AnandTech: E3 Aftermath

As the smoke clears in the wake of this year's Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3), we look back at some of the highlights from the conference. While games are certainly on the agenda, I'll keep our coverage limited to ones that were not already splattered all over the internet prior to the expo. For instance, I'll not be talking about any games whose titles include the word Gears. Yes, I'm looking forward to that one too, but I do ask that you humor me as we delve in to what's being brought to light for the fifth or sixth time instead of the eighteen hundredth. Can you dig it? I knew that you could!

We'll have quite a few videos courtesy of GameTrailers in our article, as still images don't convey nearly the same level of information as a movie. For those that want more details, there are plenty of web sites out there with additional content. [Hint: Google is your friend!] One option that you might not be aware of is content on your television. Comcast Video On Demand (and probably other VOD services) has quite a bit of interesting content from the show via the G4TV section, including videos not found elsewhere. You can find the same content on G4TV, but as an alternative a large HDTV can be fun for showing stuff to other people.

One topic that seems to come up more often than we'd like is the so-called death of PC gaming. Allow us to step up to our soapbox for a moment to dispel this insanity. While there are certainly many console and cross-platform titles, PC gaming remains alive and healthy. More to the point, there's no comparison in terms of computational power between a modern midrange gaming PC and a console; a $1000 PC can run circles around a console given the chance, and a higher-end setup is in a league of its own. Unfortunately, particularly with cross-platform games we often end up with a lowest-common-denominator approach, which means your DX10 setup may not get a chance to flex its muscles.

One of the reason so many like to sound the death-knell for PC gaming is the supposed slump in sales, supported by the NPD Group figures. The problem is that online sales and digital distribution are not tracked at all by NPD - including all MMOs with monthly subscriptions. Valve also refuses to disclose Steam sales figures to the public, which represents quite a few game sales. There are estimates that total yearly PC sales in the US are easily more than twice what NPD reports, and as evidenced by some of the upcoming 2008 and 2009 titles PC gaming remains alive and well. Console gaming may represent a large chunk of the video gaming market, but anyone claiming PC gaming is dead and/or dying is just crying for attention. Rest assured, we'll still be here in the coming years testing and benchmarking the latest and greatest PC gaming hardware. And with that out of the way, on to the show….

Continue reading: AnandTech: E3 Aftermath

World’s First Stable Artificial DNA to Be Our Future Computers

We all know we have the power to make the world a bit greener – and many feel that includes messing with DNA for environmental improvements, or just better efficiency for our gadgets. Now there’s new hope that DNA could play a major role in making computers run with little or no external power.

Researchers at the University of Toyama say they have created the world’s first stable artificial DNA molecules, made from mainly artificial bits to resemble their natural counterparts. Their findings were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society yesterday. Scientists from all over the world have been trying to do this for the promise of using artificial DNA to create biotechnology materials, including powerful DNA computers.

As Ruchi Mallya, an analyst on the use of technology in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology with Datamonitor, explains, such computers are constructed using DNA as software and enzymes as hardware, rather than traditional silicon-based components. This could then hopefully be the start of a new kind of external biological information storage system.

DNA molecules are similar to computer hard drives: they save information about an individual’s genes, but they have one advantage in that they have the potential to perform calculations faster than any man-made computers. The computer on which you’re reading this article is using nowhere near as many simultaneous actions as your DNA molecules required to make reading this article possible.

“In addition, unlike today's PCs, DNA computers require minimal or no external power sources as they run on internal energy produced during cellular reactions,” says Mallya. “There is a huge amount of potential for a computer that does not need to be plugged in the implications this has for laptops and true mobility are endless.”

The goal is to one day integrate DNA into a computer chip to create a biochip. That will make standard computers faster and more energy efficient. “DNA computers could potentially be the future of green IT,” she says. Research team leader Masahiko Inouye says the findings could lead to improvements in gene therapy, futuristic nano-sized computers and other high-tech advances. Already DNA has been harnessed to create simple electronic circuits but the University of Toyama scientists have taken it one step further by stitching together four entirely new artificial DNA.

Mallya says there are still years of research ahead, but she anticipates that companies such as Apple, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel and Sun Microsystems might begin investing in research that emphasizes artificial DNA and its possible applications, shaking a potential Pandora’s Box next to their ears.

World’s First Stable Artificial DNA to Be Our Future Computers | EcoGeek

Geologists Find 90 Billion New Barrels of Oil in Arctic

Race to claim begins

The Arctic may hold far more oil than previously thought; as much as 90 billion undiscovered barrels according to a new study released today by the US Geological Survey.   The new amount, equivalent to nearly 20 years of US foreign oil imports, is worth over $11 trillion dollars at current oil prices.  One third of the amount may lie in Alaska alone, according to the study's authors.

The region also holds nearly 1,700 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, 27% of known world gas reserves.  Counting known deposits already surveyed, total oil and gas deposits in the Arctic are more than 410 billion barrels.

The study, known as CARA -- Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal -- included only those deposits that could be tapped with current technology.  Future advances would likely boost the number further.  Researchers in Denmark, Greenland, Canada, and Norway contributed data to the study.

According to project chief, Donald Gautier, "The extensive Arctic continental shelves may constitute the geographically largest unexplored prospective area for petroleum remaining on Earth."

A geopolitical scramble for the resources is beginning.  Russia has taken steps to secure rights to the region, last year sending a nuclear-powered ship to map a possible undersea connection between Siberia and the North Pole.  This would allow the nation a rationale to circumvent the UN 200-mile limit of offshore resource claims. 

Seven other nations have claims for the area, including Norway, Sweden, Canada, and the U.S.  Earlier this month, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the nation intends to "defend" its sovereignty in the Arctic, backing up the statement with a plan to divert 8 military patrol ships to the region, along with a new deep-water port.

DailyTech - Geologists Find 90 Billion New Barrels of Oil in Arctic

Jing turns one, offers 10x more storage space for screencasts

It's been just over a year since TechSmith launched the Jing Project, a free utility for capturing screenshots and screencasts. Users can also upload their video recordings to Screencast.com to share with other users. Techsmith is celebrating Jing's birthday by increasing the amount of storage space it gives to Screencast.com users to 2GB. That's ten times more space than you would have gotten last week.

The program is pretty powerful as free screencast recorders go. But there's one major limit: You can only record screencasts up to 5 minutes. One of the reasons the company gives for this time limit is the sheer file size of long videos. Perhaps now that TechSmith is giving away more free storage space, we'll see the company remove the 5 minute time limit as well.

Jing is available for Windows and OS X.

Jing turns one, offers 10x more storage space for screencasts - Download Squad

DirectX 11 detailed; Vista and DX 10 / 10.1 hardware supported

At its GamesFest event in Redmond today, Microsoft shared the first details of DirectX 11 – the numerically superior successor to DirectX 10.1 – which will feature full support for Windows Vista, as well as future versions of the popular operating system. Worried about hardware? DirectX 11 won't just ignore your fancy DirectX 10 or 10.1 cards – nope, it offers support for both of those standards, as well as for new DirectX 11 hardware.

But what's new and exciting about DirectX 11, you ask incredulously. How about a "new compute shader technology" that gets your GPU ready to do more than just boring old 3D graphics – instead "developers can take advantage of the graphics card as a parallel processor"? Not doing it for you? How about "multi-threaded resource handling that will allow games to better take advantage of multi-core machines" since, y'know, most every computer nowadays has multiple cores? Or "support for tessellation" which allows "developers to refine models to be smoother and more attractive when seen up close"? Something in there has to tickle your fancy.

What it probably means for most of you is this: as hardware manufacturers develop new chipsets to take advantage of DirectX 11's new features, you should be able to snag some of that older 10.1 gear for a song.

DirectX 11 detailed; Vista and DX 10 / 10.1 hardware supported - Joystiq

Mars Lander Team Applies for Mission Extension

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander might be digging up the surface of the red planet for longer than expected. Mission controllers have requested an extension to the spacecraft's work on the planet's surface, SPACE.com has learned.

The $420 million mission has been investigating the dirt and ice of the northern reaches of Mars since it

landed on May 25. The mission was slated to last for 90 sols, or Martian days (about 92 Earth days), ending at the end of August. Now it could be extended another 30 sols.

Because of the landing spot in the north polar region, the mission can't continue forever. Phoenix uses its two-wing solar array to convert sunlight into electricity to power its instruments, storing some power in a pair of rechargeable batteries. However, Phoenix's landing site is above Mars' Arctic Circle, so the sun isn't up during the whole Martian year and there eventually will be too little sunlight to power the instruments. (The sun is above the horizon all summer, then begins to set below the horizon come fall as it sets for the entire winter — just as the sun does above the Arctic Circle on Earth.)

But with the success of the mission so far, and indications that Phoenix will be able to keep going until the arctic region plunges into the long darkness of winter, mission scientists want to keep going.

"We think that there's enough energy to continue digging and delivery to instruments through at least 120 sols, and then after that, our energy starts to go down, but we can still do operations as a weather station," said Phoenix robotic arm co-investigator Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis.

Dig this

Phoenix has been digging up samples of Martian dirt and the rock-hard ice layer that lies underneath for testing in its onboard instruments to determine their composition and look for signs that Mars may have been habitable at some point in its past.

If the team gets permission to extend the mission, they'll likely have at least another 30 days of digging, Arvidson told SPACE.com, adding that the team will "try to dig as long as we can and the resources permit."

Phoenix will also use it stereo camera, lidar instrument and other meteorological instruments to photograph the surface and make measurements of the Martian weather.

But these plans are "all predicated on permission to have an extended mission and finances, so that's all being negotiated right now with NASA headquarters," Arvidson said. He didn't know when NASA might decide whether or not to extend the mission.

The missions of NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have also lasted longer than originally anticipated. The primary missions for each rover lasted for 90 days in 2003. The rovers are still trundling around the Martian surface more than four years later, thanks to dust storms that cleared dust off the vehicles' solar panels.

What about next year?

In November, Mars dips behind the sun and out of our view, but will eventually re-emerge. "Hopefully we'll still be alive after that," Arvidson said of Phoenix, so that the lander can continue making a few last measurements, if the extension plan is approved.

The setting Martian sun will gradually diminish the amount of energy available to Phoenix via its solar panels. ) As the sun sets and winter approaches, the temperature at Phoenix's landing site will start dropping and carbon dioxide ice will precipitate out of the atmosphere.

"As the seasons move from fall to winter on Mars ... it's something like 20 to 30 centimeters [about 8 to 12 inches] of CO2 ice forms out of the atmosphere," Arvidson said.

The colder winter temperatures and carbon dioxide ice accumulating on the spacecraft will ultimately spell its end, because the craft is not built to withstand these frigid conditions. Phoenix won't rise from the ashes when the sun comes up again in the Martian spring.

SPACE.com -- Mars Lander Team Applies for Mission Extension

New Cancer Drug Delivery Cuts Tumor Targetting From Days To Hours

New technology using gold nanoparticles attacks tumors faster, more aggressively

While developing new cancer killers is an important priority, half the difficulty in winning the battle against cancer is just getting the drugs to the tumor itself.  The concept of drug delivery is an important one as current blood borne chemotherapy treatments take two or more days to reach the tumor fully. 

Lots of exotic methods have been devised to cut drug delivery time, but one of the more promising ones comes from a new breakthrough from researchers at Case Western Reserve University.  The researchers successfully tested a new delivery system, which brought cancer drugs to tumors in lab mice within a couple hours of their injection.

To accomplish this ultra-speedy delivery, researchers used gold nanoparticle vectors to deliver photodynamic therapy (PDT) drugs, a class of drugs that burn away cancer with light via wavelength energization, to tumors.  Case Western Reserve University graduate student Yu Cheng, one of the paper's coauthors explains, "Gold nanoparticles are usually not used for the PDT drug vector.  However, gold is chemically inert and nontoxic."

PDT drugs, which are seeing increasing use due to their efficacy, are typically difficult to use properly.  In order to prevent the drugs from being prematurely activated, the patient must stay in dim light for days until the drugs reach the tumor.  With the new method, the drugs become much more useful, as the inconvenience is lessened to a mere couple of hours.

Paper co-author Clemens Burda, associate professor of chemistry and director of the Center for Chemical Dynamics and Nanomaterials Research at Case Western Reserve University states, "By shortening the waiting time from drug injection to activation, PDT patients are much less inconvenienced and tend to have a more normal lifestyle."

The new delivery device consists of a gold nanoparticle (Au NP) at its core.  Gold nanoparticles are selected due to their low toxicity, versatile surface chemistry, large surface-to-volume ratio, and variable size and shape.  The nanoparticle is then coated in fatty polyethylene glycol (PEG) ligands, which make it resemble a hairy ball.  The coated molecule does not react with proteins and is fat and water soluble, making sure it reaches the tumor intact. 

A photodynamic chemotherapy drug (Pc 4) is inserted between each of the PEG ligands, coating the ball with cancer drugs.  This particular drug was developed by Case Western Reserve's Malcolm Kenney, professor of chemistry.  The combined nanoparticle gravitates towards tumors within hours, thanks to much faster dispersion.  When it reaches the site, scientists use focused red light to excite the PDTs and fry the tumor. 

A small 1/4-mL injection holds 100 million Au NPs each with 100 PDT drug molecules hitching a ride.  The researchers hope to adapt the coated Au NP system to a broad variety of bloodstream drugs to speed treatment.

In test on mice, the drug was injected in the mice's tails and within in minutes the drug was gravitating around tumors in the mice's bodies.  Human trials, following the successful mouse trials have not yet been planned.  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will have to approve the combined particle.  This may be coming soon, though as the components -- Au Nps, PEG ligands and Pc 4 -- are all FDA approved.

The researchers hope to focus their future efforts on modifying the PEG "hair" ligands" for speed and specificity.  Also, they hope to optimize and minimize drug and material load for a finished treatment.  Professor Burda says the beauty of the technology is that such adaptations and optimization can easily be made.

Says Professor Burda, "The system is very modular.  We can change the size and shape of the Au core NPs and we can change the functionality of the PEG ligands. This should lead to optimization of the drug targeting and therapy. If our research is successful, other researchers might adapt this drug delivery system to other diseases and applications."

The team's findings are reported in a paper in the current issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Health/National Cancer Institute and the Biomedical Research Technology Transfer Center.

DailyTech - New Cancer Drug Delivery Cuts Tumor Targetting From Days To Hours

Carbon nanotubes used to form fast, flexible circuitry

Flexible circuits are in demand for medical probes, aerospace instruments, military electronics, semiconductor research, and numerous other applications. Unlike the rigid circuits that are produced with glass plates or semiconductor wafers, circuits made on plastic sheets like polymide are lighter, have higher circuit density, and are often more robust. Commonly, polymers and small, organic molecules make up the semiconductor portion of these flexible integrated circuits.

These conventional materials are serviceable, but there is room for improvement in quite a few of their properties, including field-effect mobilities and transconductance. Single-walled carbon nanotubes are an appealing option for providing an upgrade in performance. Networks of carbon nanotubes are flexible, have high current-carrying capacities, and can be printed on a layer of plastic using well-established procedures. Thus, they have great potential as components of flexible integrated circuits. 

To determine if carbon nanotubes were indeed capable of use in commercial electronics, chemists and engineers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Purdue University teamed up for a research collaboration; the results are presented in a the issue of Nature that will be published later today.

The team grew random networks of single-walled nanotubes and printed them on sheets of polymide to create a semiconductor network layer over each thin sheet of plastic. Even though the growth was random, the process produced circuits with nearly 100 transistors. After conducting tests on the performance of these circuits, the team discovered that carbon nanotubes are better than many conventional materials. 

Most noticeably, the carbon nanotube transistors are much more mobile. The field-effect mobilities from polymer and small-molecule circuits are 1 cm² V^-1 s^-1 or lower, which is insufficient for many applications. In contrast, the mobilities of transistors from carbon nanotube circuits are normally 70 cm² V^-1 s^-1 and can reach 80 cm2 V-1 s-1. For context, transistors in a liquid crystal or electroluminescent display need mobilities of at least 10 cm² V^-1 s^-1 in order to display a standard television signal.

Carbon nanotube circuits also have good flexibility, high switching speeds (in the kilohertz range), and operating voltages below 5 V.  Furthermore, most of the circuits are uniform in character, which makes them good candidates for mass production. With more tweaking, it is possible to improve the properties of carbon nanotube circuits even more—mobilities to 2,500 cm² V^-1 s^-1 or higher should be achievable. This work provides a proof-of-concept for technology with the potential to take us towards the replacement of silicon in microelectronics, giving us near-terahertz processing and less power consumption.

Nature, 2008. DOI: 10.1038/nature07110

Carbon nanotubes used to form fast, flexible circuitry

Watch the direct feed Mirror's Edge demo

It occurred to us that despite all our passion for first-person parkour-inpsired game Mirror's Edge, you probably still don't get the appeal unless you've seen it in action. "A girl running around on rooftops fighting crime?" you ask with a sneer. "I liked it better the first time, when it was a guy, and it was called Batman."

We understand distrust of the unknown (it's the reason we're still alive) so we'd like to present, for your edification, the Mirror's Edge demo. Now, if you can watch this and still not get excited we really have nothing more to talk about.

Watch the direct feed Mirror's Edge demo - Joystiq

Fresh Drinking Water From Salt Water Coming Using New Chlorine-tolerant Membrane

New membrane will help to ensure many parts of the world have easy access to drinking water.

One of the biggest, but least appreciated problems facing many regions of the world is lack of clean drinking water, a common problem in impoverished nations.  Ironically, many of these nations rest beside large bodies of salt water. Typically, processing salt water into fresh water is expensive and requires large dedicated plants.

DailyTech previously chronicled how wind-power driven desalinization plants which used membranes were being developed.  Now another major breakthrough in the field has been devised, this time concerning the membranes.

Researchers from several international universities have developed a chlorine-tolerant membrane which turns salt water into clean drinking water.  Typically, salt water is treated with chlorine to remove bacteria and microorganisms that would grow and form a biofilm on the membrane, blocking it.  However, chlorine destroys past membranes which were build using amide-polymers (nitrogen based).  This meant that the water had to be dechlorinated before being sent to the membrane, a relatively expensive and complex process.

The new membrane is formed from sulfonated copolymers.  It took researchers Professor Benny Freeman with the The University of Texas at Austin, James E. McGrath of Virginia Tech University, and Ho Bum Park of the University of Ulsan in South Korea three years to develop the membrane for which they have filed a patent.  The new membrane is resistant to chlorine allowing the elimination of dechlorination.

Says Professor Freeman, "If we make the desalination process more efficient with better membranes, it will be less expensive to desalinate a gallon of water, which will expand the availability of clean water around the world.  It promises to eliminate de-chlorination steps that are required currently to protect membranes from attack by chlorine in water.  We believe that even a small increase in efficiency should result in large cost savings."

Researchers also believe the design will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions in developing nations by decreasing the electrical needs of the generation process. 
Professor Freeman explains:

Energy and water are inherently connected.  You need water to generate power (cooling water for electric power generation stations) and generation of pure water requires energy to separate the salt from the water. That energy is often generated from the burning of fossil fuels, which leads inevitably to the generation of carbon dioxide. Therefore, if one can make desalination more energy-efficient by developing better membranes, such as those that we are working on, one could reduce the carbon footprint required to produce pure water.

It was a combination of luck and hard work that brought the researchers upon the novel suflonated class of membranes.  This class of materials enjoys a high tolerance to aqueous chlorine, making it surprisingly a far better fit than membrane materials currently in use.

Professor Freeman, who holds the Kenneth A. Kobe Professorship in Chemical Engineering and the Paul D. & Betty Robertson Meek & American Petrofina Foundation Centennial Professorship in Chemical Engineering, states, "Basically, Dr. McGrath radically changed the chemical composition of the membranes, relative to what is used commercially, and the new membranes do not have chemical linkages in them that are sensitive to attack by chlorine."

The research was funded by the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation-Partnerships for Innovation Program. 

The findings will be reported in a paper in this month's edition of the German Chemical Society's journal, Angewandte Chemie, with Mehmet Sankir and Zhong-Bio Zhang, both of Virginia Tech, as additional coauthors.

DailyTech - Fresh Drinking Water From Salt Water Coming Using New Chlorine-tolerant Membrane

GM, Utility Companies Team up to Improve Electric Vehicle Infrastructure

GM has partnered with 30 utility companies to help with infrastructure for electric cars

Anyone who drives knows that the price we are paying for gas at the pumps is skyrocketing. Environmentalists and drivers looking to help the environment are looking to alternate fuel sources like electricity right alongside drivers merely looking to save at the pumps.

One of the most exciting plug-in electric vehicles on the horizon is the Chevy Volt. The Volt will have an all electric range of 40 miles, but has a gasoline motor that can be used to charge the batteries and allows for a much greater overall range. GM has always stressed that the Volt is not a hybrid and that the gasoline engine is merely there as a back up to allow for long trips.

GM announced that it is teaming up with 30 different utility companies in 37 different states as well as partnering with the Electric Power Research Institute to help develop a national charging infrastructure for electric cars. The lack of a charging infrastructure along with the very limited driving range for the majority of electric vehicles is the main reason plug-in vehicles are not a real alternative for the majority of drivers today.

The reason GM is teaming up with the utility companies is to find ways that will allow an already taxed electricity infrastructure to support the tens or hundreds of thousands of plug-in vehicles GM expects to take to the roads in the years to come.

GM Vice President of global product management Jonathan Lauckner says that he hopes another 50 to 70 utility companies will join the partnership by the end of 2008.

One of the hurdles that GM hopes to tackle with its partnerships is the ability for electric companies to know that what is plugged into an outlet is a vehicle according to The Wall Street Journal. This is important because it would allow the utility companies to control when the vehicle is charged and would allow for charging at night where excess capacity on the electric grid is at its highest and energy costs are the lowest.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Congress is considering legislation that would set a price on carbon-dioxide emissions and that utility companies that prove their electricity is helping to replace gasoline could get special consideration.

DailyTech - GM, Utility Companies Team up to Improve Electric Vehicle Infrastructure

Games for Windows Takes on Steam, Set to Launch PC Digital Content Distribution Platform

Microsoft today announced that its Games for Windows initiative is set to expand with the launch an online PC gaming marketplace this fall. The service will deliver free and paid downloadable game content, along with trailers, demos, and other content comparable to the company's Xbox Live offerings.

In addition to the added features, the Games for Windows Live interface will also be redesigned to be "much more PC friendly." Microsoft has not yet specified whether full games will be made available for purchase on the network.

The company further announced that all Games for Windows Live multiplayer features are now entirely free.

Games for Windows Gold offered achievements, matchmaking, cross-platform play, and other features at a monthly subscription of $7.99, or $49.99 yearly. While the same features carry similar charges on Microsoft's Xbox 360 platform, gamers often criticized Microsoft for offering them at the same price on the PC, as free programs have traditionally offered comparable functionality.

Games for Windows Takes on Steam, Set to Launch PC Digital Content Distribution Platform - Shacknews

Technological Trickery: Waterproof Gadget Coating is Invisible, Mystifying, Mind Boggling Witchcraft

Golden Shellback Waterproof Coating from gCaptain.com on Vimeo.

Golden Shellback is a coating that lets you spill, pour, or submerge your gadget in a liquid and have it survive. Golden Shellback says it will protect against oils, water-based liquids, synthetic fluids, dust and dirt. Tekzilla's Patrick Norton shot a segment on Golden Shellback and has footage of cellphones and CB radios functioning normally under a foot of water (Golden Shellback claimed the CB sat underwater for 455 consecutive hours).

Apparently, the coating is applied in a vacuum and covers both the inner and outer components of a gadget, which doesn't conduct electricity. Golden Shellback hopes the protective coating will be available soon, and expect the service to cost between $50-$75 depending on the size of the gadget. But seeing is believing, so you should watch the video, which is borderline mindblowing.

Technological Trickery: Waterproof Gadget Coating is Invisible, Mystifying, Mind Boggling Witchcraft

Windows Home Server Finally Fixed

The fix for Windows Home Server's broken file system finally is released to market

Microsoft's Windows Home Server (WHS) is almost fully back in operation after about nine months of difficulty.  The operating system marked the most troubled release of the last couple generations of Windows-branded systems.  Now at last it can move over and perhaps fulfill the bright potential that seemed to await it when it was released

Marketed as a home storage solution, and backed with hardware partners, Windows Home Server looked to be a very promising product, putting server style data backup in simplified form in the hands of the consumer.  However, soon after its release it was found that it corrupted files stored on it.  For a server, which is utilized primarily to safeguard data, data corruption is considered a "cardinal sin". 

As the months dragged on the list of file types corrupted grew.  The situations in which corruption could occur grew as well (initially the WHS believed that files could only be corrupted when edited on the server).  In the end, the WHS team discovered that the underlying file system to the OS was seriously broken.  In response to the problems, they issued a dire warning that files should not be stored on WHS boxes without having a separate backup.

However, they also got hard to work at making a fix.  Initially, they thought they might be able to pull one off by the end of the Christmas season, as they worked over the holidays.  Alas, the new year came with no fix.  Finally in May, the team released a beta build of the fix, followed by a release candidate in June.

On Monday the WHS team released the final fix, Windows Home Server Power Pack 1, in RTM form.  The English version is available through the Downloads Center, and Microsoft promises that German, Spanish, and French versions will soon be available.

The update will be pushed into Windows Update in August.  Also in August, Japanese and Chinese versions will be rolled out.

Microsoft briefly describes the pack, stating, "As many know, Power Pack 1 provides a range of new enhancements, including support for home computers running Windows Vista x64 editions, backup of home server Shared Folders, improvements to remote access, more efficient power consumption and better performance. And, of course, it delivers a fix for the data corruption bug."

HP, one of the hardware partners will be releasing updates of its own via its HP MediaSmart Server.  These will provide better security and streaming content.

DailyTech - Windows Home Server Finally Fixed

Quake Arena trailer shakes up web games

First it was Quake Zero, then it became Quake Live, and now we have a fresh new look at Quake Arena, id's free-to-play, browser-based iteration of Quake III Arena. As you'd expect, the visuals are decidedly simple, but still stylish nonetheless. We noticed a few instances of gameshow-like billboards peppered throughout levels; while they simply read "Quake Live" in the video, it's likely these are placeholders for in-game advertising.

The trailer beckons viewers to QuakeLive.com for more info, but the site is still serving the sole purpose of a gateway for beta signups. From what's shown in the footage, it will eventually become a very robust matching and ranking component of the game. With QuakeCon kicking off in just a couple of weeks we expect to find out more details soon.

Quake Arena trailer shakes up web games - Joystiq

Esquire Magazine to Get E Ink Cover

E Ink ad inside the front cover will feature Ford Flex

Esquire magazine’s editor in chief David Granger says that his publication will be the first to ever use an E Ink display on the front cover. According to The New York Times, the E Ink display on the cover of Esquire will flash a simple statement saying “The 21st Century Begins Now.”

Granger told The New York Times, “Magazines have basically looked the same for 150 years. I have been frustrated with the lack of forward movement in the magazine industry.”

Esquire covers are currently on display in the Museum of Modern Art in Midtown Manhattan and are described by the museum as “essential to the iconography of American culture”. Grander says that he hopes the magazine cover will someday end up on display in the Smithsonian.

Granger says that this is version 1.0 of E Ink for the magazine and that to get the current version for the publication Esquire’s parent company, Hearst, had to invest a sum in the six figure range to develop battery technology that could be embedded in the cover of the magazine. In exchange for the investment, Esquire is the sole user of E Ink technology in the magazine industry.

The E Ink displays will only be inserted into 100,000 newsstand copies of the magazine. The E Ink displays have to be installed into the cover by hand and transported to the magazine distributer in a refrigerated truck to preserve the battery. The battery in the cover is good for 90 days before it goes dead. The added expense of the E Ink display won’t add to the price of the magazine.

Esquire says that Ford sponsored the E Ink display and will have an ad for its Flex vehicle on an E Ink display inside the magazine cover.

E Ink is a private company that makes digital display technology that was first seen in supermarkets in the form of digital product advertisements. Today E Ink technology is being used in devices like the Amazon Kindle and can even be found in wrist watches.

DailyTech - Esquire Magazine to Get E Ink Cover

Solar Powered Air Conditioning Under Development

The sun will keep you cool in just a few seasons.

The Montreal Protocol, crafted in 1987 and signed by 191 countries as of 2007, put the hot iron to the cooling industry. It has seen several revisions since 1987 and some of its strictures affect industry as a whole while others involve mainly cooling and refrigeration.

The ultimate goal of the protocol is to reduce the amount of several ozone-depleting chemicals used by industrialized nations to zero. Most CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) were to be phased out of use by 1996; other less dangerous CFCs and chemicals are to be phased out by 2010; HCFCs (hydrochlorofluorocarbons) are on a longer leash, and have cease and desist date of 2030, 2020 in developed nations.

Unfortunately for the air-conditioning and refrigeration industries, this means an industry-wide change in practice, as HCFCs are commonly used as refrigerants in modern cooling machines. There are several technologies that cool without the use of these refrigerants, but until recently, they have been utilized mostly only in large-scale applications. Absorption chillers are used in many industries, from commercial to machinery cooling.

Absorption chilling differs from standard mechanical air conditioning in that it doesn't use an active force, such as a compressor, to condense the coolant chemical, but rather uses heat to drive a circulatory system. Many absorption chillers are utilized in areas where ample amounts of waste heat are available (turbine power or water heating systems are common sources). This allows them to make use of waste heat for a secondary purpose, thereby making the entire system more efficient and cost-effective.

This nearly century-old technology has not been widely used in consumer arenas like home cooling as the heat needed to power the system would cost more than the typical compressor-driven air-conditioning unit and there are not usually readily available sources of waste heat powerful enough to harness. Professor Marcelo Izquierdo of the Universidad Carlos III of Madrid and his group of researchers are aiming to put this technology into homes, however, with a little help from a very large furnace – the sun.

Izquierdo's team built an absorption chiller unit that closely resembles a typical exterior air-conditioning unit, and it works by capturing solar energy and residual heat to provide the impetus for the system's circulation. The device uses a refined lithium bromide-based coolant process – most absorption chillers use either an ammonia, hydrogen and water or a lithium bromide solution and water system – and is capable of cooling water to a temperature of 7C to 18C with an ambient temperature of 33 to 43C. The machine can produce enough chilled water to cool a 120 cubic meter area via a water-to-air heat exchanger.

Neither the lithium-bromide solution nor the more common ammonia and hydrogen systems are ozone depleting. This makes them a viable alternative to the HCFC refrigerants used in modern compression systems. In the very near future, consumer-grade absorption chiller units could become common in many regions that experience high temperatures during one or many seasons. Using the Big Heater in the Sky itself to power the cooling units is an ironic twist and one definitely worthy of more research.

DailyTech - Solar Powered Air Conditioning Under Development

Earth and Moon dance in space, caught on video

Step back for a few seconds and take a look at Earth from 31 million miles away. What were you doing on May 29th? On that day, NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft was wandering around space at 23,000 miles per hour, taking a time-lapse photo of the moon passing in front of the earth. Though 31 million miles sounds like a long way away, in the grand scheme of things, that spacecraft was right next to us.

This animation was captured on Deep Impact's next leg of a mission called EPOXI. Its first adventure was to bury a probe into a comet. Next it investigates other comets, as well as planets orbiting around stars. Looks like it found one: Us. Jump to the next page for another photo of the earth and moon — this one taken from Mars — that’ll make you feel even smaller.

There we are, a two-shot just in time for Sunday's 39th anniversary of the first moon landing, on July 20, 1969. Maybe it's not too late to

get on board for the next one.

DVICE: Earth and Moon dance in space, caught on video

Earth's Ringed Wonder

As a writer, I’ve never warmed to the expression “a picture is worth 1,000 words,” but I found one that left me speechless:

Kudos to the European Space Agency for finding a way to graphically unmask the cloud of debris circling Earth. Like many problems, this one grew slowly over time.

It started when the first man-made object reached orbit, the Soviet satellite Sputnik on Oct. 4, 1957. Since then, more than 6,000 have followed. Fewer than 15 percent are operational today.

The dead satellites aren’t the main problem. It’s the ones that have blown up and the fragments of rocket bodies that booted them into orbit. In all, about 10,000 pieces of debris are being tracked by ground radar and optical telescopes, but it is  the estimated 50,000 items too small for detection that are making the highways in space a hazard to travel.

The speed is what kills. Flecks of paint just .33 mm in size have cracked windows on the space shuttle. That’s what happens when objects are traveling 17 times faster than machine gun bullets.

China became the world’s most egregious contributor to space debris when it intentionally blew up a defunct weather satellite last year in a weapons test (so much for international treaties), boosting the amount of detectable space junk by 22 percent.

Tack it on to the long list of topics under discussion at the annual COSPAR (Committee on Space Research) meeting in Montreal this week. And while we're at it, perhaps we should think about adding Earth to the list of planets sporting rings:

Discovery News: Space Diary: Earth's Ringed Wonder

Rock Band 2 Impressions: Oh God Yes

Considering our exhaustive coverage of Rock Band 2--most of which I have personally written or had some hand it--I knew about nearly all of the the tweaks that Harmonix community manager Sean Baptiste was running me through.

But knowing about it is one thing, whereas seeing it in action is something entirely different. Once I'd actually experienced the ease of custom setlists--something I've been waiting for since the very first Guitar Hero--well, in the words of Baptiste, "I peed a little."

Quite frankly, the redesigned song selection menu--which pretty much mimics Rock Band's in-game music store--is a godsend. Searching through the massive tracklist and finding that one specific tune is super easy now that you can jump directly to a letter instead of scrolling through everything.

Considering that the the combination of on-disc tracks and weekly downloadable content will result in over 500 Rock Band tracks by the year's end, that's a pretty good thing.

Per-instrument difficulty levels for each track are now displayed when a song is highlighted. And all it takes is a few button presses to have the game automatically cue up an entire album in the proper order.

A new no-fail mode is perfect for new players and parties, especially combined with the ability to make a custom setlist. To resolve disputes about track selection and oft-repeated songs, just create a party-themed setlist with a few hundred songs.

World Tour is now playable with a single player, meaning that the linear songlists of Rock Band's Career mode are a thing of the past, replaced by numerous venues and ever-changing challenges.

Don't forget the part where World Tour is now online, letting bands of up to four players to face off against others worldwide.

Speaking of ever-changing challenges, Harmonix will be delivering online challenges into the game on a daily basis. If one of the folks on your friends list tops your score, you'll receive a menu notification and, if you've linked your online name to your e-mail address on the Rock Band forum, an e-mail.

And the setlist, oh, the setlist. I've put the entire 84-track Rock Band 2 tracklist below, but some of my personal highlights include Bob Dylan, Billy Idol, Jethro Tull, Modest Mouse, Kansas, Guns N' Roses, Fleetwood Mac, Bon Jovi, System of a Down, and AC/DC.

Another 20 unspecified tracks will be provided post-release as a free piece of downloadable content.

In addition to Rock Band 2's compatibility with all Rock Band downloadable content released thus far, Harmonix has confirmed that "most" of the tracks from the original Rock Band can be imported into Rock Band 2. The company isn't ready to talk specific songs and tracks yet, but noted that the vagueness stems from licensing negotiations.

But for all the talk of song importing and such, the one thing that players can't carry over from the original Rock Band is their bands and musicians. However, Baptiste noted that Rock Band 2 will contain all of the customization parts as the first along with much more, enabling players to recreate their rocking avatars.

The reworked instruments likewise contain a number of subtle tweaks to enhance the experience. The fret buttons on the guitar feel more responsive.

The drum pads are a bit quieter and have a bit more spring to them. The drum pedal is a giant piece of metal instead of plastic, preventing any instrument malfunctions.

Optional cymbals can be purchased and plugged into the stock Rock Band 2 drum kit. While these don't provide any additional notes or challenges in the songs, the game will recognize where the input came from and provide the appropriate sound effect.

The new guitars also pack a small light sensor and microphone, enabling the game to automatically calibrate for display lag. Just hold the guitar up to the screen, hit the right menu selection, and you're ready to go. And yes, the manual options are still there as well.

In short, Rock Band 2 isn't a huge shift from the first. It's more of a refinement, bringing some oft-requested polish to the game.

Rock Band 2 hits Xbox 360 in September, with PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and Wii versions following later in the year.

Full Disc Setlist
1. AC/DC - "Let There Be Rock" - 1970s
2. AFI - "Girl's Gone Grey" - 2000's
3. Alanis Morissette - "You Oughta Know" - 1990's
4. Alice in Chains - "Man in the Box" - 1990's
5. Allman Brothers - "Ramblin' Man" - 1970's
6. Avenged Sevenfold - "Almost Easy" - 2000's
7. Bad Company - "Shooting Star" - 1970's
8 Beastie Boys - "So Whatcha Want" - 1990's
9. Beck - "E - Pro" - 2000's
10. Bikini Kill - "Rebel Girl" - 1990's
11. Billy Idol - "White Wedding Pt. I" - 1980's
12.Blondie - "One Way or Another" - 1970's
13.Bob Dylan - "Tangled Up in Blue" - 1970's
14.Bon Jovi - "Livin' on a Prayer" - 1980's
15.Cheap Trick - "Hello There" - 1970's
16.Devo - "Uncontrollable Urge" - 1980's
17.Dinosaur Jr. - "Feel the Pain" - 1990's
18. Disturbed - "Down with the Sickness" - 2000's
19. Dream Theater - "Panic Attack" - 2000's
20. Duran Duran - "Hungry Like the Wolf" - 1980's
21. Elvis Costello - "Pump It Up" - 1970's
22. Fleetwood Mac - "Go Your Own Way" - 1970's
23. Foo Fighters - "Everlong" - 1990's
24. Guns N' Roses - "Shackler's Revenge" - 2000's
25. Interpol - "PDA" - 2000's
26. Jane's Addiction - "Mountain Song" - 1980's
27. Jethro Tull - "Aqualung" - 1970's
28. Jimmy Eat World - "The Middle" - 2000's
29. Joan Jett - "Bad Reputation" - 1980's
30. Journey - "Anyway You Want It" - 1970's
31. Judas Priest - "Painkiller" - 1990's
32. Kansas - "Carry On Wayward Son" - 1970's
33. L7 - "Pretend We're Dead" - 1990's
34. Lacuna Coil - "Our Truth" - 2000's
35. Linkin Park - "One Step Closer" - 2000's
36. Lit - "My Own Worst Enemy" - 1990's
37. Lush - "De-Luxe" - 1990's
38. Mastodon - "Colony of Birchmen" - 2000's
39. Megadeth - "Peace Sells" - 1980's
40. Metallica - "Battery" - 1980's
41. Mighty Mighty Bosstones - "Where'd You Go" - 1990's
42. Modest Mouse - "Float On" - 2000's
43. Motorhead - "Ace of Spades" - 1980's
44. Nirvana - "Drain You" - 1990's
45. Norman Greenbaum - "Spirit in the Sky" - 1960's
46. Panic at the Disco - "Nine in the Afternoon" - 2000's
47. Paramore - "That's What You Get" - 2000's
48. Pearl Jam - "Alive" - 1990's
49. Presidents of the USA - "Lump" - 1990's
50. Rage Against the Machine - "Testify" - 1990's
51. Ratt - "Round & Round" - 1980's
52. Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Give it Away" - 1990's
53. Rise Against - "Give it All" - 2000's
54. Rush - "The Trees" - 1970's
55. Silversun Pickups - "Lazy Eye" - 2000's
56. Smashing Pumpkins - "Today" - 1990's
57. Social Distortion - "I Was Wrong" - 1990's
58. Sonic Youth - "Teenage Riot" - 1980's
59. Soundgarden - "Spoonman" - 1990's
60. Squeeze - "Cool for Cats" - 1970's
61. Steely Dan - "Bodhitsattva" - 1970's
62. Steve Miller Band - "Rock'n Me" - 1970's
63. Survivor - "Eye of the Tiger" - 1980's
64. System of a Down - "Chop Suey" - 2000's
65. Talking Heads - "Psycho Killer" - 1970's
66. Tenacious D - "Master Exploder" - 2000's
67. Testament - "Souls of Black" - 1990's
68. The Donnas - "New Kid in School" - 2000's
69. The Go-Go's - "We Got the Beat" - 1980's
70. The Grateful Dead - "Alabama Getaway" - 1980's
71. The Guess Who - "American Woman" - 1970's
72. The Muffs - "Kids in America" - 1990's
73. The Offspring - "Come Out & Play (Keep 'em Separated)" - 1990's
74. The Replacements - "Alex Chilton" - 1980's
75. The Who - "Pinball Wizard" - 1960's
Bonus Artists
76. Abnormality - "Visions" - 2000's
77. Anarchy Club - "Get Clean" - 2000's
78. Bang Camaro - "Night Lies" - 2000's
79. Breaking Wheel - "Shoulder to the Plow" - 2000's
80. The Libyans - "Neighborhood" - 2000's
81. The Main Drag - "A Jagged Gorgeous Winter" - 2000's
82. Speck - "Conventional Lover" - 2000's
83. The Sterns - "Supreme Girl" - 2000's
84. That Handsome Devil - "Rob the Prez-O-Dent" - 2000's

Rock Band 2 Impressions: Oh God Yes - Shacknews

Nintendo: Wii Outsells Xbox 360 In U.S.

The Wii has officially outsold the Xbox 360 in the U.S., making it the number-one console in America, Nintendo said Thursday.

"After just 20 mos, Wii is the new console leader in the US @ nearly 10.9 million units, says NPD 2day."

That's a text message that Nintendo of America just sent to journalists' phones, knowing they'd be away from their desks covering E3. (The company used the same delivery medium to announce the Wii MotionPlus controller on Monday.)

The news comes in advance of the official release of the U.S. sales data for the month of June, which is scheduled to be released later this afternoon by the NPD Group.

It's worth noting that at Microsoft's press conference Monday, Xbox exec Don Mattrick told the crowd that the Xbox 360 was the top-selling piece of game hardware in the U.S. -- knowing full well that this would likely cease to be true in three days' time.

Nintendo: Wii Outsells Xbox 360 In U.S. | Game | Life from Wired.com

WoW Gains Achievements with Lich King Expansion; Over 500 Achievements at First, More Coming

The arrival of the next World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, will add more than just new areas and classes to the popular PC MMO. Developer Blizzard today confirmed rumors that Lich King will introduce goal-based achievements.

"Some achievements come with in-game rewards such as tabards, vanity pets, and titles," the company wrote on its official site. "All of these rewards are purely cosmetic and just for fun, but you'll certainly stand out when you proudly display them."

Over 500 achievements will be available initially, with Blizzard noting that the list is "easily expandable." A new window displays the conditions for the various achievements, and also those earned.

The achievements are broken down into categories: Player-vs.-Player, Dungeons and Raids, Professions, Quests, Events, World Exploration, Reputations, and General.

Examples provided by Blizzard include giving out 10 hugs, collecting 10 vanity pets, beating every dungeon, or killing 50 enemy players in your faction's capital cities.

"Some achievements, including those that involve quests, honorable kills, items currently in your possession, skills (including professions), exploration, and reputations, will be applied to your character retroactively," the studio noted.

When an achievement is earned, nearby players and guild members are instantly alerted of the accomplishment. They will also be viewable on the web through the game's Armory.

Wrath of the Lich King is tentatively slated to arrive later this year.

WoW Gains Achievements with Lich King Expansion; Over 500 Achievements at First, More Coming - Shacknews

Victor Emerges in Stormy Battle on Jupiter

Jupiter's Great Red Spot has roughed up a younger rival storm and may consume it altogether.

The baby red spot appears to have

gotten the worst of its whirlwind encounter with the ravenous super-storm that has dominated Jupiter for at least two centuries. Their tussle was captured in a recent series of images by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Scientists may be watching historical shifts in action as they learn how the giant planet's storms grow and change over decades and centuries.

The smaller storm first appeared earlier this year, but had the misfortune to get caught up in the reverse cyclone spin of the Great Red Spot. That left the baby red spot deformed and sapped of color as it spun off to the east of the greater storm. Astronomers predict that the Great Red Spot will eventually pull in and absorb the baby red spot — a possible reason why the super-storm has sustained its power for so long.

Another super-storm, a third one known as the Little Red Spot, safely skirted its larger cousin, and may challenge the Great Red Spot for size. The Little Red Spot's top winds already equal those of the Great Red Spot at nearly 384 mph (172 meters per second), and a scientist told SPACE.com in May that the newer contender may be part of a larger storm system beneath Jupiter's upper atmosphere.

The Little Red Spot first appeared in 2005, after a three-way storm merger turned it from white to an angry red. That means the battle of Jupiter's titans may eventually depend on which storm can consume the most fallen rivals.

SPACE.com -- Victor Emerges in Stormy Battle on Jupiter

Report: 81.5 percent of all e-mails sent in June were spam

Almost everyone hates spam. The only people that don't hate it are the ones that make vast amounts of money from sending it. The profits they turn are so large that regardless of what spam fighters do, the amount of spam keeps increasing. According to web security firm MessageLabs, spam accounted for 81.5 percent of all e-mail traffic in June.

This number, which is calculated based on 3 billion e-mail connections that MessageLabs scans every single day, more or less corresponds with US-specific data. An analysis of year-to-date spam rates for individual US states shows that the percentage of e-mails that were spam range from 77 (Montana) to 91 percent (Illinois). In other words, in every single state in the US, over three quarters of e-mails sent are junk. The average spam level in the US was 86 percent in June.

"Different socioeconomic factors and levels of security awareness" are the reason for varying spam levels from state to state. Put more simply, spam levels depend on overall IT security in a given state, how comfortable users are to share their e-mails on public domains, and other decisions made that end up helping or hurting spammers," said MessageLabs antispam technologies Matt Sergeant. It should be noted that the software use to block junk e-mail is not a factor here since MessageLabs' data describes the amount of spam sent in the first place, and not how much of it is filtered or blocked.

Sergeant also noted a recent trend of spammers, saying that his company's data shows that it is "mailed out in smaller, more targeted batches, and spammers are using varying approaches from leveraging celebrity names and current events to grab attention." Spam filters aren't very useful if the user is interested in the headline and opens up the e-mail. 

Spam, which former Microsoft Chairman and CEO Bill Gates predicted would be conquered by 2006, has instead entrenched itself as a fact of online life.

Report: 81.5 percent of all e-mails sent in June were spam

West Coast WindWing Flies East, Trumps Turbines

A California CEO is bringing his product across the nation this week to Newburyport, Massachusetts, in an effort to win New England’s support for his product, the WindWing. Gene Kelley, founder and CEO of W2 Energy Development Corp., told the Newburyport Daily News that his WindWing uses airplane technology to produce wind power more efficiently, cheaply, and quietly than traditional turbines. The drive for more efficient, power-capturing wind turbine designs is constant. "I looked at propeller-driven wind turbines and said, 'Isn't there a better way to do this?'" Kelley told reporters.

The Daily News describes the WindWing in detail:

A large parallelogram that resembles a set of oversized venetian blinds on a metal rod, WindWing has six wing panels that can tilt up and down in order to create energy. Sensors located behind the panels are able to detect wind direction and strength and adjust the panels accordingly.

The energy is pulled into the stem on the machine and pulled into a box at its base, where it can be converted by an electrical pump into electricity, compressed air or put through a water pump.

"Have you ever stuck your hand out a car window?" Kelley asked. "Then you know how the WindWing works. Your hand tilts up as it is pushed up by the wind and down as the wind pushes it down; all you have to do is direct it."

Kelley says that traditional turbine propellers capture only a fraction of the energy that could be harnessed from wind, namely because their surface area isn’t large enough to capture and convert very much wind. WindWing can run efficiently in any type of weather.

West Coast WindWing Flies East, Trumps Turbines | EcoGeek

Slammin' New Game Screenshots From E3

From ultraviolence to possibly even more disturbing karaoke, companies are rolling out their candidates for Next Big Thing at the E3 Media & Business Summit. Get a glimpse of gaming's future with these screenshots.

First Look at Id's Wolfenstein Revival

William "B.J." Blazkowicz is back, and he's more "bad-ass" than ever, Activision says.

Wii Sports Sequel Goes Tropical

Power Cruising, Sword Play and Disc Dog -- it's summer fun without the sun. These mini-games and more will be part of Nintendo's sporty spinoff.

Guitar Hero World Tour Looks Like Rock Band

Activision's musical sequel seems awfully familiar.

Gears of War 2's Creepy New Creatures

Flame Boomers, Maulers, Reavers, Tickers ... Microsoft blow the lid off a monstrous menagerie.

Xbox Rocks Karaoke With Lips

Microsoft brings the barroom horror home. Will there be a terrifying "I think she drank too much tequila" mode?

Pics: Xbox 360's New User Interface

The updated dashboard boasts Mii-like Avatars and a cleaner look.

See Also:

• Gallery: Microsoft Guns for Hard-Core and Casual Gamers at E3
• Gallery: Nintendo Keeps Casual, Ignores Hard-Core at E3
• Gallery: Sony Recaps Its Greatest Hits at E3
• Full Coverage: Wired.com @ E3 2008

Slammin' New Game Screenshots From E3 | Game | Life from Wired.com

Tomorrow, a new top-level domain just for .ME

Those interested in getting a .ME domain name -- perhaps one named just for themselves -- can do so after ICANN, the organization responsible for overseeing Internet domains, opens up .ME domain registration tomorrow.

The "Sunrise" period of registration for .ME domains began in May, where trademark owners were permitted to register their own names early. The "Landrush" period began in June, in which any interested party can submit a domain application without restrictions.

According to the .ME Registry, more than 30,000 domains have been registered, and auctions for domains with multiple bids are now taking place. Successfully completed open registrations will enable domain owners to launch their .ME Web sites immediately after registration opens publicly tomorrow.

Auctions are expected for domains that will likely be considered high value, with Love.Me, Buy.Me, Contact.ME, Drive.ME, and Date.me, and other verbs you can conceivably do to ".me," at the top of the list.

The open registration period makes it possible for anyone to get any domain name on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers had a busy year in 2008, opening up several new top-level domains and drastically altering the rules for introducing new Top-Level Domains (TLDs). The most popular generic TLDs today are .COM, .ORG, .NET, and to a lesser extent .BIZ, though a rule change initiated last month could complicate things drastically.

Companies and interested parties will be able to create their own gTLD depending on what their needs are - for example, japan.yahoo in place of yahoo.co.jp. The rules restriction could open up more than 70 million possible new domains operating under the .COM gTLD.

Also with the rule changes, ICANN also made it possible for Chinese corporations to create a domain that ends with Chinese ideograms instead of .CN.

Earlier in the year, ICANN eased restrictions on the .PRO TLD. Interested parties now only have to fill out an online registration form that has a company's name, profession, and a qualifying license number.

BetaNews | Tomorrow, a new top-level domain just for .ME

Early Mars Was All Wet

A lot more Martian rocks were altered by water than scientists originally thought, suggesting that early Mars was a very wet place.

New observations made by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), currently circling the planet, have revealed evidence that vast regions of the southern highlands of Mars were altered by water in a variety of environments billions of years ago.

Water is a key condition for life as we know it. Though there is no firm evidence that Mars has ever harbored life, knowing that the planet was once wet suggests that it was at least habitable in the past.

The key to the finding is the discovery that rocks called phyllosilicates are widespread on at least the planet's southern hemisphere. The

water present on Mars from about 4.6 billion to 3.8 billion years ago transformed some rocks into these phyllosilicates, which include clays rich in iron, magnesium or aluminum, mica, and kaolinite (an ingredient in Kaopectate).

"In a phyllosilicate, the atoms are stacked up into layers, and all of the phyllosilicates have some sort of water or hydroxyl [oxygen and hydrogen group] incorporated into the crystal structure," said study team member Scott Murchie of Johns Hopkins University.

Previous data from an instrument called OMEGA - Observatoire pour la Mineralogie, l'Eau, les Glaces et l'Activite on the Mars Express spacecraft had revealed only a few large outcrops of phyllosilicates, suggesting they were a relative rarity on Mars.

"It sort of gave the false impression that rocks that were altered like this were more restricted than they really are," Murchie said.

But the new observations, made with MRO's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) and detailed in the July 17 issue of the journal Nature, reveal "thousands and thousands of outcrops that we can now resolve with the higher resolution of the instrument, and they're scattered all over the planet wherever the older rocks occur," Murchie told SPACE.com.

"What that's suggesting to us is that we're seeing a pervasive subsurface layer that goes back in time — it's been altered by water to clays and related minerals, and it's outcropping all over the place," Murchie added.

The layer of water-altered rocks sits below younger, volcanic rocks and the ubiquitous windblown Martian dust and sand in many places. But in craters and scarps, including Valles Marineris, across the terrain of the southern hemisphere, the ancient clays and other minerals have been exposed.

"It's like going to the bottom rock layer in the Grand Canyon," Murchie said, where ancient layers underlie the whole area, but are only exposed in a few places.

This layering gives scientists a dividing line of about 3.7 to 3.5 billion years ago for a transition in Martian geology: "Before that the rocks were altered into clays, since then they're not," Murchie said.

The variety of clays and other minerals formed also tells scientists that rock was altered by water under a variety of conditions.

"There's a variety of environments that are formed where the rock was lightly altered where you see things like chlorite, to where it was altered with water at really high temperature, where you see mica, to where a lot of water must have flowed through the rock in order to dissolve out the iron and magnesium and you're left with kaolinite," Murchie said.

The alteration of later rocks, such as the sulfates found by the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER), Spirit and Opportunity in the northern hemisphere, on the other hand, formed under much more restricted conditions.

One implication of these findings is that some of the environments that formed the phyllosilicates would not have been antagonistic to any potential life, unlike the conditions that formed the sulfates, which formed in a highly acidic environment similar to battery acid, as Murchie put it.

Whether the MER rovers can get a close-up peek at these phyllosilicates while the robots still roam the Martian surface is uncertain, Murchie said, because so far the rocks haven't been detected near the crafts. But they could be there and simply be obscured in the north from the MRO instruments by dust.

"It doesn't take much to hide something from our optical instrument in orbit," he said, just a few micrometers of dust. "So just brushing away the rock surface could be enough," he added.

Whether or not Spirit and Opportunity get a chance to investigate these intriguing rocks up close, future rover missions, such as the Mars Science Laboratory set to launch 2009, could certainly be aimed at known phyllosilicate-rich sites, Murchie said, shedding more light on the mysteries of early Mars.

SPACE.com -- Early Mars Was All Wet

Japanese Scientists Invent Durable Flash Memory Which Can Last 100+ Years

New chips promise incredible lifetime at low voltage

Long-standing concerns regarding flash memory are failure rates and short lifetimes.  While the SSD market is booming thanks to lower prices and strong marketing, many remain skeptical.  Among these skeptics are some major industry players such as Seagate and Fujitsu, who both believe that the technology, while promising, is not market ready.

A new breakthrough from Japan may soon change that.  Japanese scientists from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and the University of Tokyo have developed memory chips that could withstand hundreds of years of use.  They also work at lower voltages than tradition chips, promising power savings.

Most flash chips, such as those used in the memory cards for digital cameras or the Nintendo Wii, only have an estimated lifetime of about a decade.  Even worse, some applications which require frequent reading and writing can wear down cells much faster, sometimes ruining a flash device within only a few years.

For computers, some common scenarios that can wear down SSDs prematurely include the use of a swap file or virtual memory or frequent writes to log files.  Scientists estimate that high density flash circuits in their current state, for lifetime and other reasons are unworkable below 20 nm.  With Intel already starting to prepare for 32 nm production, this limit is fast approaching.

The Japanese scientists state that their new ferroelectric NAND flash cells can scale much smaller, to a scant 10 nm.  The scientists claim that the new cells can be rewritten 100 million times, as opposed to current flash, which can only support about 10,000 writes.

To further prolong the cell life, they employ a wear-leveling technology, in which all cells are used equally, and overused cells are "retired".  The end result is lifetimes of 100+ years.  Additionally, the new ferroelectric cells operate at 6 volts or less.  Current flash cells use 20 V, meaning that the new cells will likely cut power consumption by as much as a factor of 3.

The researchers hope to bring the technology to market within a couple years.

DailyTech - Japanese Scientists Invent Durable Flash Memory Which Can Last 100+ Years

NASA Envisions Huge Lunar Telescope

Telescope mirrors made from lunar dust could help realize dreams of stargazing from the far side of the moon.

Creating gigantic lunar telescopes would normally carry an astronomical price tag, but NASA researchers used a mix of epoxy, simulated lunar dust and carbon nanotubes to demonstrate how to use materials already found on the moon.

"You can go to the moon with a few buckets, and build something far larger than anything a rocket can carry," said Peter Chen, a physicist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Orbiting vs. moon-based

Astronomers have argued about which is better in the future: building additional orbiting space telescopes such as Hubble or setting them up on the moon. Both

types of telescopes would be beyond the interference of Earth's atmosphere, although the moon has the added advantages of being a stable platform with a far side shielded from Earth's cluttered radio background. On the other hand, getting to the moon represents more of a challenge than simply launching a space telescope.

However, the debate so far has been "limited by launching from the ground," Chen told SPACE.com, because Earth's gravity places both size and cost limits on what rockets can carry into space or to the moon.

The solution: Get much of the needed building material from the moon itself. Chen had already started working with epoxy and carbon nanotubes to create "smart" materials that can flex or change shape when an electric current passes through, but ended up adding simulated lunar dust called JSC-1A Coarse Lunar Regolith Simulant to the mix.

Chen used the resulting lunar concrete as the foundation of a foot-long disk, and poured more plastic epoxy on top of it. Then he spun the mirror at a constant speed that formed the epoxy into a parabolic, slightly bowl-like shape as it hardened. The mirror's finishing touch came with a thin layer of reflective aluminum applied inside a vacuum chamber.

Making a Hubble-sized mirror would require bringing 130 pounds (60 kg) of epoxy to the moon with 3 pounds (1.3 kg) of carbon nanotubes and less than 1 gram of aluminum, according to Chen's calculations. Meanwhile, 1,300 pounds (600 kilograms) of lunar dust could provide the bulk of the material. The moon's lack of atmosphere also suits the vacuum conditions needed to make the mirror.

Base considerations

Astronomers may imagine telescope mirrors half the size of a football field, but realizing such dreams depends heavily on whenever NASA returns human explorers to the moon and sets up a moon base.

Other challenges include getting the necessary manufacturing equipment to the moon, such as the spinning table on which the mirror gets created. Future astronauts would also have to ensure that none of the free-floating lunar dust contaminates the mirror.

"It's a great idea in principle, but nothing is simple on the Moon," said James Spann, physicist heading the Space and Exploration Research Office at Marshall Space Flight Center, in a NASA statement.

Chen and his colleagues will try to scale up their demonstration by creating 1.64-foot (0.5 meter) and 3.28-foot (1 meter) mirrors using the simulated lunar dust. They also plan to figure out ways to hone the quality of the finished mirror's surface, and are already speculating about ways future explorers and robots could build even larger telescope mirrors on the moon — perhaps within an impact crater.

"It's totally out-of-the-box, but it's fun to think about," Chen said.

SPACE.com -- NASA Envisions Huge Lunar Telescope

Google adds speech recognition to video search

Google is rolling out a speech recognition tool that adds a whole new dimension to video search. Previously, if you wanted to search for a YouTube video, you'd have to rely on the title and tags. Now you can actually search for spoken text in a video. Well, in selected videos only. Right now the speech recognition is only available in a handful of political videos.

You can check out the new feature by adding the Google Election Video Search Gadget to your iGoogle page. Or you can view the gadget as a standalone page. Just enter a search term and Google will locate videos where the word is uttered. Google will also add little yellow markers to the timeline letting you know where the word occurs.

Google uses speech recognition technology to automatically transcribe the text of these videos and add them to an index. Videos uploaded by politicians to their official YouTube channels are indexed within a few hours.

Google certainly isn't the first site to combine speech recognition with video search. Blinkx and EveryZing offer similar services. But Google is the 800 pound gorilla in both the search and online video worlds.

Google adds speech recognition to video search - Download Squad