Content and news by Rob Williams

Logitech has quietly updated their popular G5 mouse, with the most significant upgrade being the extra thumb button. Although it’s hard to warrant an upgrade for a current G5 owner, it’s worth a look for anyone else in the market for a new gamers mouse.

This is a fairly odd happening in the world of gaming: an updated console coming out around a year and a half after the first version. All consoles go through revisions, but hardware with more storage and added connection options? I’m not sure if that’s ever happened before.

So what if it’s not a new console? So what if it’s only a few upgrades? Black is cool, and that’s all there is to it. Not surprisingly, the gamepads are also black and are now available for purchase by non-Elite peop… console owners as well.

Source: Ars Technica

Story of a Canadian man who was denied entrance to the US after border guards did a Google search on his name and discovered a peer-reviewed academic paper he’d written years earlier that mentioned his own LSD use over 30 years ago.

The sad thing is, publicly displaying lives online is growing more popular everyday. If refused entry like this catches on, it’s going to be bad news down the road for a lot of people. That aside, it’s hard to understand how someone would be refused entry for an LSD incident that happened over 30 years ago. There might have been more to the story than we are being told.

Source: Tech Dirt

Office power users have been clamoring for a way to customize Office 2007 apps since the new interface was unveiled. Sensing an opportunity, third-party software vendors have stepped in with products that either replace or enhance the new Ribbon interface in several Office 2007 applications. We examined three such programs.

I might be one of the few who actually enjoys the new interfaces, although I do agree it can be tedious at times. It’s a good thing that there are at least ways to replace it, as is mentioned in the article.

Source: Computer World

We collect it via airplane and satellite, but also just about any way you can imagine getting a camera above the Earth’s surface: hot air balloons, model airplanes – even kites. The traditional aerial survey involves mounting a special gyroscopic, stabilized camera in the belly of an airplane and flying it at an elevation of between 15,000 feet and 30,000 feet, depending on the resolution of imagery you’re interested in.

If you are a fan of Google Earth (and who isn’t), you’ll love this quick run-through on the process of getting imagery implemented. One thing is for sure… it’s not a simple process. I guess that’s a no-brainer.

Source: Google

The biggest thing to take away from this article is not that some magical effects have been added with DirectX 10, it’s that efficiency is increased and the GPU is capable of doing much more than it has in the past and by offloading tasks from the CPU. Since more can be done in less time that means more impressive effects can be created and displayed on the screen.

If you have downloaded the NVIDIA Cascades demo, you already have a good idea of what DX10 can bring to the table. However, Legit Reviews has just posted direct screenshots from Conan: Hyborian Adventures which show far better examples of what can be done.

Source: Legit Reviews

SUNNYVALE, Calif, April 27, 2007 — Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE:AMD) today announced the closing of its offering of $2.2 billion aggregate principal amount of 6.00% Convertible Senior Notes due 2015, including $200 million of notes that were issued in connection with the exercise in full of the initial purchasers’ over-allotment option. The notes were privately offered to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”).

Source: AMD Press Release

When the software ran, it opened a browser window. A bar across the top of the page congratulated me on successful validation, but the bulk of the Window was given to an ad for a $159 upgrade to Vista Home Premium. It’s bad enough that Microsoft is using what is supposed to be a security update process to try to extract more of its customers money.

The irony is that the suggested upgrade to Home Premium would have essentially been a downgrade from the version he was using.

Source: Business Week

The e-mail made ample use of broad statements and rhetoric to rally troops around the Dell 2.0 concept, which has a revitalized Dell trying new things like being nice to consumers to get back in the hardware game. In particular, Dell will work to make its management, manufacturing, supply chain and customer service more efficient, CEO Dell said in the memo.

Well, one thing is for sure. Dell needs to do something in order to overtake the likes of Acer and HP, who seemed to really come out of nowhere with killer sales. I vote for better customer service… then I’d respect Dell more.

Source: The Reg

Enjoy taxidermy? Yeah, me too. This project is the sick, sick work of Instructables member canida and company. It is a real mouse, gutted and fitted with parts from one of those small laptop mice.

This isn’t weird, nor twisted. At all…

Source: Gizmodo

In a complaint filed in Criminal Court of the City of New York, the DA’s office alleges that between December 24, 2006 and April 7, 2007, 17-year old Mike Nieves committed offenses like computer tampering, computer trespass, and criminal possession of computer material.

It’s hard not to laugh, but this kid took full advantage of his entry into AOLs computers, even going as far as logging into over fifty AOL employees AIM accounts. AOL can’t be very happy, as their security was comprised using simple hacking tools and cost them upwards of $500K.

Source: Info World

I recently thought about just how far they’ve both come since their inceptions, and realised that for the many Linux users that have come to the platform in more recent years, the reasoning behind having two major desktops may not be at all clear – it’s just something that’s always been. Of course, it hasn’t always been this way.

Here is a completely unbiased look at where both GNOME and KDE have come since inception. It’s always been argued why there is a need for two desktops (not to mention the others), and it’s a good question. You can all just use KDE and make things easier ;-)

Source: PC Authority

However, the RIAA is not about being fair and just. The game is rigged and the RIAA has rigged it in their favor. The strategy of playing only non-RIAA songs won’t work though because the RIAA has secured the right to collect royalties on all songs regardless of who controls the copyright. RIAA operates under the assumption that they will collect the royalties for the “sound recording copyright” and that the artists who own their own copyright will go to SoundExchange to collect at a later date.

The amount of sense behind this story is nil. The RIAA believes they can collect on songs that does not run through them, just because it’s played on Internet radio. The songs can however be available for free on the web otherwise, just not on radio. How much longer is this foolishness going to last??

Source: Daily Kos

The service will launch with thousands of movies from seven major studios as well as indie distributors, connects directly to your TV and does not require a PC or a cable box. The company, Vudu, Inc., has been quietly engineering the technology and striking deals with content owners for the past two years (under the codename Marquee). It’s run by some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley.

I admit that I am intrigued. The system has a nice sleek design and packs a lot into it’s small frame, like the Apple TV. It will be the online capabilities that will make or break it though. We won’t find out more about that until later this year.

Source: Gizmodo

The micronation Sealand is offering asylum to Gary McKinnon, a British hacker who’s facing extradition to the United States. Prince Michael Bates of Sealand apparently prefers hackers to pirates. Earlier this year he refused to sell its micronation to the Pirate Bay because this would upset his friends in Hollywood.

Hackers > Pirates, that’s all there is to it.

Source: Torrent Freak

After some OLED display supply issues and a few setbacks, it looks like Lebedev and company have finally settled on a launch date and price for the king of keyboard, the Optimus Maximus. Hold your breath, it’ll be due late November (the 30th, to be specific) for $1536 US (“Shakespeare’s birthday”).

Is this thing even worth being excited about anymore? $1,500 for a keyboard will make it exclusive to those with lots of money, or those who are not very smart with their money. Sure it’s classy, but it looks uncomfortable to use. I think it’s more of a work of art than an actual peripheral.

Source: Engadget

Is that a gigabyte in your pocket? And are you putting it to good use? The explosion of USB thumb drives gives anyone the ability take some serious file storage space along with their house keys. Developers and road warriors have come up with all sorts of innovative techniques for putting these tiny roomy disks to good use. Step into my office for a list of our top 10 favorite thumb drive tricks.

I know I am going to sound like an outcast when I say this, but I use a thumb drive to… store data. Other cool uses are here as well though.

Source: Life Hacker

But in an era when bigger is taken as a synonym for better, calling Shafer’s home a dream house might strike some as an oxymoron. Why? The entire house, including sleeping loft, measures only 96 square feet — smaller than many people’s bathrooms. But Jay Shafer’s dream isn’t of a lifestyle writ large but of one carefully created and then writ tiny.

Although I would go nuts living in a house like this, the design is incredible. It’s a full featured house… just the size of a bedroom.

Source: SF Gate

The University of Portland handed a one-year suspension to engineering major and Air Force ROTC member Michael Maass after he wrote a computer program designed to replace and improve Cisco Clean Access (CCA). Maass noticed flaws in CCA that would allow it to be bypassed in “antivirus and operating system check.”

This reminds me of Adrian Lamo, who helped expose vulnerabilities and then tell the companies about them. You would think that companies would be appreciative to these people, but I guess they are just upset they will have more work to do.

Source: The-Beacon

“People want to own their music,” he said. Industry executives and analysts told Reuters last week that they expect Apple to push for further concessions from record companies on selling music without copy-protection software known as digital rights management (DRM).

Although I never buy music online and rarely need a single track, I’d love to see DRM music spread all through iTunes. It might be then that I will actually hop on and search for new music to listen to, or purchase a certain song I want. Jobs is not stupid. If anyone could make this happen, it’s him.

Source: PhysOrg