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Feed Engadget: Russia launches three GLONASS navigation satellites (engadget.com) 1

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, GPS

It's a bit behind schedule, but Russia's GPS-challenging GLONASS satellite navigation looks to have just taken a fairly big step forward, with three satellites now on their way into orbit after hitching a ride on a Proton-K booster rocket that blasted off from Baikonur, Kazakhstan earlier today. According to Reuters, this is also the first launch of a Proton-K rocket since launches were suspended in September, after a booster failed and spilled highly toxic fuel into the Kazakh countryside. No word if Russia still expects the entire GLONASS system to be ready by 2009 as it has said earlier, but it has five more satellites to launch by the end of the year if it wants to keep up the pace it set out for itself.

[Photo courtesy of RussiaToday]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Google

Submission + - Looking for gPhone clues in Google patent (news.com)

Submitted by iced_tea
iced_tea writes: What do Google patents say about the company's possible plans for a Google phone?

This image shows a diagram from a patent filed June 30, 2005 and published October 12, 2006, called "Non-Standard Locality-Based Text Entry." The inventor is listed as Shumeet Baluja, a senior staff research scientist at Google, and the assignee is listed as Google.
The invention would allow an English speaker, for example, to use the keypad of any mobile phone to enter Chinese characters, according to Google patent scrutinizer Stephen Arnold.

Microsoft's XO Laptop Strategy 242

Posted by Zonk from the jigga-whaaa dept.
gbulmash writes "Microsoft is spending a 'non-trivial' amount of money to get Windows XP working on the OLPC project's XO laptop. But why? Despite the conjecture that the Linux-based XO could convince millions of people in the developing world that they don't need Windows and build a huge base of developers for Linux, there still remains the question of how Microsoft would convince owners of XO laptops to buy and install Windows XP over the functional Linux-based OS already on it. It's doubtful that Microsoft could encourage or coerce Negroponte to put XP on the machine, so whose arms will they twist?"
The Military

Submission + - $2 Million on table for greatest robot racer (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "Thirty-five driverless vehicles will race over hill and dale as well as faux city intersections next weekend in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( DARPA) Urban Challenge held on a former airbase in California. The National Qualification Event will take place at the same location this weekend October 26-31, 2007. DARPA says its third-annual Urban Challenge program has the lofty goal of developing technology that will keep soldiers off the battlefield and out of harm's way. The Urban Challenge features autonomous ground vehicles maneuvering in a mock city environment, executing simulated military supply missions while merging into moving traffic, navigating traffic circles, negotiating busy intersections, and avoiding obstacles. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/21131"
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - The day the Routers died (secret-wg.org)

Submitted by
Raindeer
Raindeer writes: "The RIPE 55 meeting has just concluded. There was much debate on what to do on the imminent depletion of the unallocated IPv4 pool in 2010. We could do nothing or we could create a market place and facilitate transfer of IP-adresses, but it's all a train wreck waiting to happen. This is best shown however by a beautiful song "The day the routers died" also available on Youtube written and performed by Gary Feldman. So please all upgrade to IPv6 soon, or else you will not get 40Gbit/s to your mother."
The Courts

Submission + - Internet tax held off for seven more years (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by
Christopher Blanc
Christopher Blanc writes: "With the ban on taxing Internet connections set to expire at the end of October, both houses of Congress are taking action. Last night, the Senate passed a bill that would extend the 1998 Internet Tax Freedom Act yet again, this time for seven years. A version of the legislation passed by the House earlier this week would only extend it for another four years.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071026-senate-passes-internet-tax-moratorium-extension.html"
Networking

Submission + - Beware of Virtual Sprawl

Submitted by
Absalom621
Absalom621 writes: "You would think this isn't suppose to happen with virtualization, but companies are beginning to report virtual server sprawl. The same virtualization software that's supposed to cut costs and improve capacity through server consolidation is now beginning to show signs of having too many virtual machines that are...guess what...under utilized and unmanaged, says Baseline magazine. http://preview.baselinemag.com/article2/0,1540,2207853,00.asp"

Feed Engadget: Panasonic showcases in-dash Blu-ray head unit (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: HDTV, Transportation

Car AV enthusiasts, listen up. Panasonic has a new in-dash head unit that just might be worth waiting for -- if you'd enjoy Blu-ray in your dash, that is. At the Tokyo Motor Show in Japan, Panny was busy showing off a new single-DIN unit that played back Blu-ray discs, sported an HDMI output and is even set to support full surround sound / BD-Java. Unfortunately, that pretty much sums up the details: no price, no release date and no model number, but be sure to check out two more looks posted after the break.

[Via Blu-ray]

Continue reading Panasonic showcases in-dash Blu-ray head unit

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
The Internet

Submission + - Sticker Shock on Colocation Price Hikes (datacenterknowledge.com)

Submitted by
1sockchuck
1sockchuck writes: "Analysts say data center customers are complaining about "sticker shock" from recent colocation price hikes by major providers. Demand for data center space has skyrocketed since 2004, when customers with three-year colo contracts negotiated their last deals. At that time, the industry was beginning to emerge from a major slump, as overbuilding and bankruptcies by Exodus, WorldCom and AboveNet meant tons of cheap data center space and lots of bargaining power for colo shoppers. Not so today, as demand is strong in prime markets like northern Virginia, New York/New Jersey and Silicon Valley. Providers are also citing rising power costs as a factor in the price hikes."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - James Randi's Prize Remains Unclaimed. Again... (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by glavenoid
glavenoid writes: As you may remember, earlier this month James Randi offered up his $1,000,000 JREF prize to Pear Audio if they could prove their $7,250 speaker cable offered better sound quality than less expensive Monster brand Cables. After initially calling Randi's offer a hoax, Pear CEO Adam Blake decided to let double-blind testing proceed per equitable terms. However, Pear Audio has now withdrawn from the test.
Mozilla

Submission + - Sunbird/Lightning 0.7 released 1

Submitted by bergwitz
bergwitz writes: Mozilla Sunbird is a standalone calendar application and Lightning is a integrated calendar for Thunderbird. The new 0.7 version has a new UI and some bugfixes. Download from the Project Homepage, read about the release on the calendar weblog or the Rumbling Edge. The most notable new feature is in the UI with the new Today panel for Lightning. The worst is that the Google data provider extension breaks, but a new version is available here.
NASA

Submission + - NASA telescope gets advanced network technology (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "A new network interface will let one of NASA's advanced space telescopes look more deeply and accurately into the cosmos. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope — slated to be launched in 2013 — will be getting a network interface called "SpaceWire" which is a standard for high-speed links and networks for use onboard a spacecraft. The telescope is a 21st century space observatory that will look back more than 13 billion years in time to understand the formation of galaxies, stars and planets and the evolution of our own solar system, NASA said. Technically the low-power SpaceWire is a packet switching network that uses worm-hole routing switches for routing packets across the network. Worm-hole routing was adopted because it minimizes the amount of buffer memory needed in the routing switches, an important consideration for implementation in radiation tolerant chips where memory is at a premium. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/21120"
The Military

Submission + - Military VR Sim Is Closest Thing to Real Halo 3 (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by jesusdiazblanco
jesusdiazblanco writes: This is the ultra-high resolution multi-projector VR system that will be used for training at the Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. Built by Lockheed Martin, it uses Mersive Sol Server technology to automatically and seamlessly combine multiple projectors in one gigantabolous immersive display, thanks to camera-based fully-automatic calibration, edge blending and color correction. Instead of using complicated calibration procedures which can take weeks to complete, Sol uses a robotic camera to obtain reference points. After the screen is mapped in less than an hour, the Sol Server software corrects for geometric distortion, intensity and color variation in overlap regions that result from using multiple overlapping projectors on the spherical surface of the dome. Someone at Nellis please connect an Xbox 360 to this.

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