By PromptLondon

October 26th, 2005

It's a Gas

It's a Gas

As the world reels from petrol shortages and expenses, those enterprising Swedes have decided to take their well fed bovines, grind them up into bloody chunks and throw them into their train engines as fuel.

Is it the beginning of a new movement? Who knows.

Other possible sources of hot gas and bile that could be used as future energy sources include politicians, television presenters, and Pete Doherty but no word yet on whether Sweden or any other government has invested in these other possible energy platforms.

By PromptBoston

October 25th, 2005

Longer life laptops

Longer life laptops

State-of-the-art wireless laptops are sleek, sexy and shackle free for a couple of hours, but lose a lot of that footloose appeal once the battery starts bleating and they plead to be tethered to a mains supply. As mobile electronics become ever more mainstream, the thirst for a more effective mobile power source than current lithium-ion batteries is increasing. Berkeley startup H2Volt thinks it has found the answer – a workable dry fuel cell lasting ten times longer than the batteries it hopes to replace.
This is not a revolutionary idea, with a number of other companies (IBM, Motorola, NEC, Medis Technologies) already making tentative stabs at developing workable compact fuel cells, but H2Volt has the backing of both Siemens and the US Navy, and looks likely to see this concept through to production lines. One director claims laptops will soon last for days not hours and phones will stay charged for weeks, while a recent study from research firm NanoMarkets estimates the fuel cell market will be worth $1.6 billion by 2010.
Of course there has to be a catch, otherwise laptop loving Toshiba would have launched its own version of the technology back in 2004, as promised. The most likely reasons for hesitancy are size and expense. How will the latest breed of developers perfect cells light and powerful enough to appeal to microelectronics manufacturers? And will they find a catalyst as effective but less pricey than platinum?

By Media Team

October 18th, 2005

Hidden information in colour printouts.

Hidden information in colour printouts.

Most of the major manufacturers of colour printers implement technology in their devices which encodes hidden data in the printouts. Invisible to the naked eye, this data is used by governments and law enforcement agencies to track money and document counterfeiting operations. At least, that’s the official line. There are all sorts of sneaky cloak and dagger type things they could use this system for, the true extent of which depends largely on how paranoid you are.

Digital rights campaigners, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, have recently cracked the code and discovered exactly what kind of information is being secretly encrypted into every single colour document you print.

By Sean McManus

October 17th, 2005

ID fraud prevention week begins

ID fraud prevention week begins

It’s National Identity Fraud Prevention Week. Visit the site to download a PDF guide to protecting your identity. There are the usual tips there on shredding your documents and ordering your own credit report to see if anyone else is using your name, together with shocking statistics that might encourage you to take the measures suggested. They’ve got a cool logo too of a man’s face shadowed inside the curve of a question mark – worth the visit alone.

By Media Team

October 13th, 2005

Mr Shatner at Work

Mr Shatner at Work

“A computer like this would have been science fiction a few years ago…”

Look, I’m not even going to try justifying the relevance of this post, but it is sort of technology related and it really does need to be seen:

Fact: My first ever computer was a Vic-20. It was already hopelessly out of date by the time I got it, so you couldn’t buy any compatible software in my local computer shop and I had to learn to program just so I could write some games to play on the damn thing.

By Sean McManus

October 13th, 2005

Video iPod's here, but where's the decent content?

Video iPod's here, but where's the decent content?

So Apple’s launched a new video iPod. It’s priced the same as the old 60GB iPod, has a slimmer figure and plays videos on its colour screen. Those who have already been sold on the idea of carrying 60GB of music around will effectively get video playback for free. But I can’t see the video convincing anyone else to get one. For one thing, the hardware might be sorted, but the content isn’t. At the moment, all you can get is pop videos (at £1.90 a time) and some US TV shows including the shockingly poor Lost.

You can’t import your own DVDs into the device, and the content isn’t any more engaging than the average slice of lazy channel hopping.

Even if you would like to own the video that accompanies your favourite single, you’d have to be a pretty hardcore fanboy to want to carry it everywhere with you.

Don’t get me wrong: the introduction of video to the iPod is a great step forward. It could well help create the market for downloadable video, including independent productions. It’s just a shame that they’ve made this great kit and you can’t really do anything with it yet.

By Sean McManus

October 12th, 2005

Blair spends £20m on ID cards

Blair spends £20m on ID cards

The UK government has so far spent over £20 million on its madcap plans to introduce ID cards. Of that, only £1.61 million has been spent on trials. PA Consulting has been given the biggest chunk – £12 million. This is for, the government claims, “services which include technical requirements, design of the scheme and resilience and security”.

Source: Hansard, 10 October 2005

By PromptLondon

October 12th, 2005

Video Games Banned by their Occasional Star

Video Games Banned by their Occasional Star

Without a hint of irony, Arnold Schwarzenegger, star of such films as the Terminator series, Collateral Damage and Last Action Hero, has signed into law as governor of California a rule limiting children’s access to violent video games.

Though Governor Schwarzenegger has at last count stabbed, shot, or blown to smithereens over 10000 human beings and various life forms both from this planet and others on film and television screens round the world, Schwarzenegger felt “these games are made for adults and choosing games that are appropriate for kids should be a decision made by their parents.”

The law is being challenged by several video game lobby groups in the state as a violation of free speech.

By Media Team

October 11th, 2005

Yahoo! Goes Mental for PodCasts.

Yahoo! Goes Mental for PodCasts.

Apparently most iPod users only use up a fraction of the storage space on their device’s hard drives. Seeing this as a challenge, Yahoo! has set up a new PodCast portal to help users find oodles of lovely fresh content to stuff into their MP3 players. The service is currently in beta, but it’s already looking pretty good and there’s a broad spectrum of content available completely free of charge. Could this be the future of radio programming?

By Media Team

October 10th, 2005

DARPA Grand Challenge reaches the finish line.

DARPA Grand Challenge reaches the finish line.

After a fairly dismal showing in its first year, the second DARPA Grand Challenge race has been a great success, showcasing some cutting edge robotics and AI technology. The Independent has some good coverage on the story, although the writer has committed the cardinal sin of technology writing by starting the piece with “Not so long ago XXXXX was the stuff of science fiction…” Tech journalists have been trotting out this trite cliche for too long (and yes, I count myself equally guilty). Can we please think up some new opening lines for tech news stories?

By Sean McManus

October 6th, 2005

Microsoft disposable DVD story a hoax?

Microsoft disposable DVD story a hoax?

On Sunday, this story appeared: Microsoft invents a ‘one-play only’ DVD to combat Hollywood piracy. It was soon followed up by other sources, including The Register and a number of blogs. But Ed Bott is now claiming the story is a hoax, having called Microsoft and been told the story’s untrue.

While The Register’s report attributes The Business Online as the source of the story, many others following up on the story just reported it as fact without any attribution. It will be interesting to see whether they’re able to support their stories with a Microsoft source, now that Ed claims he’s tried to and failed.

Meanwhile, conspiracy theorists are working overtime at Slashdot, where some argue the story probably was true, but Microsoft’s now denying it because the story wasn’t well received. That isn’t backed up with any primary sources either.

By PromptLondon

October 3rd, 2005

Google set to provide WiFi to San Francisco

Google set to provide WiFi to San Francisco

In response to a plan by the mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, to offer wireless access to his city’s residents and businesses, Google has bid to be the provider. Google is one of several companies vying for the right to support the programme. Google’s plan is to offer the service as “open” and allow third party companies to offer premium pay services under the plan by purchasing bandwidth for wholesale prices from Google. You can read the entire story here.