The Rise of the All-Conquering Liliputer

The number of models of "Liliputer" - low-cost ultraportable PCs running Windows or Linux - has exploded to more than 100 in less than a year, according to Liliputing.com, a site put together by the freelance journalist Brad Linder.

Since the introduction of the OLPC XO laptop last year, more than a dozen manufacturers have leapt into the space, spotting the potential for sales to children and schools - and, perhaps surprisingly, to adults keen to work while moving around but unwilling to carry fully fledged laptops.

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Intel Develops Wireless POWER

Intel on Thursday showed off a wireless electric power system that analysts say could revolutionize modern life by freeing devices from transformers and wall outlets.

Intel chief technology officer Justin Rattner demonstrated a Wireless Energy Resonant Link as he spoke at the California firm's annual developers forum in San Francisco. Electricity was sent wirelessly to a lamp on stage, lighting a 60 watt bulb that uses more power than a typical laptop computer. Most importantly, the electricity was transmitted without zapping anything or anyone that got between the sending and receiving units.

"The trick with wireless power is not can you do it; it's can you do it safely and efficiently," Intel researcher Josh Smith said in an online video explaining the breakthrough.

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Yahoo Knows Where You Are

Given all the drama surrounding Yahoo’s corporate activities, it’s easy to forget that there is a business still to be run and new products to launch. On Tuesday at Yahoo’s San Francisco-based skunk works - known as the Brickhouse - the embattled Internet company unveiled a new location services platform dubbed Fire Eagle. (Yes, it’s a silly name but say it 10 times fast and think of Firefox and it begins to sound OK.)

Location is one of those things that has huge potential for adding a layer of context to all kinds of services on the Web. Geo-tagging - the practice of adding geographic information to Web sites, photos and videos - is gathering steam across all sorts of Internet-based properties, from restaurant review sites to social networks and house hunting services. What has been missing, however, is an easy way to insert yourself into that growing stream of geographic information. In essence, that is what Fire Eagle does.

You either tell Fire Eagle where you are, or give permission for some device to do it on your behalf - say your mobile phone - and Fire Eagle broadcasts your location information to the services that you have approved.

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USB 3.0 ready!

Intel today sent out a press release stating that its “Extensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) draft specification revision 0.9 in support of the USB 3.0 architecture, also known as SuperSpeed USB” is now available. This move not only clears some confusion over claims that Intel may be withholding USB 3.0 specifications, but also indicates that we should be able to see first USB 3.0 demonstrations at next week’s IDF in San Francisco.

When maxed out USB 3.0, will offer ten times the bandwidth of USB 2.0 – 4.8 Gb/s, which translates into a massive bandwidth of 600 MB/s.

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Escape Voicemail Jail and Long hold Times

Everyone has experienced calling a major corporation and put through their seemingly never-ending voicemail prompt system. Once you finally do reach a human operator, you’re most likely in the wrong department anyway. Then, you get placed back on hold to wait in line for the next available agent.

This list helps solve the frustrating process of reaching a human operator. It doesn’t eliminate all of the button pressing, but it will guide you to the fastest route to a human operator. The sooner you reach an actual human operator instead of prerecorded greetings, the more likely you will be satisfied with the results of your call. Waiting on hold for what seems like an endless timeframe (five minutes can seems like a half hour), can really hurt the overall customer service experience.

This list provides at least 740 different major companies with instructions on how to reach a human operator. I tried a few of the numbers myself for companies that I normally call and have a good feel for their average hold times. The time from dial to speaking with the first human operator from the “gethuman list” compared to the usual button pressing was vastly quicker, noticeable after only a few calls.

For the corporations that are listed, the phone numbers to dial along with the instructions to follow once you are connected are listed in their respective columns. There is also a column for consumer rating: a rating for each company’s phone support system. It also provides you the option to leave feedback on any of the companies and your experiences with them (1 through 5 rating plus the option of written comments).

Save yourself some time the next time you need to dial any major company and check this list first.

www.gethuman.com

Experts: Passwords May Not Be a Good Online Defense

Tired of creating and changing website passwords?

"Password-based log-ons are susceptible to being compromised in any number of ways. Consider a single threat, that posed by phishers who trick us into clicking to a site designed to mimic a legitimate one in order to harvest our log-on information. Once we’ve been suckered at one site and our password purloined, it can be tried at other sites.

The solution urged by the experts is to abandon passwords — and to move to a fundamentally different model, one in which humans play little or no part in logging on. Instead, machines have a cryptographically encoded conversation to establish both parties’ authenticity, using digital keys that we, as users, have no need to see."

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106 MPG Car; Runs on Air.

A car that runs on air and thought to reach over 100 mpg seems unreal, but according to an article posted on CNN's website:

"You've heard of hybrids, electric cars and vehicles that can run on vegetable oil. But of all the contenders in the quest to produce the ultimate fuel-efficient car, this could be the first one to let you say, "Fill it up with air." The compressed air car planned for the U.S. market would be a six-seater, a New York company says. That's the idea behind the compressed air car, a vehicle its backers say could achieve a fuel economy of 106 miles per gallon... Whether the engine uses just air or both air and fuel would depend on how fast the car is going. It would run purely on compressed air when driven at speeds less than 35 mph, Vencat said. Since the car could only go a short distance when using just air, fuel is needed to get the full range, he explained. 'Above 35 mph, there is an external combustion system which is basically a heater that uses a little bit of gasoline or biofuel or ethanol or vegetable oil that will heat the air,' Vencat said. Heating the air increases its volume, and by increasing its volume it increases [the car's] range. That's why with one gallon of gasoline or its equivalent we are able to make over 100 mpg."

Compared to the other mini smart cars (picture below), that get only 40 mpg this seems like a much better bargain. Considering that some full sized sedans are in the mid to low 30s the current smart car offering 40 mpg has too many sacrifices. If 100 mpg turns out to be true especially at a price tag of $18,000 for a 6 passenger car, this just maybe the hybrid car worth trying.