Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Intel's Metro laptop prototype is "world's thinnest"

Posted May 24th 2007 3:48PM by Ryan Block Filed under: Laptops

Watch out Sony, it looks like your Vaio X505's title for thinnest / lightest laptop ever is about to be challenged by some new Intel-sponsored Zima designs intended to push the envelope of portability. The 0.7-inch thick 2.2-pound Metro features an external e-ink display, and might actually stand a chance at redefining slim computing -- if it's ever built, anyway. Enjoy the eye candy, it's going to be a while before you get any closer to a laptop of this caliber than some pictures on the internets.

Lord have mercy, Intel has just created a laptop that's as pretty as a supermodel, and thinner, too. Codenamed the Intel Mobile Metro Notebook, this prototype was designed by Intel along with Ziba Design, and it's a mere .7 inches thick and weighs just 2.25 pounds. It's no dumb blonde, either, packed with Intel's speediest and most efficient components, which will probably be plenty fast by the time this machine is manufactured, maybe even as soon as the end of this year.

This one has it all. The slim, champagne-colored magnesium notebook—which is only a quarter of an inch thicker than a Motorola RAZR cellphone—will include a magnetically attached folder that will be available in different fashion colors. That folder will also be able to charge up the laptop wirelessly, and ladies (at whom this design is clearly aimed) can attach a strap to it and make it look just like a purse. Jeez, what else did they include in this beauty?

It'll have always-on connectivity, using all Intel chips, of course, to connect via Wi-Fi, EV-DO and WiMax. It'll also have a flash memory hard drive, with an expected battery life of 14 hours. Check out the glow-in-the-dark, the screen on the outside of that folder, the beautiful gold accents, and the overall thinness of this thing. It's just astonishing.

If Intel is able to deliver this notebook anytime soon, it's going to give Apple a run for its money. The big question now? How much will this cost? According to Business Week, the main reason so many other laptops look so lame is because of cost considerations, and the designers of this notebook admit that price was no object. Even if it's expensive, this design is so thin and beautiful, it's sure to bring some fat changes to the laptop world. – Charlie White

The World's Thinnest Notebook [Business Week]

Audi TT Clubsport Quattro Study

from PSFK Trend: PSFK by Guy Brighton

Luxist reportsvon the launch of the TT Clubsport Quattro Study which was first shown ar an enthusiast event called Wörthersee 2007. The press release says:

The Audi TT clubsport quattro study reduces the TT Roadster to a pure driving machine. A powerful engine, state-of-the-art technology and numerous traits borrowed from the world of motorsport are the dominant features of the TT clubsport quattro

The goal that the development engineers set themselves for this vehicle study was to achieve purism at a premium level. No hood, no A-post – instead, a wraparound windscreen kept extremely low which deliberately evokes images of a speedster. The flat, slightly tinted window strip surrounds the cockpit. The panoramic windscreen and the two humps located behind the interior in place of the hood compartment are reminiscent of a racing car.

The racing character of the Audi TT clubsport quattro is underscored by its technology. The Audi engineers have packed the 2.0 TFSI engine with even more power than the 260 bhp familiar from the Audi S3. The turbocharged four-cylinder unit with petrol direct injection breaks the magic 300 bhp barrier. Thanks to a modified intake manifold, it has been possible to get even more power out of this highly efficient engine (which was "Engine of the Year" in its class in 2005 and 2006).

HOWTO make OpenCola

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

Wiki-How has a page up today on making OpenCola, a freely licensed soft-drink. I helped found the company that developed and released the OpenCola drink, and it was developed by Amanda Foubister in our kitchen. It tastes excellent, but it also highlighted for me just how much sugar there is in this stuff -- a lot. When you make cola, you basically end up filling a glass with sugar and then adding just enough water and ancillary ingredients to get it to dissolve.

Flavoring
* 3.50 ml orange oil * 1.00 ml lemon oil * 1.00 ml nutmeg oil * 1.25 ml cassia oil * 0.25 ml coriander oil * 0.25 ml neroli oil * 2.75 ml lime oil * 0.25 ml lavender oil * 10.0 g gum arabic * 3.00 ml water

Link (Thanks, Joe!)

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Introducing Google's online security efforts

Monday, May 21, 2007 9:43 AM Posted by Panayiotis Mavrommatis and Niels Provos, Anti-Malware Team Online security is an important topic for Google, our users, and anyone who uses the Internet. The related issues are complex and dynamic and we've been looking for a way to foster discussion on the topic and keep users informed. Thus, we've started this blog where we hope to periodically provide updates on recent trends, interesting findings, and efforts related to online security. Among the issues we'll tackle is malware, which is the subject of our inaugural post. Malware -- surreptitious software capable of stealing sensitive information from your computer -- is increasingly spreading over the web. Visiting a compromised web server with a vulnerable browser or plugins can result in your system being infected with a whole variety of malware without any interaction on your part. Software installations that leverage exploits are termed "drive-by downloads". To protect Google's users from this threat, we started an anti-malware effort about a year ago. As a result, we can warn you in our search results if we know of a site to be harmful and even prevent exploits from loading with Google Desktop Search. Unfortunately, the scope of the problem has recently been somewhat misreported to suggest that one in 10 websites are potentially malicious. To clarify, a sample-based analysis puts the fraction of malicious pages at roughly 0.1%. The analysis described in our paper covers billions of URLs. Using targeted feature extraction and classification, we select a subset of URLs believed to be suspicious for in-depth investigation. So far, we have investigated about 12 million suspicious URLs and found about 1 million that engage in drive-by downloads. In most cases, the web sites that infect your system with malware are not intentionally doing so and are often unaware that their web servers have been compromised. To get a better understanding about the geographic distribution of sites engaging in drive-by downloads, we analyzed the location of compromised web sites and the location of malware distribution hosts. At the moment, the majority of malware activity seems to happen in China, the U.S., Germany and Russia (see below): Location of compromised web sites. These are often sites that are benign in nature but have been compromised and have become dangerous for users to visit. Location of malware distribution servers. These are servers that are used by malware authors to distribute their payload. Very often the compromised sites are modified to include content from these servers. The color coding works as follows: Green means that we did not find anything unsual in that country, yellow means low activity, orange medium activity and red high activity. Guidelines on safe browsing First and foremost, enable automatic updates for your operating system as well your browsers, browser plugins and other applications you are using. Automatic updates ensure that your computer receives the latest security patches as they are published. We also recommend that you run an anti-virus engine that checks network traffic and files on your computer for known malware and abnormal behavior. If you want to be really sure that your system does not become permanently compromised, you might even want to run your browser in a virtual machine, which you can revert to a clean snapshot after every browsing session. Webmasters can learn more about cleaning, and most importantly, keeping their sites secure at StopBadware.org's Tips for Cleaning and Securing a Website.

Postage Hacks: Save the new forever postage stamp

from Lifehacker

Reader Paul picked up a few Forever Stamps at the post office today and writes in with a money-saving tip:

Buy the new "forever" stamps now but DON'T use them yet! The real value in the new "forever" stamp will be realized at the next and future rate changes. As soon as I bought some of the "forever" stamps this morning the nice lady behind post office counter said "put them away for later" and explained the strategy.

See, the Forever Stamp will cost 41 cents now, but will send a first-class letter any time, regardless of when the Postal Service ups the rate again. (The 41 cents first class rate increase will be official this Monday, May 14th.) Paul also writes:

Some other lesser known changes also go into effect this Monday: the "second ounce" rate goes DOWN to $0.17 from $0.24, making the new postage for a 2 ounce letter $0.58 versus the current $0.63. "Flats" now have a new higher minimum postage rate and beginning Monday all international mail goes at airmail rates.

Now the question is: why would anyone buy any other type of stamp besides the Forever Stamp? Hit the link to download the USPS ratefold. Thanks, Paul! —Gina Trapani

Image Editing: Fix your photos online with Phixr

from Lifehacker

Phixr is an online photo editor that offers a wealth of image-tweaking tools and loads of options for distributing the finished product.

Like Fauxto, Picnik, PXN8, Wiredness and all the rest, Phixr lets you upload, modify, share and save photos. However, you're not limited to uploading from your PC: Phixr can also pull photos from your Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa and other accounts. It can save finished photos to those services as well, along with Costco, DropShots, LiveJournal and others. You can also download photos back to your hard drive.

As for its image-editing tools, Phixr covers all the basics--cropping, brightness, sharpen, etc.--while offering plenty of nifty advanced effects. Everything's clearly identified (via pop-up descriptors) and easy to use. My only complaint is that most changes you make take at least a few seconds to appear; this isn't exactly real-time editing. Still, Phixr is a fun and effective tool, and definitely worth checking out. —Rick Broida

Phixr [via Webware]

Explay intros oio nanoprojector, plans to launch in 2008

from Engadget by Darren Murph

Explay is apparently trying to ensure that its micro-projector doesn't become just one of the crowd, as it's trying to outdo the competition by showing off its oio at SID 2007. While we'd seen offerings from Explay before and even heard whispers of a 2007 launch, it looks like it'll be next year before the oio hits the hands of the general public. Nevertheless, the firm was off parading its accomplishment in Long Beach, California, dubbing its minuscule PJ the "first truly mobile and fully operational nano-projector." Of course, we're sure more than a few outfits would love to disagree on that very point, but Explay went on to praise the oio's ability to function in a variety of locales from a "dimly lit bar to a bright office." Notably, it sounds like the company will be aiming for more dollars than those held by mere gadget freaks, as the oio marketing team will be targeting "medical, security, and even artistic" fields whenever Explay can get these things out of the door. Click on through for a closeup of the oio itself. [Photo courtesy of Explay]

Continue reading Explay intros oio nanoprojector, plans to launch in 2008

UK to get even more Big Brother with hovering drones

from Engadget by Evan Blass

With literally hundreds of thousands of cameras -- some sporting speakers and microphones -- trained on its poor citizens from the moment they step out of the house in the morning until their hasty retreat inside at night, we're not sure why the UK needs yet another set of eyes scoping out so-called 'anti-social behaviour' among the populace, but that isn't stopping the vanguard of Big Brother technology from deploying its first unmanned police drone next month. In what is being perhaps optimistically billed as just a three-month trial, Merseyside police will unleash a one-meter wide, night-vision camera-equipped mini-helicopter into the skies (up to 500-meters high) above their jurisdiction, and task it with gathering evidence for court cases as well as the less glamorous job of monitoring traffic congestion. Originally built for the military by a Germany company and called the 'hicam microdrone,' these repurposed mechanical bobbies can either be controlled by an operator via remote or set to patrol autonomously using their built-in GPS nav systems. You'll recall that a similar system being considered by the L.A. County Sheriff's Department was shot down by the FAA around this time last year, proving once again that up-and-coming British criminals could probably minimize their risks of incarceration by making the move Stateside.

[Via The Register, pic courtesy of microdrones GmbH, thanks Paul J. and rastrus]

Ani Phyo: Ani's Raw Food Kitchen book and videos

from Boing Boing by David Pescovitz

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My friend Ani Phyo is a Renaissance 2.0 woman. When I first met her in 1993, she was an economics grad creating mind-bending cyberdelic video art for raves. Then, she became immersed in information architecture and wrote an accessible and popular "howto" book on the subject, Return On Design. In recent years though, Ani has become a student (and teacher) of healthy living, eating and cooking. She co-founded Smart Monkey Foods, makers of yummy raw food snack bars and packaged foods available mainly on the West Coast. This month, Ani's first (un)cookbook was published. If you're not hip to the raw food scene, Ani's Raw Food Kitchen will surprise you with recipes that somehow seem very familiar even if you've never eaten them before. I especially like that Ani isn't a raw food fanatic. In fact, the last meal Ani cooked for me was a fantastic leek soup, grilled spicy tofu, and a superclean salad. Don't get me wrong. Ani's a health nut, but she also has her feet firmly planted on terra firma. She's ultra-busy just like the rest of us, so most of her advice is easy to implement and her recipes are often quick to prepare. For, er, a taste of Ani's style, check out her DIY series of cooking shows she's posted for free on YouTube. (A DVD compilation is also available from her Web site where you can also check out sample recipes and other news.) Congratulations, Ani! Link to buy Ani's Raw Food Kitchen, Link to Ani's site, Link to Ani on YouTube

Foonz.com – Free group calls

from KillerStartups.com - published startups by Alexstl

Have you ever been frustrated by having to call a group of people to tell them all the same thing? Well, now there is a way you can have them all join in on the same call, free. With Foonz you can create call lists on the site, and form the list into a group. You can make as many groups as you want, and the phone charge is the same as your normal phone service. When you register with Foonz, you are given a number to call; when you call the number you can choose which group to call. All members of the group then receive a text message with a number to dial, which will then connect them all together. If you don't want to talk to them all, you can choose to just leave a message for all members of the group. In their own words: "We are a group of friends who wanted to get in touch with a bunch of people on the phone, at once, right away, to plan the night's adventure. But calling everyone separately or doing 15 IM chats was not the answer. So, we invented Foonz – the world's first easy way to call a group of people, from any phone, absolutely free! The best part is, now that we're started, we can't stop thinking of ways to use Foonz and new features to add." Why it might be a killer: Many group calls and conference calls can be expensive. This is pretty much the same thing as a basic conference call, expect it is free, and it dials all the members of the group for you. It could be a great tool for teams, businesses, and families who all want to talk to together at the same time. Some questions: Will people receiving the texts all respond? Will it always remain free?

Samsung and PureDepth show off 46-inch Multi-Layer Display LCD

from Engadget by Darren Murph

It's been a tick since we'd heard anything out of PureDepth, but apparently, the company and its Multi-Layer Display technology are still livin' it up. Making a comeback with Samsung, the two firms are jointly debuting the "world's largest" MLD LCD TV, which rings up at 46-inches diagonally. The actual monitor is being showcased at the Society for Information Display conference in Long Beach, California, and blew past the previous champion which was holding strong at 30-inches. PureDepth is describing its technology as a "a layered, multi-dimensional (using real depth between two or more LCD panels) viewing innovation that enables users to simultaneously view two separate fields of data on one monitor," which is simply a fancy way of suggesting that users can experience "3D-like images" sans unsightly goggles. Unfortunately, there's no word on whether this unit is actually slated for commercialization, but considering the somewhat sour reputation that other 3D devices already have, it's got a rough road to hoe.

If the Patent Reform Act Passes

Legislation changing the current system, by granting patents to the "first-to-file" vs. the "first-to-invent," has a good chance of passing

by Karen E. Klein (BusinessWeek)

Last month, a bipartisan group of leaders from the Senate and the House introduced identical patent-reform legislation that experts believe has a good chance of passing. The Patent Reform Act of 2007 is similar to legislation that has been tried in years past but never succeeded, says J. Warren Lytle, an intellectual property lawyer at Sughrue Mion, in Washington, D.C. Lytle spoke recently with Smart Answers columnist Karen E. Klein about the proposed changes to intellectual property law and how they might affect small-business owners (see BusinessWeek.com, 5/14/07, "A Higher Hurdle for Inventors"). Edited excerpts of their conversation follow:

This legislation, introduced by senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), and Representatives Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), is similar to legislative reform introduced last year and even before that. What chance does this version have of becoming law?

This year, all the stars seem to be aligned. It looks very favorable that some reform will go through in this Congress before the fall, when the concentration is going to shift to the 2008 elections.

What does the bipartisan bill do?

It updates current patent laws and provides reform for patent seekers and patent holders. Among many important reforms, the bill would create a pure "first-to-file" system. The U.S. system is the only one in the world that still grants patents to the first inventor, rather than to the first person to file a patent application. The bill also creates a more streamlined and effective way of challenging the validity and enforceability of patents.

When we're talking about the "first-to-file" right, what does that mean?

The U.S. has been unique among all other countries because we have this "first-to-invent" system, rather than a "first-to-file" system. What that means is that diligent inventors get the patent if they can prove they had the idea first and they began using it commercially, even if they aren't the first to file for a patent.

Smaller companies might not have the resources in place to generate patent applications quickly, as large corporations can do. So in the past, the entrepreneurs have been happy with the "first-to-invent" system because they get the rights if they can show that they've invented it and they've been selling the product.

So if the legislation passes, will this be a bad thing for small companies and inventors?

It'll certainly make it even more important for them to file for a patent for their inventions and new products right away.

What are the reforms proposed on the back end of the process, in terms of challenging a patent's validity?

The legislation establishes something like a "post-grant opposition system." This means that after a patent has been granted, there will be a short period of time in which someone can challenge it. So if a patent issues, and somebody in your company has been watching for it, they can initiate an opposition action within the patent office to oppose the patent and there will be a mini-trial held in front of the patent administration office to determine the validity of the patent.

Other countries, like those in Europe, have this kind of system but if this legislation passes, it will be a first for the U.S. That means an entrepreneur wouldn't have to go to federal court to invalidate a patent, which is very costly, with long delays and a jury.

What are the implications of this for the small-business owner?

Well, a small company that monitors the patents coming out in their area of expertise might be able to take advantage of this opposition system immediately instead of waiting to get sued. If a patent issues that looks close to what you're doing, or that might give you problems, you could initiate an opposition to it.

The downside is that if you petition for opposition, and your petition is denied, you can't later seek to raise the same issue in a federal civil lawsuit. You can still file the suit later, however, if you've not taken advantage of the opposition system.

What's the motivation for this reform?

The goal has been to reduce the number of patents that should not be granted every year and to reduce the amount of expensive patent litigation that gets brought into the courts. There has been a lot of litigation resulting from people who get patents on inventions that are "obvious"—or not novel.

What happens is that they get these patents and then they assert them against businesses that are generating money. We call these people "patent trolls"—they get a patent, they don't make that product, but they legally go after companies that are producing that product. The word troll arises from the idea that there's a "patent thicket" out there that innovative companies have to navigate in order to get a product out. And, at the worst time, a troll emerges from the thicket with a lawsuit.

How costly is it to get a patent these days?

If you've got a mechanical invention, it'll cost between $5,000 to $10,000 including attorney's fees and filing fees. If you're talking about electronics, the cost goes up to more like $8,000 to $15,000. In the biotechnology industry, the cost is even higher.

Karen E. Klein is a Los Angeles-based writer who covers entrepreneurship and small-business issues.

Kodak 'phasing out' low-end digicams, creating 5MP sensor for cameraphone

from Engadget by Darren Murph

During the same 24 hours that BenQ called it quits on the digital camera market, Kodak has reportedly had similar thoughts when eying its low-end camera lineup. According to CNET, Kodak President Antonio Perez shared that the firm would be "abandoning the low-end of the digital camera business" at the JPMorgan Technology Conference in Boston. He also added that while the company "wasn't making much money" in that segment, it was developing its own five-megapixel CMOS sensor to be used in a (presumably mid-range) Kodak-branded digicam. More interesting, however, was the addition that this very sensor would also make its way into "several Motorola cell phones by the end of the year." Unsurprisingly, Mr. Perez was fairly tight-lipped about any further details on the deal, but it's about time we saw something more advanced than a grainy 1.3-megapixel shooter built into mainstream handsets.

Google to license Stanford's Stanley tech, enhance maps

from Engadget by Nilay Patel

Although Google Maps might have been called out by name as the best in "Lazy Sunday" (double true), Microsoft's been gaining ground of late by adding lots of trick features to its own mapping site, particularly some nifty simulated 3D views. Well, Google is never one to lie back and take it from the Redmond crew, so it's struck a deal with Stanford to license the sensing technology behind 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge winner Stanley to improve their maps. Stanley, as you probably remember, was a robotic Volkswagen Touareg put together by the Stanford Racing Team that zipped across the Mojave Desert for 10 hours without any human input, winning the Grand Challenge by a hair. Now that same tech will reportedly be used to scan building faces and improve the 3D portions of Google Maps and Google Earth. Details of the deal and how it will be implemented are due to be announced during the Where 2.0 conference on May 29 and 30 -- here's hoping it involves the phrase "army of robotic Google cars."

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Better Clouds, Wind Coming to Second Life

from TechCrunch by Duncan Riley

Linden Lab, the company behind Second Life, has announced the acquisition of graphics technology from Windward Mark Interactive . Linden Lab will acquire WindLight, an advanced atmospheric rendering technology; Nimble, a realistic 3D cloud simulator; and associated intellectual property and interests.

Once the acquisition is complete, Linden Lab plans to open source the technology and integrate it into Second Life, bringing a new level of realism to the Second Life metaverse.

WindLight uses algorithms that imitate the ways in which light is affected by real-world atmospheric factors like dust and moisture, enabling the nuances of sunlight, clouds, water and weather to be accurately simulated in real-time. Nimble uses advanced physics models to realistically simulate clouds.

Alliance, an online game developed by Windward Mark Interactive does not form part of the acquisition.

original image credit Tim Bray

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