Windows 8 Beta

A public beta of Windows 8 will launch in late February of next year, 

Citing "sources close to Microsoft," TNW pointed to February for the beta's debut but said the release date for the final version of Windows 8 remains a mystery, though it's expected to ship next year.

Mary Jo Foley of CNET sister site ZDNet said she's heard that the beta would appear after next month's Consumer Electronics Show, which runs from January 10 to 13, but Foley said she isn't aware of any specific dates.

If the February timeframe holds true for the beta, the RTM (release-to-manufacturing) version of Windows 8 could hit the market as early as June. The final shipping version would then see the light of day in the third quarter, just in time to land on PCs and mobile devices for the 2012 holiday season.

This past June, Dan'l Lewin, Microsoft corporate vice president for Strategic and Emerging Business Development, hinted at a fall 2012 release date for the new OS, though that was predicated on the beta already being out by now.

MicroSoft Math

System Requirements: Windows XP and up; .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

This program is targeted primarily for the educational audience, but it can be useful for jobs that require math calculations. It packs in many features, including equation-solving, unit conversion, 2d and 3d graphing, algebra, trigonometry, and even calculus. It can display step-by-step instructions on how to solve a problem, which can be very helpful to students who are learning new math topics. You can also scribble things free-hand as input, and it does a fairly decent job at recognizing everything (although sometimes you may need to redraw some symbols). This program was originally not free, but Microsoft released the newest version as freeware on January 11, 2011. Microsoft also provides Microsoft Mathematics Add-In for Word and OneNote, which adds Microsoft Mathematics features to those programs.

Download Link for Microsoft Mthematics 4.0

Google Maps puts WebGL 3D Graphics

Google has enabled a "MapsGL" option to show 3D buildings on the site through the use of WebGL, a 3D graphics technology for the Web that four of the five top browsers have embraced.

The move marks another step in the convergence of the browser-based Google Maps and the more immersive Google Earth software that stemmed from Google's 2004 acquisition of Keyhole. Google Earth lets people fly around, overlays imagery on contoured terrain, and shows 3D buildings.

With WebGL, Google Maps gets the 3D buildings--also visible on Android's Maps app--and more.

Other features include a swoopy transition from an ordinary bird's-eye view to Street View; the ability to rotate a map so something besides north is at the top; and a gradual transition from a straight-down satellite view to the more detailed 45-degree aerial photography views Google offers in some areas.

I found it to be nice, but a bit rough around the edges, chiefly because of screen clutter and some rough typography, but I also found it fairly slick. The way I see things headed, Google is creating a virtual reconstruction of the world in 3D, and this is a big step on the way.

To try the feature out, click the "Want to try something new?" words on the lower left side of the screen.

It won't be long now before Google conducts intuits your desires as you walk around a city, conducting real-time auctions to see which merchant gets to pop up a contextually relevant, targeted advertisement on your augmented-reality contact lenses.

Maybe that's a bit far-fetched, but then again, maybe not. "You're now one step closer to experiencing and interacting with a 3D mirror of the real world within your browser with Google MapsGL," said Brian McClendon, vice president of Google Maps and Earth, in a blog post today.

In any event, I see this as, if not a watershed moment for WebGL, at least a compelling reason why you might want to have it in your browser.

WebGL grew up through a collaboration between Mozilla and the Khronos Group, a standards organization, and Google quickly jumped aboard. At present, the Firefoxbeta and Chrome support WebGL, and it can be enabled in Safari. It's based on the OpenGL ES interface for graphics chips.

Today, Opera joined the WebGL world with the release of the Opera 12 alpha, code-named Wahoo, and for the occasion, the company released a WebGL version of the game Emberwood. Other