One short little victory?

The Samsung Group, owners of Samsung Electronics, is the world's second largest conglomerate by revenue, and as such, a voice paid quite a bit of attention to. So, when Andy Griffiths, director of consumer electronics at Samsung UK says Blu-ray will be replaced in five years, you don't exactly brush it off:

"I think it [Blu-ray] has 5 years left, I certainly wouldn't give it 10", [he] told Pocket-lint in an interview.

Hoping to capitalise before it's too late, Griffiths believes that 2008 is the format's year.

"It's going to be huge. We are heavily back-ordered at the moment."

Griffths went on to talk about OLED overtaking LCD technology, and the future of how we take in our home media in general. He says in 2012 we will be "in a true HD world":

"Everything from your television to your camcorder will be offering you pictures in high-definition, and we plan to offer you that HD world from all angles."

Architectural and engineering team champions green technologies

A trio of architects and engineers (named Charlie Paton, Michael Pawlyn, and Bill Watts) have recently been promoting plans for a massive construction project  that could transform the most barren desert into a fertile, energy producing landscape. And as far-fetched as this sounds, the project only takes advantage of technologies that have already been successfully demonstrated in smaller scales.

As pictured above, the Sahara Forest Project (SFP) would combine two different technologies that seem like a natural fit: Concentrated Solar Power, and seawater greenhouses. You can probably figure out what both these are all about from there names alone, but lets look into each a bit more.

Concentrated Solar Power is a form of solar power generation. Instead of using solar collecting materials (i.e solar panels), a Concentrated Solar Power generator uses well-polished parabolic mirrors to concentrate solar energy to focused points. The heat is used to evaporate. The water then turns into steam, which in turn is used to generate electricity. Much in the same way you can light a piece of paper on fire with a magnifying glass, you can reach incredibly high temperatures using an array of computer-controlled mirrors. This system can work when it is cloudy, and in colder environments; but a desert -- such as the ever-expanding Sahara desert -- is ideal.

As the world's supply of fresh water quickly dwindles, many scientists have been investigating methods of desalination, for tapping into salt-water bodies. Many desalination methods have drawbacks, such as the ejection of extra-salty water back into the oceans or the sea. A Seawater Greenhouse attempts to alleviate these drawbacks however, through more efficient use of energy. Besides generating extra fresh water, a Seawater Greenhouse, like most other greenhouses, is a contained environment for growing plants. Seawater is evaporated and then circulated through the greenhouse, cooling and humidifying the air. You can read more about the process here. 

The end goal of the Sahara Forest Project is for making an artificial desert 'micro-climate' that produces food, fresh water, and power, using renewable energy. The plan also calls for the production of more water than is needed by the greenhouse -- the excess water is then soaked up by the surrounding desert, which encourages the growth of plants and adds to underground water reservoirs.

The team behind this idea is currently soliciting investments from many governments in the Middle East, such as Oman and the United Arab Emirates. They believe the system to be incredibly efficient, and cost effective: "Concentrated solar power mirror arrays covering just one per cent of the Earth's deserts could supply a fifth of all current global energy consumption. And one million tonnes of sea water could be evaporated every day from just 20,000 hectares of greenhouses." 

Bye bye VR goggles?

Electrograph is set to premiere the USA's "firsty residential 3D gaming system" with this new-fangled LCD display: the Philips 3D WOWvx. Standing tall and wide at 42'' (or short and not so wide at 20''), they'll unveil it during the Cedia Expo, which takes place September 4-7 in Denver.

Bla de bla de bla. How the heck does it work? Well, the "multiview lenticular technology" is used in combination with integrated display signal processing, which provides "full control over the quality and depth effect characteristics of the picture." So they say, it's far superior to other VR devices.

“There is nothing more addicting to kids, teens and even adults than modern video games," said Jeff Jerome, director of product management for Electrograph Systems, Inc. (I think he may have forgotten about drugs). "In fact, many underutilized home theaters are now serving as supersized game rooms. So imagine the appeal of true 3D gaming – without the glasses – that the whole family can play. This introduction opens up a whole new category for CEDIA installers, who can now offer their existing residential customers the latest technology trend. The system produces such stunning 3D effects that most players actually forget it’s a game."

It's also said the gaming experience is "far less confining" and can accommodate multiple players in a wide range of viewing angles while giving real “out-of-screen” 3D effects.  Displays are based on a full high-definition 1920x1080 LCD panel resolution and offer 1500:1 contrast as well as true-color representation.

The next big thing, or another doomed to fail technology advent? Your homework for today: discuss!

SCEE promotes recycled PlayStations

London-based Pli Design Ltd is launching its latest eco-friendly product, a chair! Wondering why you're reading this? If not for the environment, well, know this: it's made from 100% recycled PlayStation 2s.

The launch for the thing is set for September 10 in London, at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe headquarters.

The "Reee chair", as it is called, is particularly notable because most recycled plastics come from a variety of sources. Not this baby, making it the first of its kind in its country. It's available for contract, education and domestic markets (I'm starting to feel like that dude on the Price is Right that yammers on about the junk you can win, here), and was conceived at the annual Eden Project Suppliers conference in Cornwall. Here the team discussed what could be done in terms of reusing high-quality plastic from electronics made by manufacturers, one of which included SCE.

Each chair uses 2.4kg of recycled plastic. As well, the parts are designed so they can be disassembled at the end of their life (yes, chairs die too), and recycled again and again. The production process required a fraction of the energy used for 'virgin' plastic which comes straight from oil barrels. Moreover, because the chair is completely sourced and manufactured in the UK, its much more environmentally friendly than your average chair, which travels from say, Asia.

Alex Whitney, Pli's design manager, said: "The simple idea behind the Reee chair is to produce a recycled furniture product in the UK that has style, function and durability but does not compromise its environmental credentials - so our customers don't have to compromise theirs."

Pli director Christopher Pett comments: "The Reee chair does not put a premium on the cost of sustainable living: it is priced competitively with other domestic and contract seating designs in the UK market. Pli's mission is to prove that sustainable businesses in the UK can compete on price and quality with imported products."

 From the press release:

The Reee chair will go on sale at the Eden Project's visitor shop in Cornwall and through selected retailers and contract suppliers across the country in September. During the London Design Festival it will also be available to buy in Selfridges, London, in the Designersblock pop-up shop located on the 4th floor.

The Reee chair launch will take place on Wednesday 10th September 2008, 6.30 pm to 9 pm at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, 10 Great Marlborough Street, London W1F 7LP.

Army raises age limit

Veterans For Peace (VFP) is a national organization founded in 1985. [It] includes men and women veterans of all eras and duty stations including from the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), World War II, the Korean, Vietnam, Gulf and current Iraq wars as well as other conflicts. Our collective experience tells us wars are easy to start and hard to stop and that those hurt are often the innocent. Thus, other means of problem solving are necessary.

The Cleveland chapter of Veterans For Peace has withdrawn its protest efforts against the 'Virtual Army Experience' game, which was to be used at the Cleveland National Air Show, as the U.S. Army has agreed to limit the game to those 17 and older. Previously the game targeted teens as young as 13.

From the official website:

The Virtual Army Experience (VAE) provides participants with a virtual test drive of the United States Army. The core of the 19,500-square-foot VAE is the America’s Army computer game, rendered with state-of-the-art Army training simulation technology to create a life-size, networked virtual world. The VAE highlights key Soldier occupations, Army technologies, operating environments and missions, within a fast-paced, action-packed, information-rich experience that immerses visitors in the world of Soldiering. Participants employ teamwork, rules of engagement, leadership and high-tech equipment as they take part in a virtual U.S. Army mission.

The Army showcases the game at various festivals and air shows across the country; they removed it from Summerfest in Milwaukee last month after officials of the festival complained. Earlier this August, VFP urged supporters to call organizers of the show in Cleveland, its commercial sponsors and public officials to ask the Army not to bring the game. So it seems, a compromise has been reached.

"Pour me some of them DNA tubes over here," said the nanoscale engineer

The wizard-like science-freaks at the California Institute of Technology of developed yet another ingenious method of building really, really tiny things. This time around, the lab-loving molecule-masters at Caltech's Center for Biological Circuit Design have figured out a way to fashion nanoscale tubes made up of wound-up coils of DNA. DNA turns out to be a stellar nanoscale construction material because DNA bonds to other DNA on its own -- so the tubes can be easily linked together. Additionally, in this project they are using single-stranded DNA molecules (a.k.a DNA tiles) which are strong and long. 

These funky DNA tubes can also bond together not only from either end of the strand, but along another two points over the strand's length. So that means they could use these DNA tubes to make some sort of lattice -- and as you know, once you get a good lattice going, you can pretty much make all sorts of different structures out of it.

This isn't the first time somebody has made teeny-tiny tubes using DNA. However, this research is particularly fantastic because of two things: first off, this new Caltechian method is easier than previous methods; and second, the control over the sizes of the nanotubes has also reached a new level of precision. 

Basically, what this research amounts to is making a nanoscale construction set. The amount of base pairs in the DNA strands directly correlates to the size of the nanotubes made; so scientists can choose to built 12 nanometre tubes, 18 nanometre tubes, or whatever thickness they need. All of the tubes will be of the same size -- which is something that greatly improves prospects for building nanoscale arrangements. 

To make an analogy out of this, say you want to build a nano-scale doghouse for your nano-dog. Before, when you went to the nano-hardware store, they could only offer pieces of nano-wood that were roughly the same length and thickness, and they took a long time to make (and were expensive.) But now, if this new research is applied, you could to to nano-store and say something like, "Give me four 18 nanometre tubes, three 12 nanometre tubes, and one 20 nanometre tube," and the nano-store clerk guy would just be like, "No problem." With these new nanotubes, you would have a much easier time building your nano-scale doghouse because you know all the tubes would fit together, and be of a reliable size. Oh -- and not to mention, because these tubes are made of DNA, they'll attach themselves, without you having to worry much about it; so both you your nano-dog can relax and be happy.

Solar panels set to help out... a little bit

Raising crude prices have made many things more expensive for people and buisnesses worldwide, but there has been one positive offshoot to the whole situation: now governments and companies are much more interested in developing renewable energy technologies, in order to save money.

One such company -- Nippon Yusen KK, the biggest container shipping company in Japan -- has started looking into using solar power cells to help power their massive transcontitental shipping boats. They hope to have enough solar panels to collect 40 kilowatts of electricty on sunny days. This energy will help supply about 6% of the power requirements of the huge diesel-electric motors that propels the 60,000 tonne, car-carrying ships.

The first ship with these solar panels is set to be completed in Decemeber.

Drool worthy for trekkies...

Entertainment Earth will apparently sell an RC Enterprise toy aimed squarely at Star Trek fans wallets starting in May '09

The package consists of a foam Enterprise from the original series, a touch screen RC remote control that looks like a communicator from the original series, and a charger for the flying Enterprise that looks like a tricorder from the original series.

Have no worries, you WILL be recognized as a Trekkie / Trekker when you fly your ship!

Great way to bring your stalking to the next level

The trouble with the Internet is that its too big. Finding incriminating information about people can be a bit of a hassle; most of us are limited to only Googling someone's name, but that takes patience. And patience means slow.

A handy new website has come into being to help us all. It is called cvgadget.com (as many of you know, CV is Latin or some such, and it basically means 'resume' in England.) This website is pretty straight-forwardly arranged: you just put in someone's name at the top of the page, and the CVgadget searches 13 different sources for hits, including most of the big social networking sites like Facebook, Bebo, and Myspace. 

Something tells me that this tool was intended to be used by curious employers, checking out the purported backgrounds of possible new employees. Which, of course, is a bad idea -- nothing will surely sully the image of your prospective new employee more than say, a session with CVgadget that turned up a handful of pictures of Mr. Hire-Me doing keg-stands on a moving vehicle, or perhaps something slightly less incriminating, such as old blog posts he or she made, revealing their enthusiastic support of the Flat Earth Society.

The website isn't perfect, of course. Googling my own name turned up my usual impostors that I'm familiar with, such as the Reverend Kevin Spiess who was involved in stain-glass window controversy, and the Kevin Spiess French director guy who likes to fire shotguns, and seems much cooler than myself.

Throw your own name in CVgadget and see what it comes up with -- and good luck with erasing any regrettable stuff it turns up! It can be tricky sometimes (so I've heard.) 

....what?

I really struggled coming up with a headline for this one, as you might imagine.

Scientists are planning to give the almighty tongue even more responsibilities, that is, turning it into a 'computer control pad'. Researchers at Georgie Tech believe a magnetic, tongue-powered system could be extremely useful for the disabled, for instance -- their mouth would serve as a 'virtual computer', their teeth as a keyboard and tongue as the control pad. This would be useful for all sorts of things, like controlling a wheelchair, managing appliances, and controlling other computers.

Maysam Ghovanloo, a Georgia Tech assistant professor who leads the team's research, said,"You could have full control over your environment by just being able to move your tongue."

The Tongue Drive System, as it is called, is most definitely a work in progress, but the work done so far seems promising.

Of course, this isn't the first of its kind -- many devices powered by facial movements have been made for the disabled in the past (Nintendo came up with the NES Hands Free Controller in the 80s, for instance). In any case, it seems they're putting the most stock in this one, believing a device operated with the tongue will be best at what it aims to do.

"This could give you an almost infinite number of switches and options for communication," said Mike Jones, a vice president of research and technology at the Shepherd Center, an Atlanta rehabilitation hospital. "It's easy, and somebody could learn an entirely different language."

But how exactly will it work? Well, Ghovanloo's project focuses on a magnet about 3mm wide which is placed under the tip of the tongue, and from there it goes:

The magnet's movement is tracked by sensors on the side of each cheek, which sends data to a receiver atop a rather bulky set of headgear. It is then processed by software that converts the movement into commands for a wheelchair or other electronics.

After turning the system on, users are asked to establish six commands: Left, right, forward, backward, single-click and double-click. A graduate student who tested the technology was cruising the lab at will in a wheelchair, tongue firmly in cheek.

ID theft expert had thousands of fake passports and credit cards

Often, here in British Columbia Canada, you read and hear stories of criminals getting relatively light sentences, for serious crimes. Three years for a murder; six months for a massive meth factory, that sort of thing. Well, now white-collar criminals can rejoice as well.

After spending huge man-hours tracking and arresting a person that turned out to be Canada's largest identification theft perpetrator to date, Timothy Moisan, is going to prison to serve his sentence -- oh wait a second -- actually he is not going to prison at all. After pleading guilty to a entire litany of crimes, Mr. Moisan was handed down an sentence of only six months. And since he has been in custody waiting for his trial for six months, that period was applied to his sentence, so, only three days after the end of his trial, he is a free man.

In his identification factory in Surrey, British Columbia, Mr. Moisan had personal identification data on tens of thousands of Canadians. He had stacks CD's filled with social security numbers, drivers licenses, passports, health care numbers, and other personal data. He used this data to make hundreds of fake credit cards, and to weasel his way into many bank accounts, to steal money. Timothy Moisan also reportedly stole huge amounts of mail from people as well.  

As anyone who has been a victim of identity theft knows, once your personal information becomes compromised, is incredibly difficult to repair the damage to your credit rating, and to prove you were not involved with any instances of fraud. Undoubtedly, the hundreds (if not more) people victimized by this man will be spending, collectively, far more than 6 months trying to get their finances in order.

"In the end, there's no explanation about how the man behind one of the biggest identity theft rings ever in B.C. got off serving only six months plus a day" reports ctvbc.ca.

I wish I was kidding

Ok, the US Patent Office needs to be fixed.

Read it and weep:

US Patent 7415666 - Method and system for navigating paginated content in page-based increments

Of all the cotton-picking dumb-a** mind-numbingly idiotic patents granted this one has a shot at the Hall of Shame.

I mean... GIVE ME A BREAK!

The application was filed on 03/04/2005 ... the IBM PC came out on August 1st, 1981... and here is a page showing its keyboard layout - with guess what? PageUp/PageDown!

Oh but wait... as I recall the IBM 3270 terminal also had page up / page down keys... starting in 1972.

Not to mention the obviousness...

Smart folk at MIT keeping keen and busy

MIT has come a long way towards building a possible new microbattery for future iPods, flashlights and automated PEZ dispensers. There are two neat things about this battery: it is incredibly small (smaller than a human cell) and it is built -- not by old-fashioned, unreliable robots -- but with custom-tailored polymer construction viruses.

If you have a bunch of spare time and an vast amount of scientific equipment on hand, you could build one yourself. All you have to do is get a clear, rubber-like material and start engraving a pattern of exceedingly small posts on it -- four or eight millionths of a metre should do the trick. Then throw a layer special polymers on top of these posts, that will act as a your battery's electrodes.

All done with those micro-posts? Great. Now get a hold of some handy gene-tailored viruses that make protein coats attracting cobalt oxide molecules -- and there you go, you now have an anode with mega-ultrathin wires.

Let's get those viruses to work! Lazy little creature they are...

Viola! There you go -- piece of cake. You are two thirds of the way towards a full battery. MIT professors Yet-Ming Chiang, Angela Belcher and Paula Hammond are currently working towards making the third missing component of the battery: the cathode. They plan to use those handy viruses again for that.

While these batteries are small, you'll need a bunch of them to power anything. But because they are so small, a bunch of them don't take up much room (which is nice.)

Many thousands of these batteries are between these tweezers

Building these batteries "does not involve any expensive equipment, and can be done at room temperature," Dr. Belcher was quoted as saying. So maybe this type of battery will be cost effective to build, when compared with traditional, 'old-school' batteries. We will have to wait a bunch of years to find out. But one advantage of using these virus-built batteries is that they "integrate [well] with biological organisms" -- which means, in other words, that things are looking up for cyborgs.

Good science leads to big smiles!

Court cases just aren't going the recording industry's way

You often hear in the news that the RIAA is suing this person or that person for sharing music online. But have you read many news stories where the RIAA won any of these court cases?

The latest battle lost by the RIAA has been in the Atlantic Versus Anderson case. It has been dragging on for 3 years now. The court has ruled in favor of Anderson here, and now the RIAA has to pay Tanya Anderson, a disabled single mother, $107,834 for his legal expenses incurred in the courtroom wranglings.

The legal crux in the matter of the Atlantic Versus Anderson case was that the courts have ruled that making songs available on P2P networks does not constituent copyright violation.

Generally the RIAA sends out warnings to filesharers, saying that they will be sued unless they pay a fine for any suspicion of P2P music-sharing. Many people, fearing the sizable legal entities supporting the RIAA, will pay these fines. However, if someone refuses, and the battle goes to court, more often than not (at least so far) the court has ruled in favor of the defendants.

But how many people actually fight these cases? You'd probably be surprised at the numbers: the RIAA has pursued legal action towards about 40,000 people since 2003, and only about 5% of these people have fought back. Most opted to pay fines -- usually ranging between $3000 and $4000 -- while many others ignored the notices, hoping that they would go away, only to find out later that the court made default judgments against them. 

Unfortunately, most people do not have the assets available to challenge the RIAA's charges in the courtroom. Likewise, probably many people targeted by the RIAA do not realize that they would have a very good chance of winning these court cases, if they were brought to court.

Hey guys, we could lay down some copper pipe here, I'm just saying -- said some engineer

Sometimes the stuff that appears fairly obvious afterwards, is the last thing people notice when trying to solve a problem.

These days, labs upon labs' worth of scientists and engineers are trying to figure out new methods of power production. Most people seem to be coming to grips with that fact that the days of all the handy oil-stuff just oozing out of the ground for our enjoyment are coming to an end.

One particular person at the Worchester Polytechnic Institute (a place so far known only for numerous breakthroughs in sauce technology) had an interesting idea. The scientist engineer guy realized that the human race has put a massive amount of time and energy and money into building highways and roads that stretch this way and that. Roads are terrific for getting around, and parking on -- but perhaps there is more we could do with them, he wondered. Like maybe help solve a energy crisis or some such, he hypothesized. 

The idea is that asphalt roads soak up a great deal of sunlight, and get warm -- especially, obviously, in the summer months. If copper pipes were laid underneath the asphalt, you could flow some water through the pipes, and the heat of this water evaporating could be used to propel turbines which in turn could be used to generate electricity! Or, for new buildings, they could maybe use the under-road pipes just to make hot water, instead of using gas furnaces to heat it up. Because, as everybody knows, hot showers are important.

The research project looking into this idea is being directed by a guy named Rajib Mallick. He is really excited about this idea. Here is what he said on the matter: “Blacktop [asphalt] stays hot and could continue to generate energy after the sun goes down, unlike traditional solar-electric cells. In addition, there is already a massive acreage of installed roads and parking lots that could be retrofitted for energy generation, so there is no need to find additional land for solar farms. Roads and lots are typically resurfaced every 10 to 12 years and the retrofit could be built into that cycle. Extracting heat from asphalt could cool it, reducing the urban ‘heat island’ effect. Finally, unlike roof-top solar arrays, which some find unattractive, the solar collectors in roads and parking lots would be invisible.”

One possible problem with this might be thievery, however. Already troublesome poor folk all over the place are stealing stuff like manhole covers, and wiring from foreclosed homes to sell as scrap. (Actually, here in Vancouver a crack-abusing person stole a bronze statue last week, and tried to sell it as scrap, unsuccessfully.) Miles of copper pipe out in the middle of nowhere might be an easy target for criminals. Pipe on busier roads and highways would probably be safe though. 

Anyways -- this Dr. Mallick character is optimistic: “Our preliminary results provide a promising proof of concept for what could be a very important future source of renewable, pollution-free energy for our nation. And it has been there all along, right under our feet.”

Way to go roads!

US Air Force tells the New Mexico Optics Industry Association about laser-planes

It seems that the US Air Force is all worked up about the benefits of putting giant laser beams on aircraft. A PowerPoint presenation, given by the Cynthia Kaiser, chief engineer of the USAF to the New Mexico Optics Industry Association, outlines many of the supposedly desirable and good things about warplanes with lasers on them. You can download the entire presentation here. Here are a couple of my favorite excerpts from the presentation:

• Laser-planes bring a "Surprise element for enemy confusion" (i.e "Oh my god, we are melting! Argh! How did that happen!" -- might say the enemy combantant.)
• According to slide 9: heading "Economic Realities" [of building lasers], sub-heading "Unleash the POWER of DIRECTED ENERGY", making factories that will build lasers for planes leads to a great deal of positive economic spin-offs, such as: "Capital, Educatation, [and] Quality of Life/ Creative Population[s]"
• Another great thing about lasers? "Plausible deniability" (i.e "What? We didn't melt your embassay! It was the one-armed man!")

Trying to stay on schedule for the Great Laser War of 2014, it seems like the USAF has been making progress with their Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) program, which teams up a chlroine and hydrogen peroxide laser on to a Hercules airplane. The system was succesfully tested earlier this summer, and a second test of a larger ATL is in the preperation stages.

But besides the listed bonuses above, the obivous premise behind putting big lasers on planes is that they will make the world a happier and safer place. Hurray! 

My personal favorite part of the slideshow? On slide 13 -- the "Economic Impact of Kirtland AFB" one of the benefits of building the laser factories is the "Mentoring and support of educational activies" -- yes, they spelt activities wrong. That's there is some real examples of edumacation, nicely done! Then again, maybe it was some sort of inside joke, and all the laser-builders laughed.

Free compilation of games, demos, and mod packs brings PhysX tech to PC

NVIDIA is pretty proud of its PhysX technology, it seems. "Interactive entertainment's most pervasive physics engine," it's used in more then 140 shipping titles for all current-gen video game consoles. Anyway, they want you to download the GeForce Power Pack, a free compilation of games, demos and mod packs for the PC which also brings PhysX to the world's most popular platform:

On the PC, PhysX technology harnesses the power of any CUDA-enabled general-purpose parallel computing processor, including any NVIDIA GeForce® 8 Series or higher GPU, to handle 10-20 times more visual complexity than what’s possible on today’s traditional PC platforms. All of the 80 million plus GeForce 8 Series and higher GPUs in the field are CUDA-enabled, the largest installed base of general-purpose, parallel-computing processors ever created.

NVIDIA claims "competitive solutions" do not offer hardware scaling capability; only PhysX can "leverage the best of both CPU and GPU architectures to deliver the ultimate, immersive, end user experience." Hmm.

Upcoming PC titles that will incorporate the technology include Cryostasis, Backbreaker, and Aliens: Colonial Marines, with nearly 20 more expected before the holiday season.

“Game physics is essential in enabling deeper interactivity and real-world effects in any game. Epic is pleased to offer PhysX as a standard feature within Unreal Engine 3 to enable such effects,” said Mark Rein, Vice President of Epic Games. “The introduction of GPU acceleration for PhysX promises both additional potential effects and faster performance. You can get a glimpse of the possibilities of what PhysX is able to do with the special levels for Unreal Tournament 3 where damage effects greatly enhance the gameplay.”

So, as of today, anyone with a GeForce 8 Series or higher GPU can benefit from this, and many power packs of this kind are planned for the future, too.

The PhysX-enabled content from this first GeForce Power Pack includes the following:

• Warmonger—Full free game! Destroy walls, floors, and whole buildings to open up new paths or close existing ones. Destructive power is more than eye candy here—it’s a tactical weapon in this ground-breaking action game.
• Unreal Tournament 3 PhysX Mod Pack—includes three maps with amazing effects that fundamentally change the gameplay (requires full version of Unreal Tournament 3)
• A sneak peek at the upcoming Nurien social networking service, based on the Unreal Engine 3 (with built-in benchmark)
• A sneak peek at the upcoming game Metal Knight Zero (with built-in benchmark)
• All new NVIDIA “The Great Kulu” tech demo that showcases the use of PhysX soft bodies in a real game play environment
• All new NVIDIA “Fluid” tech demo—a simulation of realistic fluid effects with a variety of liquids

In conjunction with the Power Pack, new WHQL-certified drivers are available which enable PhysX acceleration for all GeForce 8, 9, and GTX 200 Series GPUs. This new driver also adds support for PhysX-accelerated features in Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2.

The company is boasting with these drivers much higher levels of interactivity, effects, realm, and speed, stating "the PhysX-enabled levels of Unreal Tournament 3, the GeForce 9800 GTX+ runs 180% faster than on the AMD Radeon HD 4850."

“Seeing really is believing and is the reason why we compiled all of this great PhysX content into a free download for our end users,” said Ujesh Desai, general manager for GeForce GPUs at NVIDIA. “We want GeForce owners to experience for themselves these amazing effects to get an idea how PhysX will make games much more lifelike in the years to come. Physics-accelerated content is already here, and there are a ton more titles on the way. We can’t wait for our customers to jump in, get wet, and tell us what they think!”

If you're buyin' it, feel free to download via the location below.

Visual computing conference kicking off late this month

NVISION 08, the 'visual computing conference' has announced its line-up for the show as the date (August 25) draws nearer. For some background on the event, read our previous story.

Opening up the show on that Monday will be Nvidia's CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, who will be talking about innovation in the visual computing field, highlighting the work by designers, researchers and scientists alike. Jeff Hang, inventor of the multi-touch display, will join in, not to mention Battlestar Galactica star Tricia Helfer. Helfer will go into detail on how visual computing has affected the TV and film industries.

Tuesday will see technology and business reporeter Scott Budman doing one-on-one interviews with industry personnel, like Bernard Charlès, CEO of Virtools developer Dassault Systèmes, Oddworld's Lorne Lanning and Eileen Collins, former NASA space shuttle commander.

Rounding things up on the last day will be a 'unique performance' from special effects experts Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, stars of the TV program Mythbusters.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin will show up too, presenting his new 3D film 'Fly Me to the Moon.'

All in all, sounds a bizarre and intriguing mix of geekery. Everyone's invited to NVISION, so if you're into it, feel free to register via the official site listed below.

Update: NVIDIA sent us a neat NVISION promo video today; check it out:

Robots fear that a draft might be in the cards

Robots can be quite handy. They can build useful stuff, like cars, and other robots. Pour a beer for you. Carry things. Blow up buildings. All sorts of stuff. 

The US Army plans to further tap into the potential resources of the robot. Bill Smart, an engineering and computer science prof at the curiously-named Washington University in St. Louis, has been studying the Army's use of robots recently. Earlier this week, in a story posted by the school's news service, Mr. Smart said that the "US Army hopes that approximately 30% of the Army [will be] comprised of robotic forces by approximately 2020."

But don't get too worked up over the possible Great Robo-Human Massacre of 2020. When Mr. Smart said "robotic forces", he doesn't only mean gun-wielding mechas and artificially intelligent fighters planes. A large amount of this 30% figure will be robots to help out with logistics: loading robots, burger serving robots, robotic trucks, and that sort of thing. 

Mr.Smart also points out that when people (such as myself) say 'robots', they really ought to be using the phrase "autonomous systems" instead, which is more accurate.

You can read more of these smart comments over here.

And you thought the $100 laptop was cheap...

Gizmodo reports that a group of MIT students are working on developing a $12 computer for developing nations.

Now before you start asking how many gigahertz the processor runs at, or how much memory it includes, you may want to look at the price again.

Obviously with such an insanely low target price, the hardware is going to be quite limited. How limited?

It's basically the same as an 8 bit NES (Nintendo Entertainment System)!

Yes, that means ROM cartridges, and 2k-16k of ram, TV display, with no user writable storage - which will have to change. Obviously this means that there can be no "real" web browsers, but if they build a machine with more ram - say 64kb - and USB sticks for storage, a text-only web browser would be possible.

Personally, I think they would be better off basing the system on a Commodore 64 - there have been single chip implementations of that old classic.

Here is one such clone...

Gamers and IT techs rejoice

"The Diplomat of Dark Sky Entertainment" (developer of the game Beyond Protocol) has taken it upon him/herself to let PC users know the latest edition of Microsoft's Service Pack (SP3), fixes what are called Black Hole Routers.

These mongoloid pains in the butt can cause all sorts of problems, for gamers, networks and IT departments alike; they're known for causing data loss, disconnects and inconsistencies in connections to encrypted channels. There's also the annoying habit of having to log onto your favourite game multiple times.

Anyhow, good news abounds, as Microsoft seems to have remedied the problem with SP3 (though a more complicated, pre-SP3 solution can be found here, which may be best for those who've experienced troubles with the pack). They pretty much glossed over the issue in the documentation, as is typical for Microsoft, but Dark Sky go into detail:

[W]hen a sustained connection is made between your computer and a server of some sort, packets of data are regularly sent back and forth. The path between your computer and the server can be comprised of many different routers delivering the information from one part of the digital world to another. If along the way, one of those routers finds a packet that it decides is too large to pass on, the router should either fragment the packet or at least inform the sender that the packet was not forwarded. Occasionally a router will simply erase or drop that packet leaving the sender and recipient clueless, which causes problems in large data file transmission, encrypted data sending, and login attempts. This is a black hole router instance. They can be the result of a malfunction, malicious intervention, or improper setup. SP3’s black hole router detection automatically uses, what used to be a complicated process of pinging and adjusting, to identify these problems before sending data and if necessary and possible, redirecting traffic around such routers.

Got all that?

Service Pack 3, for them anyway, immediately solved issues, though they state it is not a guaranteed solution. Of course, what ever is?

Assertations and predictions

(You've come a long way, baby..)

I think Copyfight is on to something. In a column today, writer Alan Wexelblat observes the state of consumerism as it currently sits, delving into what people want and what they're willing to pay (if anything). An excerpt:

[Why is copying] - and not paying - so prevalent? [Writer Kevin] Kelly says that people want to pay if they perceive that the exchange is fair, if it's easy enough, and if they understand some sort of benefit that comes from the paying.

Just stating a benefit (enabling creators to be paid) isn't enough. Conversely, just threatening a negative (lawsuits) isn't enough. Kelly refers to a survey of UK youth in which the surveyed indicated a desire for a monthly-fee unlimited use music service. More or less the way television is delivered to them now.

This really got me thinking, as it's a melting pot of ideas that've been churning around in my head for awhile now. Firstly, for some anyway, I think it is enough to know one is supporting an artist, creator, etc., though I wouldn't be surprised if this was a minority group of people, loyalists you might call them. And who can blame the majority?

In any case, moving on to newer models, as he goes on to talk about, is what needs to happen. And no matter what camp you're with, I think this will benefit everyone, from the creators to the fans, even the companies and maybe a corporation or two or ten. So, what are these newer models? Well, as touched on, the monthly-fee unlimited use music service I feel is absolutely...common sense. People have been talking about this for awhile now. The TV model has worked so well for so long for a reason. People want this, and if they don't get it, they make it themselves. That's what humans do.

It's also about as perfect a compromise as you can get between everyone, and it makes everything really a lot less complicated. I feel bad for retailers in a way, but if we don't need them, to heck with it - more money for creators. Anyway I'm sure at least a few will still survive, as some people will always want a physical manifestation of the work (me being one of them). I wonder though if for the music industry, will this mean a comeback for vinyl, and a phasing out of CDs? A lot of bands now are putting out vinyl records which include, for example, a USB key with the tracks on it, or putting them up on their website, either for free with purchase of a physical copy, or just plain free.

Now, that's mainly the music side of things - what about TV? In its current state, TV is fine for the casual watcher, which is probably the majority. Nevertheless, fewer and fewer people are actually watching TV on a TV, opting for online, where they can watch what they want when they want. I mean, the popularity of things like TiVo has proven people want this, but I think the Internet is a far more ideal medium for such content. Pick, click, watch. Oh damn, I'm talking like a marketer again. Whatever. Point is, the future of television is on the Internet. I just can't see any other outcome.

And it's heading that way already. Know all those South Park websites that popped up all over the web the past number of years, streaming episodes for free? After so long of this, despite deterrance, people ultimately sent the message to Comedy Central that this is where they want their content: the Internet. So, Comedy Central gave it its own website, which was thorough, well done, and reliable. They embrace change, make money from hits, people get South Park for free. How can anyone complain about that, or be afraid of it? When asked about the situation, creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker said, "We got really sick of having to download our own show illegally all the time so we gave ourselves a legal alternative." Seriously.

The future is coming, and whether these old CEO folks want to panic about how much money they're losing with the current models or not is irrelevant, cause it's happening either way. My advice, if you're a panicked CEO reading this right now: embrace what people want, and change; you're invited to the party, too.

Stop, drop, shut 'em down, open up shop! Oh-h, no-o..

Best Buy, a leading consumer electronics shop in the States is planning on opening up 200 stores across the UK; the company ponied up £1.1 billion for half the stake in Carphone Warehouse (a "world-leading independent mobile phone retailer") earlier this year.

The shops should be implemented starting in 2009, with five opening at launch; other European markets will see the stores later on. Evidently they're playing it smart and avoiding areas with heavy rival competition (i.e. Germany, France), putting themselves up against less threatening chains like Currys and PC World.

Carphone Warehouse has talked about its new "broad store format", and details are to follow soon; economic turndown resulted in a 45 percent hit to the company's shares this year.

GameStop is another big one; they've opened up a test store in the UK and are expected to open over 600 shops worldwide this year, according to a news release. Going by the above news, I'm guessing the company will have their eye on Best Buy to see how they do, being a rival company back home.

Computers and mobile phones to compensate teacher shortage

That eternal struggle between nature and technology always seems to be ongoing; when do we go too far? Sometimes though, you get a clearcut case like this, where the technology just plain benefits everyone: Tanzania and Zambia, two African countries, have started ICT projects which utilize mobile telephone messaging and computer-generated classrooms for primary and secondary schools. About 200 primary schools will benefit from the former's programme, which will launch early October. This will serve as a 'pilot project' before being copied in other schools that need it.

Training minister Professor Jumanne Mughembe told APA this is all mainly due to acute teacher shortages in the region; currently they're short of over 40,000.

"This IT project will also be using projectors, which would be operated from one control center manned by a few instructors in a bid to reach many students," he stressed.

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project has of course helped usher in these teaching methods in Africa, with many different countries ordering them in, following on the project's goals of putting one in the hands of each student. Going with these African government programmes (headed by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development's e-Africa Commission), learning materials will be posted regularly to a website, which students will then access through their OLPC computers.

The e-Africa Commission is based in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is set to equip roughly 16,000 African schools with computers and Internet access by 2015; hopefully they won't see the kind of censorship China has.