I do most of my work in Wi-Fi-enabled cafes and libraries, so when I saw that the world's fastest Internet cafe had opened, I resisted the urge to phone them and ask if their cafe was running.
What makes this particular cafe so speedy? Well, located on the Lizard Peninsula of Cornwall, in the United Kingdom, the cafe is connected directly to British Telecom's (BT) global network, allowing download speeds of 100 Mbps per second. The Goonhilly station is also home to 61 satellite dishes for handling TV, data, and phone transmissions.
How fast is 100 Mbps really?
Adrian Hosford of BT said: "It would be possible to use the cafe's computers to download in less than 15 minutes a file the equivalent size of the DVD version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, with its 19,000 illustrations, 629 audio and video clips and 100,000 articles.Smoking. But while the service is free to visitors, the station's location (see picture above) makes it somewhat unlikely that you'll just "be in the neighborhood.""A standard broadband connection would typically take in excess of five hours."
No word as of yet on the cafe's menu, but one can only hope the world's fastest Cornish game hens are the order of the day.
[via Slashdot]
I haven't quite managed to conquer the fact light is both a particle and a wave, but I'm pretty familiar with the marketing trickery that redefined the gigabyte to 1,000,000,000 bytes (instead of the proper 1,073,741,824 bytes). While this might seem like a boring math lesson, listen up, because it probably affects you. This prestidigitation enabled hard drive makers to advertise their products as 80GB hard drives, when in fact, operating systems only recognized the capacity as 74.4GB. So if you've ever wondered where your "missing" gigabytes went, now you know: into hard drive makers' wallets.
Western Digital got slapped with a class action suit for this very reason, and the hard drive giant has opted to settle. Consumers who purchased a Western Digital hard drive between March 21, 2001 and February 15, 2006 may be eligible to snag themselves a free download of Dantz Retrospect Express. If you're among the afflicted, find all the info on the settlement at Western Digital's site (filing deadline is July 15). Another suit filed by the same plaintiffs is pending versus hard drive manufacturer Seagate.
Guess it's time to pop open my PC and check the label. Pretty sure I got me some software coming to me. Of course, the real question is: Will they mend their errant ways?
[via Gizmodo]
Now, that's what I'm talkin' bout. Last week I spoke of my affinity for Dick Tracy-style wrist radios, in reference to the GSM F88. Which was, we all admit, kind of on the fugly side. Trying to cram a fully functional cellphone into a watch form factor isn't really practical, what with all the advanced features they have nowadays.
But walkie-talkies...well, can I get a "hell yeah"? If you're looking for a Christmas present for me the geek in your family, this pair of radio watches could be a great stocking stuffer. Okay, they go for over $100, but can you put a price on pure joy? I think not. Oh, and in case you're wondering, pure joy has a range of about 2 miles.
[via Digital World]
Egad! The DS Lite appears to have been attacked by some combination of unicorns and mischievous elves. What once was a beautifully constructed objet d'art, in white and navy blue, has now become a monstrosity, destined to break loose from its bonds and ravage Tokyo. So watch out, come July 20th.
Well, perhaps that's overreacting a little bit. I'm sure pink is very popular. I mean, I've got nothing against it as a color. It's not like my parents used to dress me up in frilly pink clothes when I was a kid.
Pardon me as I go cry in the corner.
[via Digital World Tokyo]
There are now officially enough random USB gadgets to kill each and every last one of us. If anything, they're just getting weirder. Okay, so the Availabot isn't entirely useless. Remember those little plastic figures who you could push on their base and they would collapse due to loss of tension? Maybe? Close enough!
The Availabot is a USB-powered version of these figures that can be wired directly into your IM buddy list. The idea is that when your buddy comes online, the figure springs to life, and when they go offline, the figure turns into a mass of pudding. There's a movie of the Availabot in disturbing action, if you're feeling tempted.
Even more disturbingly, the Availabot can be designed to look like you, or one of your (surely many) acquaintances. As the website of the designers, British firm Schulze & Webb Ltd, suggests:
Availabot stores the IM details of the friend it represents in the puppet itself. That means you can buy a few, load them with your own IM screenname and service, and give them out like business cards to your closest contacts.Because nobody thinks twice about someone handing out small dolls of themselves. Especially one that appears to have a stroke every time you log on and off of IM.
[via Engadget]
There's no need for bloodshed. That's what Toshiba's saying here. Or, in the words of The Beatles, "We Can Work It Out." Tosh's President, Atsutoshi Nishida, spoke to a shareholders' conference yesterday, issuing the following utopian dream:
"We have not given up on a unified format. We would like to seek ways for unifying the standards if opportunities arise."While on the one hand we'd like to applaud President Nishida for his willingness to compromise, we can't help but remember the last set of talks between Toshiba and rival Sony. Needless to say, they did not go well. With the arrival of players for both next-gen formats, hostilities are beginning to ramp up.
How many innocent plastic discs must be caught in the crossfire, gentlemen? Already, Samsung's had to disavow any knowledge of producing a universal player. Will LG be next? After all, to paraphrase Edwin Starr, "Format War, what's it good for? Absolutely nothing."
[via Gizmodo]
You know, retinal scanning, Bluetooth technology, and livestock go together like ham and cheese. And ice cubes. What, you've never had a ham & cheese & ice cube sandwich? My friend, you have not lived.
IOgear is pretty psyched about wireless livestock tracking, though. How psyched? Majorly psyched. So psyched that they sent out a press release (which unfortunately did not contain the word "psyched").
Now, tracking livestock is pretty important. Not only can it help you control the proliferation of livestock-born diseases (like everybody's favorite, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy!), but it's also crucial in the fight against agro-terrorism. That's why IOgear has partnered with Optibrand, the Microsoft of livestock retinal scanning, to create a wireless system whereby farmers can scan an animal's retina and send it wirelessly to a file server up to 330 feet away.
I've got to wonder how much animals like having their retina scanned. How does one convince a several hundred pound cow to stand still long enough for you to shoot a laser in its eye? And, more importantly, how does one then one run away before being trampled to death?
Man, my last exposure to life on the farm was reading Farmer Boy when I was like 12. It seems things have changed a wee bit. Who knew?
[hat tip: Dan Frakes]
For those of you believe that The Information Should Be Free, you might be intrigued by a Spanish company called Fon. The goal of the organization is to create free Wi-Fi networks throughout the US and Europe with little cost to the people who use them. But instead of offering a top-down solution, Fon is using a grassroots approach by appealing to the Wi-Fi users themselves.
Fon will sell you a wireless router for $5, contingent upon the fact that you will let other Fon users access the Internet via it for a year. On the flipside, that means that you get to surf the Internet on other Fon users' routers as well. The system is controlled via a registration system on Fon's website; they've currently logged 54,000 people from around the world who want to become "Foneros."
The difficulties are myriad: aside from the limited range of most wireless routers, Fon faces challenges from ISPs who may not want their customers sharing out their connections, as well as competition from a number of free municipal Wi-Fi networks. Still, it sounds nicer than shelling out $20/month for every different pay network.
[via BBC]
