dazlari - Slashdot User

Submission + - New "Air Mouse" Freespace motion-control L (blogsome.com)

Submitted by

Matthew Erwin

on Saturday July 14, 2007 @08:57PM

Matthew Erwin writes: "Logitech MX Air Mouse http://dailytech.blogsome.com/2007/07/14/logitech- mx-air-mouse/ New release of Logitech MX Air Mouse Freespace motion-control, gesture command, and wireless. Offers new way to navigate your computer easily. Unlike ordinary mouse, you don't need to put the Logitech MX Air Mouse on the table to make it work. You can use Logitech MX Air Mouse from the comfort of your bed (it works just like TV remote controller), absolutely sounds great... Logitech MX Air Mouse adopted new technologies to make this mouse works like a magic: Freespace motion-control, gesture command, and wireless. The suggested price for Logitech MX Air Mouse set at $149.99 and will come to America (as Beckham did) next month. [Logitech MX Air Mouse]"

Japan to Tax All Unlicensed Wireless Devices? 75

Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday July 13, 2007 @06:48AM from the that's-a-lotta-tax dept.

Chicken Ranch writes "It's not just about wireless networking. This tax would apply to a range of devices from WLAN to RFID to Cordless Phones to Remote Control Cars. Basically, if it operates in an unlicensed band, the government wants a tribute. So would they still call it an 'unlicensed' band?"

Submission + - HD DVD outsells Blu-ray in Europe (hdtvinfo.eu) 1

Submitted by

Xbm360

on Friday July 13, 2007 @03:03AM

Xbm360 writes: "HD DVD players have a bigger market share then Blu-ray players in Europe according to a HD DVD lobby group. http://www.hdtvinfo.eu/content/view/61/1/ Although these figures seems very positive for the European DVD lobby group, these figures doesn't reflect the sales of the cheapest Blu-ray player; the Playstation 3, because the research does only reflect the stand-alone players."

Submission + - NVIDIA Demo: Ultra Realistic Human Head

Submitted by

Bozdemir

on Sunday May 27, 2007 @04:43PM

Bozdemir writes: "Finally we will able to control real-like characters, Nvidia unleashed a new technology, this is a nice proof of what will the future games will look like, ultra realism ! It is a new epoch ! Take look at the screen shots. (These are real time screen shots, not a render of hours-long processing :) ) , this is a demo made for GeForce 8800 Ultra, you may learn the details from the demo site of Nvidia. Check out it now ! http://www.buraak.com/2007/05/24/nvidia-demo-human -head/"

Submission + - Wal-Mart to sell Dell computers

Submitted by

ATMD

on Sunday May 27, 2007 @11:22AM

ATMD writes: "The BBC is reporting that Wal-Mart is to start selling low-end Dell machines in stores in the USA, Cananda and Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, few further details are given at the moment. Whatever happened to "you can't buy Dell in the shops"?"

Submission + - 644 Horsepower, 350 Mile Range Electric Vehicle

Submitted by the.fukin.man on Sunday May 27, 2007 @11:10AM

the.fukin.man writes: Zap the people behind bringing Smart cars to the US. Have made the best prototype vehicle ever." A combination of the lightweight aluminium vehicle architecture, a new efficient drive and advanced battery management systems is intended to enable a range of up to 350 miles between charges, with a rapid 10-minute recharging time. An auxiliary power unit is planned to support longer distance journeys. The good news for sports enthusiasts is the performance courtesy of a killer power-to- weight ratio. — four in-hub electric motors, deliver 161 bhp apiece, which add together for 644 horsepower in all wheel drive mode, and capable of powering the ZAP-X to a top speed of 155mph." Suck it oil. http://www.gizmag.com/go/6780/

Submission + - Make an open source brain machine

Submitted by

ptorrone

on Saturday May 26, 2007 @07:29PM

ptorrone writes: "Here's a video and PDF on how to hack your brain by making Mitch Altman's Brain Machine! (Mitch is the inventor of the TV-B-Gone). The brain machine flashes LEDs into your eyes and beeps sounds into your ears to make your brain waves sync up into beta, alpha, theta, and delta brainwaves. The project builds on another open source project. Mitch used Ladyada's open source MiniPOV (persistence of vision kit) — switched out LEDs and added new capacitors, resistors and then rewrote the firmware to make it into a brain machine."

Submission + - Why Gnu-Linux will soon be THE gaming OS.

Submitted by dcrockerjr on Saturday May 26, 2007 @05:54PM

dcrockerjr writes: After graphics and sound rendering what is the biggest gaming processor hog: AI & path finding. Enter Nvidia's announcement that their graphics cards can be used as an extra processor when not used for graphics. Consider that Gnu-Linux is already used in high end multi-processor supercomputers and blades, and has a lead over windows in making use of extra processors. Add a motherboard manufacturer thats willing to put around 7 graphics card slots on a board. Now add an open source project for AI & path finding acceleration as a GPLv3 alternative to CUDA. Hence: Gnu-Linux THE gaming OS. Nvidia may also find themselves in competition with creative for audio acceleration. In the other corner, as rig prices rise, IBM or Sun could partner with AMD to bring low end blades to gamers. Imagine games like Starcraft with no unit limit... less scripted more responsive games... Links: http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php/id;99052718 6;fp;16;fpid;0 http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/1582455.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUDA http://developer.nvidia.com/object/cuda.html

Submission + - The Price of Flights to Perth, Australia.

Submitted by

ideataxi

on Saturday May 26, 2007 @05:21AM

ideataxi writes: "The price of Flights to Perth, Australia, over the last 10 years have dropped considerably. This is predominantly because Australia is in the top 3 countries, for Brits to emigrate to each year. Migrationwatch UK state that there are presently 5.5 million expats living abroad, with a third of this number immigrating to Australia solely."

Submission + - Terabyte Hard Drive Review

Submitted by

hungryhamster

on Friday May 25, 2007 @09:33PM

hungryhamster writes: "Let's take a look at the first terabyte hard drive, the Deskstar 7K1000 from Hitachi Global Storage, and see just how it performs. For an impressive $399 ($0.39/gig), is it worth your bucks? Extreme Tech provides an in-depth review of Hitachi's first Terabyte HHD. Benchmark Tests, performance charts, and comparisons with other HHDs are included. This is an interesting read. http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2131552 ,00.asp"

Submission + - Peak Coal in 15 years?

Submitted by

mdsolar

on Friday May 25, 2007 @12:18PM

mdsolar writes: "Richard Heinberg has written an opinion at Energy Bulletin on two European studies which look at available data on proven coal reserves and consumption patterns which conclude the the 155 year figure for coal use is badly over estimated. Apparently, growth of coal use in China implies peak production there in 5 to 15 years while the US is already in decline in terms of energy extraction though not yet in terms of volume extraction owing to substitution of lower quality coal.

Heinberg discusses a number of implications including for climate change, suggesting that sequestration efforts may be seen as too expensive as coal prices begin to rise. Another idea is that

There is no "business-as-usual" option, even ignoring environmental impacts, given the resource constraints. Nations that are currently dependent on coal — China and the US especially — would be wise to begin reducing consumption now, not only in the interests of climate protection, but also to reduce societal vulnerability arising from dependence on a resource that will soon become more scarce and expensive.
Very few replacement technologies are scalable on this kind of time-scale: bio-fuels are already impacting food prices while the nuclear industry faces permiting, construction and training bottlenecks. Even solar faces a two year energy investment cost despite rapid monetary cost reductions, and , together with wind faces intermittancy issues. This news is unsettling and merits further consideration."

Submission + - The 3D air-mouse you wear as a ring

Submitted by

GadgetMike

on Friday May 25, 2007 @05:39AM

GadgetMike writes: "The old pointing device we use every day, the mouse, has been in use for decades now, without suffering any major improvements or concept changes. That until now, when a group of five WPI undergraduates developed something new, the MagicMouse. The goal of this project was to create and advanced method of using software that utilizes 3D coordinates, like Google Earth and others. And what better way of doing this than having a 3D mouse? MagicMouse is a three-dimensional ultrasonic computerised pointing device, that you can wear as a ring around you finger. That's how, this design, easy to use, intuitive and wireless, virtually eliminates the need of using the old mouse.

The final product is small, low powered and extremely discrete. Combine these, the great number of applications that might benefit from it and the fact that it's cheap (155$ worth of parts were used for the concept), and you might get a real winner from the 3D MagicMouse."

Submission + - How Much Do You Save When You Buy a Linux PC?

Submitted by

delram

on Thursday May 24, 2007 @05:18PM

delram writes: "The answer: Less than you'd expect. Dell today will start selling its first three models preloaded with Ubuntu Linux: the Inspiron E1505n, a 15-inch notebook; the Dimension E520n, a middle of the line desktop; and the XPS 410n, a desktop that starts out with virtually identical specs to the Dimension, but can be customized with more gaming-centric hardware (though you hardly need hardcore gear to play the games available for Linux). I did my best to customize comparable Vista machines with the same equipment that Dell lists for their Linux equipment and here's what I found: Dimension E520 — Vista Version $729 / Linux Version $599 XPS 410 — Vista Version $899 / Linux Version $849 Inspiron E1505 — Vista Version $728 / Linux Version $599 The Inspiron comparison comes with a couple of major asterisks, though. The Vista version has some significantly better hardware. The Linux version Dell outlines in its press release includes only 512MB of RAM. But the least amount of RAM I could put in the Vista version was twice that. The Linux notebook also has integrated graphics, while the cheapest option in the Vista laptop was a 256MB Radeon X1400. (By the way, both desktops came with Vista Home Premium as the default choice. The laptop came with Home Basic.) So the average price savings for choosing Linux over Vista: $103. A full copy of Home Basic will set you back $199, while Home Premium costs about $239. Obviously, though, Dell doesn't buy Windows at retail prices, so perhaps this average savings is in line with their actual costs. http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/004474 .html"

Submission + - InfiniTouch: Rugged and Simple Touch Screens?

Submitted by

Max Romantschuk

on Thursday May 24, 2007 @04:19AM

Max Romantschuk writes: "A new touch screen technology from QSI corporation called InfiniTouch looks like it could have real potential. Labeled as "force panel technology", it employs simple force sensors attached to the corners of any rigid surface. By calculating the force difference amongst the sensors the origin of the touch input can be determined, on both the X, Y and Z axis. There's a neat video demonstration showing the tech in action, including a touch sensitive panel with water running over it. Note: The site unfortunately requires Flash."

Submission + - OpenHardware at LinuxTAG 2007

Submitted by

polto

on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @06:58PM

polto writes: "This article at LinuxDevices describe the new series of Elphel network cameras. The goal is to build a hardware that is friendly to software developers. This time it is not only about gurus who can easily hack kernels and create drivers, but about usability for a much wider audience. The camera is build around the Axis EtraxFS CPU and one or several Xilinx Spartan3e FPGA. All the software and even the FPGA design is under GNU/GPL License. For more information: the main Elphel's website or just come to see Elphel at LinuxTAG 2007 in Berlin."

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