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Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft closes in on the XO laptop (technet.com)

Submitted by
gihan_ripper
gihan_ripper writes: "Microsoft is gearing up to put XP on the '$100' XO laptop, at least according to the BBC, which gives an expected timeframe of "early in 2008" for the first trials. However, the blog of Microsoft exec James Utzschneider paints a different picture. To quote: 'We started the project around the beginning of the year and think it will be mid-2008 at the earliest before we could have a production-quality release.' The major challenge is shrinking the behemoth XP and assorted applications to fit on the 1GB flash drive. MS is pushing for the OLPC to install an additional 2GB. Utzschneider claims the advantage for children is that '...the tens of thousands of existing educational applications written for Windows can potentially run on the XO'."
Announcements

Submission + - 'Lifesaver bottle' filters out viruses (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by
gihan_ripper
gihan_ripper writes: "British inventor Michael Pritchard has developed a small self-contained filter system that instantly cleans water, removing all particles larger than 15nm. Speaking to the Telegraph, he said that he was inspired after seeing the effects of Hurricane Katrina and the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004; people had to wait for many days to get fresh water and many died from drinking contaminated water. The filter is so effective that it can purify dirty river water and even faecal matter. His bottle will shortly be available for sale from Lifesaver Systems at an expected cost of £190 (approx. $385)."
Toys

Submission + - 'Flying saucers' to go on sale soon (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
gihan_ripper
gihan_ripper writes: "Perhaps the ultimate nerd acquisition, the flying car, is to go on sale in a few months. Speaking to the BBC, the inventor Dr Paul Moller described his creation, dubbed the Flying Saucer, as a VTOL aircraft designed to hover at 10ft above the ground. The flying saucer has eight engines and is expected to sell for $90,000. Dr Moller expects to produce a successor within six years, a "Skycar" capable of a climb rate of 6000 ft/min and airspeed of 400mph."
Censorship

Submission + - Wikipedia pages edited by CIA, Diebold (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
gihan_ripper
gihan_ripper writes: "A new search tool has been used to correlate IP addresses and Wikipedia entries. As reported by Wired, the startling results show that Diebold edited Wikipedia to remove connections with President Bush. Likewise, the BBC reports that a Democratic Party computer was used to edit Rush Limbaugh's page, labelling him "idiotic", "racist", and "a bigot". Finally, the Telegraph writes that members of the CIA were found to have edited the entries of Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon. This is all reminiscent of the storm that arose in January when Microsoft paid a programmer to "correct" its Wikipedia page."

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