New NASA Honcho Lays Out Bold Direction for Space Science

Posted in Live (August 23, 2007 at 4:16 am)

Alan Stern wants more money for astrobiology, an increase in science spaceflight missions and, most importantly, more suborbital flights.

Aug. 23, 1899: First Ship-to-Shore Signal to a U.S. Station

Posted in Live ( at 4:16 am)

“Sherman is sighted.” The message is terse but complete. More importantly, it’s the first wireless message ever received by a U.S. station from a ship at sea.

OEMs missing the point with Windows Home Server.

Posted in Live ( at 4:16 am)

Body:

Now that reports are starting to come in as to the specifications of Windows Home Server PCs it is apparent that OEMs are missing the point.

Every device that I have seen so far comes with one hard drive and usually options for a bigger one (take the Tranquil PC offering).

Why only one by default? Why offer a bigger drive instead of two drives?

Part of the beauty of Windows Home Server is it’s data handling. Build a WHS box with more than one drive in and your shared folders will be replicated much like RAID mirroring - with only one hard drive you have no redundancy.

Admittedly, you can add extra storage without having to open your server by using external hard drives but a WHS box is designed to be a small or slimline unit taking up as little room as possible (like a Media Center PC) so that it can be tucked away and be unobtrusive.

Also, a consumer is not going to want to buy a unit if they then need to buy extra bits just to take full advantage of all it’s features. WHS is supposed to take the fear out of losing your data - if anything happens to the hard drive in your Home Server then you’ve had it, at least with folder duplication you’ve got the extra security that Home Server offers.

Do the OEMs argue that installing two hard drives OOTB will add on extra cost making consumers less likely to buy them? It will work out cheaper to buy a system with an extra drive installed by the OEM than it will to buy the system itself and then a second drive from elsewhere.

Am I just being too fussy here?

UPDATE: the HP MediaSmart server has got it right in it’s 1TB model which comes with 2 x 500GB drives but NOT in the base 500MB model.

Category: Windows Home Server

Published: 22/08/2007 18:08

# Comments: 2

Tags: Windows Home Server

Michael Gartenberg agrees about WHS marketing.

Posted in Live ( at 4:16 am)

Body:

Michael Gartenberg of Jupiter Research agrees that Windows Home Server needs to be marketed correctly in order for it to be the successful product that it should be.

In his post he states:

"The message is mixed. Is this about NAS? Backup? Remote Access? Nope, it’s all of the above. It’s going to be a challenge to get the message out about this. Where does this go in the retail channel? next to PCs? In the storage aisle? the networking aisle?"

His conclusion is that it should definitely go next to the PCs. Let’s face it, it’s meant for HOME users - hence the name - and the average home user is only concerned about their PC and don’t want any further complication.

Just as with Tablet PCs and UMPCs, Michael recognises that for marketing to be successful it MUST be a joint operation between Microsoft and its OEM partners.

Category: Windows Home Server

Published: 22/08/2007 20:46

# Comments: 0

Tags: Windows Home Server, Marketing

Posted in Live ( at 4:15 am)

Dept. of Memes

Best lolcats EVER:

ATI Radeon HD 2×00 vs GeForce 8600

Posted in Live ( at 4:15 am)

Situace na trhu s grafickými čipy je tradičně poněkud napjatá. Stále pokračuje nekonečný boj mezi dvěma hlavními hráči ATI/AMD a nVIDIA. V recenzi se podíváme na několik zástupců nižší a střední třídy.

Cold-Fusion Graybeards Keep the Research Coming

Posted in Live ( at 4:15 am)

Despite a dearth of funding and a plethora of derision from other scientists and the public, cold-fusion scientists continue to publish papers. An MIT gathering creates a forum to renew the discussion.

Rip-off blogs.

Posted in Live ( at 4:15 am)

Body:

Don’t you just hate them? Those blogs that just take stuff from RSS feeds and recycle them completely with no indication of the original source!

Take the "Tatum and Denim blog" for example. At a quick glance I can see my own posts and those from jkOnTheRun, Warner Crocker, Craig Pringle and others with no links back to the author or even a list of blogs they use for content.

OK, so it’s nice to think that someone wants to include my stuff in their list but credit where it’s due folks!

Category: Blog

Published: 22/08/2007 11:09

# Comments: 2

Tags: Blog

Sharp představuje ultratenké LCD TV

Posted in Live ( at 4:15 am)

Společnosti zabývající se produkcí LCD TV se snaží v poslední době zmenšovat tloušťku svých modelů. Samozřejmě, jde o reakci na požadavky uživatelů. Firma Sharp je důležitým hráčem na poli zobrazovací techniky, a proto musí také reagovat na situaci na trhu. Její doposud nejtenčí displej má tloušťku 29mm. Nejnovější model by měl být ještě tenčí.

Aug. 22, 565: ‘What’s That Loglike Thingie Out in Loch Ness?’

Posted in Live ( at 4:15 am)

A medieval monk makes the first sighting of what we now know, fondly, as the Loch Ness monster. Och, laddie, are ye daft?

Google Earth Looks to the Stars

Posted in Live ( at 4:15 am)

The new Sky upgrade to the service lets users scan the cosmos as well as our own planet.

In Google Earth, a Service for Scanning the Heavens (Miguel Helft/New York Times)

Posted in Live ( at 4:15 am)

In Google Earth, a Service for Scanning the Heavens — After turning millions of Internet users into virtual explorers of the world with Google Earth, the Internet search giant is now hoping to turn many of them into virtual stargazers. — Google is unveiling within Google Earth today …

Source: New York Times

Author: Miguel Helft

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/22/technology/22sky…