Looks like Bill Gates wants to decrease piracy in countries like China and India before ten years it out. He hopes to reduce the piracy to the same levels as more developed countries like the US and Europe. The sad part is that he just was just proven wrong on a previous prediction, where two years ago he said that they would solve the problem in two years time. This time, Reuters says he’s claiming that we’ll be able to beat software piracy in China and India — though, he’s giving a longer timeline. This time it’s 10 years… and the details actually suggest it’s not quite as crazy as Read more »

Every time I think that we have reached the smallest die size that anyone can make, something happens, and someone reduces it that one more time. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip giant has created test chips made on the 45-nanometer process and will likely begin shipping processors, flash, and other chips based on that process in the second half of 2007, according to Mark Bohr, director of process architecture and integration at Intel. The test chips, produced this month, are static SRAM memory chips containing 153 megabits of memory. The chips contain over a billion transistors and are nearly the same size as test SRAM chips produced by Intel in Read more »

Did you know that the blue colour of your DS in North America is not the same as the one in Japan? Well now there is an all in one spot to check out all the different DS variants. The Nintendo DS has been released in many different colours, with many special editions and many bundles – it’s hard to keep up with them all. The BGB InfoBank has been over the internet trying to find information and images of every single official DS version… so here we go! Read more »

Extreme Tech has an article talking about what kind of computers will run Windows Vista in all its Aero glass wonderfulness. When I worked at a computer store, I had people asking me if a computer or laptop would run Windows Vista just fine, and while it was easy to say yes, since Microsoft has said that Windows Vista will be able to step down its usage to run on weaker systems, it would not be the full experience. Many people did not realize that Microsoft’s Aero Glass was going to have some hefty requirements when it came out, to be used at full power. Read on for details on Read more »

I am not sure how many of you are actually going to care about this, and it barely made me take notice, as the transition between most of Google’s beta projects, and the final project are more or less the same. Google News has matured a great deal, and we’re proud to see it graduate from its beta status. Much remains to be done, and as always, we have many exciting ideas that we intend to take forward. Meanwhile, as the saying goes, if you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own. Or just keep reading Google News. Hopefully, more of their products will make Read more »

I was looking at the Technorati top 100 and noticed something odd. There were a few non-English sites on the list, and no doubt this is only going to grow as China’s Internet population, has grown to 111 million, and is continuing to expand. It is currently second only to the USA, and over the last year, it grew by 17 million. And with still less than 10% of their population online, the Internet geography could change drastically over the next few years as it becomes more and more common for people in China to hop online. Read more »

For some reason this makes me think of the movie Johnny Mnemonic, as in that movie they had to use selected images from television to unlock information. Well this system uses little icons selected in a certain sequence, more like a visual combination lock to access the computer. To log in, you must find at least 3 of your pass icons. Note that not all of the pass-icons may be on the screen. But at least 3 pass-icons are always guaranteed to appear. What pass-icons appear on each screen cannot be predicted. However, once you find them you can follow them as they move, exit or enter the screen. The Read more »

For all of those that are still looking for a Newsvine invite without jumping through a million hoops, here is your chance. I have 5 invites to the Newsvine beta still available. Incase you are wondering what Newsvine is, I have already done a write-up/review of it on my blog: I was just invited to the Newsvine Beta, and let me tell you. It is pretty cool. Think of a generic news site, and add Digg functions to it. So you can push it up, and comment on the stories. The stories are both news stories that you would find on a typical news site, as well as user submitted Read more »

I found an interesting article on the New York Times technology page about sharing broadband with your neighbors to increase the speed of your download connection. It is like pooling resources, and during times when you are sharing that pool with less people, you could notice large increases in total bandwidth. WiBoost, which is also the name of the company’s technology system, now requires an antenna mounted outside the home. The company is exploring ways to license its technology to manufacturers and hopes to make WiBoost devices available for $200 to $300. In flat areas with minimal obstructions, the system might be able to link homes separated by several miles, Read more »

I don’t know if anyone knows, but Revision3 is hosting a download of a new show on their servers called InDigital. Kevin Rose mentioned it a little while back in an episode of the TWIT (This Week in Tech) podcast. The show is being produced by ex-Tech TV crew, and hosted by some great people. Hahn Choi, Andrew Hawn, Diane Mizota round out the hosts. In the first episode, or pilot episode, they cover CES, the Consumer Electronics Show. It is really well put together, and I highly recommend the show. I have done a full write-up of my thoughts on my site. It is not a small download to Read more »