Category: Computers, Science & Technology

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It has been a running Internet joke for YEARS! Duke Nukem was promised, and promised, and promised! But, it became the buzzword for a product that was doomed to be vaporware forever! Now, it MAY finally be coming out!

Duke Nukem Forever, the most delayed video game ever, launches May 3

“Last September, 2K Games and Gearbox Software announced they would finally be releasing Duke Nukem Forever on Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 after a delay of more than a decade. On Friday, the companies published the title’s final release dates: May 3 in North America, and May 6 worldwide.

Even after 2K and Gearbox demonstrated the game’s release at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, there was a considerable amount of doubt and speculation from the public about the game’s release. After all, it unofficially holds the title of “most delayed game of all time,” with nearly thirteen years between the title’s first announcement and its eventual release. Naturally, the sudden news that it would be released should be met with a large amount of skepticism.”

I guess we will see come May! (I am not holding my breath!)

HOWEVER… it is HUGE! A 40 meg download!

Microsoft releases WebMatrix, new Web development freeware

“…WebMatrix, a tool that lets users create, build and deploy websites based upon the web technologies and content management systems of their choosing. The goal of the software is to be an extremely simple, lightweight development environment that eliminates the need for switching back and forth between other applications while developing websites.

Sites can be built from templates or from scratch, and more than 40 open source web applications are supported, like the popular WordPress, Joomla, DotNetNuke, and more, and files can then be edited in HTML, CSS, ASP.NET or PHP. Naturally, Microsoft put some special shine on ASP.NET in WebMatrix and included support for the ‘Razor’ view engine and special single-line-of-code helper functions to integrate with external social and commercial services.”

What do I recommend, and use myself? A simple, Open Source WYSIWYG web editor called “Kompozer.” And a nice, Open Source, code editor called “PSpad.” That is what I use. Works great for me! Here are the links for those!

https://kompozer.net/

https://www.pspad.com/en/

Will YOU use it? They are pumped up that their new IE 9 browser will support HTML 5, I guess! Good for them! They haven’t exactly been supporters of web standards before this! Oh well…

Microsoft’s pitch for HTML5 logo has familiar ring

“I’m not doing cartwheels over the new HTML5 logo, which reminds me of a superhero badge. It’s bold, masculine and sort of orange, which will appeal how to the majority of web users? But the logo is a great idea, and it’s big splash promotion — some of that from Microsoft — is exactly what the standard-in-progress needs right now.

Today in a blog post, Jean Paoli, Microsoft’s general manager of interoperability, writes: ‘The logo links back to W3C, the place for authoritative information on HTML5, including specs and test cases. It’s time to tell the world that HTML5 is ready to be adopted.’

There’s a strange appropriateness to Microsoft promoting the logo’s use. It’s what the company did in the late 1990s to promote Internet Explorer. During the so-called browser wars between Microsoft and Netscape, each side adopted proprietary tags not necessarily supported in the other’s browser. Microsoft encouraged websites supporting Internet Explorer to put up an IE logo/badge — to be proud, to proclaim their support. As a marketing mechanism, the logo branding was brilliant and quite uncommon.

I remember interviewing Sun cofounder and then chief executive Scott McNealy in his office about Java; some time in 1997. McNealy, an avid amateur hockey player, limped from an injury on the ice from the night before. I scolded McNealy, calling him a boy who cried wolf, for making promise after promise after promise about Java — like powering light switches — that never came to be. He didn’t get upset at that but my accusations about Java branding. I observed that Internet Explorer logos were on tens of thousands of websites, while Java was seemingly nowhere. If developers are using Java, why are they keeping a secret, I accused. McNealy responded by pointing across the room at his Java terminal and the tiny logo on the side. He blamed his marketers for not listening.”

So… what do you think?

I must admit, I like the tablet form factor. I don’t have one of my own yet, but I have played with my Brother-In-Law’s Apple iPad, and it is nice! I am looking forward to the Blackberry Playbook, and I am curious about the Samsung pad as well! We will see… I bet I end up with one before too long!

Tablets Will Finish Off Netbooks in 2011: 10 Reasons Why

“With the start of 2011 in sight, vendors are thinking about their product strategies in the New Year. In order to do that, they also need to examine how the market changed in the past year. Part of this process includes determining which devices, whether smartphones, tablets, laptops or anything else, will help them generate the most profit. Vendors that have been competing in the netbook market will especially need to consider how they should spend their research and development dollars in the coming year. Going into 2010, netbooks were all the rage both in the consumer market and the enterprise. But as soon as Apple introduced the iPad tablet and several similar devices followed it, netbooks lost their value to customers around the world. Netbook vendors that expected to generate big profits on those devices missed out. With the start of 2011, those companies need to realize that tablets are well on their way to eliminating netbooks altogether. The industry may get an early indication of how strongly buyers are interested in tablets during the Consumer Electronics Show Jan. 6-9 in Las Vegas. A significant number of new tablet models will be on display at the show. A year from now, the companies that stick with netbooks will be the companies that find themselves far behind the competition. Here are the reasons why tablets will eliminate netbooks as growing product category in 2011.”

We will be receiving LIVE coverage from Techpodcasts.com! As part of the Techpodcasts Network, we can take advantage of great “perks” like this… and even though I can’t go to the Consumer Electronics Show, at least we can carry the news from there LIVE, right here on the Blog! I am looking forward to it!

So, watch the box at the top of the sidebar on the Blog’s Main Page! CES 2011 sounds like it will have a lot of news on tablets, smartphones, and other way cool electronic doohickeys… my cup o’ tea!

Let me say that this is a good thing! I have been very impressed with Windows 7, and you know, I haven’t downed the Microsoft Kool-Aid! In fact, I am an Open Source dewd! But, after the disaster that was Vista, Windows 7 is a case of “finally getting it right!” It is nice to see that 20% of Windows users have moved on!

20% of users now on Windows 7

“Windows 7 has been steadily stealing share from Windows Vista and Windows XP ever since it was first released. It is now installed on one in five computers. Its predecessor Vista never managed to achieve that feat. In the 12 months since release, Microsoft sold 240 million licenses of Windows 7; by now that number is surely approaching 300 million.

Between January and December 2010, Windows XP fell almost 10 percentage points to 56.72 percent market share. In the same period, Windows Vista lost over five percentage points to 12.11 percent. Windows 7 meanwhile has gained over 13 percentage points, pushing it to 20.87 percent.”

Smart folks! I love my Android (Droid X) phone! And, so do a lot of other folks, it seems!

41% of new smartphone buyers choose Android

“‘The race for the lead in US. smartphone operating system (OS) consumer market share is tighter than it has ever been,” begins a blog post today on Nielsen Wire. The winner is? No one yet. Apple’s iPhone leads in total US consumer market share, while most people who recently bought a smartphone chose Android. I’m among them. “This race might still be too close to call,’ Nielsen asserts.

Perhaps the more important data point is about the broader smartphone category. ‘In November, 45 percent of recent acquirers chose a smartphone over a feature phone,’ according to the Nielsen post. That’s up from 34 percent in June. Apple and Research in motion are ‘statistically tied’ with respect to US smartphone OS market share — 28.6 percent and 26.1 percent, respectively. Android’s share is 25.8 percent.”

Wow! Now THAT would fly! As long as applications used the processors!

Intel: Why a 1,000-core chip is feasible

“Chipmaker Intel has been investigating the issue of scaling the number of cores in chips through its Terascale Computing Research Program, which has so far yielded two experimental chips of 80 and 48 cores.

In November, Intel engineer Timothy Mattson caused a stir at the Supercomputer 2010 Conference when he told the audience that one of the Terascale chips–the 48-core Single-chip Cloud Computer (SCC)–could theoretically scale to 1,000 cores.

Mattson, who is a principal engineer at Intel’s Microprocessor Technology Laboratory, talked to ZDNet UK about the reasoning behind his views and why–while a 1,000-core chip isn’t on Intel’s roadmap–the path to creating such a processor is now is visible.”

Okaaay! This is weird on so many levels! A scientist in Japan is has made a mouse that tweets like a bird. He says near the end of the article: “Uchimura dreams of further “evolution” of mice through genetic engineering. ‘I know it’s a long shot and people would say it’s ‘too absurd’… but I’m doing this with hopes of making a Mickey Mouse some day,’ he said.” Yeah. Just what we need, a genetically modified mouse that speaks like Mickey Mouse! Anybody else think this is just too weird!?!?

‘SINGING MOUSE’ MADE WITH GENETIC MODIFICATION

“Japanese scientists said Tuesday they had produced a mouse that tweets like a bird in a genetically engineered “evolution” which they hope will shed light on the origins of human language.

A team of researchers at the University of Osaka created the animal in their “Evolved Mouse Project,” in which they use genetically modified mice that are prone to miscopying DNA and thus to mutations.

‘Mutations are the driving force of evolution. We have cross-bred the genetically modified mice for generations to see what would happen,’ lead researcher Arikuni Uchimura said.

‘We checked the newly born mice one by one… One day we found a mouse that was singing like a bird,’ he said, noting that the ‘singing mouse’ was born by chance but that the trait will be passed on to future generations.”

Here is the YouTube link to hear the “Singing Mouse”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLu37VvCozw