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Microsoft

Submission + - A look beneath the "Surface"

Submitted by Hajsky
Hajsky writes: Ars Technica takes a closer look at Microsoft's new "Surface" tabletop device. Turns out that Surface isn't actually a touchscreen at all, but uses five cameras located in the table's base to record movement and touch. "The five cameras are near-infrared devices, but that's not because they are trying to read heat signatures from fingertips (or other body parts) on the table. Instead, it's because the entire surface of Surface is bathed in light; by illuminating the top of the table, the cameras can easily see when things are placed on it. Shining colored light across the surface of the table would spoil the effect that Microsoft wants, so near-infrared light is used for invisible illumination." The whole setup runs on a Core 2 Duo and off-the-shelf hardware, and can handle 52 simultaneous touches. How soon till I can stick one in the rec room?
Windows

Submission + - Vista no more secure than Windows XP? (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by SkeeLo
SkeeLo writes: One of Vista's big selling points is security, but a report from CRN concludes that Vista offers little in the way of security advancements over Windows XP. Ars Technica analyzed the report and found some methodological problems. 'The report faults Vista for "providing no improvement in virus protection vs. XP," but of course Windows Vista does not ship with antivirus software — something the reviewer fails to mention. Faulting an AV-less Vista for not stopping viruses is a bit like faulting a door without a lock for opening when the handle is twisted.' That's not all: 'It was also disappointing to see CRN completely ignore the issue of buffer overflows, which has been addressed well in Vista by most accounts. This was a major weak spot with XP, and so far, Vista looks strong in this area, strong enough that Vista may never get its own "SQL Slammer." Why CRN didn't address this is a mystery, as it is no minor matter.'
Data Storage

Submission + - Does ZFS makes expensive NAS/SANs obsolete?

Submitted by hoggoth
hoggoth writes: As a common everyman who needs big fast reliable storage without a big budget, I have been following a number of emerging technologies and I think they have finally become usable in combination. Specifically, it appears to me that I can put together the little brother of a $50,000 NAS/SAN solution for under $3,000. Here's how:

Get a CoolerMaster Stacker enclosure like this one (just the hardware not the software) that can hold up to 12 SATA drives. Install OpenSolaris and create ZFS pools with RAID-Z for redundancy. Export some pools with Samba for use as a NAS. Export some pools with iSCSI for use as a SAN. Run it over Gigabit Ethernet. Fast, secure, reliable, easy to administer, and cheap. Usable from Windows, Mac, and Linux. As a bonus ZFS let's me create daily or hourly snapshots at almost no cost in disk space or time.

Total cost: 1.4 Terabytes: $2,000. 7.7 Terabytes: $4,200 (Just the cost of the enclosure and the drives). That's an order of magnitude less expensive than other solutions.

Add redundant power supplies, NIC cards, SATA cards, etc as your needs require..

So storage experts, tell me why this is or isn't feasible!.
Robotics

Robot Submarine Maps World's Deepest Sinkhole 123

Posted by kdawson from the submerge-the-Chrysler-Building dept.
holy_calamity writes "The world's deepest water-filled sinkhole has finally been mapped — by a robotic submarine whose descendants may one day swim on one of Jupiter's moons. The last attempt to find the bottom resulted in the SCUBA diving depth record and the death of a diving legend. The sub's sonar found that the divers had descended to only about 10m from the floor. The sub's mapping also indicated that the sinkhole, which is over 300m deep, could connect to even deeper caves."

Feed 'Radiation-eating' Fungi Discovered (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
Scientists have long assumed that fungi exist mainly to decompose matter into chemicals that other organisms can then use. But researchers have now found evidence that fungi possess a previously undiscovered talent with profound implications: The ability to use radioactivity as an energy source for making food and spurring their growth.

Feed Future of health care in developing nations tied to cell phones (com.com)

From feed by cnetfeed
Video: Future of health care in developing nations tied to cell phones. From Microsoft's WinHEC conference in Los Angeles, Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie shows what could be the future of health care in developing nations using an example of a patient who is illiterate--but like a lot of people in developing nations today--has a cell phone.

Media

Submission + - 'Racetrack' memory could gallop past the hard disk

Submitted by Galactic_grub
Galactic_grub writes: An experimental new type of memory that uses nanosecond pulses of electric current to push magnetic regions along a wire could dramatically boost the capacity, speed and reliability of storage devices. Magnetic domains are moved along a wire by pulses of polarized current, and there location is read by fixed sensors arranged along the wire. Previous experiments have been disappointing but now researchers have found that super-fast pulses of electricity prevent the domains from being obstructed by imperfections in the crystal.

Feed EA to ship first mic for the Wii (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Gaming

Looks like the rumors we've been hearing were true -- EA is going to be bundling in a microphone with its Wii karaoke / dancing game Boogie when it ships sometime around the holidays. Alfredo Chavez, EA's gameplay producer for the game, recently told IGN in a video interview that "the Wii version comes bundled with a microphone, it's a USB microphone and it's probably going to be the first mic for the Wii." While that sounds disappointingly like the mic will be wired and plug into one of the Wii's USB ports -- it better have one crazy long cord -- we're still hoping for that fabled Wiimote microphone. Keep your fingers crossed, and check the read link to watch more of IGN's video interview with Alfredo.

[Via Joystiq]

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Media

Two US States Restrict Used CD Sales 500

Posted by kdawson from the papers-please dept.
DrBenway sends us to Ars Technica for a report that Florida and Utah have placed draconian restrictions on the sale of used music CDs; Wisconsin and Rhode Island may soon follow suit. In Florida, stores have to hold on to CDs for 30 days before they can sell them — for store credit only, not cash. Quoting: "No, you won't spend any time in jail, but you'll certainly feel like a criminal once the local record shop makes copies of all of your identifying information and even collects your fingerprints. Such is the state of affairs in Florida, which now has the dubious distinction of being so anal about the sale of used music CDs that record shops there are starting to get out of the business of dealing with used content because they don't want to pay a $10,000 bond for the 'right' to treat their customers like criminals."

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