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March
Windows 7 RC Self-Destructs
 Just in case any of you are
still using the free release candidate (RC) version of the operating system,
you will start noticing strange goings-in. The trial period
has now ended and it begins with warning pop-ups, and unannounced twice-hourly
shutdowns; anything you are working on will not be saved. This will continue
until June 1st when it goes into ‘non-genuine’ mode, at which point a permanent
warning notice appears on the screen, the wallpaper disappears and it will no
longer be possible to download updates. Be warned, there are a number of fixes
on the Internet that claim to be able to fix Windows 7 Release Candidate’s
suicidal tendency but as far as I’m aware none of them work properly and some
of them contain viruses or malware.
0403
Black and Blue
 Can’t afford a Blackberry?
Well, you might just be able to run to a Blueberry @9500, just don’t expect it
to be compatible with Blackberry’s email service or apps. Yes, it’s a fake, and
a pretty shameless one at that, and it’s not the first time the Malaysian
company CSL has had a pop at Research in Motion, the Canadian manufacturer of
the genuine article. On paper the spec is quite impressive, it has dual SIM
slots, a Micro SD card reader, camera, optical trackpad, a number of ‘Islamic’
features, wi-fi and the cheeky beggars have even fitted it with an analogue TV tuner. It’s priced to sell, at around £120
but there’s not much danger of you getting hold of one in your local high
street, at least not above the counter…
01/03/10
February
Compact Flash 5.0 Promises
Petabytes
 That’s 144 Petabytes to be
precise, and if you want that in good old Gigabytes, that’s around 150994944 of them. Data
transfer speeds are said to be in the order of 32Mb per second, but before you
get too excited, no such card or storage chip exists, yet... The newly
announced spec from the Compact Flash
Association is basically a re-vamp of the way data on a memory card can be
accessed, using a faster and more efficient 48-bit address, which opens the way
for the theoretical 144Pb storage capacity. It’s sounds impressive but it’s
worth remembering that 64-bit systems can theoretically address up to
16-Exabytes of data, which is 16384 petabytes, or 16777216 terabytes in old
money. It sounds terrifying, but I only have to think back to the late 1970s
and my first home-built computer, which had an impressive1 kilobyte of memory A
few years later and my first hard disc drive had a massive 10 megabytes of
capacity; I remember thinking at the time that it would take years to fill it up…
2502
Safety Stick
 USB memory sticks are
really easy to lose and when said stick contains secret, sensitive or personal
data it is a real cause for concern. Of course, if you take the trouble to
encrypt your data it needn’t be a problem, but who can remember to do that? It
needn’t be a problem if your data is stored on a Corsair Flash Padlock; this
has built in 256-bit hardware encryption with PIN coded access. The drive has a
built-in keypad for setting 4 – 10 digit PINs and if anyone tried to have multiple
goes it locks them out. It’s available with 8Gb of storage and with a selling
price of around £45, that’s another very good incentive not to lose it!
2202
Electronic Gas Guzzler
 You know how it is when you
run short of oxygen? Well, apparently they do in Japan and I am indebted to
Engadget for alerting me to the Oxyfit
Mobile Oxygen Supply, dubbed the personal oxygen-booster; just the job when you run a bit short of the
old O2. In case you are thinking it’s just a bottle of compressed gas, think
again. This is a high-tech oxygen generator, powered by a re-chargeable
lithium-ion battery that keeps it running for up to 5 hours. It comes with a tube
and respirator thingy and is housed in a backpack that weighs in at around
1.5kg. In case you are still wondering what it’s all about, the blurb says it can
‘boost brainpower and metabolism’, and let you run further, work longer and even
lose weight! Oh yes, and it’ll cost you the thick end of £1700. Clearly sales of
this device to lots of brainy, oxygen deprived rich kids should be encouraged, leaving
more of the natural stuff for the rest of us.
1802
Microsoft Takes Action Over
Activation
 A word to the wise, if you
are not sure about the legitimacy of that copy of Windows 7 you are running on
your PC prepare for your chickens to come home to roost. This week Microsoft
will be releasing an update that ferrets out the numerous bogus activation
scams that allow PCs to run unlicensed, counterfeit or pirated copies of Win 7.
The update uses over 70 ‘signature’ files to check for iffy installations. This
is a new strategy, in the past activation checks looked for unauthorised OEM
product keys; this method detects the much more subtle changes made to the
operating system by the various activation hacks. If it finds anything
suspicious Windows goes into unactivated mode with black wallpaper plus regular
pop-ups and warnings to make sure the user knows that Microsoft knows they are
running unlicensed software, although apparently no other functions will be
disabled.
1502
Cutting Edge Security
 This has to be one of the
oddest things yet designed to plug into a computer’s USB socket. See if you can
guess what it’s for. The name might give you a clue, it’s called the
Impressioner and the pointy end fits into a car door keyhole. Still confused,
well, when you insert the device the tip reads the pins inside the lock barrel,
passing the information back to the computer, which generates a code that can
be read by a cutting machine to produce a perfect key. It’s the brainchild of a
couple of US students, who, according to Popular Mechanics, came up with the
idea whilst working for a locksmith. It came to them after seeing how much
trouble experts were having making car keys for locks when they didn’t have the
necessary ID codes. Before you ask it will only be sold to authorised
locksmiths and it can be remotely shut down if it is being used fraudulently.
This model can only cope with the basic mechanical car locks fitted to older
cars so it’s not much use on the fancy electronic systems used on many modern
cars, but they’re working on that too, apparently…
11/02/10
Windows 7 Battery Basher?
 In amongst the pre-launch
hype surrounding Windows 7 was the claim that it would be lighter on laptop and
netbook batteries, extending running times, compared with XP and Vista. My own
experiences have been reasonably positive, nothing dramatic mind you, but I
certainly seem to be getting a few extra minutes out of my test machines now
running Win 7. However, since the launch a growing number of users have been
reporting the opposite effect with significantly shorter running times and in
some cases, Windows 7 is telling them that their batteries need to be replaced.
Microsoft is reported to be investigating the problem, which first arose during
the pre-launch beta test and judging by the increase in complaints there does
indeed seem to be a problem. One of the possibilities seems to be the PC’s BIOS
as this is where Win 7 gets its information about the battery. If and when
Microsoft gets to the bottom of it we’ll let you know.
0402
More Disturbing Robot News
 Here’s another piece of
robot news to give you the willies. It’s a humanoid robot baby, called
Diego-San, designed by the twisted techs in the Machine Perception Lab at the
University of California and Japanese robotics company Kokoro. It’s supposed to
be modelled on a 1 year old child and is apparently designed to help
researchers study infant motor skills, so they say... If you ask me it’s all a
bit weird, why invent a robot baby when the real things are plentiful and a lot
cheaper to make. I can’t stress how important it is for everyone to be on their
guard against this kind of thing, you’ve seen the movies, it’s happening
people!
01/02/10
January
Wooden It Be Nice, part 5…
 If many more gadget
companies jump on the eco-green bandwagon we’ll have to add splinters and deathwatch
beetle to the list of hazards posed by these devices. Based in France, Lexon
are big on the use of sustainable materials with a growing (no pun intended) range
of products encased in wood or made using bioplastics, derived from mashed up
vegetables. It also includes a number of solar powered and wind-up widgets,
like this rather natty looking bamboo radio, called the LA 81 Safe. You might
also be interested in a bamboo clock radio, calculator and there’s even a bamboo
coffee set.
2801
Wristy Business
 It’s called the GeoSkeeper
and it has to be the simplest mobile phone yet, though it’s primary role is not
for making and taking phone calls. It’s aimed at the young, elderly and
vulnerable and it’s intended for emergency use. The key feature is the
emergency button, which can be programmed to send out an alert and provide whoever
need to know with the wearer’s precise location, thanks to the built-in GPS
tracker. The mobile phone has a speakerphone facility and calls can be made using
the pre-programmed speed-dial button, to a doctor, parent, carer and so on. No
details yet on price or availability but if you want to know more pop along to
the Aerotel
website.
2501
Now They Can Climb…
 My long-running campaign to
warn the world of the dangers of
robots continues to go unheeded and more evidence – if it were needed – of
their intention to take over the comes from Germany and Canada. According to
Engadget research teams at the Technical University of Dortmund and University
of Canada have developed a robot that can climb
walls. Fortunately for us humans at this early stage said wall needs to
have strategically placed metal loops, but the robot is autonomous and can
figure out the best route to the top, and if you happen to be up there you just
know what it’s going to do to you! How long before it can do without the hoops,
surely a tree-climbing robot can’t be far away then there will be no place to
hide.
2101
New IE Vulnerability behind
Google’s Chinese Concerns
 A new security loophole has
been discovered in Microsoft Internet Explorer. According to Engadget this is
behind the recent news that Google’s Gmail system had been compromised by
Chinese-based hackers, attempting to intercept the mail of human rights
activists. Microsoft isn’t saying too much about the flaw at the moment, just
the usual ‘…vulnerability that could allow remote code execution’ blurb.
Presumably this is to stop it going any further and allow time to sort out a
patch. So far it only seems to have affected Chinese users of Gmail and IE but
as usual the advice is to switch to a safer browser, like Firefox, if you are
concerned about your online security.
1810
Coke Fuelled Phone
 The sequence of photos
tells the whole story but for those of you still perplexed by the thought of
pouring a can of Coke into a mobile phone here’s the explanation. The images come
from the website of one Daizi
Zheng, a Chinese born designer, now living in London and his work is part
of a project to design an eco-friendly phone for Nokia. His idea is to use a
‘bio battery’, which turns carbohydrates, specifically sugar, into electricity
using an enzyme catalyst. The technology is still very much in its infancy but Sony has been busy in this
area. Prototypes have been developed that are capable of powering small devices.
Research suggests that they could last three to four times as long as current
lithium ion batteries and there is every reason to suppose there will be on-going
improvements in size and performance. Bio Battery’s eco credentials are
impressive and there’s no nasty waste with water and oxygen the only by-products
of producing energy. There’s still a lot of work to do but the concept is sound
and one day topping up your mobile phone could have a whole new meaning!
1401
Wi-Di and Wi Not?
 Wi-Di or Wireless Display
is one of those about-time-too technologies that we’ve all been waiting for,
but not for much longer it seems. Wi-Di is now a reality and the first devices,
probably from Netgear and Toshiba, that will allow you to wirelessly stream HD video from your laptop to your HDTV
will be going on sale in the US in next few weeks. Wi-Di is based on the WiMax
N Standard and laptops that use it must be Intel based and running Windows 7,
so it’s not for everyone and will take a while to filter through but it could
be big! The only question now is how to say Wi-Di? The obvious pronunciations
‘widdy’ and ‘we-die’ are a both bit weak so my money is on the favourite, ‘wide-eye’.
1101
Sony Backing SD but Sticking
With Sticks
 One of the more interesting items to come out of this
year’s Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas is news that Sony are about to
start making SD memory cards. Apparently it doesn’t mean the end of the Sony
Memory Stick, which Sony has stuck grimly with, even though just about everyone
else uses the near universal SD format. You can see why they’re doing it,
though, SD cards and the many mini and micro variants are used in everything
from cameras to mobile phones and MP3 players, and just about everything in
between. Obviously it would be crazy for Sony to miss out on this massive
market. Nevertheless, it reminds me somewhat of a time, back in the 1980s, when
Sony suddenly started building VHS recorders, swearing blind they were still
committed to making Betamax VCRs…
0701
Print a Pancreas
 We have become accustomed
to printers being able to do all sorts of clever things, but here’s one that
tops them all. It’s called the 3D Bio-Printer, developed by Invetech, and if
you haven’t guessed by now, it is designed to ‘print’ biological structures by
placing cells of almost any type into the required 3D patterns. Using a
preformed scaffold users can construct replacement tissues for diseased or
damaged organs, apparently they can even print you a new tooth. This is the
first production model and the manufacturers are hoping researchers will
develop ways of using the machine to solve real world problems. Don’t get too
excited though, it’s still very much at the development stage and we doubt very
much that you’ll see one in PC World anytime soon, but if you do, you can bet
the refill cartridges are going to cost a packet, and we dread to think what’s
in them…
0401
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