Take care of plants do not easy. Need diligence, patient, and attention. If owner forget to pour water, plants can be dead. If owner very busy, I suggest to not has plants.

But now, whether you busy or not, you still can has plants and take care of it. There is system which makes plants call, talk, and complaint if we forgot to pour water over it. Also plants can call and say thank you if we always take care it.

This system made by New York University students which joined in Botanicalls Projects. That project base on communication between plants and human. “Botanical open new communication connection between plants and human in order to promote success interspecies understanding,” said they in their web http://www.botanicalls.com. With their effort, plants do not become silence and surrender creatures, waiting the owner come to take care. With technology help, plants able to call owner if there are problems.

Technology which created by Botanicalls Projects basically translates plants communication protocol to form that understandable for human. The method is insert sensor which connected to microcontroller, then connected to telephone system. Sensor system sense plants condition, like soil humid, leaves condition, colors, and others. Microcontroller decides whether plants need to send message or not. If message decided to send, data sent through Asterisk, open source communication.

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All of your application based on web? There is no more hindrance to run that application in your computer while it is offline. Google Gears ready to help you.

Google Gears is open source software, that is a browser extension which enable to developer to create web application that can run while offline.

Google Gears equip three key features:

1. Local server that has function as a craw for application resource like text, image, and script without have to contact server.

2. Database to save and access data from browser

3. Worker thread pool to make web application more responded.

Google Gears enable for both of Firefox (1.5 and more) and IE (6 and more), also can use in Windows, MacOS, and Linux. According to Google, this software still in development and beta status, and more purposed to developer. Nonetheless, you do not must become programmer to use Google Gears. Several web application (some applications are google services) supported this extension.

Install and Try Google Gears

First step is open http://gears.google.com, use supported browser.

Install this application with clicking the right link. If you run IE, you will requested to download executable bundle, named GoogleGearsSetup.exe, while at Mozilla Firefox, Google Gears treated as other extension. After finish, restart your browser.

To test this extension, try to open web application which supported, like Google Reader (google.com/reader).

While open supported web application, you will be asked to give permission to that site(s) to use Google Gears. Give permission to that site. Then that application will run as like usual, but if you sharp, you should find small icon or link to change web application to offline mode.

If you close browser, and open it again in offline mode, you can run web application without connected to internet. At IE, make sure that option File ? Work Offline already checked, same as Firefox. Not all of web application features in online mode can use in offline mode, like add new RSS channel.

As new field, there are pessimist sides. There are question; Are interdisciplinary skills and faced directly to the market can thought in universities? Aren’t these skills can only get because work experiences?

Same questions asked years ago when general computer sciences firstly thought in 1940. Professors and expert thought that science at Columbia University. New study field, especially in interdisciplinary field, sometimes got soft opinion. But, as we watched at computer science and software engineering, new science field need time to accept.

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