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A New Wireless Power Transmission Sheet 126

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the electric-blanket dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "Several companies have started to sell power 'pads' that can charge your cellphone when you put it on the pad's surface. But these silicon-based pads are expensive — and relatively 'specialized.' Now, Japanese researchers have built a plastic sheet which could power all the devices placed close to it. So far, this 4-layer sheet, which uses printed organic transistors and plastic MEMS switches, can deliver up to 40 watts of power — enough for some laptops. The technology is apparently efficient and inexpensive to produce. But as the devices to recharge will need to incorporate a special receiver, don't expect to see these plastic power sheets on sale before several years."
Games

Submission + - PE Classes Using DDR to Combat Obesity

Submitted by
carrett
carrett writes: "Schools are trying a new measure to combat the obesity epidemic in this country: let the kids play DDR. It seems to make sense, DDR is, for many, especially youngsters, much more fun than the traditional sports. Who knows, maybe soon tons of families will be going to the local DDR competition."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - UPS' Unlabeled Liability Forms: 'Just sign it!'

Submitted by
Rich
Rich writes: "A popular blogger on LiveJournal recently posted a hilarious but scary story about UPS' very real practices of sending uninformed drivers to people's doors with unmarked damage liability forms after packages are damaged or lost in transit. You sign this form, and you've just accepted responsibility for the loss. I work at a Geek Squad, and they've tried to do this to me at least twice. Another friend of mine was almost put out of business after he absentmindedly signed one of these and ended up having to pay for two of the same $10K item. This is ridiculous, considering that UPS' insurance deductible is tiny, and they're worth more than $45B. Anyway, here it is: UPS' Form of Mystery"
Encryption

Submission + - Phone Taps in Italy Spur Use of Encryption

Submitted by manekineko2
manekineko2 writes: This article on the New York Times discusses how a recent rash of high profile mobile phone taps in Italy is spurring a rush towards software encrypted phone conversations. Private conversations have been tapped and subsequently leaked to the media and have resulted in disclosures of sensitive takeover discussions, revelations regarding game-fixing in soccer, and the arrest of a prince on charges of providing prostitutes and illegal slot machines. An Italian investigative reporter stated that no on would ever discuss sensitive information on the phone now. As a result, encryption software for mobile phones has moved from the government and military world into the mainstream. Are GSM phones in the United States just waiting for a similar explosion in the use of commercially-availble wiretapping technology, and could this be the impetus to finally see widespread use of software encryption in communications?

Feed VIDEO: State Of The Wii (pheedo.com)

From feed by thfeed
Ben Meyer and Rob Wright of twitchguru.com analyze the early success of the Nintendo Wii, as well weaknesses that could hamper the console in the future.

Feed Car dealership uses Asterisk VoIP to stay on "cutting edge" (newsforge.com)

From feed by nffeed
O'Brien Automotive Team is a large car dealership conglomerate based in Peoria, Ill. When the company built new headquarters recently, it needed a phone system flexible and cost-effective enough to satisfy the needs of 200 employees at the home office, and hundreds more staff at nine local dealerships in four states. After evaluating options and wrangling with incompetent vendors, O'Brien went with an open source Asterisk solution.
Operating Systems

Submission + - Self Booting Games?

Submitted by pentalive
pentalive writes: Most games available now require you to leave the CD in the CD-ROM drive, Most machines available today can boot from CD-ROM? Why doesn't anyone market games that boot directly from their CD-ROM (using something like Ubuntu behind the scenes as the OS). I don't play FPS or MMORG (I play roller coaster tycoon mainly), you who do, do you play Diablo and also edit "that report" in word at the same time? Doom and Excel? Put the CD in and reboot the machine to play the game, Who cares what OS it runs when it's "working". What do you think? good idea?
Announcements

Submission + - Ten Games You Should Never Play Drunk

Submitted by
John
John writes: "Whether you're pounding some beers with friends at home, or capping off a night of drunken revelry, there are a few fun games that lose their appeal when your blood alcohol content grows. Here's some otherwise fun games that aren't recommended for when you're three sheets to the wind. http://www.games.net/article/netten/1/115262/barf- ten-games-you-should-never-play-drunk&AFC-HSUIT&AT TR=DIGG"
Microsoft

Submission + - Vista crippled by content protection

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: PC users around the globe may find driver software is stopped from working by Vista if it detects unauthorised content access. Peter Guttman, a security engineering researcher at New Zealand's university of Auckland, has written A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection. He reckons Vista is trying to achieve the impossible by protecting access to premium content. Users will find their PCs' compromised by the persistent and continuous content access checks carried out by Vista.

http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?news ID=7675

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