Computer Information - myOddPc
Fujitsu's Scaleo home server gets detailed
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Storage
It's been quite a while since we saw the first
less-than-stellar renders of Toshiba's
Scaleo home server, but it looks like the device is now finally nearing an actual release, with just about all the details you could want now out in the open. As previously announced, the server will be available in two varieties, with the Scaleo Home Server 1500 boasting a single 500GB hard drive and room for three more, and the Scaleo 1900 boasting two 500GB hard drives and, apparently, room for three more drives as well (although, as Slash Gear points out, that may be a typo given that the two are the same size). Otherwise, you can expect a Celeron 4xx processor in each, along with 512MB of RAM, 256MB of flash memory, gigabit LAN, four USB ports, and two eSATA. There's still no official word as to when they'll be available over here, however, but they'll apparently hit the UK in the next two weeks, with the 1500 and 1900 demanding £399 and £469 (or $777 and $913), respectively.
[Via
Slash Gear]
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Honda touts new energy efficient "heat-harnessing hybrid"
Filed under: Transportation
Honda's already made more than a few attempts at
energy efficient vehicles, but it looks like the company is far from running out of options, with it now touting a new so-called "heat harnessing hybrid" that it says can recapture more lost energy than conventional hybrids during highway driving. The key to that is a so-called Rankine cycle engine, which captures waste heat from the car's exhaust and puts it back to work to heat water, which gets converted to steam to power an electric generator, which in turn charges the car's battery pack. That basic idea, as you may have deduced, is hardly a new one, but Honda appears to have pushed things farther along than most, with its current prototype (a Honda Stream) boasting a 3.8% increase in efficiency when motoring along at 62 miles per hour, among other advantages. That's apparently not quite enough to convince Honda to put the technology to use in production vehicles, however, although it says that situation could change if they're able to boost the efficiency even further.
[Via
Digg, image courtesy of
EcoGeek]
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Onkyo pulling the plug on future HD DVD development
Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
The writing was
already on the wall, but it looks as if Onkyo actually won't be pursuing the long lost HD DVD format any longer. According to a Japanese report at
Yomiuri Online, the firm will be discontinuing production of HD DVD players following Toshiba's own decision to
abandon the format, but it
will continue to provide service for customers that already snapped up the
DV-HD805. Interestingly, there was no mention of Onkyo's plans in regard to Blu-ray, but nevertheless, yet another red supporter has definitely waved its white flag.
[Via
Widescreen Review, image courtesy of
Bret Philpot]
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Toshiba sez it wouldn't change a thing, still thinks HD DVD is better
Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
We've always heard that there's no need in regretting, and apparently, Toshiba is following said mantra after the
collapse of its beloved high-definition movie format. In an interview with
TechRadar, Toshiba's deputy general manager of HD DVD Olivier Van Wynendaele stated that it "wouldn't change anything that it did," and continued on to say that "circumstances saw to it that [Toshiba] had to make the decision not to continue, but that doesn't mean [the company] did anything wrong." Just in case you couldn't already sense the inability to swallow one's pride, Mr. Van Wynendaele also proclaimed that its format was "a finished standard, unlike Blu-ray," and concluded by noting that HD DVD was still "better than Blu-ray." Maybe he really
didn't get
the memo?
[Image courtesy of
Bexhuff, thanks David]
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Worldwide LCD TV shipments surpass CRTs for first time ever
Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment
Just days after Sony
vaulted to the top of North American LCD sales charts, DisplaySearch is now reporting that worldwide shipments of LCD TVs have overtaken CRT TVs for the first time in the history of the universe. More specifically, LCD TV sales rose some 56-percent year over year, and 47-percent of the world's TV market is now held by said technology. Reportedly, the transition from CRT to LCD was seen as a logical one, considering that it could extend down to sizes smaller than 20-inches
and satisfy desires for large-screen sets. We know you're just itching to go diving head first into more numbers on the subject, so feel free to toss on those wire-rimmed glasses and hit the read link below.
[Via
TGDaily]
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GameStop no longer taking HD DVD trades, possibly not taking 360 HD DVD drive either
Filed under: Gaming, HDTV, Home Entertainment
Doesn't look like there's going to be any glory in
death for HD DVD -- we've just received confirmation that GameStop is no longer accepting HD DVD movies as trade-ins, and several GameStops have apparently already stopped taking the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive as well. We're also hearing that the 360 HD DVD drive will no longer be accepted at
any GameStop as of tomorrow, and that there's a major price cut in the works -- which makes sense, but we'll see what happens. For now, though, it looks like HD DVD fans jumping ship may have to resort to eBay -- or start peddling discs out the back of their cars.
[Thanks, Mark]
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Competitors Ally With Comcast In FCC P2P Filings
crocoduck writes "Right before the deadline passed for filing comments in the FCC investigation of Comcast's traffic-management practices, telecoms and other cable companies submitted a slew of comments defending Comcast's actions to the FCC. 'Just about every big phone company has filed a statement challenging the FCC's authority to deal with this problem. AT&T, Verizon, and Qwest all submitted lengthy remarks on February 13th, the last day for comments on the proceeding (parties can still reply to comments through the 28th). "The Internet marketplace remains fundamentally healthy, and the purported 'cure' could only make it sick," AT&T's filing declared. "At best, the network-management restrictions proposed by Free Press and others would inflict wasteful costs on broadband providers in the form of expensive and needless capacity upgrades — costs that would ultimately be passed through to end users, raise broadband prices across the board, and force ordinary broadband consumers to subsidize the bandwidth-hogging activities of a few."' P2P fans have also weighed in."
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1.8 Million US Court Rulings Now Online
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "For a long time now, lawyers and any serious law students have been bound to paid services like LexusNexis for access to case law, but that is slowly changing. Carl Malamud has posted free electronic copies of every U.S. Supreme Court decision and Court of Appeals ruling since 1950, 1.8 million rulings in all, online for free. While the rulings themselves have long been government works not subject to copyright, courts still charge several cents per page for copies and they're inconvenient to access, so lawyers usually turn to legal publishers which are more expensive but more convenient, providing helpful things like notes about related cases, summaries of the holdings, and information about if and when the case was overturned. This free database is not Carl's first, either. He convinced the SEC to provide EDGAR, and helped get both the Smithsonian and Congressional hearings online."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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The D&D Designers Answer Your Questions
In January we had the chance to ask the designers of Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition a few questions about the new version of the classic tabletop game. The Wizards of the Coast Community Manager, Mike "Gamer_Zer0" Lescault put our questions to members of the development team, including: Andrew Collins, Chris Perkins, Scott Rouse, and Sara Girard. Some of the questions weren't quite answered in as much detail as I would have liked. That said, they've given us a great opportunity to follow up on their responses. If you have a follow-up question, put it in a comment below (one question per comment please). We'll pass on five of the best, and the designers will answer your question on-camera at the Dungeons and Dragons Experience at the end of this month. We'll post the video to the site early in March. This is a great chance to put a face to some legendary designer names, and get your unanswered issues resolved. Get asking.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Microsoft to Give Away Developer Tools to Students
beuges writes "The Associated Press is reporting that Microsoft will make full versions of their development tools available to students. "The Redmond-based software maker said late Monday it will let students download Visual Studio Professional Edition, a software development environment; Expression Studio, which includes graphic design and Web site and hybrid Web-desktop programming tools; and XNA Game Studio 2.0, a video game development program. Gates said students will want to try Microsoft's tools because they're more powerful than the open-source combination of Linux-based operating systems, the Apache Web server, the MySQL database and the PHP scripting language used to make complex Web sites. But Gates said giving away Microsoft software isn't intended to turn students against open source software entirely. Rather, he hopes it will just add one more tool to their belt.""
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