Science and technology news blog

The Compact Disc has crossed 25 years in its illustrious life. The format that revolutionized how we listen to music, watch movies and save data has come a long long way since it was born. It was August 17, 1982 and an assembly line in a suburb of Hanover, Germany began pumping out a modest collection of laser-encoded palm-sized discs, officially paving the path for what would later become the most popular album format.

According to Philips, the first CD was ABBA’s The Visitors, an album that is now available on iTunes.  CD players were brought to the market in Germany for the 1982 holiday season, by which time nearly 150 albums were already available.  The format made its way to the US the following spring.

And these days when we talk of next-gen tech that includes HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, the underlying technology is still based on what was created 25 years ago by Sony and Philips.

In a recent interview between Gamespot.com and Xbox regional director for Australia and New Zealand David McLean, there were a couple of important questions and answers regarding the release of Xbox Elite:

GS AU: Can you tell us when the Xbox 360 Elite console will make it to Australia?

DM: For Australia, we will be coming out with some announcements around Elite. It certainly is coming to our market—we’re just currently trying to define our pricing and volume strategy on it. And obviously, with our decision to make the pricing announcements on Core and Pro now, we need to consider the knock-on effect for Elite. You’re not going to be asked to wait very much longer. I think within the next week or so, we can give you details on what we’re planning to do with Elite.

And on the HDMI ports on US Xbox consoles:

GS AU: Finally, US consumers are starting to see HDMI ports on Pro consoles. Will Australian 360s be soon fitted out with those as well?

DM: Yes, we will—we’ll start to see the same thing in Australia. We’re just reviewing our inventory position and when that will start to flow into the market. No specific details to give you on it, but what’s happening in other regions in the world will certainly happen in Australia.

To get the full article, click here.

Popular video sharing website Veoh.com is in a legal tussle with UMG over copyright infringement. Veoh claims that it does not promote its users to share illegal videos and that its protected under the DMCA. So, instead of UMG suing Veoh, the website has already filed a petition to seek protection from any lawsuits that Vivendi’s UMG may harbor against it. Veoh claims that they actively remove files that infringe on copyrights and they take extra steps like suspending member accounts permanently.

Hot on the heels of a $50 price drop on all Xbox 360 versions, Microsoft has also announced that the new Xbox 360 premium versions will have built-in HDMI output. This has been a much-wanted feature and with rising competition from the PS3 (which had its own price drop recently), Microsoft has done well to include it before the release of Halo 3. On the subject of cooling noise, Microsoft has not yet said anything. But this could also be due to the fact that they do not want to admit in the open that Xbox 360 has a design flaw.

The price cut and the new HDMI version are for US only at the moment. So for all the rest of the world we will have to wait and watch. Precisely what I have been doing since the launch of Xbox 360.

Update

Microsoft has also announced that Halo 3 pre-orders have surpassed 1 million leaving many gasping for breath. Halo 3 could well be the biggest selling game on the platform, no surprises here.

Ever since I bought my Dell Inspiron 6400 I have had consistent problem with the laptop’s internet connection dropping off for no real reason. At first I was under the impression that this was happening because of my laptop going to sleep/hibernate. But then it started happening when it was idle for a long time (I changed the power setting to stop it from going to sleep when its plugged in).

Anyway so I decided to contact Dell, as it was no point contacting Microsoft since they would have referred me back to Dell. After a week or so of emailing, not their fault I was busy with work, the Dell rep told me that she is arranging for my wireless card to be replaced. And yesterday the news came out that Microsoft was releasing two important patches on Tuesday. One of them was to fix the TCP/IP problem when the computer returns from Sleep/Hibernate mode. This got me very interested.

I emailed them back (still waiting for a reply as I just sent the email about half an hour ago) letting them know that I am going to wait till Tuesday for the update to come so I can try out. If it works then I don’t have to let my laptop being replaced as I don’t trust these service guys. They would just go ahead and reinstall the OS and I would end up losing all my settings, documents and all my installed applications. So at the moment all my hopes are pinned on this update that Microsoft is going to release. And that is saying a lot, as not many people hope for Microsoft to come through.

There has been plenty of talk for quite some time about Google releasing its own mobile phone. While there is plenty of speculation on what type of service Google would introduce, one thing seems to be pretty clear, Google WILL launch something in the next couple of years. Most likely it is going to be a mobile phone, with Linux based OS, and loads of Google software. Google’s gPhone would be the most likely product that should arrive within the next 12-18 months:

Not only was Google instrumental in winning concessions in the rules of an upcoming auction in the US of radio spectrum that will guarantee that any device or service can be used on that spectrum, but Google has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into developing mobile phone designs.

This should be sending all sorts of mobile players into planning mode, including Nokia, Apple (with its recently launched iPhone) and Motorola. Google may end up getting LG to make the hardware. But one thing is sure, if and when Google does launch its own mobile, it is going to be very aggressive with its pricing, quite unlike what Apple’s iPhone is charging consumers.

Just a little off-topic. If you are ever bored of visiting the same old websites or have got nothing to do and want to pass your time, then visit Sexycoolwink for loads of funny and sexy videos. And to top it off, you can also play thousands of free flash games. So all you need is an internet connection and a web browser, no need for expensive hardware, just your computer and some free time. In the videos section you can see videos of models tripping over their feet on the catwalk, soccer teams scoring the most hilarious goals, videos of pets getting up to the strangest things. This is enough to make you laugh. After you have had your share of entertainment, rate everything and even leave a comment! How much fun is that? Get a little serious and watch a few funny Paris Hilton videos. There is just so much to see and get involved with.

Just give this a try, and rest assured that you will be laughing long after you have logged off. This will even break a miserable man free of his clutches. Once you have finished with the videos, and if you are still standing, try checking out a few pictures. There are sexy pictures taken of girls and a few getting a sneak peek of sexy girls in public. The hilarious stuff comes in when a little boy is trying to fight with a few police officers; a civilian is talking to a statue, an old man is tanning in the sun wearing a white bikini and a little girl is sitting between two boys and pecks them each on the cheek.

What more could one want to laugh? This is a sure guarantee that your stomach muscles will still be aching two hours and fifty-nine minutes later!

This is really funny and amusing. It seems that phone companies in Kazakhstan are charging in excess of 3000 USD per month for internet access. I saw this article on Arstechnica and here is a small excerpt:

An unlimited dial-up plan costs about €82 ($111) in a country where the average monthly wage is €292 ($399). As for DSL, an unlimited 1.5Mbps connection costs €2,458 ($3,355) a month, and doesn’t even included the required ADSL modem. Want a 6Mbps cable connection? It’ll cost you, to the tune of €16,144 ($22,032) a month.

Following its mass popularity, Youtube’s Presidential Debates page has received almost 3000 replies from people who want to put their questions to the presidential candidates. Will Wrigley, a 17-year-old who will turn 18 in time to vote in November 2008, asked the candidates for their views on stem cell research. There are many more like him. Have a look at the following page:

http://www.youtube.com/contest/DemocraticDebate

Makes for some interesting watching.

I got up in the morning and started my computer. Lo and behold, Firefox had another update. This time its 2.0.0.5 the version number. Mozilla foundation provides a full list of current vulnerabilities here. The main patches that were fixed are as follows:

1. XPCNativeWrapper pollution


2. Unauthorized access to wyciwyg:// documents


3. Remote code execution by launching Firefox from Internet Explorer


4. File type confusion due to %00 in name


5. Privilege escalation using an event handler attached to an element not in the document


6. Frame spoofing while window is loading


7. XSS using addEventListener and setTimeout


8. Crashes with evidence of memory corruption

Microsoft has released the Windows Home Server operating system to manufacturers on Monday. With this release Microsoft aims to ease home users of the pains of managing all their digital data stored in different places. Microsoft claims that the software will enable users to manage all their files stored on their PCs, Zunes, or Xbox consoles.

HP’s home server is called HP MediaSmart Server, which will offer centralized storage for up to 10 PCs, automated backups of multiple PCs on a network, and file sharing both from within and outside a home’s network. HP will also offer its own software applications such as Photo Webshare for photo sharing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Recent reports have suggested that listening to Apple’s iPod in a storm is a naughty thing to do and Mother Nature punishes you by giving you the biggest shock of your life, quite literally. Here is a report that will make you shudder from head to toe:

The man had burns along his chest and neck where his earphone wires lay. The insides of his ears also were burned—and then the ear buds conducted the current into his head.

The full article can be read here. Makes you wonder what if that was me. I could not even sleep properly, I can’t even listen to my iPod now for a few days, just imagining if this were to happen to me.

Indian tech giants, Reliance and Rediff have both started their own social networking websites, bigadda.com and ishare.com respectively. After playing with both of these sites, I was pleasantly surprised with the user interface and ease of accessibility. Since both are in beta version, a lot of features need to be modified. One really bad thing about iShare.com is that I need to download a piece of software and install it on my computer in order to upload my videos and photos. This is a little bit annoying as every other website allows you to upload directly from the site. However, not all things are bad, one good thing is that I can upload upto 5 files at one time, which is more than can be said about all the other video hosting and sharing sites.

As is typical of Indian censorship laws, nothing explicit or vulgar can be hosted. I tested hosting a photo on bigadda.com and was given a tight rap on my hands that very day. Plus there was a warning that my account would be deactivated in case there is a repeat of this offence. Yeah, I know it sounds pretty hypocritical, as if you watch any Indian cable TV channel, you will be stunned with the amount of flesh being shown. However, I think this is not really a bad move, as these sites are for anybody and any age group.

Reliance’s Bigadda.com has a lot more functionality including blogging, although that needs to be worked on as I can’t add images or manipulate the text. Also I would love to have a way of importing all my feeds from my current blog and add it to Bigadda.com’s blog.

Got this from IBNlive.com:

In what could be called a breakthrough in the field of science and technology India’s first ever tri-fuel hybrid car was launched in the capital recently. And what’s more, the car has been developed by students of an engineering college.

Here comes the first tri-fuel car in India – a car that runs on petrol, LPG and electricity and that’s not all, this hybrid has not been developed by any leading car manufacturer but by the students at the Amity School of Engineering and Technology. But why make a tri-fuel hybrid car, in the first place?

Sony has officially made the following couple of announcements:

• The 60GB model will now be priced at $499


• There will be a new 80GB model for $599

These are quite to the contrary to what Sony President Ryoji Chubachi told Reuters in an interview that Sony had no plans at present to cut the price of the console. These announcements, however, are for the North American public only. Sony has no plans at present to announce price cuts anywhere else. Which is a surprise, as consumers in Australia already pay a lot more after factoring in currency conversion.

Well Microsoft will not be idling away, they would be announcing some kind of price cuts pretty soon.