Category: Computers, Science & Technology

Yes, you read that right! You can register to WIN a new Roku 2 HD from Dr. Bill.TV! Just compose an email, with the subject line “Roku 2 Giveaway” and send it to: DrBill [AT] DrBill.TV. (Replace the [AT] with an “@” sign, of course!)

This is the BRAND NEW, just released Roku 2 HD, with:

300+ channels with movies, shows, music, and more!
FREE movie service from Crackle with hundreds of Hollywood movies!
Works with virtually any TV!
Built-in wireless (Wi-Fi b/g/n)!
Plays high-definition video (720p)*

* 720p and 1080p HD availability varies by content partner

Get in line now! On-line, anyway!

BioWare Puts Star Wars: The Old Republic Up for Pre-Order

“Everyone who doesn’t hate Star Wars, and I assume that’s still most of you, BioWare just snipped the inaugural tape off its pre-order page for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Get thee over there now, especially if you want to grab one of the special editions, or lock down a code that’ll give you ‘early game access’ and ‘exclusive in-game content.’

The $150 ‘collector’s edition’ looks pretty loaded: a statute, collectible metal cases for the game discs, an annotated journal, a map of The Old Republic’s galaxy, a ‘custom security authentication key,’ the game’s soundtrack, and all of that tucked inside a ‘high-quality collector’s edition’ box. Grab this and you’ll also get 30 days of game time, and these online goodies: a flare gun, training droid, holodancer, holocam, game vehicle, a mouse droid, and special in-game vendor with ‘unique’ items.

The $80 ‘digital deluxe edition’ strips the collector’s edition of its physical goodies but keeps the 30 days of game time and narrows the online items to these five: the flare gun, training droid, holodancer, holocam, and game vehicle.

And last but not least, the surprisingly high-priced $60 ‘standard edition’ is just what you’d expect it to be: the game discs stuffed inside your average game box.

All pre-orders are eligible for an ‘early game access’ code, but BioWare cautions that ‘Pre-order quantities are limited and will be processed in the order they are received.'”

Byte Magazine is back! I loved Byte back “in the day!” It has been revived as a web magazine and even has Jerry Pournelle back as a columnist! His “Computing at Caos Manor is awesome! Check out Byte below at byte.com

Byte.com

Jerry Pournelle: Computing at Chaos Manor

AWESOME! The new Roku 2 boxes rock!

Roku Launches New Media Streamers Complete With Motion Gaming Capabilities Perfect For Angry Birds

“Roku just announced its fourth generation of media streamers and they’re unsurprisingly the best yet. They sport more features, an even smaller physical footprint, and the same Apple TV-killing price points as before.

These new models, the Roku 2 HD, Roku 2 XD, and the Roku 2 XS, have even more media streaming capabilities as the previous models. All the major streaming sources are present: Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus. Plus, Roku has live sports from the NHL, NBA, and Major League soccer along with on-demand radio with rdio, Pandora and MOG. There simply isn’t a more complete streaming offering from any other device. But clearly Roku wanted to build a platform not limited to just streaming. The new models feature built-in motion gaming capabilities with 2011’s hottest game. Yep, Angry Birds.

In case, you know, already played Angry Birds, there are more games available after launch — like Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio along with other unannounced titles. With the new hardware comes new streaming stations, too. Roku is over 300 stations now and along with the Angry Bird channel comes Facebook, EPIX, Major League Soccer, AOL HD, and FoxNews.com.”

In favor of a new, super, all-encompassing “run everything Microsoft” OS, that is? Well, strange things seem to be being discussed at Microsoft!

Microsoft might kill Windows brand in favor of a super OS

“Strange things are happening within Microsoft. The software giant is fighting multiple fronts: PCs, smartphones, gaming and soon, tablets. There’s just one tiny problem: fragmentation and a lack of total synergy between its Windows 7/8, Windows Phone 7 and Xbox platforms. A brand new OS that unifies all of those could be Microsoft’s savior.

According to ThisIsMyNext, Microsoft’s Andy Lees ultimately envisions one ‘single ecosystem’ to be deployed across all hardware — meaning one OS that’ll work on on all smartphones, tablets, PCs, TVs and gaming consoles. Maybe all of this has something to do with that little tip about PCs running Xbox 360 games natively?

Microsoft’s vision isn’t new. Companies have been trying to create synergy for years. It’s just been easier to develop for each platform separately. Lees says that Microsoft ‘won’t have an ecosystem for PCs, and one for phones, and one for tablets — they’ll all come together.’ He’s right. There’s no better time to start working on an OS that’ll connect everything. We’re seeing a shift in how people want to use their gadgets.

People want their gadgets to connect to one another — hassle free. They want to be able to sync their phones to their Xboxes and to their tablets, without needing to go fiddle with some extra piece of software. Functionality and direct synergy needs to be built-in, from the start.

Instead of trying to patch and force existing platforms to play nice with each other, a new OS and suite of devices that run on it from the beginning could be the break Microsoft needs to leap ahead of its competitors.

It certainly seems logical. As of late, Microsoft’s been pushed redesigns for the UI on Xbox 360 and Windows 8 that borrow heavily on Windows Phone 7’s live tiles a.k.a. MetroUI. But those elements are only skin deep. The new Xbox 360 dashboard might look similar to the MetroUI, but it doesn’t run on Windows.

The most outrageous part about this is that ThisIsMyNext thinks that the new ‘super OS’ will kill off the Windows brand in four years time. The goal, as Lee says is to provide “coherence and consistency” for all devices.

If (and that’s a big IF) Windows does get the axe, it’ll supposedly coincide with the end the Xbox 360’s 10-year lifecycle and Windows 8’s three-year run.

At first thought, it seems preposterous that Microsoft would seriously consider laying the Windows brand to sleep. Windows is a very powerful brand that’s been around for over 25 years, it’d be silly to throw it all away. However, we also see the possibility that Apple might kill its OS X brand and replace it with iOS. With OS X Lion bringing so many iOS elements to it, it’s believed that iOS will live on where OS X dies.”

Sounds like it is going to be very, very cool! Can haz?

Star Wars Blu-ray hands-on

“Rarely have we been so excited about three 30-second video clips as we were at the Digital Entertainment Group Europe event held in Disney’s offices last night. For the first time on UK soil, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment played actual footage of the forthcoming Blu-ray editions of the Star Wars movies.

Admittedly, we didn’t see much. And because of its exclusivity and sensitivity, we weren’t allowed to take photographs or video footage of the screen itself (just wide shots). But what we did see was enough to get us as excited as a 7-year-old given his first Darth Vader costume on Christmas morning.

The first two clips we saw were from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (featuring Yoda and some clone troopers flying over the battlefield during the Battle of Geonosis), and the Obi-Wan Kenobi / Anakin Skywalker final fight in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

Obviously, as both movies were filmed and stored digitally, they look absolutely perfect – taking full advantage of the crispness afforded by the 1080p resolution of Blu-ray. It depends on the TV’s calibration, but on the new Panasonic plasma at the DEGE event the colourfields of both scenes offered, perhaps, the greatest initial impact.

Whatever your thoughts on the content of the prequel trilogy, it is unlikely that you will ever have seen them look more vibrant (and we include HD runs on TV and, even, a majority of cinema presentations).

The pièce de résistance, however, came with the clip from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Taken from the opening sequence of the Special Edition version of the movie (where the Star Destroyer engulfs Princess Leia’s starship), the moment when you first see C3PO in full 1080p is stunning. His golden shell gleams with such fine detail and shine that you’d swear the movie was made this year rather than 1977.

In short, from our fleeting but much welcomed previews, Lucasfilm has done an awesome job with the Blu-ray transfer. 12 September is rapidly becoming a landmark date.”

Dewd! I am down with “you’d swear the movie was made this year rather than 1977!” I want this when it is released!

I am all for advances in science… but gelatin made from humans? Sometimes, you just gotta draw a line!

Next-Generation Gelatin Could be Derived from Humans Instead of Animals

“Something to reflect on over your lunch break today: Scientists are developing a new approach for producing human-derived gelatin in large enough quantities to be a commercially viable replacement for the animal-based gelatins used in all kinds of gelatin-like desserts, candies, and other foodstuffs as well as pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Think about that next time you crack open a mid-afternoon pudding snack.

Gelatin is used as a gelling agent in all kinds of things and is generally derived from the collagen in animal bones and skin (particularly cows and pigs). Broken down, it’s just a mixture of peptides and proteins. But it’s still derived from animals, which means there is a risk, however slight, that it could provoke immune system responses in humans or carry infectious diseases. Moreover, animal gelatin can be inconsistent from batch to batch, giving headaches to quality control managers at production plants. And it’s not vegetarian.

As such, scientists have tried all kinds of ways to create a better gelatin, and they think they may have found it, right here in us. To create the human-derived gelatin, human genes are inserted into yeast strains that are tuned to produce gelatin in specific, controlled ways. That creates for a more consistent gelatin–and also a twinge of nausea.

Is consuming gelatin derived from human genes some kind of indirect cannibalism, you ask? This may be yet another aspect of the commercial food production chain that the consumer may find it most comfortable to just not think about.”

I love VLC. It is one of the programs I install on all my systems, whether Windows, or Linux. BUT, some evil, nasty dewds are making the good name of VLC a “hook” to get you to download a modified mailware infested version! Grrrr!

VLC media player suffering in face of crapware and uncaring Google

“Ask any geek for a media player recommendation that runs on Windows, Mac, or Linux, and you’re guaranteed to hear VLC mentioned quite often. It’s free to download and use, includes support for just about any video format you’d want to watch, and has a dedicated team of developers behind it.

The problem is, while VLC is developed as a not-for-profit open source project, other companies are taking advantage of its popularity to distribute adware and spyware.

If you want to download VLC then the official versions are available at the VideoLan website–the organization composed of volunteers who develop the media player. However, if you do a search for VLC on the top two search engines: Google or Bing, a number of malicious links appear alongside the official VideoLan page.

These other links are put there by companies that want you to download their modified version of VLC that includes adware and spyware. They trade on the good name of VLC in order to infect your system and then start earning money from you and your machine.

The VideoLan team faces two major problems because of this: the first is their software being associated with malicious activity and being flagged by antivirus software as such, and the second being the search engines apparently not willing to do much about it.”

Even though the search engines have been informed about the bogus links, they aren’t removing them. Sigh! Watch out, out there!

My Opinion: We were “The Man” when it came to space exploration. We rocked the house in 1969 when we put men on the moon. But budget cuts at NASA, and general lack of interest in the dream of space exploration by the public has pretty much doomed our space leadership as a nation. It is a shame. President Kennedy gave us a lofty goal to achieve back in the 60s, and we met his timetable of putting a man on the moon and returning him safely before the decade of the sixties was out. I was (and am) a “space geek!” I love the space program. I have been to Cape Kennedy, Houston, and Huntsville, and seen all the achievements in the museums. I have watched shuttles lift off while in Florida, not on TV, but “in the flesh!” I have been to the Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, and seen the artifacts of our dream on display there.

But a chapter ends with this last Space Shuttle mission. Yes, the Shuttle is old, dated, and tired. But, it is all we had. Now, even that will be gone. I guess we leave it to other countries to continue the dream. If we had visionary leadership here again… but… sigh. We don’t. Sad.

So, I will be watching tomorrow as the last Shuttle leaves the pad… I wonder who else will even notice?

A pretty good deal!

Amazon Offers Unlimited Cloud Music Storage for $20 per Year

Amazon just upped the ante in the cloud music wars (oh yes, that’s a thing now) by announcing some enticing new offers and features for its Cloud Drive service.

Cloud Drive, you’ll remember, is Amazon’s version of iTunes. You pay your fee and get to keep all your music on Amazon’s servers. Listening to stuff is as easy as clicking a play button in a web browser.

When it first launched, there were grumblings of iDiscontent because the player wasn’t officially supported on Apple’s mobile devices, but that’s one of the things Amazon’s just fixed. From now on, the Cloud Player works just fine on an iPad.

The other slice of new is a time-limited special offer, clearly designed to lure in new customers: free music storage with all paid file storage plans.
That means you can sign up for the basic 20GB storage offer, and you’ll be allowed to upload your entire 200GB music collection without making a dent in your allowance. You’ll still have 20GB free for, you know, all your other stuff. Whatever that is. The entry-level free service, offering 5GB of file storage, is not included in the special offer.

So the deal’s pretty clear: if you want to put your entire music collection the cloud, you can, for a minimum spend of $20 per year. There’s no need to pay out for storage that matches the size of your music library.”