Forget Folding@home and its feel-good applications. There are cooler things to be done, like cryptography cracking. Taking advantage of the Cell’s vector architecture, a security consultant with Security-assessment.com has cooked up a way to to bust passwords open like bad Easter eggs really, really fast. His Crackstation shoves past “the current upper limit of 10-15 million cycles per second—in Intel-based architecture—up to 1.4 billion cycles per second.” To put that in non-geek, “Intel processors are designed to do all kinds of complex calculations, whereas the PS3 is good at doing simple things very quickly.” The work apparently stands to change the whole cryptography industry.
Using Star Wars films as one of the inspirations for his designs, a masters student at the University of Texas named Jason Mellard developed an aquatic research and housing facility to be located 50-100 miles offshore. Scientists studying marine and bird life would stay on the platform with their families in 6-13 month shifts and work in spheres consisting of laboratories, classrooms, computer labs, viewing platforms, holding tanks, offices and storage.
As a response to many companies and end users installing hard drives into cars for portable entertainment systems, Toshiba’s introducing the MK8050 hard drive that has increased shock tolerance and vibration dampening. The disk has a cushion of air around the head to prevent scratching, which causes data loss, swearing and begging. Expect to see it in GPS units and do-it-yourselfer kits next March. [Toshiba Storage via Electronista]
I kinda thought (hoped) earnings report season was over. But it’s not! Today we’re looking at TiVo’s net loss of $US8.2 million on total revenues of $US75.5 million, which was “considerably ahead of guidance” and up (down?) from an $US11.1 million net loss in the same quarter last year on revenues of $US66 million. Given all the love there is for TiVo, the fact that it’s not making money (and hasn’t been) might be surprising for the uninitiated. So them calling this a good quarter probably sounds weird. But let’s look at some of the other numbers.
newVideoPlayer("qbamaze.flv", 475, 376);
Combining the concepts of LEGO with the concepts of Rube Goldberg, the Q-BA-MAZE gives you a set of 20 to 50 pieces that you put together to make a descending maze for marbles. It sounds boring from our description, so if you watch the video you’ll notice that it’s…only slightly less boring. This may be cool to use to teach your kids about gravity, mazes, and the fact that you shouldn’t put marbles up your nose, but we’d be much more impressed if there were more pieces that did different things. [Q-BA-MAZE]
While checking out the details on the new Sidewinder mouse, we spotted Microsoft throwing a general party around their hardware line up. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of their hardware business, Microsoft is doing 25% cashback deals when you send off for redemption. So that SideWinder might be retailing for $129.95, but after redemption it will be yours for $94.95. Full details, and a list of the specific values they’re giving you back (some come in at better than 25%), at the Microsoft hardware site. [Microsoft Hardware]
After getting reamed by Q3 losses and basically conceding the online rental space to Netflix, Blockbuster looked to be refocusing on its B&M stores, ironically signified by its installation of in-store digital rental kiosks. So naturally its next move is mobile phones. Yeah. Says CEO James Keyes: We’re talking with virtually all of the major manufacturers about the opportunity to provide greater mobility and convenience… The challenge is how do I make this convenient for everybody.
Microsoft killed off the SideWinder brand due to lack of sales back in 2003, but it was a brand with a lot of love in its history (I was a fan of the joysticks) so they’ve brought it back from the dead with a new gaming mouse. No extra names involved, this is simply called the Microsoft SideWinder Mouse. It’s all about the gaming, and it’s a pretty solid piece of work.
It’s got buttons ahoy, with two under the thumb plus another a little further around the corner for your thumb to reach (I doubt I’ll ever use that one, though). Left-right buttons, obviously, plus a scroll-wheel button. The scroll has really nicely defined position clicks to suit efficient weapon switching.
The laser dpi switching is right down the middle of the mouse, offering 400, 800, or 2000 dpi accuracy – switch sensitivity to move between fast movement and more accurate aiming. However this position is not at all useful for on-the-fly switching in the heat of action (Logitech’s G9 is better placed on the left). Microsoft has pointed to the ‘first ever’ LCD display on a mouse, but you won’t be getting ammo or hit point read outs – this shows current dpi or macro record settings.
Here’s a quick recap of this week’s videos from our personal encounter with Honda ASIMO:
ASIMO makes his grand Robot Rock entrance at Sydney show. My first encounter. The new best buddies hitting the dance floor. Getting up close and personal.
Slogging through tens of seconds of load times when Office 2004 fires up is nobody’s idea of fun, but speedy Intel compatibility isn’t the only thing that Office 2008 will bring next year. The new version will have a feature to export PowerPoint presentations to your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPod video/classic by way of iPhoto, so you can run through your previous quarter’s sales reports in the comfort of a tiny, tiny screen. Or you can get an Apple TV-Out cable and project it onto a TV, which would be the smart thing to do. Office ’08 should be available in January at MacWorld. [PCWorld]
