Here's a pair of pics showing what Koenigsegg will be have on display at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show, the Koenigsegg CXX. This exotic appears to owe its existence to one purpose–regaining the title of “World’s Fastest Porduction Car” that was snatched with such ease by the Bugatti Veyron and its 253-mph terminal velocity. No specs are available on the vehicle, besides the assumption that it will go faster than 253 mph, and these pics gleaned from the Geneva Motor Show’s website are all we got until we arrive at the show in March.
Which Windows Vista will you run? You have 8 choices.
The confusion Windows' Vista team is about to cause by offering up 8 different platters might be a little much. Here's the rundown for the rest of you:
Windows Starter 2007 - Vista without Aero, probably meant for developing nations.
Windows Vista Home Basic - Basic Windows Vista for your single PC fam, doesn't sound like much going on here. Analagous to XP Home.
Windows Vista Home Basic N - European version of the same, but without Media Player (because of antitrust rulings against MS in the EU).
Windows Vista Home Premium - It's got Media Center functionality, Cable Card support, the whole home-media shebang.
Windows Vista Business - Think of it as XP Pro, but Vista.
Windows Vista Business N - Think of it as XP Pro, but Vista, but Euro.
Windows Vista Enterprise - Business version of Vista with numerous enterprise features, like Virtual PC, volume encryption, etc.
Windows Vista Ultimate - This one does all of the above (and more); what else do you need to know? It's ultimate Windows..
A live Revolution pic with interface screen has surfaced deep from the bowels of the Information Super Highway. This time, the individual actually set up a decent shot, I mean "Photoshop."
British television motoring journalist Vicki Butler-Henderson reports in the UK's Times Online that supercars are becoming more effeminate than ever before. Butler-Henderson pegs the introduction of Acura’s NSX as the genesis of the ‘female-friendly’ supercar (we prefer to think of them simply as more useable and reliable). With heretofore unseen ergonomic refinement, daily-driver tractability, reliability and even decent mileage, the NSX redefined what an exotic could be.
Of course, throwbacks to the hard-edged, bite-you-in-the-arse school of supercardom remain readily available. Butler-Henderson points to her bout with a particularly tempestuous Aston Martin Vanquish S, but virtually any TVR promises a single-minded performance experience, with the caveat of a not unsizeable asterisk by reliability and comfort.
Here's a nice list of things you can do to your machine to speed up Windows. Some are easy, some are obvious— some are not. Most importantly, most are quite safe. Disabling services can sometimes be wonky, but that's about as extreme as this one gets. One nice tip out of the bunch: getting rid of those delete confirmation messages. Just nice to get that one turned off finally. Once you're ready, check out the legendary Black Viper Services Configuration page.
If you're not one for watching electronic devices being disturbingly dissected, you'd best not watch this video. It depicts an obviously excited man (you can practically feel the exclamation marks hurling at you) calmly disassembling a standard silver DS into its various parts. Then, he disassembles those parts and, if there's anything left, disassembles that too (even the touch screen!). The entire video is in Spanish.
A new Rubik's Cube has hit the market to allow blind players to enjoy the classic puzzler. TechEBlog writes: "The Touch Rubik’s Cube puts a new twist on the classic puzzle game. It uses six different materials: metal, wood, textile, stone, rubber, and plastic, engaging users to use their senses."
For the record, the best time in an official competition for re-shuffling a Rubik's Cube to its original state is 12.11 seconds held by Shotaro Makisumi of Japan.
The modern rendition uses two "squish pads", one each to the front and rear of the chamber; this helps keep the air-fuel charge closer to the center of the chamber and encourage additional turbulence. Ideally, a combustion chamber would resemble a sphere, as this results in the least surface area for a given volume (that means less heat rejection to the coolant) and the smallest burn distance for a spark plug. Domed pistons in a hemi chamber results in a thin skin of charge; imagine a golf ball sitting next to an orange rind and you get the idea. The squish pads improve the situation significantly, with the only drawback being semantics regarding the trademark name. Squabbling about the chamber shape neglects the most important attribute of the Hemi design - the valve placement.
Note the complex intake manifold geometry. The large plenum and long runners help maximize the torque across the rev range and help the engine to come on strong right off idle without excessively compromising upper-end power. The angle of the valves allows them to travel towards the center of the cylinder and away from the cylinder walls. This helps prevent the phenomenon of "shrouding", where a portion of the valve becomes ineffective. Due to this, the flow of Hemi heads is quite impressive across the full range of valve lift. Barely visible here are the oil squirters that keep the pistons cool. This is certainly not a typical feature for a mass-production domestic V8. This particular cross-section of the head shows the twin spark-plug bores. Read more..!
Apple's touchscreen patents of late has really got people buzzing about the future of manual device input; but we're just not buying New Tech Spy's up and down assurances that Apple's going to be introducing something they're referring to as "touch finger LCDs," and that Apple also plans to eventually throw out numeric function keys as a result.
An intrepid hacker has turned an otherwise broken NES into this marvelously alarm clock, garnering the jealous affection of fanboys the world over. It still needs some work--"alarm time and other parameters have to be set by manually shorting Player 1 controller input contacts with wire jumpers"--but he hopes to someday have it controlled with the paddles gamepads.
Ideas: get that Power button to turn the alarm on/off, require the Konami code to shut the alarm off, add in some classic Nintendo alarm tones!!
Whilst playing the most excellent Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, you'll come across the dramatic scene pictured above. In the hilarious courtroom adventure's first chapter, Phoenix has to carefully debunk the testimony of one Mr. Sahwit, a shifty fellow who claims to have discovered the bludgeoned body of a model in her apartment. Look carefully at the supposed cordless telephone to the right. Doesn't it look a tad familiar, almost like a certain revolutionary controller!
Carrozzeria Castagna, the revitalized Italian automotive design firm is set to pull the sheet on its latest effort, the Gran Tourer Sport, at the Geneva International Motor Show on March 1.
The Milan-based coachbuilder has occupied itself lately with a number of MINI-based designs, but the firm itself has a rich history dating back to 1849. Details are slim on the rakish Gran Tourer Sport, but it’s obvious that Castagna’s pens were heavily influenced by a desire to update classic Rolls-Royce/Bentley design idioms.
Behold, a video of the Sonic the Hedgehog theme being played on a piano! While the Sonic games are remembered fondly by gamers everywhere, let it be known the theme doesn't translate to piano as well as, say Mario.
1.2 petabytes (1,024 terabytes) of storage on a single tiny disk. Inventor Philip Michael Thomas claims to be packing this much via his non-contact optical spintronics approach to data storage. Thomas has succeeded in coaxing electrons to spin in the same direction as opposed to current data storage methods which are hapless in the face of electron flip. Controlling the spin allows for smaller, higher capacity devices with prototypes expected in two to three years and commercial products in five.
The DS case mods over at 4 color rebellion just keep getting better and better. First they showed us the DS Super Famicom mod and now they're showing off the NES controller DS case mod! Created by a bloke called Hatrix, it features parts from a genuine NES controller. And yes, it appears as if the buttons--with the exception of the D-pad--are pressable (ie. they work, but don't do anything). Case modding just reached new heights of awesome.
So Margaret Atwood invented (or had invented for her) a robot hand called the LongPen, so she can have her cake and eat it too: "attend" book signings all over the world without having to leave the comfort of her home. Apparently she'll be "signing" remotely via video feed, with the robo-hand moving to every stroke of her lazer mouse pen. While this is rather appropriate for one some authors, some fans, publishers, and agents are in a bit of a tizzy for the lack of social interaction.
Buzz is quickly building for Guild Wars: Factions--the second installment of NCsoft's popular, subscription-free MMO--and GameSpot wants to be your tour guide through the new continent of Cantha. According to the article, Factions can be played without the first game, but if you want to transfer your characters from the original continent of Tyria, you'll need both. Stops along the decisively Asian-themed land will include Shing Jea Island, the Petrified Forest, the Jade Sea, and the Undercity. Factions arrives April 28.
Gaming finally has a world series to unearth the most competitive gamer. Though the prize money isn't as good as top poker earnings or baseball salaries, $1 million in total prizes should suit most gaming budgets. The event, dubbed The World Series of Video Games, will take place in Louisville on June 2006 with a four subsequent events throughout the year. The final will be held in December to crown the top Xbox and PC gamer.
The series is sponsored by the Xbox 360, so don't expect any competing consoles at the competition.
Athletes wearing the spanking new Adidas Clima TechFit suits, apparently offer a variety of benefits not found anywhere else to Turin Olympians this year. Designed to optimize bodily efficiency, reduce oxygen consumption, and muscle energy output, Clima TechFit suits utilize thermoplastic urethane "compression strips" to link the wearers' appendages to the center body mass (they call this Powerweb). Studies have shown a 5.3% increase in energy output and 1.1% faster sprint in a 30 meter dash, which could well be the difference between a Gold and a Bronze, or no medal at all.
Drempels is a screen-saver and animated desktop background that swirls hallucinogenic patterns on your desktop in a gentle, soothing manner. Drempels is a very satisfying desktop mod that will get your friends and co-workers wondering what you've done, and it'll even run on slower machines.
The highly anticipated Skype 2.0 has been released now for Pocket PCs. For some it's a perfect marriage of a small form-factor device with telephonic qualities and next-generation VOIP technology. Why call direct when you can Skype when you're near a WiFi signal!
The US military has developed a video game system that teaches troops how to avoid dangerous situations by learning Iraqi gestures. In the simulation, dubbed Tactical Iraqi, users must communicate with digital Iraqis with both verbal and gesture commands. From the article: "The program teaches military personnel some key gestures such as an up-down movement with the right hand to ask someone to slow down and gives them tips such as removing mirror sunglasses when approaching local people... 'In Iraq, to show sincerity you have to put more effort into your gestures,' said Dr Vilhjalmsson. 'In Western countries, we control our body language more. In Arabic culture, it is important you show how open you are.'"
Other simulations contracted by the US military and being developed by USC include Afghan and Arabic specific language and gesture programs.
-Lytir1
