Author: Dr. Bill

So… good news, Warp Drive may, in fact, be possible… bad news, it might destroy the Earth in a Black Hole. Drat! And, I was starting to get jazzed!

Scientists: Warp Drive Might Not Be a Good Idea

“And here I was getting all excited about scientists working on warp drive: A different group of physicists in Italy have determined that such an engine could create a black hole that would kill everyone on a spaceship and then suck Earth into it, according to Discovery News. ‘Warp drives are so far the best case scenario to attain faster-than-light travel,’ said Stefano Finazzi of Italy’s International School for Advanced Studies in the article. This paper ‘makes it much harder to realize, if not almost impossible, warp drives.’ There are two ways that humans could move faster than the speed of light (normally an impossibility). One would be a worm hole, but that’s tough to make in a backyard garage. The other, ‘more appealing option,’ is to design a warp drive that, with enough energy, could propel space around a space ship to move faster than the speed of light. Here’s the problem, according to the Italian physicists: a warp drive would create a bubble of energy behind the ship and a lack of it behind the ship, which the ship could then surf on. But maintaining the bubble would require a tremendous amount of dark energy (which we still know very little about). Once that energy ran out, the bubble would rupture, causing the temperature to rise to about 10^32 degrees Kelvin–and possibly collapse into a black hole, taking Earth with it. Otherwise, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Oh well, back to the drawing board!

In what, I am sure is frustrating to Microsoft, the Windows 7 Release Candidate seems to have made it’s way to the web!

Purported Windows 7 ‘release candidate’ leaks out

“Updated test versions of Windows 7 were making the rounds on a number of torrent sites on Friday, with many expecting the leak version to be the one that Microsoft distributes shortly as the official “release candidate” version. Microsoft has also reportedly given ‘build 7100’ to key partners, although Microsoft has not commented on that. The software maker also briefly posted a blog indicating that the release candidate was coming in May, although that blog was later pulled from Microsoft’s TechNet Web site. Blogger Long Zheng has an early look at the leaked code, though he doesn’t note much in the way of glaring differences between the RC and earlier test versions. In its earnings announcement on Thursday, Microsoft said only that it was making progress on the release candidate version, but didn’t note that it had reached the milestone or provide a date for its public distribution. The near-final release candidate version is expected to be the last public milestone before Microsoft finalizes the code for the new operating system. Microsoft has been publicly cagey about when to expect a final release, but it is widely expected to be in time for this year’s holiday PC buying season. A Microsoft representative declined to comment for this report.”

Revo Uninstaller helps you to uninstall software and remove unwanted programs installed on your computer even if you have problems uninstalling and cannot uninstall them from ‘Windows Add or Remove Programs’ control panel applet. Revo Uninstaller is a much faster and more powerful alternative to ‘Windows Add or Remove Programs’ applet! With its advanced and fast algorithm, Revo Uninstaller analyzes an application’s data before uninstall and scans after you uninstall an application. After the program’s regular uninstaller runs, you can remove additional unnecessary files, folders and registry keys that are usually left over on your computer. Even if you have a broken installation, Revo Uninstaller scans for an application’s data on your hard disk drives and in the Windows registry and shows all found files, folders and registry keys so you can delete them. With its unique ‘Hunter mode,’ Revo Uninstaller offers you some simple, easy to use, but effective and powerful methods for uninstalling software. You can use it to manage your installed and/or running software programs.”

Revo Uninstaller

A worm attacked 10s of thousands of Twitter users, but Twitter now says the network is clear.

Twitter all clear after worm wave

“Twitter has been given the all clear after a worm infected ‘tens of thousands of users’. But experts say the attack could have been much worse. Over the weekend, a self-replicating computer program, or worm, began to infect profiles on the social network. The worm was set up to promote a Twitter rival site, showing unwanted messages on infected user accounts. Michael Mooney, a 17-year-old US student, told the Associated Press he created the worm to promote his site. Mooney, who lives in Brooklyn, New York, said he wanted to expose vulnerabilities in Twitter. He told AP: ‘I really didn’t think it was going to get that much attention, but then I started to see all these stories about it and thought, ‘Oh, my God’.’ The worm worked by encouraging users to click on a link to the rival Twitter site, called StalkDaily.com. Once the link was clicked, infected users themselves automatically began to send out messages to friends, promoting the site. No personal or sensitive information, such as passwords, was compromised in the attacks, according to Twitter, which has more than seven million users.”

I have a Storm… and I love it! But, there may be an improved version coming down the pike!

Rumors gel around a possible BlackBerry Storm sequel

“As Research In Motion’s first all-touchscreen BlackBerry, and one of the ‘Big Four’ in the touchphone market that has dominated smartphone sales, the BlackBerry Storm is a formidable device. Director of Research at ChangeWave, Paul Carton, said in a Web conference yesterday, ‘This market is overwhelmingly dominated by two companies: Apple and RIM.’ Nearly all of ChangeWave’s consumer smartphone survey statistics were dominated by the iPhone and the Storm, and by proxy their US carriers, AT&T and Verizon. One figure from the company definitely stood out, though: Most people said their next phone purchase is likely to be a BlackBerry. Some 37% of those surveyed said they were either ‘very likely’ or ‘likely’ to buy a BlackBerry, while only 30% said the same of iPhone. While these figures do not address the Storm directly by name, it is interesting that BlackBerry remains such a strong draw after the Storm was so emphatically panned by the media, and the Bold repeatedly pulled from stores for overheating. Maybe the public is holding out for the Storm to improve in its second generation. On Monday, SlashGear cited ‘a source very close to the issue’ in saying that the second generation BlackBerry Storm will be released in September 2009, complete with Wi-Fi and an improved touchscreen. Today, Dutch site Tweakers said the as-of-yet-unnamed ‘Storm 2’ will include, among other things, ‘a new way of entering text,’ attributing the information to RIM sales Manager Alain Segond von Banchet. Both of these refer to the device’s clickable touchscreen, which works well for big onscreen buttons, but poorly for a small virtual keyboard. The latter of the two rumors includes the additional claim that the ‘Storm 2’ will be sold through Dutch mobile carrier KPN in addition to Vodafone, the current Storm’s exclusive carrier. The Dutch report did not, however, speculate upon whether this will simply be an incremental upgrade or a fully new handset.”

A new version of Internet Explorer … and, it looks better… I still prefer Firefox… but, hey, better is better!

IE 8.0 Web Site

I would suggest upgrading if you do use IE… go for it!

Whoa! The Gamemaster will be hitting me up for this one, I bet! Support for WPA, WiFi, and SD card support… as well as downloadable games… he’ll be all over it!

Nintendo DSi comes to US on April 5

“The DSi has been available in Japan since November, and within the first two days 170,779 units were sold, amounting to more than 85% of the initial shipment, according to Enterbrain. Both of Nintendo’s premier game systems, the Wii and DS, have consistently dominated the video game market in sales, and more than 3.04 million DS units were sold in 2008. Nintendo’s handheld systems are an evolving breed, which go through several iterations before a new generation is released. Pivotal to maintaining this evolutionary flow is backwards compatibility, and the DSi is the first of the DS generation to drop support for the previous generation, the Game Boy Advance. But where it loses the GBA cartridge slot, it has gained an SD slot, which also facilitates a slimmer chassis design and potential for a whole new family of homebrew mods. It also gives the DSi space for downloadable games, which are now available through the DSiWare app store. To connect to Wi-Fi to use the new app store or to play online games, the DSi includes support for WPA security. The DS and DS Lite did not support any security above WEP, so older games reportedly still must connect via WEP to play online, despite the DSi’s support for WPA. The DSi incorporates two cameras into the unit, which offers developers yet another kooky way to control games. The earliest DSi shop games in Japan (region locked) have only just touched upon some of the things that can be done with the cameras. While the DSi includes Photobooth-esque image capture an manipulation software which lets users draw directly on images with the touchscreen, Nintendo has not provided an official list of titles that will be ported over to the American DSi already exploiting the new feature. One title sure to hit US stores is the next sequel in the popular Brain Age series known in Japan as Chotto Brain Training. The DSi will retail for $169.99.”