Court rules against car rental company using GPS

The Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that an "excessive wear and tear" penalty charged by a car rental company is illegal. A number of people who had rented cars from Acme Auto were charged US$150 for the excessive wear and tear that their rental cars suffered while the renters drove them over the speed limit. Acme's setup was clever. They equipped their vehicles with GPS systems and then set them up to notify the company each time one of the vehicles was driven at least 80mph for more than two minutes at a time. Each time, the company charged the customer's credit card. Buried deep in the fine print of most of the rental contracts was a clause stating that "vehicles driven in excess of the posted speed limit will be charged $150 per occurrence" because of the supposed damage it caused the car. However, there was no mention of GPS or other means by which vehicle speed would be monitored. Read More | ARS Technica

US Army deploys first Fuel Cell truck

General Motors and the U.S. Army yesterday announced they are partnering to introduce the world's first fuel cell-powered truck into U.S. military service. The U.S. Army took delivery of the crew cab pickup at the GM research facility outside of Rochester, NY, where the vehicle's two fuel cell power modules were made.

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Tutorials, Wallpaer, Icons....Everything for your Visual Needs!!

An awsome resource for graphics tutorials, some awsome wallpaper, MacOS and XP icons, and skins. A one stop shop for graphics!!! All FREE!

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Gmail tries out antiphising tools

Google's popular free Web-based e-mail service is testing phishing protection designed to alert members to potential e-mail fraud attacks.

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Discs Are So Dead

Two new formats aim to bury the DVD. But Web distribution will kill them all

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C|Net's Top Ten Must Haves Gadgets

Which gadgets are CNET editors raving about? They rounded up the latest and greatest gear for work and play, then narrowed down the list to the top 10 devices you shouldn't go without.

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Designing Web Sites for Mobile Browsers

Here's a great article by IBM on how to design web sites especially for mobile web browsers. I found this on digg.com

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Image After ( Free images and textures )

In the imageafter.com 'image' directory you can expect free high resolution images of objects, places, animals, mechanics, insects, signs, circuits and plants etc. All stock photos can be freely downloaded and used in your commercial or personal works. There are currently 9865 textures and images available.

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Behind the scenes of the broken and systm

Thebroken and systm are two tech shows that are looking to put the tech back in TV. Kevin Rose of G4 and Dan Huard formerly of G4TechTv are both members. Here is a link to a running diary of the production progress as they work to release new episodes of thebroken, as well as debuting the new show, systm.

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300 Private Islands Shaped like the World - Dubai

A developer near Dubai is building a supervillain lair straight out of the funnybooks -- a collection of private islands arranged to look like a map of the world, with African game preserves, luxury hotels, McMansions, condos, etc etc etc. Also, a fleet of water-borne private coppers patrolling the islands for crooks. The World will consist of between 250 to 300 smaller private artifical islands divided into four categories - private homes, estate homes, dream resorts, and community islands. Each island will range from 250,000 to 900,000 square feet in size, with 50 to 100 metres of water between each island. The development is to cover an area of 9 kilometers in length and 6 kilometers in width, surrounded by an oval shaped breakwater. The only means of transportation between the islands will be by marine transport.

The Nintendo Revolution

Once the sole giant of the home video game industry, Nintendo is now making moves to stay in the game. With Xbox 2 and Playstation 3 due out within the next year and a half, Nintendo is betting on a revolutionary new aproach instead of trying to muscle the next gen consoles with power. The Next Gen Nintendo console is internally code named N5, rumored to be have been Gamecube 2 and Nintendo 21 with the majority of us believing it will be called The Nintendo Revolution. On a new note, it has been reported that the Revolution may not be a successor to the GameCube as Nintendo has claimed that support and software for the GameCube will still be available after the Revolution launch. Could this be Nintendo’s strategy to combat the PS3… having the established GameCube and the new Revolution simultaneously available? Nintendo’s R&D department has increased spending approx. 39% ($209 million) over last year. Here’s a list of current rumored info about the Revolution: - Internal hard drive - The Revolution will have a two-sided, 8mm disk with a 5.4 GB capacity. - Powered by two IBM central processors - code named “Broadway” - ATI Graphics card code named “Hollywood” - HD-DVD format discs rather than Sony’s Blu-Ray format. - Online Gaming support - No DS connectivity but will link up with Nintendo’s next handheld - Some game studios already have pre-dev kits - Apparently work has already begun on three of the launch titles - A Mario title , Zelda and Super Smash Bros. - Will use IEEE protocol to act as a wireless hub in the home. This will allow interaction with other Revolutions in the area. - Play games on your TV or computer monitor. Sounds impressive, but Microsoft and Sony will surpass the hardware’s power. Well, Nintendo claims they are redesigning the way people play games. Remember this statement in earlier rumors, “Touching is good, but feeling is better.”? The word is that the Revolution controllers won’t feature our trusty D-pad and buttons. Motion and tilt-sensing gyroscopes will be used in the controllers. Additionally these controllers will feature pressure sensitive “buttons” that will respond to rubbing and other stimuli. Other rumors are the possibility of a touchpad like the DS or an evolved trackball controller. The new controllers will not be wireless but the Revolution will have four controller ports just like the GameCube. Nintendo also has a patent on a technology dealing with “fixation points”. Nintendo’s new technology will create a frame and a virtual frame. The idea is basically that designated objects that have priority in the game space will always be featured prominently despite the line of site. This happens when the object moves into the virtual frame. The image will be “deformed” to always include designated objects and provide greater detail and depth of field without having to zoom, or alter camera angles abruptly. Though this is all speculation, it would seem this new feature would be relatively transparent to the user. It would simply facilitate a clearer, and overall more enjoyable, visual experience for gamers. We shall soon see. Toyoda Ken, Nintendo of Japan PR Office Manager, told the Japanese publication ITmedia, “We are still looking at E3 as a launching pad for the ‘Revolution’ platform, and are deliberating if we should feature the actual console, visuals, or simply illustrate the concept behind it.”

Once the sole giant of the home video game industry, Nintendo is now making moves to stay in the game. With Xbox 2 and Playstation 3 due out within the next year and a half, Nintendo is betting on a revolutionary new aproach instead of trying to muscle the next gen consoles with power. The Next Gen Nintendo console is internally code named N5, rumored to be have been Gamecube 2 and Nintendo 21 with the majority of us believing it will be called The Nintendo Revolution. On a new note, it has been reported that the Revolution may not be a successor to the GameCube as Nintendo has claimed that support and software for the GameCube will still be available after the Revolution launch. Could this be Nintendo’s strategy to combat the PS3… having the established GameCube and the new Revolution simultaneously available? Nintendo’s R&D department has increased spending approx. 39% ($209 million) over last year. Here’s a list of current rumored info about the Revolution: - Internal hard drive - The Revolution will have a two-sided, 8mm disk with a 5.4 GB capacity. - Powered by two IBM central processors - code named “Broadway” - ATI Graphics card code named “Hollywood” - HD-DVD format discs rather than Sony’s Blu-Ray format. - Online Gaming support - No DS connectivity but will link up with Nintendo’s next handheld - Some game studios already have pre-dev kits - Apparently work has already begun on three of the launch titles - A Mario title , Zelda and Super Smash Bros. - Will use IEEE protocol to act as a wireless hub in the home. This will allow interaction with other Revolutions in the area. - Play games on your TV or computer monitor. Sounds impressive, but Microsoft and Sony will surpass the hardware’s power. Well, Nintendo claims they are redesigning the way people play games. Remember this statement in earlier rumors, “Touching is good, but feeling is better.”? The word is that the Revolution controllers won’t feature our trusty D-pad and buttons. Motion and tilt-sensing gyroscopes will be used in the controllers. Additionally these controllers will feature pressure sensitive “buttons” that will respond to rubbing and other stimuli. Other rumors are the possibility of a touchpad like the DS or an evolved trackball controller. The new controllers will not be wireless but the Revolution will have four controller ports just like the GameCube. Nintendo also has a patent on a technology dealing with “fixation points”. Nintendo’s new technology will create a frame and a virtual frame. The idea is basically that designated objects that have priority in the game space will always be featured prominently despite the line of site. This happens when the object moves into the virtual frame. The image will be “deformed” to always include designated objects and provide greater detail and depth of field without having to zoom, or alter camera angles abruptly. Though this is all speculation, it would seem this new feature would be relatively transparent to the user. It would simply facilitate a clearer, and overall more enjoyable, visual experience for gamers. We shall soon see. Toyoda Ken, Nintendo of Japan PR Office Manager, told the Japanese publication ITmedia, “We are still looking at E3 as a launching pad for the ‘Revolution’ platform, and are deliberating if we should feature the actual console, visuals, or simply illustrate the concept behind it.”

Gmail storage calculations

Various calculations about how much space Gmail will give its users over time.

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MGM Concedes Format-shifting is Legal

In the MGM v Grokster Supreme Court case, MGM answered the one of the Justices' questions by saying that format-shifting (ripping CDs) or space-shifting (i.e. convert from CDA to MP3) outside the scope of 17 USC 1008 is a lawful activity. If that's legal, than how is ripping a DVD illegal?

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CustomizeGoogle

CustomizeGoogle enhance Google search results by adding links to other useful services. It can also remove ads.

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