Dardoz gets stuck in

Microsoft are to release the follow up operating system to Vista, codenamed Vienna in late 2009. Remarkably this would be just over 2 years after the release of Vista. Quite strange you might say but let me explain.

Through conversations with a Microsoft insider, I was informed that all along Vista was supposed to be what Vienna will now be: a totally new operating system, not only in terms of looks, but in terms of how it works. It was supposed to be an operating system that was as huge a leap as Windows 95 was from its predecessor, an operating system we would all have to learn from scratch. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, it became apparent that time was running out and Vista could no longer be delayed. Very late in the development cycle they decided to seperate the whole new OS, that which we will see with the release of Vienna and simply make Vista predominantly a huge security update. Ok, fair enough, there are a few graphic enhancements, most of which are worse than XP in my opinion but the OS itself is very little different to XP.
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Apple was dealt the first of most likely many blows on Wednesday as Norway’s ombudsman ruled that their itunes online music store was illegal.

This stance comes about because songs downloaded from itunes won’t work on rival mp3 players, they will only work with an Apple iPod. It therefore goes against consumer protection laws. This is the case in most European countries and my hunch says this just might be the beginning as other countries will look to follow suit. Sweden and Finland have infact already given their support to Norway but have yet to take legal action.

The Norweigan Ombudsman has set a deadline of October 1, far too long in my opinion, for Apple to comply with regulation and make their songs playable in any device. If it fails to to do, they will eventually face closure by court action.
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A competition to create a robot capable of operating in urban warfare conditions was launched by Singapore’s Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) on Tuesday. The robot who completes an as yet unreleased obstacle course in record time will be declared the winner.

Currently, robots deployed for urban warfare missions are normally operated remotely by a human. DSTA wants scientists to create an A.I. powered robot that “must, on its own, be able to navigate both indoors and outdoors in an urban landscape and accomplish a set of assigned tasks within a stipulated time”.
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The US Army has given the first public demonstration of its revolutionary new heat-ray weapon which can repel enemies and disperse holstile crowds. Silent Guardian, the first prototype developed from the technology known as the Active Denial System, fires an invisible high energy beam which to human skin feels like a burning 50c when in actual fact it is totally harmless.

They expect to add the new tool to their arsenal as early as 2010. With a range of up to 500m and apparently no real harm to the target it will be much more effective than rubber bullets.

Have you ever been strutting your stuff down along the beach in the blistering sunshine, looking cool, listening to your favourite summers beats on your ipod when suddenly, the battery runs out?… well no, neither have I actually. But if you have, fear no more!! Inventor Andrew Schneider has come up with an invention that will never leave you beatless again.

He has invented the solar powered bikini. He claims it produces enough power to run your ipod without ever needing battieries. The only issue I see with it right now is that it has a usb connection and is full of electronics, so please, don’t forget what you’re wearing and jump in for a swim :p

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Just a month ago, Blu-ray started giving it loads about being more secure that HD-DVD after a hacker named Muslix64 managed to create a backup of a HD-DVD disc. He used a plain text attack approach which relies on obtaining a particular movie’s unique “key”. Therefore as yet, it can’t be used for replicating all titles encoded via a particular format.

Both HD DVD and Blu-ray use HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) for playback display authentication and similar implementations of AACS (Advanced Access Content System) for content encryption.

How long till it is totally broken though one must wonder, considering Muslix64 has managed this much with the technology still in its infancy.

Muslix64 has however still posted a tool to allow other budding crackers to extract the keys from Blu-ray discs.

The bad news for the consumer is that Blu-ray and HD-DVD keys can both be updated when needed due to attacks. This in the long run means software/hardware being repeatedly updated causing more hassle and expense for everyone.

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Overclockers Team Italy have set a new world record for a Core clock speed with a whopping 8000Mhz. You would expect there tobe major heat concerns at this speed, but that is where the secret to their success lies. They unpacked their Pentium 631 processor and covered it in liquid nitrogen.

In a previous attempt using a non modified P5B motherboard they had reached 7520Mhz but were limited by the motherboard. But now, after some recalculations, they have broken the 8000Mhz barrier.

Congratulations Team Italy.

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Yes, we are getting ripped off again. Is it by Sony, or our government with the hefty 21% VAT we charge? I’ll leave you to decide.

Sony has confirmed that the 60GB Playstation 3 will retail in Ireland for €629.99 despite the fact that they will be available in the rest of Europe for €599.99.

A spokesperson for Sony had this to say:

“Ireland is traditionally more expensive than other territories,” the spokesperson explained.

“The VAT rate there is 21 per cent, whereas it can be as low as 16 per cent in other EU countries.”

Further details of the Irish and European launches are expecting in the next couple of weeks.

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Goodbye Dell, goodbye Komplett, goodbye home built pcs. I am afraid you can no longer compete. For from this day forth, we enter the age of Hewlett Packard.

In what can only be acknowledged as the deal of the lifetime, Hewlett Packard are now offering free countries with their desktop. More specifically, you get your own Italy with the purchase of desktop dc5100

I expect some time tomorrow Dell’s share price will crash thus resulting in a chain reaction: the stock market crashes causing chaos in the modern world, anarchy ensues. The ‘world police’ of the United States can no longer contain the unrest and launch specifically targetted cluster bombs into the heart of all those millions of new Itallies fearing their almighty grip on the world may be about to come to and end. Unfortunately, there are so many italians at this stage, the world police are swamped and overcome. Italian becomes the 1st language of planet earth and the new leading superpower of our era.

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The world’s leadin file-sharing/piracy website The Pirate Bay plans to buy their own nation with the intention of circumventing international copyright laws. They plan to buy Sealand, a 550 metre square former British naval platform in the North sea which was designated as a micronation.

If they succeed in buying Sealand, they will be untouchable to the many anti-piracy Bureaucrats. They would set up the world’s largest bittorrent tracker.

It doesn’t come cheap however. The Royal Family of Sealand are willing to sell their own country for a paltry £65m sterling.
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