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I'd be really interested how you put together your chair. I had the same thought a couple months ago about a car seat being almost ideal for the reason you mentioned. I didn't find any one selling chairs like that from searching, though my co-worker did send me this link:

http://i.gizmodo.com/5132451/emperor-workstation-priced-at-40000

Maybe one day... :)

br/

Meanwhile, Kurzweil and co. have been working on cellphone software that allows blind people to photograph text and have it read aloud to them.

Will that also be disabled? Or will the users just be sued?

Current rumors put the price of the starter edition at about twice that much:

http://gizmodo.com/5148072/windows-7-pricing-starts-at-200-ehh

But maybe they'll release a Ghetto Edition for $100 that can only run 1.5 apps at once.

Now excuse me, I have to sell my TV so I can afford Windows 7 Pro.

Realistically, a USB WiMax device can see upwards of 4 megs/sec AND given the cost of dongle and clearspot, is cheaper than the MiFi device. Faster speeds are possible, as evidenced by the Gizmodo article here: http://i.gizmodo.com/5174718/exclusive-wimax-uncapped-speed-tests

Full disclosure: I work for Clearwire, and I am also not authorized to speak for the company.

http://gizmodo.com/5192430/review-clear-spot-portable-wimax-wi+fi-hotspot

Beats hauling around a bulky CPE device and WiFi router everywhere.

The only downside is that WiMax coverage isn't in many markets yet.

Actually OS X supports some 3G cards OK.

E.g. here's a guide to install OS X on a Dell Mini 9

http://i.gizmodo.com/5156903/how-to-hackintosh-a-dell-mini-9-into-the-ultimate-os-x-netbook

Follow this tutorial to get your mobile broadband working if your Mini 9 has it. Network preferences should recognize it out of the box.

Now what's interesting about this is that the Dell 5530 wireless card is supported the bundled OS X drivers.

Why isn't everyone doing this?

As chipmakers demo 64 or 128 core chips, why aren't we coding and being trained in Erlang? Why aren't schools teaching this as a mandatory class? Why aren't old applications being broken down and analyzed to multithread components that don't interact? Why isn't the compiler theory concentrating on how to automate this (if possible)?

It's becoming obvious the number of cores is going to far outweigh the number of applications we'll be running five years from now (so you can't leave it up to the OS) so why isn't this a bigger concentration now in application development?

I understand a lot of server side stuff can take advantage of this (in the nature of serving many clients at once) but it's only a matter of time before it's typical on the desktop.

Of course there isn't a lot wrong with vista. But that doesn't mean there's a lot right with it, nor does it mean that we have some motivation to jump to 7 now. What with the whole shareware equivalent if you use the RC for windows 7 for the whole trial period. Shut down after 2 hours?

If you are a Mac guy with a Dell Mini 9 you can run OS X on it: http://i.gizmodo.com/5156903/how-to-hackintosh-a-dell-mini-9-into-the-ultimate-os-x-netbook

The BSOD joke stopped being funny when Windows 2000 was the OS to have (Unless you were subjected to ME. If so, I pity you). XP was solid. 2003 was solid.

Yes, once Windows 2000 came out there was never BSODs ever again. Oh wait...

The 8800s used the G80 chip, and are fine. Anything else in the 8xxx range and at least some earlier revisions of the 9600 are bad news.

All cards based off of G84 (8600) or G86 (8300, 8400, 8500) are dead silicon walking, as well as at least some of the earlier revisions of G94. (9600)

I'd love to see it used in ATMs and self checkouts.

My first thought was that it would be perfect for the Tesla Model S.

Check out the levitating jello at the end of this clip: http://gizmodo.com/5219724/sprintcam-v3-hd-shoots-breathtaking-full-hd-video-at-1000-fps :P Although, after some thought, it seems both goo and jello both possess some kind of internal vibration, so perhaps the phenomena are related. Any experts in nonlinear elasticity out there?

Your new universal desktop picture:
http://cache.gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2008/05/bigbrother.jpg

Researchers from Finjan who found the botnet say it's controlled by six individuals,

We should be able to shut this one down with one clip in a .45.

-1 inefficient, you should only need a revolver for this job.

Why go with the minimum required when you can enjoy exploring the practical application of overkill? I'd love the chance to play with an AA-12 fully automatic 12 gauge shotgun. http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/guns/recoilless-auto-shotgun-fires-300-rounds-per-minute-no-cleaning-or-lube-required-324453.php

http://gizmodo.com/5197156/obamas-ipod-gift-to-queen-elizabeth-ii-is-tainted

http://www.geek.com/articles/apple/president-obama-gives-queen-ipod-full-of-mp3s-but-will-the-riaa-sue-2009043/

Although not mentioned on the article, I am damn sure that the guys on iSuppli will be thinking something like 'OMG how can they do business with such a high material cost?'. 50% looks tooooooo high to me, and I am damn sure that they are selling it for a loss.

Believe me, iSuppli did many, many, and many work something like this before, and their purpose is to understand how those companies operate.

It's no secret that material cost is only a tiny fraction of the retail price on this kind of high-tech business. Screaming socialism on this kind of article is completely laughable.

But realistically, you can study books all you want, but you will not truly understand anatomy until you actually cut into a cadaver.

Some of my relatives trained as nurses. When they were taking their courses, all the diagrams of the internal organs such as a heart consisted of a simple hand-drawn outline with some arrows showing the direction of blood flow. Even the most detailed drawings were in black white. When I showed them the modern childrens encyclopedias with colour diagrams, and even some computer animations, they were completed amazed.

Virtual heart simulator.

Agreed. $500 isn't too much to pay for an ethernet cable when your audio depends on it. I keep mine next to my DVD Rewinder.

Even if the copyright police came, they'd have a hard time breaking in to the coolest Bond villain data center in the world.

Something like the SGI Molecule, perhaps.

Oh yeah, RIP SGI.

If you bought his kindle from him would you be able to buy ebooks from the kindle store to put on the kindle that was initially bought by him?

Are you saying that if some generous soul on slashdot wanted to buy him an ebook from the kindle store he would be able to load it?

Because if either of these things are no longer possible then the value of his kindle has gone down, and if neither are possible in any kindle then its a pretty poor system and not worth buying into.

see there is a subtle difference from him being barred from borders and say his granny not being able to buy a book at borders as a gift for his birthday.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/hacks/kindle-drm-hacked-that-was-easy-333415.php

seems to suggest the serial number is locked to the users device so if amazon choose to end his account the kindles pretty much barred too.

I'm not sure if there is much of a saving on books either, where i could compare, Amazon seemed to sell the paperback and the electronic version for the same price.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10196424-38.html is interesting amazon using the DMCA to stop nonkindle books being used on the kindle unsuccessfully http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1158727&cid=27172053

perhaps a more worrying trend is that amazon will not support encrypted mobipocket books on the kindle, perhaps rightly but don't amazon own mobipocket books too?

i'm not so sure if having a wireless device that updates itself at amazons command is that great if they don't respect their customers, i guess Jeff Bezos http://www.martinmanley.typepad.com/jam_side_down/2009/03/billionaire-amazon-ceo-works-a-week-in-his-own-warehouse.html doesn't look much like Darth Vader but could he say the line I'm altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it still further...

Who's toy is it his or Jeff Bezos?

Plant trees on skyscrapers.

http://gizmodo.com/5149860/co2-skyscraper-scrubs-away-smog-with-400-trees

Flight Simulator is now grounded.

Old heros don't die. They just fade away.

And for the rest of us, there's Flightgear, which is like the GPL goodness of Flight simming. Flightgear killed MSFS!

Flight Simulator is now grounded.

http://dvice.com/archives/2009/03/asus_dual-scree.php
http://www.liliputing.com/2009/03/asus-shows-dual-screen-notebook-prototype.html
http://gizmodo.com/5162780/asus-dual-panel-laptop-resembles-two-iphones-mating

Mind you, I really liked the look of the wallet that the MS Codex came in, with the mesh pocket and pen-holder and stuff.

Is there any chance that they might market just the wallet, without all the nasty heavy electronic stuff? The wallet's cool. Wouldn't mind one of those. You could maybe stick, like, a tear-off notepad in it. It'd be useful.

AT&T Offers $100k reward for capture of vandals.

Really?
I see BSODs quite frequently and I don't even use Windows - airport display boards, ATMs, presentations, talks at conferences etc.
My particular favourite was at the olympics :
http://gizmodo.com/5035456/blue-screen-of-death-strikes-birds-nest-during-opening-ceremonies-torch-lighting

http://cache.gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2007/02/pcmaclinux-thumb.jpg

I know it's not ARM, but this thing's also not x86 - a MIPS-based mini-notebook: Alpha 400 MIPS netbook.

They're pretty inexpensive too. I might pick one up just to play around with it.

Wrong!

The dust has settled on PWN 2 OWN and Linux FTW! The Ubuntu-equipped Sony VAIO was the only computer to get through the tournament unscathed, managing to elude the assembled hackers. On Thursday the MacBook Air was the first to go, followed the next day by the Vista-running Fujitsu, conquered by Shane Macaulay. No one, but no one, however, was able to bring down the penguin.

http://gizmodo.com/373779/linux-last-man-standing-in-pwn-2-own-thunderdome

Got My mind robot interface got my femisapien let's get ready to rumble!

Oh, and watch the commercial..the same individual walking past Lauren when she enters the store is the same person who is walking away from Lauren when she exits the store after she "searched" for a Mac....apparently this guy moves as slow as frozen molasses in the arctic. Lauren never went into the Apple store.

It seems to have changed in the last 2 days! (@_@)

It was working 2 days ago (I checked before posting) but now it's not. And it was reported back in early Febuary here, here and here.

Or you can google: "google I am extremely terrified of chinese people" and find many sites talking about it.

I think they could have used a touch screen if it weren't so fucking busy. It needs to be more modal. A touch screen with a row of physical function buttons below it is probably the ideal compromise for an automotive application. Replacing other controls with a touch screen is highly desirable because it can substantially reduce weight in the cockpit, not least by simplifying the dashboard. Speaking as someone with a W126 MBZ 300SD which has a very tiny dashboard, a touch screen is my only hope for any substantial upgrade to the controls (which look beyond dated.)

Your primary example of a control which is annoying to use with a touch screen is the climate control, but this is a luxury automobile which I would expect to be delivered with automatic climate control - much like my 1982 Mercedes, or a high trim-level Buick or Honda or whatever. A much bigger issue is whether the interface will be too distracting to the driver. Looking at the screenshot at the top of the linked article it seems crazy-busy - not a mistake I intend to make.

He's been crazy for years. My first exposure to his loony ideas was in that old story of his, "The Right To Read". He wrote that when I'd just entered college and just started using this "GNU" stuff, and I remember being being stunned by his paranoia.

Sure, there's basically no way that kind of absurdity would be tolerated sufficiently for it to get that far.

Grade schools wasting time preaching about intellectual property?

That's just the more general issue of special interests intruding and making a mess of things. Don't they do similar things with cosmology and historical biology and sex ed? That's also what I understand gender studies (is it still called that) and the like are, which I think have also reached grade school now.

Software being outlawed for being able to edit RAM that someone else's program allocated?

No. I think it's called something like "substantial noninfringing uses".

People who didn't have the root passwords for their own computers?

That's not what that is. There are some theoretical bad uses, but somehow those don't seem to have materialized... probably because people aren't stupid.

And then there's the central point of the story, that eventually people would be stuck with books they couldn't lend or resell!

Funny thing is, things are actually going in the opposite direction. iTunes has non-DRM tracks now, there are other online music stores popping up that sell ordinary MP3 files, there are various Open Textbook projects, research seems to be moving to open access publishing instead of / in addition to the old closed journals, etc.

That Stallman guy was clearly a nutjob.

Yep. Visions of dystopia can make the slope look very slippery and very scary, but time tends to show that things don't actually end up going that way. And it isn't even copyleft that prevents it, it's people saying "wtf this makes no sense" and going elsewhere.

He's been crazy for years. My first exposure to his loony ideas was in that old story of his, "The Right To Read". He wrote that when I'd just entered college and just started using this "GNU" stuff, and I remember being being stunned by his paranoia. Grade schools wasting time preaching about intellectual property? Software being outlawed for being able to edit RAM that someone else's program allocated? People who didn't have the root passwords for their own computers? And then there's the central point of the story, that eventually people would be stuck with books they couldn't lend or resell! That Stallman guy was clearly a nutjob.

Robot drivers will put an end to nose-tail accidents

Volvo agrees with you. Of course as someone who enjoys driving, I insist on there being only one driver. I'm fine with that being a machine, but while I'm behind the wheel, it'd f**king better not touch my brakes/steering/etc. If it's good enough to take over from me in emergencies then it can drive the whole way and I'll bring a book.

That's why I drive the most recent model of my car to be made _without_ antilock brakes. If I stand on the brake pedal, it's because I *want* the wheels to lock, as part of a manoeuvre I'm pulling. If I want limit braking I'll damn well do it myself. The controls are called 'controls', not 'suggestion boxes', for a reason.

oops... stupid me, didn't post the link correctly.

http://live.gizmodo.com/

Yeah, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and state that people do *not* rush out and replace their standard iPhone headphones with a $100-300 pair.

On the other hand, I found some $7,250 speaker cables that you may be interested in!

Apple always keeps their 30%. The developer puts up 100% of the money for a refund. Simplified math for a refund: Developer pays 30% of the app's price to Apple.

Users have 30 days to ask for a refund from the app store. And you'd think many will ask for a refund when the service goes offline or shortly after. Why not? the app is useless to them.

If everyone who can ask for a refund does, the developers doesn't profit, doesn't break even, the developer loses big.

Yeah...Apple doesn't offer refunds once the money has changed hands to the developer. They can reverse the sale before this happens, and then it's not an issue for the developer.

Check it out.

You mean like those cheap MP4 players you get at JCPenney (Craig or whatever brand they are). I have a couple (5) of those since people got them as a gift and don't know what to do with them. They are 1) ugly 2) unusable (interface) and 3) low quality (music is metallic, screen is 320x240 and video output is 160x120). The only thing they're good for is storing 512MB of data.

Like the one in this review? http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/funny-british-review-of-some-mp4-player-196544.php

There is a reason Apple is so successful in the market and it's not because it's the iEl-Cheapo from the Abble cult, it's because they do what they need to do better than the others. I overheard quite some sales nerds at several stores while I was waiting in line (especially during the holiday season). Even the Zune (which is price-wise and sound-quality wise on par with the iPod) is being steered away from by them just because and I quote "almost nobody returns an iPod after the holidays but we got quite some customers come trade in their Zune for either an iPod or cash because they didn't like how it worked".

You can avoid the problem by asking to be paid in cash. Not recommended, though.

What will the price point be on this device? If it's in the $499 range, it might be worth a look. However, when I can buy a Dell Mini with a 16 GB SSD and 2 GB of memory for less than $350, and install Leopard on it for $85 + the cost of a couple of USB flash drives, why would I want to pay much more than that?

Photo of the bill on the governor's desk, awaiting...

I agree that it would be nice for Microsoft to release one but...

http://www.consoleshop.com/product.php?productid=20688
http://www.ddrgame.com/xbox-360-accessory-keyboard-mouse-adapter.html
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/xcm-brings-pcstyle-gaming-to-your-360-217332.php

Thanks, I'd never heard of it.

I found the story here btw: http://gizmodo.com/5052165/trism-makes-250000-since-release

And yes, making 250000 does qualify as "get rich fast" in my book :)

How to get your app into the app store:

http://i.gizmodo.com/5051273/how-apple-picks-which-apps-make-it-to-the-app-store

You're right to be suspicious, it's completely a hoax:

Update: The story is a fake, and the robot shown is actually of a Japanese medical robot. Thanks tipster!

Medical robot? It looks like Lego to me.

Update: The story is a fake, and the robot shown is actually of a Japanese medical robot. Thanks tipster!