will be overcoming a central challenge.
Agricultural drones are becoming a tool like any other consumer device, and we’re starting to talk about what we can do with them. Ryan Kunde wants to irrigate less, use less pesticide, and ultimately produce better wine. More and better data can reduce water use and lower the chemical load in our environment and our food. Seen this way, what started as a military technology may end up better known as a green-tech tool, and our kids will grow up used to flying robots buzzing over farms like tiny crop dusters.
Gunnar RPG Gaming eye wear for long time computer users...
Overview
The main points for the glasses from Gunnar Optiks is to reduce eye irritation, fatigue and keep your eyes healthy even if you game endlessly.
In terms of pricing, the Gunnar Optiks RPG Onyx retails between Rs13,095.58 to Rs21,825.97 depending on where you look. This is roughly how much I spend on my own prescription glasses whenever I get new ones so maybe my next purchase might be a Gunnar Optiks since you can purchase prescription versions as well. Click on the links below for some of the online shops for UK customers.
eBay about Rs13,750.36
SCAN computers about Rs19,422.93
Amazon about Rs22,240.66
Hardware
The Gunnar Optiks RPGOnyx frames are so slim and so lightweight that it is easy to forget that you are wearing them. As slim and lightweight the frames are, they still feel rigid which is due to the hybrid metal alloy of aluminium-magnesium. Also, the lenses are wide and tall (not thick) so you will rarely be looking outside the frames (looking around the frame is irritating when your trying to play a game).
Imran doesn’t wear glasses so his first impression of the RPGOnyx is that they were uncomfortable to wear for the first few days. However, after those first few days he didn’t feel the discomfort he felt before even when wearing a headset. I wear my prescription glasses all the time so I immediately felt how comfortable the RPGOnyx were in comparison to other prescription glasses I have worn.
You can purchase prescription glasses from Gunnar Optiks but I tried these over my own glasses and they worked just fine. However due to the overlap of the frames wearing a headset at the same time can prove uncomfortable.
The RPGOnyx glasses has a +0.2 diopters which magnifies everything you see ever so slightly. This effect is very noticeble and it is supposed to help your eye muscles not strain as much focusing on the screen. Neither me or Imran felt it affected our gaming experience so that’s a win if it means our eye muscles don’t get strained.
The RPGOnyx comes with a pouch that doubles as a cleaning cloth for the glasses. To be fair if you are not the type of person to wear the RPGOnyx everywhere then you should buy a case for it so it doesn’t hit anything and break. Glasses are fragile and these cost around Rs21,825.97 so a case is worth buying.
Performance
My experience with these glasses proved positive. I played Final Fantasy 14 for several hours straight and my eyes barely felt irritated in comparison to not wearing them. Imran doesn’t suffer from the symptoms of Computer Vision Syndrome so he felt no benefit from wearing the glasses. I passed the glasses around and we got similar feedback, in general, those who suffer from CVS benefit from wearing the glasses and those who don’t suffer from CVS do not experience any benefits.
Design
Imran and I both agree the RPGOnyx look stylish and contends with the look of top brands that make frames for prescription lenses. We felt totally comfortable with people seeing us use them when we were gaming. However, it is still a little early in our area to be wearing them just for the lolz and that is because the yellow tint glasses isn’t much of a statement in our area. That’s okay because the yellow tint is from the material used to reduce the blue light glare from the computer screen. You can purchase the frames with clear lenses and they should still work as effectively.
Wrap Up
We were impressed with the effectiveness of the glasses, I certainly felt a reduction in all the symptoms of CVS. We feel the lightweight nature of the frames will wittle away any discomfort the wearer will feel early on, that’s if they feel any discomfort at all (I certainly didn’t). The fact that you can purchase prescription versions and get different lenses without the yellow tint means that Gunnar Optik is certainly trying to appeal to as many gamers as possible. Our verdict BUY IT if you suffer from symptoms of CVS. If you don’t suffer from the symptoms of CVS, buy them anyway just in case.
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