Monday, March 24, 2008

Seagate warns it might sue SSD makers for patent infringement

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/257157834/

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It may already be dipping its own toes into the wild new world of solid state hard drives, but Seagate apparently isn't so keen on others ditching traditional hard drives, and it's now indicating that it might even sue 'em if SSD really starts to catch on. That word comes from none other than Seagate CEO Bill Watkins, who told Fortune recently that he's "convinced" that SSD makers like Samsung and Intel are violating some of Seagate's patents (as well as Western Digital's) that deal with the way a "storage device communicates with a computer." Somewhat curiously though, especially given Seagate's own plans, Watkins doesn't see SSD catching on in a big way anytime soon, saying that, "realistically, I just don't see the flash notebook sell." As Fortune points out, however, if prices keep dropping at the rate they have been, that "sell" could soon be a whole lot easier to make, which would also make that lawsuit quite a bit more likely.

[Via Slashdot]

 

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LG's Flatron LX206WU joins the multiple USB display party

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/257186847/

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We're not sure why hooking up six displays has suddenly become the new USB multiple-monitor demo of choice, but LG isn't one to let Samsung have all the glory -- the company just announced the USB-capable 20.1-inch Flatron LX206WU, which outguns Sammy's UbiSync 940UX by a single, triumphant inch. LG says you can feed up to six displays from a single USB port using a hub, but it's not saying what the max video bitrate or resolution is. Just like the Samsung, it looks like USB video support is Windows-only for now, but Mac and Linux peeps can jack into the 5000:1 contrast ratio and 2ms response time through DVI and VGA, which are notably absent on Sammy's unit. No word on Stateside availability, but if you're headed to Korea we hear a smile and 390,000 won ($388) should do the trick.

 

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Intel's Netbook revealed as the 2go PC

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/257186846/

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Finally, something solid on the recently-rumored Netbook... or should we say, the 2go PC. The little laptop, manufactured by CTL, will clearly be aimed at the education market, though the specs imply that this will be destined for more than just the classroom. The 2go features an Intel Celeron M CPU on top of the 915GMS chipset, 512MB of RAM (upgradeable to 1GB), a 9-inch, 800 x 480 LCD display, 40GB hard drive, 802.11b/g, SD / MMC reader, and a full complement of standard ports and jacks. The systems natively run XP (though Linux appears to be an option), feature a VGA webcam, and are expected to go about three hours between full charges. Our contact says these will be on shelves in less than 60 days, and will retail for around $400. We're working on getting our grubby mitts all over one of these puppies, but in the meantime, check out some more pics after the break.

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STMicro touts bird flu-detecting VereFlu "lab-on-a-chip"

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/257240583/

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We've already seen a couple of devices designed to detect and prevent bird flu (among other viruses), but STMicro says it's got 'em all beat with its new VereFlu "lab-on-a-chip," which it developed in partnership with Veredus Laboratories. That system, the company says, will let you (or the appropriate flu-detecting folks) identify and differentiate human strains of Influenza A and B, including bird flu, in a single test within two hours, as opposed to other systems that can apparently only identify one strain at time and can take days or weeks to deliver a result. The device hasn't seen any service just yet, however, although STMicro says it has received some "very promising" sales orders from hospitals and other customers, adding that it also sees potential for the device to be used to screen travelers at airports and border checkpoints.

[Via PC World]

 

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How to Completely Test Your Website

Source: http://www.labnol.org/internet/design/completely-test-website-errors-html-standards/2673/

You may have developed your website using an expensive “what you see is what you get” editor but there’s no guarantee that site visitors “will get the website as you see it“.

You will need to extensively test the website to ensure that visitors have a comfortable stay and don’t leave your site in a jiffy.  And here are some useful tools to help you completely check your website:

Browsershots is an online service that automatically captures full page screenshot images of your website in various browsers across all different OS platforms. You also have the option to preview the website design in browsers with or without Flash, Java and JavaScript.

browser-screenshots Browsershots is extremely popular and you may therefore have to wait a few minutes for this service to render screenshots of your website.

IE NetRenderer is another service that’s much faster than Browsershots but it can check the rendering only for different versions of Internet Explorer. Mac oriented websites can try BrowsrCamp which is like Browsershots but for the Mac OS browsers only.

To see how your website appears on the small screens of mobile phones like the BlackBerry or Windows Mobile, check out BrowserCam. Another good option is the Opera Simulator that lets you experience a mobile version of Opera from the desktop.

Related: Use Opera Simulator to Unblock Restricted Websites

Some people are still using slow dial-up connections and their population in not insignificant especially in the developing world. You therefore need to make sure that the average loading time of your HTML web pages, along with all the Javascript Ads, Images, CSS, Flash animations, etc., is within reasonable limits.

Pingdom is a free online service that mimics the way a page is loaded in the web browser. It shows statistics (size, loading time) for every object on the web page so you know about the culprits who may slow down the website.

firebug-pingdom

Alternatively, you could use Firebug in Firefox to detect elements on your web page that are increasing the load time of your web pages (press F12, Goto All -> Net).

For website and blogs that syndicate content via RSS feeds, load the website in IE or Firefox and look for that orange XML icon near the browser address bar. This ensures that other online services can successfully auto-discover RSS feeds give your site address.

rss-feeds-autodiscovery

If you have added email forms to your website (like Contact Us, or Suggest a friend) - try some combinations in the form address field. For instance, is the email message delivered successfully if visitors add a semicolon instead of a comma to separate two or more email addresses.

You may also want to print some of your web pages to the local printer or save them as PDF to ensure that the Print CSS of your site is stripping the non-essential stuff like the sidebars and the ads.

 

For accessibility, load the website inside html2txt to ensure that screen readers can interpret your website. This is an online Lynx simulator (text-only browser) and will also help you understand how your website appears to Google spiders and other search engine bots.

And finally, validate your web pages against online HTML validation and clean-up service like the W3C HTML Validator and HTML Tidy. The former service help you check the website for conformance to W3C HTML standards while the latter is for cleaning up HTML source files that contain lot of nested tags.


How to Completely Test Your Website - Digital Inspiration | FAQ | RSS

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