The wait is over, netbook fans. MSI just announced that the U100 netbook is now available nationwide at Best Purchase. The Intel Atom 1.6GHz equipped 10-inch netbook comes with 1GB of RAM, Windows XP Home Edition, a 120GB HDD, and weighs only 2.3lbs. It comes in black and white and starts at $399. I just checked […]

The wait is over, netbook fans. MSI just announced that the U100 netbook is now available nationwide at Best Purchase. The Intel Atom 1.6GHz equipped 10-inch netbook comes with 1GB of RAM, Windows XP Home Edition, a 120GB HDD, and weighs only 2.3lbs. It comes in black and white and starts at $399.

I just checked Ideal Buy’s on the internet store, but it doesn’t look like the U100 is available there yet.

Via [crunchgear]

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TOM, Skype’s local partner in China, was censoring and tracking Skype chats, flagging conversations that could have been embarassing to the ruling junta. Originally, TOM filtered by keyword and threw out objectionable material - a good comprimise - but now it seems TOM was also storing and reporting bad messages to certain Communist Parties. Not […]

TOM, Skype’s local partner in China, was censoring and tracking Skype chats, flagging conversations that could have been embarassing to the ruling junta. Originally, TOM filtered by keyword and threw out objectionable material - a good comprimise - but now it seems TOM was also storing and reporting bad messages to certain Communist Parties. Not so good. They also discovered that TOM’s system was completely unsecure and that those store messages were accesable to others.

Well, Skype President Josh is informing the world that TOM, whose software included the censorship system, isn’t officially part of Skype and that Skype messages - using original Skype software - are always secure and private. Clearly that doesn’t help if you don’t have access to Skype software in China but I’m sure industrious Chinese have found ways around that little stumbling block. Again, all we’ve learned is that government meddling in electronic communications creates more fools than leads.

Via [crunchgear]

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Having problems accessing the BD-Live content of Iron Man? Turns out you’re not alone, and Paramount thinks it knows what’s going on: the movie is just too gosh darn popular! The motion picture, which was released on Blu-ray last Tuesday, is so popular, Paramount states, that the record number of people trying to access the BD-Live content […]

Having problems accessing the BD-Live content of Iron Man? Turns out you’re not alone, and Paramount thinks it knows what’s going on: the movie is just too gosh darn popular!

The motion picture, which was released on Blu-ray last Tuesday, is so popular, Paramount states, that the record number of people trying to access the BD-Live content have overloaded the servers. And when the servers are under so much strain is when you see the connectivity issues.

That being stated, Paramount states the issues should be gone by now, as it has shored up the relevant servers.

Also, is the motion picture any good? I don’t want to waste precious BitTorrent ratio on a cruddy motion picture.

Via [crunchgear]

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ROFL. You may or may not have seen this, but I just encountered it and thought it was worth sharing. via Geekadelphia

ROFL.

You might or may not have seen this, but I just encountered it and thought it was worth sharing.

via Geekadelphia

Via [crunchgear]

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Want. These guys are living the American Dream. Portopong

Want. These guys are living the American Dream.

Portopong

Via [crunchgear]

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Future NFL Hall of Famer Kevin Mitnick was on WBAI’s Off the Hook radio show last night, and he explained his travel horror when going from Bogotá to Atlanta. An MP3 version of the show was just posted to 2600’s Web site, which you can find here. Mr. Mitnick explains (in excruciating detail) what happened […]

Future NFL Hall of Famer Kevin Mitnick was on WBAI’s Off the Hook radio show last night, and he explained his travel horror when going from Bogotá to Atlanta. An MP3 version of the show was just posted to 2600’s Web site, which you can find here.

Mr. Mitnick explains (in excruciating detail) what happened to him while he was detained. Pretty interesting, especially if you’re familiar with all the guys on the show.

Lesson to take away: you’re not required to reveal your laptop’s password to security agents. Of course, 99 percent of us will, because who wants to upset Johnny Law?

Photo from Flickr

Via [crunchgear]

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The Senate has passed the Higher Education Act (the Home passed it earlier this year), which, among other things, provides for federal monies for student loans. What’s most interesting to us here is a provision in the bill, which it’s expected that President Bush will sign into law, that tells college campuses to rein in […]

The Senate has passed the Higher Education Act (the House passed it earlier this year), which, among other things, provides for federal monies for student loans. What’s most interesting to us here’s a provision in the bill, which it’s expected that President Bush will sign into law, that tells college campuses to rein in wanton P2P downloading. To that end, the MPAA will provide colleges with some sort of “briefing book” on how to curtail downloading.

Expect mandatory filtering as well, college students.

As we all know, college students are proficient at at least two things: drinking and illegal downloading. Fun fact: I was invited to join an Xbox release group in 2004 because of my fast World wide web connection. That’s what you get for idling in IRC all day long. Who knows how different my life would be had I accepted the position.

It’s hard to get mad at the MPAA and RIAA for wanting to protect their livelihood, but that they could so easily influence the legislative process is somewhat annoying. Not entirely unexpected, just annoying.

Via [crunchgear]

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This $99.99 robot can speak to you, guard you, and even notify you when a set number of minutes has passed. It’s quite a bit of fun and has a charming personality, as you’ll see in our video, but we did have some issues with the IR remote control - the bugger just couldn’t tell […]

This $99.99 robot can speak to you, guard you, and even notify you when a set number of minutes has passed. It’s quite a bit of fun and has a charming personality, as you’ll see in our video, but we did have some issues with the IR remote control - the bugger just couldn’t tell what we wanted him to do. Compared to other robots we’ve seen this season, however, the Tri-Bot is a lot of fun and actually very cool.

Via [crunchgear]

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I love that the technology TDK has used to increase maximum disk density to 803 gigabits per square inch is called “Tunneling Magneto-Resistance” and its replacement “Current-Perpendicular-to-Plane Giant Magneto-Resistance.” Man, those sound like stuff you purchase for your ship in Escape Velocity. The precision and force necessary to reliably etch magnetic information into smaller and smaller […]

I love that the technology TDK has used to increase maximum disk density to 803 gigabits per square inch is called “Tunneling Magneto-Resistance” and its replacement “Current-Perpendicular-to-Plane Giant Magneto-Resistance.” Man, those sound like stuff you buy for your ship in Escape Velocity.

The precision and force necessary to reliably etch magnetic information into smaller and smaller scales, increasing HDD capacity, is approaching the “not worth it” level, while solid say memory is a younger technology, meaning improvements are comparatively easier (theoretically). TDK is still throwing money at the former, however, being one of the kings of storage tech. Besides the head of the research facility where the Gb/in² record was broken sees a terabit/in² happening with the old TMR tech, suggesting there’s still a fair amount of life left in the spinning disk industry. [awesome pictures of HDD stuff from Data Clinic]

Via [crunchgear]

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Panasonic’s latest Blu-ray players were announced, priced and finally, finally, a shipping date has been found. According to Amazon, the BD35 is going out on October 25 and the BD55 on October 28. Next time Panasonic, can you just let us know the price and shipping info when you announce a damn product. Seriously. BD35 & […]

Panasonic’s latest Blu-ray players were announced, priced and finally, finally, a shipping date has been found. According to Amazon, the BD35 is going out on October 25 and the BD55 on October 28. Next time Panasonic, can you just let us know the price and shipping info when you announce a damn product. Seriously.

BD35 & BD55 via EngHD

Via [crunchgear]

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