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Desktops (Apple)

Submission + - Apple's Woz Has Harsh Words for Open Source (eweek.com)

Submitted by buzzardsbay
buzzardsbay writes: In a rollicking interview with eWEEK magazine, Apple guru Steve Wozniak dishes on Jobs, the iPhone and, ultimately, open source, saying: "There's always a group of people that wants to undo the forces of industry that have given us so much in terms of wealth, and there's always people who want things to be free. The open-source movement starts with those sort of people." Woz does concede that open source has "good points that have nothing to do with whether it's free or not." And he was wearing a nixie-tube watch, so how much can you really dislike him?
Education

OLPC Announces Buy-2-Get-1 XO Laptop Sale 360

Posted by Zonk from the seems-like-a-fair-deal-to-me dept.
theodp writes "Starting November 12, The One Laptop Per Child Project will sell its affordable XO laptop to Americans for a brief period of time, but there's a slight catch: U.S. buyers must purchase two computers — one for their own child and one for a child in the developing world — for a total cost of $399. 'Staff members of the laptop project were concerned that American children might try the pared-down machines and find them lacking compared to their Apple, Hewlett-Packard or Dell laptops. Then, in this era of immediate global communications, they might post their criticisms on Web sites and blogs read around the world, damaging the reputation of the XO Laptop, the project staff worried. So the laptop project sponsored focus-group research with American children, ages 7 to 11, at the end of August. The results were reassuringly positive.'"
Graphics

Real-time Raytracing For PC Games Almost A Reality 292

Posted by Zonk from the hard-not-to-love-reflections dept.
Vigile writes "Real-time raytracing has often been called the pinnacle of computer rendering for games but only recently has it been getting traction in the field. A German student, and now Intel employee, has been working on raytraced versions of the Quake 3 and Quake 4 game engines for years and is now using the power of Intel's development teams to push the technology further. With antialiasing implemented and anisotropic filtering close behind, they speculate that within two years the hardware will exist on the desktop to make 'game quality' raytracing graphics a reality."
Portables

Submission + - Laptop uses lid as radiator (theinquirer.net)

Submitted by gigantu'
gigantu' writes: The Inquirer runs a story about a new cooling method for laptops shown at IDF Fall 2007. Compal presented a laptop that uses its lid as a radiator. Heat is transfered trough a special hinge to a radiator sitting behind the TFT. This method can dissipate the heat from a 17W CPU. Not a lot, but enough to get a silent fan under normal usage.
Graphics

Submission + - Real-time raytracing for PC games almost a reality (pcper.com) 1

Submitted by
Vigile
Vigile writes: "Real-time raytracing has often been called the pinnacle for computer rendering for games but only recently has it been getting traction in the field. A German student, and now Intel employee, has been working on raytraced versions of the Quake 3 and Quake 4 game engines for years and is now using the power of Intel's development teams to push the technology further. With antialiasing implemented and anisotropic filtering close behind, they speculate that within two years the hardware will exist on the desktop to make "game quality" raytracing graphics a reality."
Graphics

Submission + - Real-time raytracing for PC games almost a reality (pcper.com)

Submitted by
Vigile
Vigile writes: "Real-time raytracing has often been called the pinnacle for computer rendering for games but only recently has it been getting traction in the field. A German student, and now Intel employee, has been working on raytraced versions of the Quake 3 and Quake 4 game engines for years and is now using the power of Intel's development teams to push the technology further. With antialiasing implemented and anisotropic filtering close behind, they speculate that within two years the hardware will exist on the desktop to make "game quality" raytracing graphics a reality."
Space

Submission + - Falcon HTV-3X hypersonic cruiser tested

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne have successfully tested a sub-scale combustor for a dual-mode ramjet engine. This could power the Falcon HTV-3X (financed by DARPA) hypersonic cruiser to Mach 6 and beyond. With the Dual-mode, the engine can function both at subsonic speeds and then speed up to supersonic scramjet speeds (greater than Mach 5). This engine technology was developed for Lockheed Martin's Falcon Combined-Cycle Engine Technology (FaCET) program.
Portables

Submission + - The pocket-sized Vista PC (hexus.tv)

Submitted by unts
unts writes: The UMPC is still struggling to find its feet, but companies are still pushing forwards with new designs and increased power. OQO has come forth with the e2 UMPC, which has a 1.6GHz CPU, 1GiB RAM and support for either regular or solid state hard drives. The e2 weighs 450g and will fit in your pocket. Of course, how comfortable it'll be is another matter. HEXUS.tv has footage of the e2 and HEXUS.net has an article on the tiny PC.
Communications

Submission + - New Nokia phone uses UMA to make calls 2

Submitted by
Gary
Gary writes: "Nokia 6301 the latest from the Finnish mobile giant is the worlds first phone to offer voice and data mobility across GSM cellular and WLAN networks via Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) technology. With UMA technology, the consumer can use the GSM network or a broadband Internet-connected WLAN network for mobile services. This can ensure excellent indoor coverage both at office and home. The consumer can have one multi-mode handset that works everywhere with enhanced and easy-to-use voice services. And, WLAN/UMA provides excellent coverage and sound quality, even in areas where mobile phone reception has previously been poor."
Intel

Submission + - Asus Intel X38 Express Chipset Board Hits Market (hothardware.com)

Submitted by
MojoKid
MojoKid writes: "It seems indeed Intel's X38 Express chipset has arrived. Here are pics hot off the press of the new Asus P5E3 Deluxe Motherboard — WiFi AP edition. Emblazoned on the box is a hot pink "supports 45nm CPU" symbol suggesting Penryn is also just around the corner. Interesting notables are the stickers covering the CPU socket and PCIe slots from the retail packaging — claiming functionality like the "EPU" or Energy Processing Unit and Asus Express Gate for internet access in 5 seconds without entering Windows. Probably the most interesting are the board's dual X16 PCI Express 2.0 slots, here in blue"
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - The most cringe-worthy tech ads ever (cnet.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: We're now in the days that include tech ads that don't suck horribly. CNet has rounded up the very worst tech ads we've seen over the last pair of decades and bunched them together for us to pity.

"The tech industry has a rich and hilarious history of being unable to promote itself as anything other than unutterably dorky. Originally we were going to call this 'The top ten worst tech ads', but as we hunted around we discovered these are pure gold. They are shockingly bad, but you'll derive so much pleasure from watching them it didn't seem right to use 'worst' anymore.
Television

Submission + - NBC Joins ABC in Allowing Free Show Downloads (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by reabbotted
reabbotted writes: From Gizmodo, "NBC just announced free DRM'ed downloads of popular shows like Heroes, Conan, The Office, 30 Rock and the Bionic Woman that will last a week. Windows now, but upgrades such as Mac compatibility, HD, and portable player support coming soon." Do they finally get it?
Operating Systems

Submission + - Can Open Source Hardware Take Off? (earthweb.com) 3

Submitted by
jammag
jammag writes: "This sort of trippy article, Open Source Hardware: Birth Of A Long Tail Market?, wonders if someday we can't all be hardware designers. The answer is probably no, but the author is gung-ho: "What if the creation of computer hardware became as individualized — as free from corporate control — as open source software?" He lays out a futurist scenario in which this happens. Hey, why not? Let's all design our own Wi-Fi jet pack with a clock-radio feature!"
Space

Submission + - WorldView-1 Satellite Launch Successful (physorg.com)

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "The latest and greatest imaging satellite has been launched & is now circling some 300 miles above the earth. The company DigitalGlobe will be launching WorldView-2 late next year. The amount of data the first satellite is capable of harvesting is staggering, from the article: 'WorldView-1 was designed to collect up to 290,000 square miles' worth of imagery a day — an area about the size of Texas. Information gathered by the 5,000-pound probe can be used by governments and companies to assess damage after a natural disaster or plan escape routes before a catastrophe, the company said. It is expected to be in operation for about seven years.'"
United States

Submission + - Detecting Terrorism From Facial Expressions (msn.com)

Submitted by
Cyansoft
Cyansoft writes: "The Washington Post reports that the TSA is training airport screeners to detect lawbreakers and terrorists by their behavior, specifically signs of "stress, fear and deception", and such behaviors as traveling without bags, sweating, nervous, being "out of place", or avoiding "eye contact or veer away when police approach". Since January 2006, the TSA has detained 40,000 persons for extra screening, in which 300 were arrested for various charges. The TSA plans to train 1000 screeners in behavioral detection techniques and deploy them to more than 40 airports nationwide by the end of this year. Such techniques include "micro-facial expression" training, which "determine[s] when the slightest facial movement is masking a lie." Additionally, the government is testing devices that can see through clothing."

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