Hitachi Global Storage Technologies now has a hard drive upgrade alternative for notebook computers that is so simple, most users will be able to increase their notebook hard disk capacity and restore their operating system, applications, and data. The upgrade includes a replacement internal hard drive, a case to convert allow the existing hard drive to be used as an external USB drive, cables, tools, and step-by-step instructions
Traditionaly screws are poorly suited to many applications, because they displace the material they’re being screwed into, causing brittle substances like plastic and concrete to crack. Now, for the first time in decades, Kenneth LeVey, a stubborn engineer at Illinois Tool Works, has created a radical new design for screws that solves this problem — via BoingBoing
Google has confirmed they are rolling out their wifi network, first in the San Francisco bay area. They are also including a Secure Access programme for use in conjunction with this
CubeSat is a program at Stanford and California Polytechnic State University to assist college and high school students and companies in building their own tiny satellites and launching them into low Earth orbit. The satellites are tiny — they weigh a kilogram and generally measure about 10cm on each side — but they cost far less than conventional commercial satellites. A CubeSat unit costs roughly $40,000 to build and only $40,000 to launch. As part of the program, Cal Poly takes care of the bureaucratic and logistical hurdles. By contrast, a conventional satellite can run between $150 million and $250 million to build and $100 million to launch
Mailinator, the free, temporary e-mail service gets a lot of spam; over a million e-mails a day. And with another cool application of Google maps, the site now shows a Spam Map indicating what sites are spamming mailinator in almost real time. It’s oddly addictive to poke around and see where the spam is actually coming from
Toshiba has developed two small fuel cell prototypes that can dramatically increase the playing time for mobile music players. A fuel cell unit the size of a pack of chewing gum can power a flash-memory-based player for about 35 hours on a single charge, using highly concentrated methanol as its fuel. For a hard disc drive system, a fuel cell unit the size of a person’s palm could let the player run for 60 hours on a single charge. Toshiba hopes to introduce the products commercially in 2007
A full clone of Super Mario Brothers has been implemented in Javascript.
If that doesn’t light your fire, try Lemmings in DHTML
Planned Parenthood in Philadelphia came up with an ingenious way to fight back against anti-choice fundamentalists who block clinic doors and harass workers and patients. The idea: hold a fund drive in which donors give cash for each protestor that shows up. The more there are, the more money Planned Parenthood receives. And, let the harassers know how much their presence is helping the clinic raise funds — via Warren Ellis
Using satellite images from Google Maps and Google Earth, an Italian computer programmer has stumbled upon the remains of an ancient villa. Luca Mori was studying maps of the region around his town of Sorbolo, near Parma, when he noticed a prominent, oval, shaded form more than 500m long. It was the meander of an ancient river
Microsoft has unveiled Microsoft Expression, a suite of Web site design and graphics software that enables .Net developers to handle tasks similar to those that users of corresponding software from from Adobe Systems and Macromedia have performed for years. I expect it to be the nightmarish, bastard child of Publisher and Frontpage
In the first case of its kind, US Magistrate Judge James Orenstein chastised the US Department of Justice for trying to constantly track a mobile user’s location without providing any proof of criminal behaviour. Their Patriot Act surveillance request was denied — via Politech
IP Address Typo Leads to a False Arrest
Brian and Sarah Doom were shocked when police showed up at their Wichita home accusing them of child pornography. But the police had the wrong house, based on mistaken information from the
Dooms’ ISP, Cox Communications, who typed in an IP address different from the one provided
by police — via Politech
This is the golden age of the internet, a time of glorious anarchy where information is free and anyone, rich or poor, can blog their views to the world. But government and big business are moving in — the clampdown has started
Google BlogSearch beta is out. Clean UI, fast responses, not yet such a great index, but it is getting there. That’s what you should find in the much-awaited new Google service. Some say Technorati and friends have been having nightmares about this very day
PC World spills the beans about a bunch of things technology companies would rather you didn’t know, including the lowdown on exploiting Windows’ bad security, unlocking mobiles, using an iPod to move music and useless specs. Nothing groundbreaking, but might be a good primer for the non-techie in your life — via Slashdot
A USB device called imFONE allows you to use your existing mobile as a VoIP. You simply plug the device into your PC’s USB port, pair it via Bluetooth to your phone, and you’re ready to go. Unfortunately it only works on a select few mobiles — via Gizmodo
There could soon be a new player in the telecommunications industry with Tasmanian energy company Aurora Energy and Mitsubishi Electric announcing a joint trial. The companies have launched the first commercial trial of broadband over power lines (BPL) in the Southern Hemisphere. The technology relies on existing power lines and connection is as easy as plugging a modem into a household power point. Aurora’s Piero Peroni says the new technology is faster than phone line and wireless services
eBay agreed Monday to pay at least $2.6 billion for Internet-telephony company Skype Technologies SA in a deal that a deal that confounds many analysts not just for the lofty price tag but also for what some consider the companies’ dubious compatibility. Skype — founded by the creators of Kazaa, the free music-sharing program that riled the music business — gives away software lets people talk for free over the Internet using computers and microphones. A paid version, SkypeOut, allows those calls to be connected to regular phones
Apple stuff vs. anything always stirs some heated debate between the 2 camps. This one, Dell, have they no shame? is no different.
I’m glad to see that Dell monitors can finally compete with well, any ones basically. Majority of our office is Dell workstations with the worst cheap ass LCD monitors, and by the looks of it, the worst cheap ass graphics and video cards. People were actually asking for their previous cheap ass CRT ones because they couldn’t find a setting that wouldn’t ghost, or give them a headache.
I however managed to get a lovely Apple Cinema Display. I am the designer, I have to make judgements based on colour, placement and pixel perfect-edness both for screen and print on a day to day basis, so I refused to toil no longer on under par graphics cards, coupled with bad screens with colour casts you can’t get rid of. No I didn’t demand an Apple Cinema Display, but it was on the list of possibles, and I got lucky.
I don’t intend for this to turn into a Dell/Intel vs. Apple thing, (though it probably will, and especially after this: I’ve worked on a Dell laptop before, and it was very clunky and slow and bloody irritating and GRRRR! It’ll be a cold day in hell, before my CPU becomes a Dell!*).
I love my monitor, I’ve had it for almost a year now, I love it’s crystal clear-ness, I love it’s out of box colour accuracy, I love it’s wide screen proportions, I love how it looks, and yes, I am pre-disposed to the way of Apple.
I haven’t seen this new breed Dell monitor in real life, but hey, maybe it’s worth a look-see as a lower cost design quality monitor at home…
*Pre-emptive-anti-stoopid-comment-tactic: Yes I specifically stated the CPU part, not the monitor. Don’t comment and say this part and the last are inconsistent.
Read it again!
A new architecture for a nanomemory chip could boost the capacity of flash memory cards to around 100GB. Engineers from Imperial College London, Durham University, and the University of Sheffield report on their prototype, called Magnetic Domain-Wall Logic — via BoingBoing
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