Technology in your hands.

The high definition disc format wars could be over after reports revealed that the main backer of HD DVD, Toshiba, is preparing to fall on its sword.

The move would mean consumers won’t have to worry about choosing a format that could eventually become obsolete. But the reduced competition could eliminate incentives for the rival Blu-ray camp to keep prices low.

A Toshiba source, speaking to Reuters, confirmed earlier reports that the company was planning to concede defeat as early as this month.

Earlier, a report by Japanese public broadcaster NHK said Toshiba would soon discontinue all HD DVD production and close factories in Japan. It estimated the move would cost Toshiba hundreds of millions of US dollars.

It follows a series of defections to the Blu-ray camp by major US retailers, which came on the back of already disappointing sales and movie studio support for HD DVD.

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Researchers are cannibalising the Sony PlayStation 3 console and other gaming hardware, turning them into low-cost supercomputers to model pharmaceutical molecules and black holes, the weekly New Scientist says.

The PS3 console uses a Cell chip, made by IBM, Sony and Toshiba, that comprises a central processing unit and eight slave processors and can run on the open-access Linux operating system.

The chip is prized by chemists and physicists because the kinds of calculations required to make high-quality graphics for games are similar to those used to simulate reactions between particles, ranging from the molecular to the astronomical.

University of Massachusetts astrophysicist Gaurav Khanna has strung together 16 PS consoles to simulate gravity waves that occur when two black holes collide, the British magazine says.

Another innovation is a graphics processor made by NVIDIA that boosts gaming-image quality in personal computers.

By using the C programming language to run the chip, University of Illinois chemist Todd Martinez found he could run calculations 130 times faster than on an ordinary PC.

His is now calculating the energy of the electrons in 1,000 atoms, which add up to the size of a small protein…

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Several users who have tried to leave Facebook have posted unflattering tales of their experiences online, with some saying it has taken weeks or months to extract themselves entirely from the popular social networking service.

A Facebook spokesperson told eWEEK that users can remove their information from Facebook by deactivating their accounts. Once a user deactivates the account, their profile becomes inaccessible on the main Facebook service, and the data is kept by Facebook only to allow easy reactivation.

For those users not interested in any further relationship with the site, they may delete their profile, which means their name and all e-mail addresses associated with the account are deleted from Facebook servers.

What Facebook doesn’t explain in its statement, or in its help section, is the hoops users have to jump through to delete their accounts…

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Someday, your shirt might be able to power your iPod — just by doing the normal stuff expected of a shirt.

Scientists have developed a way to generate electricity by jostling fabric with unbelievably tiny wires woven inside, raising the prospect of textiles that produce power simply by being stretched, rustled or ruffled by a breeze.

The research, described in Thursday’s edition of the journal Nature, combines the precision of ultra-small nanotechnology with the elegant principle known as the piezoelectric effect, in which electricity is generated when pressure is applied to certain materials.

While the piezoelectric effect has been understood at least as far back as the 19th century, it is getting creative new looks now, as concerns about energy supplies are inspiring quests for alternative power sources.

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I just realized today that you are able to change the color themes in Office 2007 Suite. There are three colors offered at the moment and they are Silver, Black, and the original sky blue.

Now to change the themes click the round button at the very top left of the screen. Then on the bottom click word options. Under the Popular tab click the drop down box for Color Scheme. Choose your color and voila you have anew theme. I don’t know about you guys but I will be sporting the black color.

This is something I always talk to people about. We are so tech depended that our lives are nearly 80% techish. Who knows where we would be today, and how our tiny lives would be without technology. Technology has advanced so much, and it is expanding at such an alarming rate that who knows what the generation will have.

Perhaps, flying hoover cars as bicycles. They might have gadgets where they can access just about anything in matter of minutes. Today, we are open to so many things such as find out what is where, and all that jibberish.

I think technology will revolutionize every generation. What do you guys have to say on that?

The holiday season is so in session, and getting your loved ones the gifts they want can be quite late, but the deals are actually getting better, and better. If you are still waiting to get some deals for the holiday season, here are some great sites that will help you find one of the best deals.

cheapcheapcheap.org

Deals2buy.com

Shopping.com

I know there are many other goodies out there, but these are some I regularly check for some hot deals. Oh, fatwallet.com, has some great discussions and goodies.

What more?

You can use google check out on some sites and get $10 off. Buy.com has that embedded, so take advantage!

Did you know that you can play Super Smash Brothers from N64 online? Yes thats right, you can play with all your friends with up to four players online. I recently started playing it and I am now addicted. To get this game, you will be using an emulator. To download this emulator visit this link. After you download the link, you need to get the super smash brothers rom and that can be found here. Now after you download both items, make sure you direct the emulator to the rom so it knows where it is. After that open Project64K then go to File->Start Net Play. Also make sure you set the keys to your liking. I use a controller so I can’t tell you what keys you should set.

IT Certification Training can help you advance your career easily. Many companies today look for credentials such Microsoft Certification, and Cisco Certification. Companies are constantly looking for IT Specialists because in this day and age companies do much of their expansion through technology. Quick Cert offers a guaranteed pass for you or your money back. Still not convinced? Why not try their courses for free with a quick sign up. Whats great about these certification courses is that they can be done at your own pace. They understand that many people have busy work weeks so they create these courses to bend to your needs. Get that edge you need to secure a job at major companies!

This is just a rough idea of what my computer would have if I decide to build one.

1 Q6600 CPU 2.4 GHZ

2x Transcend AxeRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)

1x or 2x Standard GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3

1x ABIT AB9 QuadGT LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard

These are just the basic specs that I have going ATM. I haven’t decided the case that I am going to use but will have to most likely be pretty spacious. I also haven’t chosen the fans for it and I will make a dual boot with Vista and XP. Gonna go with maybe a 100gig or 250 gig HDD, not sure yet. Don’t like what I have or want to add something? Just place your thoughts in comment.