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2.33 GHz Core Duo 17" MacBook Pro this Sunday?

2006-04-21T10:50:00.000-07:00

The MacBook pro family may gain a new member this Sunday. The already popular MacBook pro allows users to run Windows XP. With its new 2.33GHz duel core processor it will surely satisfy the avid gamer in all of us.

The 2006 NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) conference is fast approaching and as any self-respectiing maclot knows, it can only mean one thing: new pro products. The Register is reporting that the new 17" MacBook Pro could debut as early as this Sunday and sport the 2.16GHz Core Duo with an outside chance of the new 2.33GHz Intel Core Duo making an appearance. Oddly enough, with the exception of the processor speed and screen size, all internals of the 17" should remain the same as the 15" MacBook Pro.

Potato Powered Sound System

2006-04-16T23:15:00.000-07:00

Something in our heads just screams "build me!" when we saw this little article about making a giant potato battery. Too bad it takes 500 pounds of potatos to power a "small sound system". We wonder when the first iPotato (ipod charger) will come out? It could be usefull for that farmer with an ipod. haha

I built a potato battery out of 500 pounds of potatoes. It powered a small sound system. With the help of the Red 76 crew I installed the battery and sound system in the back of a U-Haul truck and drove it around town inviting people to enter the truck and take a listen.

Batteries work by allowing electrons to pass from one electrode to another. In this case the potato provides phosphoric acid, which enables a chemical reaction causing electrons flow from copper to zinc. The zinc came from galvanized nails and copper came from small pieces of copper. You don't have to use potatoes; any acidic medium such as citrus fruit will work. I chose potatoes because they are traditional and cheap.

Each potato generates about 0.5 volts and 0.2 milliamperes. I connected groups of potatoes together in series to increase voltage and then connected these groups together in parallel to increase amperage. The entire 500 lb battery generated around 5 volts and 4 milliamperes.

Illegal Number?

2006-04-15T16:36:00.000-07:00

This is kind of funny. The court says "This program is illegal" and nerds find ways to make the court look stupid. This "illegal" number is obtained when the DeCSS code is compiled and converted into decimal form.

An illegal prime is a prime number which contains information forbidden by law to possess or distribute.

The first illegal prime to be announced, when interpreted a particular way, describes a computer program which bypasses copyright protection schemes on some DVDs. Because that program has been found illegal by courts in the United States of America, this has produced debate about whether the number itself could be considered illegal.

This question has never been tested in court, and it is possible that the number itself and its possession would be found to be legal, but not a particular interpretation of it.

High-Tech way to Defrost

2006-04-15T16:28:00.000-07:00

Dartmouth engineering professor Victor Petrenko and his team have developed new ways to control or alter ice, making it sticky or slippery.

Dartmouth College engineering professor Victor Petrenko, not to be confused with one of the Champions on Ice, has devised a way to use a burst of electricity to remove ice caked on walls or windows. For surfaces coated with a special film, the jolt gets rid of ice in less than a second, far less time than it takes to hack at it with an ice scraper.

While drivers might find easy-cleaning windshields convenient, the technology--called thin-film pulse electrothermal de-icing, or PETD--could have significant economic impact if widely deployed. It could, for example, cut the costs of repairing power lines downed by ice storms and keep plane windshields frost-free, decreasing fuel consumption.

In Sweden, civil engineers have tested PETD and decided to cover the Uddevalla Bridge in a 12-millimeter-thick PETD foil to keep it from icing over.

Google Calendar BETA Up!

2006-04-12T23:06:00.000-07:00

Its finally up and running! We played with it for a couple minutes and already love it. Its very easy and quick to use. Adding entries is a breeze. Its effective use of AJAX allows for many great features within the calendar. Things like changing how long an event lasts on the fly by just dragging the event. Comparable calendar software could costs hundreds. Defiantly worth a try. We give it a 5 out of 5! We know you'll love it too. And best of all, ITS FREE!

Google Calendar:

Seeing the big picture
With Google Calendar, you can see your friends' and family's schedules right next to your own; quickly add events mentioned in Gmail conversations or saved in other calendar applications; and add other interesting events that you find online.

Sharing events and calendars
You decide who can see your calendar and which details they can view. Planning an event? You can create invitations, send reminders and keep track of RSVPs right inside Google Calendar. Organizations can promote events, too.

Staying on schedule
You can set up automatic event reminders, including SMS notifications, and instantly bring up anything on your calendar with the built-in search tool.

Features

Calendar Sharing: Set up a calendar for your company softball team, and share it with the whole roster. (Your shortstop will never forget about practice again.) Or share with friends and family so you can view each other's schedules side by side.

Invitations: Create event invitations, send them to friends, and keep track of people's responses and comments, all in one place. Your friends can receive your invitation and post responses even if they don't use Google Calendar themselves.

Quick Add: Click anywhere on your calendar where an event belongs (or use the Quick Add link), and start typing. Google Calendar understands whole phrases like "Brunch with mom at Java Cafe 11am on Saturday," and will pop new events right into your agenda.

Gmail Integration: Add your friend's Super Bowl party to your calendar without ever leaving your Gmail inbox. Gmail now recognizes events mentioned in emails.

Search: Find the date of the Baxter family BBQ (you knew it was sometime this summer). Or, search public calendars to discover new events you're interested in and add them to your own calendar.

Mobile Access: Receive event reminders and notifications on your mobile phone.

Event Publishing: Share your organization's events with the world. Learn more with our Event Publisher Guide.

google calendar

Matrox Triplehead2Go

2006-04-12T21:59:00.000-07:00

The Matrox Triplehead2Go splits a VGA connection into three VGA connections and tells your computer it's hooked up to one big 3840 x 1024 display. All the software seems to work fine for the various desktop configurations, and while there aren't too many games that can handle 3840 x 1024 out of the box, the included software can help get most common games up and running, and can even be extended by users to cover other titles. As for gaming, the setup comes highly recommended if you've got the graphics power to handle the added resolution. For productivity, the analog connections and further signal degradation due to three-way splitting makes the Triplehead2Go not be such a hot choice.

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Leaked PSone Emulator Pics for PSP

2006-04-07T23:03:00.000-07:00

We arent sure how real this is but it seems logical for sony to cash in on PSone games again.

According to the fairly convincing screenshots, games cost will $15 each -- which sounds steep, but not unreasonable -- and will even be able to do multiplayer via WiFi networking. Of course, there's still no word on when this will be actually available, and the pics are from a tipster's "friend" who works as a "designer at Sony" (yeah, haven't heard that one before), which doesn't lend a whole lot of cred, but we'll let the pics speak for themselves.

Boot Camp: First Impressions

2006-04-07T22:56:00.000-07:00

Intel Mac owners have begun to test out the new Boot Camp software from Apple and have found out several things:

- Boot Camp can load Vista. Or at least the Vista installer. Marc Orchant at ZDNet is one of those using a borrowed MacBook Pro, and he was able to load the Vista installer with no problem. Alas, his lender insisted on doing a full backup before allowing Orchant to go any further, so we have yet to see whether a full Vista install is possible -- though we remain optimistic.

- Boot Camp can load Linux. Or at least a Linux installer. Torifile at applenova.com also got cold feet, and aborted an Ubuntu install after confirming that the setup loaded and was able to recognize a keyboard and other hardware.

- International editions of Windows will work with Boot Camp. This should come as no surprise, but with a beta product that's designed to do something that isn't supposed to work, you never know. But the PC Watch team in Japan wasted no time and installed the Japanese version of XP Pro without a hitch.

- Boot Camp can load Windows XP Media Center Edition. Now the Mac mini really is a media PC!

- Third parties are already filling in some of the gaps. With a basic Boot Camp setup, you can't access your Mac OS X partition from your Windows XP partition. However, MediaFour's MacDrive software solves that problem. Now you can boot into Windows and read and write to your Mac partition, which could allow you to have common settings files for some cross-platform apps. Whether or not it will also allow you to share your iTunes library between partitions remains to be seen.

- You can boot from external drives, even though Boot Camp's installer won't allow you to set it up. Actually, that may not be true. However, you can create external boot disks using narf and blanka's boot manager (see, there's still a use for it!). And we're pretty confident that someone will find a way to do so within Boot Camp as well very quickly.

Run Win XP on a Mac! With Apple software!

2006-04-06T16:45:00.000-07:00

More and more people are buying and loving Macs. To make this choice simply irresistible, Apple will include technology in the next major release of Mac OS X, Leopard, that lets you install and run the Windows XP operating system on your Mac. Called Boot Camp (for now), you can download a public beta today.

Run XP natively
Once you’ve completed Boot Camp, simply hold down the option key at startup to choose between Mac OS X and Windows. (That’s the “alt” key for you longtime Windows users.) After starting up, your Mac runs Windows completely natively. Simply restart to come back to Mac.
What you’ll need

- Mac OS X Tiger v10.4.6 (check Software Update)
- The latest Firmware update (check Support Downloads)
- 10GB free hard disk space
- An Intel-based Mac
- A blank recordable CD
- A printer for the instructions (You’ll want to print them before installing Windows, really.)
- A bona fide installation disc for Microsoft Windows XP, Service Pack 2, Home or Professional (No multi-disc, upgrade or Media Center versions.)

Now would be a good time to invest in Apple.

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Password Recovery Speeds

2006-04-03T21:31:00.000-07:00

This site has some cool info on just how fast your password can be cracked. It shows you it is a very good idea to use numbers and letters in your passwords as well as change them every now and then. With direct access a password could be cracked in hours if its only made up of letters.

A password of 7 letters from this set of letters [0123456789AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz] is pretty save considering that 10,000 brute force passwords/sec would take about 11 years to crack your password. By that time surely you will notice all the 3.5 Trillion login atempts and will probably change it to extend your password lifetime another 11 years haha.

This document shows the approximate amount of time required for a computer or a cluster of computers to guess various passwords. The figures shown are approximate and are the maximum time required to guess each password using a simple brute force "key-search" attack, it may (and probably will) be possible to guess correctly without trying all the combinations shown using other methods of attack or by having a "lucky guess".

New Revolution specs look disappointing

2006-03-30T12:28:00.000-08:00

IGN has posted some new info from sources in the game development industry who supposedly possess official Nintendo documentation and claim to have run benchmarks on the IBM-supplied Broadway CPU and ATI's Hollywood GPU in dev kits that are similar in design to final production units.

the new figure, according to IGN's sources, is a rather pokey 729MHz (compared to 485MHz on the GameCube, 733MHz for the original Xbox, three cores running at 3.2GHz on the 360, and the deified Cell processor in the PS3, although direct comparisons are unfair due to the different architectures). Meanwhile, the supposed 600MHz ATI chip is now speced at only 243MHz (with 3MB of texture memory), which is a decent bump over the 'Cube's 162MHz GPU, and in the same league as Xbox 1's 233MHz. Total RAM is also rather disappointing -- only 88MB -- but all of these numbers, even if true, are totally in line with what the company has been saying all along: rather than fighting a next-gen console war, they want to provide a unique gaming experience based around an innovative controller in a wallet-friendly package.

Bad news for Sony's UMD format

2006-03-30T12:22:00.000-08:00

After word last month that several studios were cutting back on UMD releases or dropping support for the format entirely, it now looks like the discs are about to lose coveted shelf space in America's largest retailer. According to reports, Wal-Mart is expected to stop selling UMDs, though the company has declined to comment on the rumors.

In our opinion the movies on UMD just cost far too much...

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Car that runs on Air

2006-03-28T20:14:00.000-08:00

Motor Development International has developed a car that runs on air. It uses Compressed Air Technology to run the car. The tanks are made of carbon fiber. Great for city driving since it only has a range of about 150km. It takes 4 hours to refill the car with a standard electrical plug or 3 minutes at a compressed air station. Cold air is the only emission which can then run the A/C.

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PS3 Game ScreenShots!

2006-03-26T17:26:00.000-08:00

Despite Sony asking attendees not to take pictures during Phil Harrison's keynote speech at GDC, a member of a Spanish forum managed to sneakily snap pictures of the games that were shown and has now posted his roll online. The photos are blurry and from a skewed perspective, but they give us an early idea of what games like The Getaway, MotorStorm, Resistance: Fall of Man, Ratchet & Clank and Warhawk will look like on PS3 hardware.

We cant wait!

screen shots

Spray on Clothing

2006-03-25T08:12:00.000-08:00

Manel Torres has developed Fabrican, a cotton-fabric that comes in a can. Once sprayed onto your body, the pressurised liquid turns instantly into a fabric. Each squirt from the can sends thousands of cotton fibers splattering against your skin. The fibers then bend together to form a disposable garment that peels away when you undress. Since the fibres are delivered in a diffused form, other elements can easily be added, like perfumes, pigments or treatments.

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DRM shortens battery life 25%

2006-03-16T22:02:00.000-08:00

This is rather funny cause its true. No one likes DRM's and now theres all the more reason. It makes us wonder though? When Apple displays battery life on their websites for their Ipods what is the life measured in? DRM time or ripped/P2P mp3 time haha.

When users take the specifications of an MP3 player into consideration, one very important factor most take into account is the rated battery life. However, as many are aware, the battery life stated is generally the runtime from a full charge in ideal conditions, such as when the player is left playing without any sound enhancements (EQ, bass-boost, etc.), volume set to a moderate level, all music is 128kbps MP3, backlit display goes out within a few seconds and so on. However, according to tests conducted by CNET, they found that while many players met or exceeded their claims, one feature that has a drastic affect on battery life is the infamous DRM.

When it comes to the Creative Zen Vision:M's 14-hour claim, CNET got about 16 hours of playback time with MP3s from a full charge, which was a nice surprise. However, when they tried playing WMA 10 DRM crippled subscription tracks on it, they only got just over 12 hours; a loss of almost 4 hours (~25%) of playback time due to the battery-hungry DRM. CNET found similar results with other players with WMA DRM drastically reducing battery life by up to around 20%. Apple's FairPlay DRM seems to have less of an effect with battery life being reduced by around 8% when compared with MP3 playback.

XP on MacTel is Official!

2006-03-16T21:24:00.002-08:00

Colin Nederkoorn has just verified the solution that the now-famous narf and fellow programmer blanka came up with for dual-booting Windows XP and OS X on an Intel-powered Mac, and announced that all future donations to the project will go towards the open-source work that will evolve from the contest. The method works on the 17 and 20-inch iMacs, MacBook Pro, and new Mac Mini.

download

Windows Vista to be released November

2006-03-14T18:05:00.000-08:00

When Microsoft scrapped Longhorn a while back people thought they would never see this day. Well it looks lik its finally here. We finally have a release date for Windows Vista. November 2006!

This is the year… the year that Microsoft releases the newest version of Windows. We are targeting to make Windows Vista generally available in the second half of this year, and the exact delivery date will ultimately be determined by the quality of the product.. So what is so compelling that our customers would want to spend money upgrading to the Vista operating system? Let’s take a quick look at all that Vista offers a small business.

New Sony PS3 Details!

2006-03-14T17:37:00.000-08:00

Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi finally gave some official details about the PS3 at the PlayStation Business Briefing 2006 in Japan. He confirmed that the PlayStation3 is delayed because the copy protection isn't ready with Blu-ray, but we'll get a worldwide launch in North America, Asia and Europe early (within first 10 days of) November 2006. They will produce the PS3 at a rate of 1 million units per month and should have 6 million units released by march 2007. The final PS3 development kits will be shipping to developers in June 2006.

To prevent piracy all PS3 games will come out on Blu-Ray discs only, not on CD/DVD. Sony also announced that the PlayStation 3 will be 100% backwards compatible with PS1 and PS2 games, and all titles played on the system will be displayed at high-definition resolutions.

The console will of course be able to read PS1 CDs, PS2 DVDs and DVD movies.

The PS3 will ship with a, completely upgradeable, 60GB hard drive right out of the box. Publishers have been told to develop titles with the assumption that the console will have a HD. Kutaragi also said the HD will support Linux OS and will act as a home server where users can store their media on.

The PS3 will include a built-in Wi-Fi connection that can serve as a wireless access point for the PSP.

Sony also unveiled some details of their online plans ('PlayStation Network Platform'). At launch the console will get community tools (lobby matching and voice chat) and commerce features (like in-game shopping and game downloads to the hard drive). The "basic" service will be free of charge.

No pricing details were made. We think that this all sounds a little too good to be true. But if Sony keeps their word the PS3 will have little competition from the xbox360. Even if it costs more...

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Windows Vist wont support EFI

2006-03-09T21:19:00.000-08:00

The news will be a shock for owners of Intel Macs who had hoped they would be able to dual-boot between Windows Vista and OS X. Intel Macs only support booting via EFI. Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) is the modern and flexible successor to the 20-year-old PC BIOS. It is responsible for initialising hardware in the PC, and importantly, device drivers are stored in the EFI flash memory rather than being loaded by the operating system.

Speaking at Intel Developer Forum San Francisco, Microsoft development manager, Andrew Ritz, also revealed that there will never be any support for booting Windows via EFI on systems with 32-bit processors.

Although Microsoft has previously said EFI booting would be supported by Vista, Ritz admitted that EFI support won't be seen in any version of Windows until the release of Longhorn Server.

It will not be available in the release version of Windows Vista later this year – Microsoft says people will have to wait for an unspecified 'subsequent release of Windows client'. Ritz could not say whether that would be a service pack update to Vista or the next-generation of Windows.

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Quake 3 running at 10240x3072!

2006-03-09T21:10:00.000-08:00

Does anyone else thing going above 2 monitors is just ridiculous? This dude has 24!

It's amazing how much more fun games are when you can play them on really large, high-resolution screens. Our lab also has a 24 monitor display wall, and as you can see from the pictures below, I got Quake 3 running on it. The system is driven by 12 linux servers (2 monitors per server) using Distributed Multihead X (DMX) and Chromium. Chromium distributes the OpenGL rendering from the head node to all of the servers. The game runs fairly fast, though some lighting effects had to be turned off and Chromium is having some trouble with the mouse.

Micro Fuel Cell System can run laptop for 48 hours

2006-03-08T20:56:00.000-08:00

We might finally be able to play a 48 hour session of pacman on our laptops without recharging! This technology has been talked about for a while and we are glad to see it finally coming to life.

March 8, 2006 UltraCell demonstrated its UltraCell XX25 micro fuel cell system at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco today. Powered by a reformed methanol fuel cell technology, the UltraCell XX25 is a pre-production unit designed for the military. Beta testing of the XX25 will begin mid-year, and a commercial version, the UltraCell UC25 could be available by the end of this year. The UltraCell UC25 will run a laptop computer for up to two working days on a single methanol fuel cell cartridge and as these lightweight cartridges are also hot-swappable, the UltraCell systems can run indefinitely without any need for electrical recharging.

Crazy 64kb Demos!

2006-03-04T22:04:00.000-08:00

These demos truly have us stunned in the same way a deer is paralized of movement when a car is zooming towards it with its heigh beam's on. These guys are true gods of the asm language to produce such long videos with only 64kb of space to work with.

A demo is a program that displays a sound, music, and light show, usually in 3D. Demos are very fun to watch, because they seemingly do things that aren't possible on the machine they were programmed on.

view demos

Lab made Diamonds by 2008?

2006-03-04T21:53:00.000-08:00

This story caught our eye. Will we truly see the words "Made in china" on something as rare and precious as a diamond soon? Although this technology has many pros the cons of lab made diamonds would be rather high to diamond collectors.

Put pure carbon under enough heat and pressure - say, 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit and 50,000 atmospheres - and it will crystallize into the hardest material known. Those were the conditions that first forged diamonds deep in Earth's mantle 3.3 billion years ago. Replicating that environment in a lab isn't easy, but that hasn't kept dreamers from trying. Since the mid-19th century, dozens of these modern alchemists have been injured in accidents and explosions while attempting to manufacture diamonds.

To grow single-crystal diamonds using chemical vapor deposition, you must first divine the exact combination of temperature, gas composition, and pressure - a "sweet spot" that results in the formation of a single crystal. Otherwise, innumerable small diamond crystals will rain down. Hitting on the single-crystal sweet spot is like locating a single grain of sand on the beach. There's only one combination among millions. In 1996, Linares found it.

How Flickr got started

2006-03-04T21:19:00.000-08:00

Flickr, a gaming project led to photo website. Its funny how things turn out sometimes.

What is Flicker? A photo-sharing site, owned by Yahoo, where users can share full-resolution images with friends, family and the open Internet, in a snazzy, graphically rich setting.
How much? The ad-supported version lets users upload 20 megabytes of photos a month free. That's about 10 to 25 pictures, depending on the resolution. For $24.95 a year, you get an ad-free version, and can upload 2 gigabytes a month.
What else does Flickr offer? Calendars, posters and DVDs of photos.
Another tool: Members can upload pictures and post them on their blogs.

Caterina Fake knew she was onto something when one of the engineers at her Vancouver, British Columbia-based online game start-up created a cool tool to share photos and save them to a Web page while playing.

Fake scrapped the game. She and her programmer husband, Stewart Butterfield, transformed the project into Flickr. In less than two years, the photo-sharing site — now owned by Internet giant Yahoo — has turned into one of the Web's fastest-growing properties.

Amazing Game preview! SPORE

2006-03-04T21:12:00.000-08:00

Yes the video is 35 min long... but we highly suggest you watch it! Will Wright narrates this tech demonstration at the Game Developer's Conference of his new and revolutionary game, Spore. An absolutely amazing and inventive game that seems to have endless possibilities.

We hope to see this game in stores soon!

watch video

PSP Flash Player

2006-02-28T10:32:00.000-08:00

A forum member named 71M seems to have created a Flash player/SWF renderer clone for the PSP and won the PSP SWF player coding contest on PSPHacks.

PSPHacks.net and 71M, in cooperation with RK Digital.net, Heavy.com and Newgrounds.com is proud to present the PSP Flash Player!

The current version supports most action script through version 7 and runs on 1.5 only. We are currently testing for 2.x PSPs and will announce when it is working on 2.x firmwares. If someone gets it working, be sure to let us know.

Source will be released in a couple of days once we get it all cleaned up.

It is still a little bit buggy on flash files which use MP3 sound. PCM sound is fully supported.

MP3 decoding just eats up too much memory right now when decoding the mp3 stream to a raw sound stream so we ask for your paitence.

Also, loading times are being worked on. Basically everything needs to be converted and cached in memory (of which there is not alot available) and this takes a little while.

Consider the current release a "proof of concept" release. Fully functional (smooth video) with a few glitches.

When we release the source, we're hoping to get a few more developers involved with code cleanup and bug fixes.

On the same note, The source is hosted at http://dev.psphacks.net/projects/swfplayer/

We encourage your to sign up and leave bug reports and feature requests (within reason please).

We will be publishing some sample swf files and full specs so people can start converting their flash files over to something a little more PSP compatable.

Compatable SWF files can be uploaded to http://files.psphacks.net, or you can email them to us at webmaster@psphacks.net

Nintendo Revolution SDK Near Finalized, Costs $2000

2006-02-23T11:16:00.001-08:00

Recently, Nintendo of America's Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing Reggie Fils-Aime revealed to tech blog Engadget that over a thousand Revolution controller development kits have been sent out to various studios. In a follow-up story, IGN spoke with developers about these kits regarding their power, price and functionality.

The developers stated that the console's SDK costs a relatively meager $2000. By comparison, the PlayStation 2 SDK was priced about $20,000 per kit at the console's launch. Even the original PlayStation's SDK weighed in between $4000-5000 at the beginning of that system's life span. Notably, the inexpensive nature of the SDK is in line with Nintendo's goal of lowering development costs.

Developers preparing playable Revolution software for E3 2006 will soon be receiving the fourth SDK which should provide 90-95% of the final system's achievable performance. According to IGN's development sources, final developments kits are expected to be made widely available around June of this year.

Studios working on Revolution titles think the console could retail under $200 US, possibly as low as $150!!! If this is true then we believe Nintendo will make a large comeback. Lets keep our fingers crossed =)

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Hubble Confirms 2 New Moons of Pluto

2006-02-23T11:08:00.000-08:00

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have confirmed the presence of two new moons around the distant planet Pluto. The moons were first discovered by Hubble in May 2005, but the Pluto Companion Search team probed even deeper into the Pluto system with Hubble on Feb. 15 to look for additional satellites and to characterize the orbits of the moons.

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Super-Repellent Plastic

2006-02-23T11:00:00.000-08:00

General Electric's company researchers have come up with a way to process a common polymer so that it repels fluid, even drops of honey roll right off. The resulting property is called "superhydrophobicity" -- or extreme repelling of water-based fluids -- beyond even that of a freshly waxed car.

If you've ever despaired over getting the last drop of ketchup or detergent out of a plastic bottle -- or happen to be a microfluidics researcher wondering how you'll ever mass-produce a cheap diagnostics chip -- scientists at GE may have a plastic for you.

While GE is not predicting specific applications yet, a few are theoretically possible. A cheap superhydrophobic plastic could be used in food containers from which every last bit of ketchup or syrup would flow right out. It could also allow for a building panel that repels water so efficiently that rain would wash away dirt -- making it essentially self-cleaning.

7 versions of Vista and 7 versions of Office 2007

2006-02-22T12:46:00.000-08:00

We think that Microsoft is going to have to open a few more positions in India to deal with the customer confusion of having 49 different combinations of Windows and Office.

Microsoft Office 2007 Basic
Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student
Microsoft Office 2007 Standard
Microsoft Office 2007 Small Business
Microsoft Office 2007 Professional
Microsoft Office 2007 Professional Plus
Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise

Microsoft also released some screen shots. We think it looks nice and all but it doesnt quite tie in with the "areo" look of vista.

The 2007 Microsoft Office system products will present a streamlined, uncluttered workspace that minimizes distraction and enables people to achieve the results they want more quickly and easily.

They are planning on utilizing tabs, tabs, and more tabs in Office 2007. Which is good because you can never have enough tabs.

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screen shots

The First Bootable OSx86 10.4.4 DVD

2006-02-22T11:11:00.000-08:00

This disk will allow anyone to install OSx86 on any SSE2 or greater machine! Let me repeat that for you ANY Intel or AMD SSE2 or greater machine!

It looks as if within the next day a fully working 10.4.4 bootable disk will be out in the wild. Even now there is a torrent out there with as much as 1200 leachers!

Right now in my hands I hold one of the first bootable OSx86 10.4.4 disks. This disk will allow anyone to install OSx86 on any SSE2 or greater machine. No, this isn’t a hoax; this disk is real.

Within the last four hours a random 10.4.4 DVD patcher turned up on Usenet. Some OSx86ers caught onto this and started downloading it. After giving the shell scripts a thorough look-over, OSx86ers deemed this patcher legit. Once the disk was acknowledged as the real deal, several OSx86ers began testing this DVD out, including me.

Unfortunately the install hasn’t been going one-hundred percent as planned. The installation takes a while to start and while it does complete, 10.4.4 does not boot for some people. A few lucky individuals have got 10.4.4 to boot without trouble.

Update: My installation succeeded, although I did have a few minor kext errors. With some quick minor repairs this installation will be up and running in no time.

The Phantom Gaming Console is no more... at least for now.

2006-02-22T10:47:00.000-08:00

Prospectus details how Infinium Labs, a would-be PC-game-console-maker, lost $62.7 million in three years and is putting the Phantom on hold.

Infinium Labs is focused on getting its Phantom Lapboard to market, but the cash-strapped company is in need of additional financing.

Last month, the company announced an arrangement for $5 million in funding from Golden Gate Investors. As part of that agreement, Infinium has filed a prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission detailing the company's unprofitable past and laying out its game plan for the future.

From its inception in December of 2002 through September of last year, Infinium racked up $62.7 million in losses. Of that, only $3.5 million has been lost to development costs. The company has spent more than half that in advertising, even though none of its products or services have been released yet. More of the company's money has been going toward consultants ($12.8 million), salaries ($11.9 million), and general and administrative expenses ($5.9 million).

As for how the company plans to reverse its fortunes, the prospectus indicates that, for now, the company is backing off of its Phantom Game Service and focusing on getting its Phantom Lapboard peripheral to market.

When I first saw this thing I didnt believe it and now 3 years later it looks like I was right to be skeptical about it.

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Sony to slap flash memory into new PSP this year?

2006-02-21T11:56:00.000-08:00

Sony plans to add storage to a new (possibly smaller) version of their PSP, starting with 50GB HDD rumors a year ago, but now we're hearing of a possible deal between Sony and Samsung to add 8GB of flash memory to the portable. According to "market sources," Sony has been pressuring Samsung to lower NAND flash prices by toying around with microdrives, but they're really digging on those low-power flash chips and hope to cram 8GBs worth into a new PSP due the second half of this year!

if all this is to be believed, of course. It all sounds rather similar to some Sony/Samsung 8GB dealings that went down last year that we assumed were linked to an iPod competitor in the works, which maybe is still a fair assumption. We sure wouldn't mind a bit of built-in storage in the already media-centric PSP, especially since UMDs are sort of drying up, let's just hope they can get over this Memory Stick addiction and do it on the cheap -- and soon.

PS3 launch, price doubts batter Sony stock

2006-02-21T11:38:00.000-08:00

Share price sinks 3.6 percent on predictions of $900 per-console manufacturing cost, spring 2007 US launch...

Across the United States, most Americans were relaxing this Monday, courtesy of the long Presidents' Day holiday weekend. Not so across the Pacific in the corporate offices of Sony. The electronics and entertainment giant saw its stock price sink 3.6 percent, dropping to 5,300 yen ($45) per share. The fall affected the entire Tokyo stock market, with the Nikkei index dropping 1.75 percent to 15,437.93 yen ($130.57).

Monday's drop follows a 2.8 percent decline in Sony stock on Friday, after Wall Street stock-brokerage firm Merrill Lynch published a report skeptical of the company's next-generation console plans. It predicted the launch of the PlayStation 3 console could be delayed by 6 to 12 months from its current spring 2006 window, resulting in an autumn launch in Japan and a late 2006 or early 2007 launch in the US.

uh oh... we hope that sony pulls through and releases it despite all the negative news lately!

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Which Windows Vista will you run?

2006-02-20T12:50:00.000-08:00

It would seem that Microsoft is about to make life a lot harder for the non-computer savvy users. They are going to have 8 different Windows Vista flavours.

Windows Starter 2007 - Vista without Aero, probably meant for developing nations.

Windows Vista Home Basic - Basic Windows Vista for your single PC fam, doesn't sound like much going on here. Analagous to XP Home.

Windows Vista Home Basic N - European version of the same, but without Media Player (because of antitrust rulings against MS in the EU).

Windows Vista Home Premium - This is the one we're all probably gonna own. It's got Media Center functionality, Cable Card support, the whole home-media shebang.

Windows Vista Business - Think of it as XP Pro, but Vista.

Windows Vista Business N - Think of it as XP Pro, but Vista, but Euro.

Windows Vista Enterprise - Business version of Vista with numerous enterprise features, like Virtual PC, volume encryption, etc.

Windows Vista Ultimate - Love that name. This one does all of the above (and more); what else do you need to know? It's ultimate Windows..

PlayStation 3 costs $800, sez Merrill Lynch mob

2006-02-18T17:17:00.000-08:00

Granted, most of this analysis comes off as estimation and prediction PlayStation 3 is going to cost sony $800 per unit at launch. Doesn't sound unreasonable considering what Sony's trying to get under cram under the hood of this thing. Lynch calls it an "expensive and difficult-to-manufacture product" because of the Cell processor and Blu-ray drive, which account for the lion's share of the backend parts costs.

we'd like to make a prediction of our own: the PS3? She's like Kutaragi's Spruce Goose. Oh she'll fly alright, but at what cost?

Unconfirmed: Revolution Stand Also Power Supply

2006-02-18T16:07:00.000-08:00

According to the Official Nintendo Magazine, the stand for the Nintendo Revolution will double as its power supply.

The U.K. based magazine also mentioned that the oft stated dimensions of prototype Revolution (three DVD cases stacked together) will be the size of the final product and that the "Revolution" code name may change when the system officially releases. The magazine also alluded that The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for GCN will likely have special features when controlled with the Revolution controller, but it said that any specific details would have to wait until a later issue.

We wonder if the power supply being attached to the system is going to cause it to over heat easily?

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ATI covers up false advertising!

2006-02-18T15:55:00.000-08:00

Most of ATI's recent retail products are currently shipping with advertisements claiming that the products are HDCP-ready. On ATI's website, the term HDCP-ready was also used, for example on the X1900 series specifications page. Curiously, ATI's professional products such as FireGL list "HDCP-compliant".

We spoke to ATI and asked it why the terminology difference and what the difference was in its view, between compliance and ready. Unfortunately, we did not receive a sound response to that question. In an interesting turn of events, today ATI has begun to silently remove references to HDCP-ready on its consumer products.

The image above is a screenshot that shows a Google cache of ATI's X1900 specifications page compared to what the specifications page is today. Google's cache clearly highlights the missing HDCP-ready claim that was present since launch. While FiringSquad's article presents a significant problem with ATI's claims of HDCP support, the problems go much deeper than expected.

On a side note we have noticed that engadget seems to have removed the article from their site. Whats going on here?

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China tightens grip on Internet usage

2006-02-16T14:54:00.000-08:00

The Chinese government has introduced new legislation setting tighter restrictions on Internet cafes and entertainment content, including video games, according to an Associated Press report. New regulations prohibit teenagers from entering Internet cafes or karaoke bars, deeming them unfit and potentially corrupting environments for students.

In addition, the establishments will be prohibited from displaying "audio and video products and electronic games" that threaten national security or disparage other nationalities or races. Specifically, the entertainment may not "damage China's unification, sovereignty, or territorial integrity," referring to the dispute over the status of nominally independent Taiwan.

We wonder how this will affect the gold economy in WoW?

read more
www.joystiq.com

Linux Boots on INTEL iMac

2006-02-16T14:35:00.000-08:00

Members of the Mactel-Linux effort today announced that they have managed to boot Linux on a 17-inch iMac Core Duo, and devoted special thanks to one user in particular for his efforts.

Using elilo and a modified Linux kernel, we can boot from a USB hard disk on the 17" iMac Core Duo. We are using the hacked vesafb driver to inherit the bootloader's framebuffer, keyboard and a USB network card work. Gentoo runs and can compile the Linux kernel with a compiler that runs on linux, which was compiled in linux, on a mac running the new intel duo processors.

Things you dont want Google to find.

2006-02-16T14:30:00.000-08:00

Malware authors are increasingly creating digital pests that use Google to find their next victim.

Using the search tool for automated vulnerability detection is the latest trend in a technique known as "Google hacking".

"Hacking Google" isn't exactly new. That is, using the search engine to look for confidential information. But as McAfee's senior vice president for Risk Management George Kurtz demonstrated today at RSA conference, that didn't prevent users and organisations to post those goodies online for anyone to find.

"You almost get bored finding all these password files. It used to be fun in the old days when you found a password file. Now you just go to Google and find thousands of them," Kurtz said.

read more
www.digg.com

Windows XP tweaks

2006-02-16T13:45:00.000-08:00

When Windows XP is initially installed there are far too many annoyances to deal with. Most of which can be disabled or removed. This article has a lot of how to's on most of the annoying things you might want to disable or enable after a fresh installation. He shows lots of screen shots and has clear explanations to how to tweak what ever it is you want to tweak. Defiantly worth a read! here are some of the things mentioned in the article.

Get rid of the Tour prompt
The "Take Tour of Windows XP" prompt can drive you mad.

Get rid of the MSN Passport creation prompt
Windows XP can drive you nuts with the idiotic Passport reminder balloon.

Restore my Desktop icons!
XP hides you regular desktop icons. I don't know why, but some sick mind in Seattle thought that a desktop without Internet Explorer, My Computer, My Documents and the My Network Places icons looks nicer.

Copy the I386 source folder to your HD and change the source path
If you installed XP from your CD then whenever it needs a source file (such as when you add an un-installed feature) it will ask you for the CD. You can make life easier if you just copy the I386 source folder from the CD to a partition on your HD.

Delete Temporary Internet Files (and make the temporary storage space smaller)
By default, IE uses a lot of storage space for temporary Internet files. Today, with the availability of broadband connections, storing old and cached content is not a must as it was in the old modem-days. Make that folder smaller. Also, we want to clear up the content of the folder each time we close XP, just to make things right.

Configure IE to download more than 2 concurrent files
IE 6 has a nasty habit of preventing us from downloading more than 2 files at once. Sounds idiotic? Believe it or not, it's true! To configure IE to allow up to 10 simultaneous downloads (it only allows 2 at a time)

Configure a larger number for the grouping of Taskbar buttons
XP will group similar opened windows into one nested Taskbar buttons. This can be quite annoying when you have multiple windows and you want to easily see which windows you need to work with.

Get rid of the Hibernation support
XP auto-enables hibernation support on your machine. Although this might be a good thing on a portable computer, you do NOT need it on a desktop machine. Furthermore, a very large file called HIBERFIL will take a lot of space on your system partition (as big as your installed RAM), and we really don't need it to be there if we don't require the hibernation support.

Customize Windows Explorer views and buttons
MS thinks that viewing a folder's contents with super-huge icons is cool. I don't. MS thinks that it's cool to only have a few irrelevant buttons on the Explorer's toolbar. I don't. MS thinks that you don't need the Status Bar in Explorer. I do.

Add a the Quick Launch toolbar
The Quick Launch toolbar was a good thing. We had it on since Active Desktop in Internet Explorer 4.01, and really got used to it in W2K. I use it all the time. I don't know why the MS folks thought I didn't need it anymore. I do.

Add a Command Prompt option to the default Explorer right click context menu
One of the musts! This option enables you to right-click on a folder within Windows Explorer and choose the Command Prompt - which opens a Command Prompt window with that folder as your active directory.

Install the Microsoft Powertoys suit
The Microsoft Powertoys are small tools/gadgets from Microsoft that enhance Windows. Powertoys have been around since windows 95 and are a must for power users. Read more about them on the Microsoft Powertoys Suit page.

Add Local Area Connection icons to your system tray
Instead of right-clicking the Network Places icon and then re-right-clicking your LAN icons - make these icons appear on your system tray area for quicker access to the LAN and protocol settings (such as changing TCP/IP settings).

Disable the Memory Dump file creation
Unless you plan to have continuous Blue-Screens-of-Deaths (BSOD) and unless you have good debugging skills - you don't need the memory dumping feature in case of a system failure.

Disable the Error Reporting option
I don't want Microsoft to know about the errors I have (if any) on my system You don't either. Disable this option and stop those annoying pop-up screens that ask you if you want to report this or other error to Microsoft. Read more about it on the Turn-Off Error Reporting in Windows XP/2003 page.

Disable the Fast User Switching mode and the Welcome Screen (Workgroup only)
The Microsoft design team thought that it would be nice if 2 or more people could share the same computer while not disturbing one another's running applications. This is called Fast User Switching and the Welcome Screen - and I hate it. One reason is that it hogs down your system resources. Fast User Switching is available only when the Welcome screen is turned on. Read more about it on the Disable Fast User Switching in XP Pro, Disable the Welcome Screen in XP Pro and Bypass the Welcome Screen in Windows XP Pro pages.

Disable the administrative shares
Microsoft has the bad habit of auto-sharing the roots of your partitions as C$, D$ and so on. It will also create shares of your WINNT folder and call it ADMIN$. I don't need these shares, especially because of their security threat. The problem is that although they are only accessible by members of the Administrators group, they cannot be simply removed, as at the next reboot they will re-appear!

Set the location of the My Documents folder
My Documents is usually located under the C:\Documents and Settings folder, in a sub-folder named with the same name as your username. I usually move the location of My Documents to another physical disk, on a partition called D:\Documents. Why? Simply because that way I don't need to worry about ever formatting my C:\ drive and loosing precious information. I run a daily backup of my D:\Documents drive and burn images of my important information to CD. If for any reason I need to format C:\ and re-install - I only need to copy some minor files and updates and I'm done.

Configure the Pagefile (virtual memory) location
XP, as W2K and NT before, make use of up to 4gb of address space. Even if you don't have that much RAM available, XP will allocate and use parts of your hard disk in the form of a very large file called PAGEFILE.SYS. Read the Pagefile Optimization page for more info. One quick tweak you can use is to move the Pagefile from it's default place - the System partition - to a different HD (if you have one).

Configure Remote Desktop access
XP comes with a Terminal Service called Remote Desktop. Read the What's Remote Desktop in Windows XP/2003? page for more info. I want to be able to remotely connect to my computer via the Internet or LAN.

Create a Send To Notepad and Send To MAPI shortcuts
This is one of my favorite tweaks, and it will amaze you how you lived all these years without knowing it (or did you? you wouldn't be here if you did...)

Enable EFS Encryption by right-click
You can tweak Explorer to have a new right-click add-on and thus to quicken your clicking.

Restore the W2K-style search window
Windows XP has a sick and ugly search window which not only slows down your system but also personally makes me sick (not to mention that sorry-looking excuse of a dog they have there...)

Install the ISO Burner PowerToy
If you have a CDR-W on your XP computer, you should also try the ISO burner PowerToy to enable ISO file-burning as a native XP command.

ISO Recorder PowerToy is a UI component that allows to use CD-Recording capabilities of Windows XP to record ISO images and copy CD to CD - a piece of functionality missing in Windows XP. The ISO Recorder itself does not record CDs but instead uses existing OS features. This software works on Windows XP only!

You can use this tool to record ISO images. Right-click on an ISO file and select "Copy Image to CD". The wizard will open up. The file name should appear in the "File name" edit box.

You can use this tool to create ISO images. Right-click on a CD drive icon in My Computer and select "Copy CD to Image File".

You can also use this tool to copy CDs. Right-click on a CD drive icon in "My Computer" and select "Copy Disk to CD".

read more
www.digg.com

Inside look at Newegg.com

2006-02-15T21:25:00.000-08:00

A nice look at the inside of Newegg.com. The anandtech.com website had a tour of the company and facility. An impressive automated shipping section.

Established in 2001, Newegg has quickly become a household name among AnandTech readers. They originally won the hearts of many readers by offering extremely competitive prices and keeping customer service a top priority. Since their humble beginnings the company has grown tremendously, with net sales in 2005 of approximately $1.3 billion, a 30% increase over the prior year. Newegg currently stocks over 60,000 different products and ships up to 25,000 orders per day, 98% of them within 24 hours.

On a recent trip to Los Angeles we were given the opportunity to take a tour of one of Newegg's warehouses. While we've been able to tour Newegg's facilities in the past, this time they let us publish pictures and take you on a virtual tour of their facilities

Microsoft says new motherboard = new licence agreement

2006-02-15T21:21:00.000-08:00

Microsoft recently made a change to the licence agreement saying that a new motherboard is equal to a new computer, hence you need to purchase a new Windows licence.

An upgrade of the motherboard is considered to result in a “new personal computer” to which Microsoft® OEM operating system software cannot be transferred from another computer. If the motherboard is upgraded or replaced for reasons other than a defect, then a new computer has been created and the license of new operating system software is required.”

The reason Microsoft gave for this term is that “Microsoft needed to have one base component “left standing” that would still define that original PC. Since the motherboard contains the CPU and is the “heart and soul” of the PC, when the motherboard is replaced (for reasons other than defect) a new PC is essentially created.

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www.digg.com

Spammer jailed for 376 years

2006-02-14T15:39:00.000-08:00

I don't know what is funnier about the article, 376 years in jail for an email scammer or that you could murder 5 ppl and still have less jail time then this guy...

A Nigerian 419er was last Friday jailed for 376 years by a Lagos court for "stealing, forgery, impersonation and conspiracy to obtain money by false pretences" contrary to the Advance Fee Fraud Act, the Nigerian Daily Independent reports.

Harrison Odiawa, 38, aka Abu Belgori, managed to extract $1,939,710 from US national George Robert Blake on the promise of a percentage of a bogus $20.45m Ministry of Health contract. The classic advance fee scam saw a duped Blake transfer the "advance payments" after seeing forged documents - including a certificate of registration with the Corporate Affairs Ministry and the aforementioned forged Ministry contract - which convinced him he was indeed about to get rich. Blake raised the cash from his company, Quest Exploration and Development, and his own personal assets.
Judge Joseph Olubumi Oyewale ordered him to pay back $1.6m to his victim. He said he hoped the sentence would serve as a deterrent to others.

ouch...

read more
www.slashdot.org

Windows Defender Beta 2

2006-02-14T15:31:00.000-08:00

Microsoft has just released Windows Defender Beta 2 for Windows XP. This product was orginally available as Windows Antispyware.

Specific features of Windows Defender Beta 2 include:

A redesigned and simplified user interface
Incorporating feedback from our customers, the Windows Defender UI has been redesigned to make common tasks easier to accomplish with a warning system that adapts alert levels according to the severity of a threat so that it is less intrusive overall, but still ensures the user does not miss the most urgent alerts.

Improved detection and removal
Based on a new engine, Windows Defender is able to detect and remove more threats posed by spyware and other potentially unwanted software. Real Time Protection has also been enhanced to better monitor key points in the operating system for changes.

Protection for all users
Windows Defender can be run by all users on a computer with or without administrative privileges. This ensures that all users on a computer are protected by Windows Defender.

Support for 64-bit platforms, accessibility and localization
Windows Defender Beta 2 also adds support for accessibility and 64-bit platforms. Microsoft also plans to release German and Japanese localized versions of Windows Defender Beta 2 soon after the availability of the English versions. Use WindowsDefenderX64.msi for 64-bit platforms.

screenshots
www.digg.com

PayPal: Not as safe as you think!

2006-02-14T15:13:00.000-08:00

Chris Dotson baught a $3268 camera off ebay from a seller with 130+ positive feedback. After paying for the camera he found out that the seller didnt actually own the camera and was therefore scammed out of $3093.

I did everything you would do when checking out a buyer. The seller had a decent number of feedback (130+). At the time, her feedback was public (she has since made it private after another victim posted a negative) and she had no negative feedback within the last year.You might be thinking, "Did you pay with PayPal?" Like you, I thought that I was protected by paying through PayPal. Sadly, I was gravely mistaken... PayPal has a standing 10 day waiting period on disputes. If the seller wants to fight, they have ten days to reply. Needless to say, this seller never did not fight. I received an email from PayPal saying they had settled in my favor and had deposited $175 in my PayPal account. No, that's not a typo. They paid me one hundred and seventy five dollars. The max they pay on standard eBay insurance is $200 minus a $25 fee that they charge to the "winner" of the dispute. "But can't you buy extra insurance through PayPal?" Yes you can, if the seller has a high enough feedback rating and it's offered. Even still, they only pay you an added $1000... I spoke with PayPal and as they explained it, if the money is still in the seller's account when you post a dispute, they freeze that money until the dispute is settled. If it's settled in your favor, then they transfer the money to your account. If there is no money in the seller's account, then you're just screwed.

I really hope he gets his money back. If theres anyone that can help this dude out please go to his blog and post a comment.

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www.digg.com

Sneak peek!

2006-02-13T15:45:00.000-08:00

Heres a sneak peek at our new photoncube layout template. The new template will allow us to post not only articles but tutorials and other useful information. We will put it up as soon as our domain points to this site and we get the CSS ready. Hopefully soon :)

Bart's Preinstalled Environment Version 3.1.10 released

2006-02-13T10:44:00.000-08:00

What is BartPE and PE Builder? Bart's PE Builder helps you build a "BartPE" (Bart Preinstalled Environment) bootable Windows CD-Rom or DVD from the original Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 installation/setup CD, very suitable for PC maintenance tasks. In other words its a *Windows* operating system that runs right off the CD. You can even surf the web with it!

If you have an unbootable Windows computer, or want to run a virus or spyware scan to repair Windows, or perhaps want to save some files off the hard drive before re-installing/formating the hard drive you can use BartPE.

This great utility allows you to boot a stripped down version of Windows right from a CD. It has a file management utiltiy, so you can boot off the CD and browse the hard drive, copy/delete files (to a USB flash drive or external hard drive, for example). You can run a virus scan or adware removal program, or simply create an image of the hard drive for backup. There are hardware diagnostics and file recovery programs- perhaps you've deleted a file by mistake and emptied the recycle bin: You could launch your Bart CD and use one of the file recovery plugins to bring it back from the dead, without the fear of overwriting the file. You can even run programs from Bart, as long as they are standalone executables that do not require registry entries and such.

Real Transformer?

2006-02-12T21:01:00.000-08:00

The Himeji Soft Works developed WR-07 bot is a fully functional wheeled vehicle that TRANSFORMS!

*crys* we know you want one!

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Playing games may keep your mind agile

2006-02-12T20:01:00.000-08:00

A new study of 100 york university undergraduates in Toronto has found that video gamers consistently outperform their non-playing peers in a series of tricky mental tests.

The ability to switch quickly between tasks and block out irrelevant information was key to these tests, and similar results have also been found on those who are bilingual. Further studies into bilingualism have shown that as people age, the rate of cognitive decline tends to be slower for bilinguals--the implication is that video games may help your brain age gracefully.

No one is certain how this translates to general learning or everyday life. But psychologist Ellen Bialystok, a research professor at York University, suspects video gamers, like bilinguals, have a practised ability to block out information that is irrelevant to the task at hand.

read more
www.joystiq.com

MIT Researchers Fired Up About Battery Alternative

2006-02-12T18:44:00.000-08:00

Their research has produced methods to use vertically aligned single-wall carbon nanotube structures to create cheap, efficient, long-lasting ultracapacitors -- cells capable of delivering large (or larger, relatively speaking) amounts of energy without all the fussiness of chemical batteries, like the temperature, discharge, explosion, and safety issues.

Just about everything that runs on batteries -- flashlights, cell phones, electric cars, missile-guidance systems -- would be improved with a better energy supply. But traditional batteries haven't progressed far beyond the basic design developed by Alessandro Volta in the 19th century.

Work at MIT's Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems (LEES) holds out the promise of the first technologically significant and economically viable alternative to conventional batteries in more than 200 years.

Gmail for your domain

2006-02-12T16:08:00.000-08:00

This special beta test lets you give Gmail, Google's webmail service, to every user at your domain. Gmail for your domain is hosted by Google, so there's no hardware or software for you to install or maintain.

read more
www.digg.com

True 3-D Monitors Invented with Revolutionary Technology

2006-02-12T16:06:00.000-08:00

A new device developed by Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology uses lasers to project "real" 3D images into the ether. A special projector can cast three-dimensional shapes of white light between 2 and 3-meters into the air -- previous devices only tricked the eyes into thinking the image was 3D.

read more
www.digg.com

Thinking about registering a domain? Don't check if it's available!

2006-02-12T16:01:00.000-08:00

NetworkSolutions, and other domain registrars are actively checking their whois search log and registering any good domains they find.

I am in the process of setting up a new website. I have been planning it for a week or so now. A few days ago I visited a certain domain name seller to check on the availability of a domain. It came up as available. Super...I thought. Quite a good name there. However......

Today I came to set up the name and hosting for the new website. And what do you think I discovered? The domain name was purchased 2 days ago. And who is the name registered to? The exact same domain name seller I searched the term on on the first place!

Coincidence? I THINK NOT!

You cannot even begin to imagine how mad I am!

read more
www.digg.com

MS Anti-Spyware Deleting Norton Anti-Virus

2006-02-12T15:58:00.000-08:00

Apparently, a recent update to Microsoft's anti-spyware application flags Norton as a password-stealing program and prompts users to remove it.

Microsoft's Anti-Spyware program is causing troubles for people who also use Symantec's Norton Anti-Virus software; apparently, a recent update to Microsoft's anti-spyware application flags Norton as a password-stealing program and prompts users to remove it.

According to several different support threads over at Microsoft's user groups forum, the latest definitions file from Microsoft "(version 5805, 5807) detects Symantec Antivirus files as PWS.Bancos.A (Password Stealer)."

When Microsoft Anti-Spyware users remove the flagged Norton file as prompted, Symantec's product gets corrupted and no longer protects the user's machine. The Norton user then has to go through the Windows registry and delete multiple entries (registry editing is always a dicey affair that can quickly hose a system if the user doesn't know what he or she is doing) so that the program can be completely removed and re-installed.

read more
www.digg.com

Remove Norton completely safely

2006-02-12T15:54:00.001-08:00

This little program I stumbled upon, when ran, will dump all traces of your Norton programs :) They say its only to be used when you can't uninstall it (corrupted install). I say, use it anyways, and get rid of all the extra registry stuff that the regular uninstall doesn't take care of ;)

SymNRT is a program that can remove some Norton software from your computer. SymNRT runs on Windows XP/2000/Me/98.

read more
www.digg.com

photoncube

2.33 GHz Core Duo 17" MacBook Pro this Sunday?

Potato Powered Sound System

Illegal Number?

High-Tech way to Defrost

Google Calendar BETA Up!

Matrox Triplehead2Go

Leaked PSone Emulator Pics for PSP

Boot Camp: First Impressions

Run Win XP on a Mac! With Apple software!

Password Recovery Speeds

New Revolution specs look disappointing

Bad news for Sony's UMD format

Car that runs on Air

PS3 Game ScreenShots!

Spray on Clothing

DRM shortens battery life 25%

XP on MacTel is Official!

Windows Vista to be released November

New Sony PS3 Details!

Windows Vist wont support EFI

Quake 3 running at 10240x3072!

Micro Fuel Cell System can run laptop for 48 hours

Crazy 64kb Demos!

Lab made Diamonds by 2008?

How Flickr got started

Amazing Game preview! SPORE

PSP Flash Player

Nintendo Revolution SDK Near Finalized, Costs $2000

Hubble Confirms 2 New Moons of Pluto

Super-Repellent Plastic

7 versions of Vista and 7 versions of Office 2007

The First Bootable OSx86 10.4.4 DVD

The Phantom Gaming Console is no more... at least for now.

Sony to slap flash memory into new PSP this year?

PS3 launch, price doubts batter Sony stock

Which Windows Vista will you run?

PlayStation 3 costs $800, sez Merrill Lynch mob

Unconfirmed: Revolution Stand Also Power Supply

ATI covers up false advertising!

China tightens grip on Internet usage

Linux Boots on INTEL iMac

Things you dont want Google to find.

Windows XP tweaks

Inside look at Newegg.com

Microsoft says new motherboard = new licence agreement

Spammer jailed for 376 years

Windows Defender Beta 2

PayPal: Not as safe as you think!

Sneak peek!

Bart's Preinstalled Environment Version 3.1.10 released

Real Transformer?

Playing games may keep your mind agile

MIT Researchers Fired Up About Battery Alternative

Gmail for your domain

True 3-D Monitors Invented with Revolutionary Technology

Thinking about registering a domain? Don't check if it's available!

MS Anti-Spyware Deleting Norton Anti-Virus

Remove Norton *completely* safely

Remove Norton completely safely