Meet the Computer Zoo

HardwareSecrets has written an article on how to protect your computer system against animals. They say the heat inside a computer makes at a quite attractive place for several animals like ants, cockroaches and even mice!



More strange things at HardwareSecrets.

This actually reminds me about the origin of the 'computer bug'. A long time ago when computers were still huge machines a bunch of scientists were surprised their computer started malfunctioning. After a closer inspection one of them noticed a small moth caused the problem..

RSS? Podcasting? Phishing? Never heard of!

The more tech savvy web users will known what terms like RSS feed, podcasting, phishing and adware mean but many Americans don't have a clue about the meaning of these words.

A recent survey from Pew Internet & American Life Project concludes American consumers are slow to grasp the significance of new technologies.

The most well known terms was 'spam', 88 percent of the respondents knew what it meant. The least known term was 'RSS Feeds' because only nine percent had a clue about the meaning.

Some more numbers:

• Firewall: known by 78 percent
• Spyware: known by 78 percent
• Cookies: known by 68 percent
• Adware: known by 48 percent
• Phishing: known by 29 percent
• Podcasting: known by 13 percent

A total of 2,001 American adults were interviewed. More info at BetaNews.

SMS Guerilla Projector - projecting SMS messages on the go

Core77 found out about the SMS Guerilla Projector from Troika Studio.

This home made device enables users to project text based SMS messages in public spaces, inside cinames, shops, houses, in streets, onto people, ...

The picture on the left is the SMS Guerilla Projector. Troika claims there is a constant demand for this device and they are preparing a new enhanced version which will be distributed as a limited edition.

Here are a few funny photos of the SMS Guerilla Projector in action. Looks nice but I can imagine some nasty things may happen when this device comes into the wrong hands ;-)

Online music market is booming

IFPI released now figures on legal music downloads and reports the market tripled in the first half of this year. Sales in 1H 2005 in the UK, France and Germany accounted for 180 million tracks, compared to only 157 million during the entire last year.

IFPI chairman John Kennedy concludes people are increasingly stepping away from illegal filesharing services and are spending money on the Web to download songs. Although he still warns the battle against pirates isn't over yet..

He claims P2P networks account for 900 million illegally copied tracks, a three percent rise on last year. More details at VNU Net.

Samsung launches two new multifunctional laser printers

Samsung today unveiled new laser printers for small and mid-sized offices. The new 3-in-1 SCX-4321 can print, copy and scan, and the SCX-4521F can also transmit fax messages. Both models are designed to be compact, making them ideal for professional small and mid-sized workgroups, according to Samsung.

To increase work efficiency, Samsung adds the "Favorite Copy" button, which lets you to select the preset copying mode most often used. The SCX-4521F series also boasts enhanced copy functions such as "ID Copy" (double sides), Clone Copy, and Auto Fit.

Featuring Samsung's unique "Push & Save" technology, SCX-4321 and SCX-4521F provide the exceptional low maintenance cost, another attraction for small and mid-sized companies. Samsung's proprietary one-touch Toner Save button enables reduced toner consumption by up to 25% at the touch of a button.

The SCX-4521F series can print and copy up to 20 pages per minute (A4) while retaining superb image quality. In addition, the series is ready to send faxes via its build-in 33.6 Kbps modem. A 150-sheet cassette and 16MB memory are standard. By using SmarThru4 software, which bundles software for Samsung Multifunction Products, you can send a FAX document directly from your PC and use OCR function, as well.

Alienware presents mid-tower cases

Alienware presents us new Intel-based Area-51 3500 systems and AMD-based Aurora 3500 systems with sleek mid-tower cases. The company equipped the cases with acoustic dampening features to eliminate annoying noises and also incorporated convenient front-accessible microphone, headphones, FireWire and USB ports. Another feature is the large front grill that allows extra airflow.

Developed from the ground up through customer inspired innovations, Alienware now empowers the user to choose between the new mid-tower chassis and the well-known, unique full-tower chassis. Available immediately on the Area-51 3500 and Aurora 3500, the mid-tower chassis will also soon be available on Alienware's powerful gaming systems, including the Area-51 4500, 5500, and 7500, as well as the Aurora 5500 and 7500.

Featuring several advancements designed to enhance system performance and stability, the Alienware mid-tower chassis includes a locking door that folds neatly to the side to ensure the protection of vital information stored through drives and ports. With numerous front-accessible ports, users can easily connect a microphone, headphones, or peripherals that utilize FireWire and USB ports. The new case also comes equipped with cutting-edge acoustic dampening to significantly diminish system noise, and is designed to help prevent overly hot system temperatures with an enhanced ventilation design.

Mozilla updates Firefox and Thunderbird to 1.0.6

Last week Mozilla released Firefox 1.0.5 and Thunderbird 1.0.5 but these versions quite messed up compatbility for extensions and web applications so today they deliver version 1.0.6 of Firefox and Thunderbird.

Download is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

You can get Firefox here and Thunderbird here.

Yesterday, Asa from Mozilla claimed Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 will fuel new Firefox growth as the company won't release IE7 for Windows 2000 and older. He believes businesses will likely switch to Firefox instead of buying Windows XP. The first beta versions of Internet Explorer 7 should arrive soon.

HP lays off 14,500 people

Corporations are seldom nice and today there's another splendid example of this as HP announced new plans to save $1.9 billion annually. They also say the new plan will drive growth and increase business performance. Over the next six quarters the company will lay off almost 10 percent, or 14,500 employees from its regular full-time staff.

Starting in 2007 the company hopes the save $1.6 billion in labor costs and $300 million in benefits savings. For next year the company expects savings of $0.9 billion to $1.05 billion. The majority of the workforce reductions will come in support functions, such as information technology, human resources and finance.

The company will invest about half of the savings to offset market forces or reinvest in itself to strengthen HP's competitiveness. More details regarding HP's plans can be found here. Some time ago HP published its Q2 2005 financial results. They posted a record second quarter revenue of $21.6 billion and a GAAP operating profit of $1.2 billion.

Phase One stunts with 39MP digital camera

Phase One announced some new digital cameras but the most impressive is the Phase One P45 which features a stunning 39 megapixel sensor. This results in 117MB file sizes per shot!

They claim this camera is aimed at world's most demanding commercial photoghrapers.

More details here. Not really something I'm craving for, I'm still quite happy with my 2-year old 4 megapixel Canon PowerShot S45. Although I might go for a dSLR within the near future..

BMW presents night vision technology for BMW 7 Series

A South African site talks about a new technology from IBM that may save many lives. The new night vision technology will help drivers to see better at night. The new BMW 7 Series will be the first car to feature this infra-red night vision system and also features a new high-beam assist function to make night driving safer.

The car is equipped with a thermal imaging camera that covers a distance of up to 300m in front of the vehicle. The warmer the object the more bright it will display on the display, so drivers will be able to see people, animals and objects at night.

The camera is mounted behind impact-resistant glass and a fine grid in the left front bumper. It has a resolution of 320x240 pixels and registers heat radiated by people and objects in a waveband of 8 to 14µm. Below 80km/h the camera covers 36° and above 80km/h it covers an angle of 24°. During steering it moves up to 6° left or right and during high speeds drivers will be able to activate a digital zoom to enlarge more distant objects by 50 percent.

This is a very exciting technology which I hope will greatly increase road safety.

I'm also very fond of the high-beam assist which will be available for the BMW 5, 6 and 7 Series by the end of 2005. As a bike driver I'm often blinded by bright lights from cars so I hope this new technology will resolve this annoying issue.

The system identifies the headlights and rear lights of vehicles, as well as the ambient road lighting. High beam is automatically switched on in the absence of vehicles on the road ahead or oncoming traffic when the road is poorly lit.

Is time travel realistic?

Amos Ori, a physicist of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, came up with a new time machine design that is more practical than previous. This one doesn't require exotic conditions and materials but uses normal matter and vacuum.

Ken D. Olum of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., is skeptical that Ori's concept could succeed. Until now, scientists have called for using prodigious amounts of an exotic entity known as negative energy, which theorists expect to exist only in minuscule quantities, for time machines. In 1992, Stephen W. Hawking of Cambridge University in England proved a theorem that rules out time machines built without negative energy, Olum notes. Ori counters that Hawking's analysis involves certain conditions that don't apply to his concept.

Read more about the theory over here.

AMD's new TV commercial

AMD has a new TV commercial featuring Lance Armstrong. As it is very rare that AMD produce a TV commercial AMD Zone uploaded a WMV video of it for download.
You can find the download over here.

Is spyware really such a problem?

A few hours ago I checked out my teenage sister's computer. She has it for about six months and when she got it I spend some time to protect it against all the crap on the internet.

I installed a free antivirus solution and also the free Zonealarm firewall. Then I also installed some anti-spyware programs like Spybot S&D, Microsoft Anti-spyware and Lavasoft Ad-aware. I used Spybot's advanced features and Spywareblaster to prevent spyware and advised her to update these programs frequently.

Windows XP also gets patched automatically so that also boosts her security. Until now she hasn't been infected with spyware yet. So this should be a splendid example that when taking the right precautions it is hard to get hit with spyware.

If you take the kind of precautions like I described, don't visit strange places on the web (or stop visiting them) and don't click YES on every popup then you should be quite safe on the web. Another tip; if you want to download a new free program but you aren't sure if it contains spyware you might want to do a search on Google (or any other search engine). If you see many people have problems with it you may be better of by installing an alternative.

But what does amazed me is that she uses three (yes three!) search toolbars in Internet Explorer. I don't see the point of running the Google, Yahoo and MSN toolbar all together but she doesn't seem to know how to disable them.

I guess there may me many other people who don't know how to disable toolbars in Internet Explorer so here's a short simple guide. It's really simple:

First you startup Internet Explorer
Right click in the toolbar section and you'll get a small menu which lists all toolbars.
Just click on the ones you want to disable.

That's it.

Digital rights management has gone too far

DRM sucks.

I totally agree that content providers have the right to protect their work but now I learned about a new technology in Microsoft's Windows Longhorn called PVP-OPM.

Basically it comes down to this: to watch protected next-generation high-definition content you'll need to have a 'secure' display and there is a very high change that you will need to buy a new one. Oh and it's not only MS that will feature this as its a new industry standard. Lots of other companies like Toshiba (HD-DVD) and possible also the Blu-ray camp will do the same. Don't count on Apple Mac OS X, they will likely do the same. Content providers simply demand this new DRM system.

The new Protected Video Path - Output Protection Management gives content providers the right to prevent video from playing on your system if your monitor doesn't support HDCP. And contrary to televisions, almost no computer screen currently supports HDCP. If you are lucky, the content provider may provide you a crappy low-quality version.

Sheesh, if I actually buy a next-generation movie then I want to see it in it's full glory. If I want to watch it on my computer so be it. I don't want to be confronted with crappy messages that my expensive and perfectly working hardware isn't "secure" enough. This is utter bullshit. When will the industry ever learn that incorporating new anti-piracy technologies like this won't help them?

They only piss of users, and that surely doesn't boost sales.

Extreme joysticks - it's a bloody chainsaw!

I've seen a lot of joysticks but never have I seen something like this.


A Californian company called NubyTech has come up with a controller for the upcoming PS2 game Resident Evil 4.

Like you can see on the right is is designed as a chainsaw.

Unfortunately there isn't an option to make the chainsaw move but users are able to produce a chainsaw-like roar by triggering a rip cord.

More info here.

Google employees are food freaks

I just saw an article at Slashdot which mentions a recent press tour at Google HQ.

Surprisingly (or should I say evidently because with Google you can expect everything..) the tour didn't share lots of information about Google's products and financial performance. Instead the reporters learned lots of interesting details regarding Google's employees:

Thus, at a recent “factory tour”, the press learned that Google's engineers, in an average month, consume 2,300 lbs (1,043 kg) of chicken, 1,600 lbs (726kg) of coffee beans, 500 lbs (227kg) of pasta, and 112 lbs (51kg) of wheatgrass. They also heard about the sock collections of certain executives. At an event for equity analysts in February, Google did roll out the “CFO”, but he was the chief food officer (ie, chef), Charlie Ayers, who talked about his grilled pork tenderloin. The chief financial officer was there somewhere, but did not actually give a presentation.

So that's Google's real secret to churning it so many great products ;)

One third of medical studies don't hold up

I just read over at CNN that some researchers investigated 45 highly publicized studies published in three major medical journals between 1990 and 2003.

Subsequent research contradicted results of seven studies -- 16 percent -- and reported weaker results for seven others, an additional 16 percent.

That means nearly one-third of the original results did not hold up, according to the report in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.

Interesting.

Apple's Intel-based systems to be impressive

If we can believe recent reports from developers then we can expect Apple's upcoming Intel platform will be impressive.

Developers who have benchmarked the Intel-based dev kit from Apple claim Mac OS X runs a lot faster on this system than on a Power Mac G5 system with a dual 2GHz PowerPC processor from IBM.

Rosetta, a binary translator which will enable users to run old PowerPC applications on the new x86 Mac platform, also promises a lot. It's still an early test version but developers claim it is able to run old PowerPC apps with only a 30-35 percent performance reduction. Some native PowerPC programs like Firefox even take little to no speed hit.

It looks like Apple's future Mac systems, fuelled by the success of the iPod, will be able to capture a bigger share of the computer market.

Firefox 1.0.5 fixes 12 security leaks

Mozilla released Firefox v1.0.5 on Wednesday.

This release for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux patches twelve security leaks and addresses a few stability issues.

You can find it at http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/all.html

Intel's future looks bright

I saw Intel's roadmaps yesterday and they look pretty bright.

Especially Conroe will mean a new evolution I believe. Conroe is a member of the new Merom family, this is a new architecture which is based on the Pentium M design. This means that Conroe will mean the end of the Pentium 4 Netburst architecture.

One of the major advantages will be its low power consumption, it's rumoured that the maximum Thermal Design Power (TDP) of the desktop Conroe is only 60W! Current top models like the Pentium D 840 have a TDP of 130W. So with Conroe Intel plans to seriously cut power consumption.

I wonder which consequences this will have for heatsink manufacturers, these processors won't get as hot as the previous generations so some of those extreme air cooling solutions will soon be a bit overkill. But since the Conroe will run cooler it may also be easier to overclock this chip..

If everything goes will Intel will introduce the Conroe in the second half of next year (or maybe in 2007). It's expected to be a dual-core 65nm part with 4MB L2 cache, Intel's Virtualization Technology, Lagrande, Intel Active Management Technology 2 and others.

Somewhere in 2007 we can expect Conroe's sucessor, the Nehalem. Years ago Intel claimed the Nehalem would reach the magic 10GHz mark but these plans changed dramatically. Intel's isn't doing the GHz race anymore and the Nehalem will be based on the Conroe design. One of the new things is that Nehalem will replace the FSB with the new CSI infrastructure.

Apple was clearly pleased with Intel's roadmap. Here's a recent quote from Steve Jobs regarding the switch to x86 processors:

"Intel processors provide more performance per watt than PowerPC processors do. When we look at future roadmaps, mid-2006 and beyond, we see PowerPC gives us 15 units of perfomance per watt, but Intel's roadmap gives us 70. And so this tells us what we have to do."

Lets hope that AMD's roadmap plans are as cool as those from Intel..