:Microcomputers and Applications Fall 2007

That’s right, you read the title correctly.  A 17 year old has been accused of (and arrested) 4000 euros worth of virtual furniture in the social-networking game Habbo Hotel.  The reason it is seen as a crime is because the furniture was bought with real money by users.  In Habbo users can decorate their rooms with furniture and items that they pay for with Habbo credits, which are purchased with real money.  In addition Habbo credits are used to play games and engage in various activities within Habbo.  Five 15 year olds have been questioned by police, as they are suspected of helping the 17 year old “move” the stolen furniture.  The way the furniture was stolen was through identity theft.  The 17 year old is accused of setting up scam websites in order to trick users into giving their screenname and password for Habbo.  While I hope no one reading this spends money on virtual furniture (no offense if you do.. but what’s the point of it?), this story is definately a clear reminder of the danger of identity theft on the internet.  The article can be found at:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7094764.stm

 John Goldner

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   It seemed like just a few days ago when Professor Heinrich was talking about a notebook device which will have all the needed text books on one small computerized system.  And here it is.  Amazon, the world’s largest Web retailer, said on Monday it will begin selling an electronic book reader with wireless access. 

The battery-operated Amazon Kindle will sell for $399 and let users download books, newspapers and blogs over a wireless connection. It can carry about 200 books downloaded from Amazon.com at about $10 each for new releases.

Wireless access, based on the cellphone broadband technology EVDO, is built into the 10-ounce, thin white device. Downloading content does not require a computer and takes less than a minute for a full-length book, the company said.

 This is awesome, because its cheaper and not only that, but the two books ALONE in just my ONE computer class weights more than that computer notebook.  So that would be really convienet. 

Lisa. stk39178

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For years inventors have been trying to create a gadget that allows you to download books to an electronic device that allows you to read a book on it. Sony came out with one last year but it is still ery unpopular. E Ink just came out with one that uses a 6-inch display, it has just four shades of gray and is slow at turning pages, with a black pause everytime a page is flipped. They have teamed up with Amazon and Amazon’s goal is to have its whole collection avaible for E Ink, as of right now it allows 90,000 books of its 5.4 million book database to be downloaded with most new and top selling books available. Amazon allows you to download a book for $10, cheaper than most paperback books you can buy in the stores, also allows newspapers and magazines to be downloaded. E Ink is looking to upgrade its technology and in the future allow color on the screen as well. The author of the article believes that this technology doesn’t beat a paperback book. I feel that in the near future this technology will become a huge hit on the market.

Mark Prince

 http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2007/tc20071119_552826.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_businessweek+exclusives

1 Comment

First of all, reading that Microsoft was already working on a new OS scared me.  They have included a new one year service pack with copies of Vista, and have made the updated hardware drivers accessible by download - which I’m guessing the non-computer savvy consumer will have trouble finding unless it’s included in the Microsoft updates that annoyingly pop up in the corner of your screen every so often.  If you’ve seen the newer Apple commercials they make fun of Microsoft’s efforts of still trying to promote Vista.  As for the new OS, which they are calling “7″ or “Vienna”, it will have different versions such as consumer and business, 32 and 64 bit.  I think they should be concentrating all their efforts on the failed Vista instead of working on a completely new project, but who knows this could be way better.

-Chelsea

3 Comments

A leading council of the nation’s largest doctors’ group wants to have this behavior officially classified as a psychiatric disorder, to raise awareness and enable sufferers to get insurance coverage for treatment.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19354827/

do you think that video game addiction should be classified as a mental disorder?

 Cody W.

6 Comments

How cool would it be to write a Report for class on Micsrosft word and a program would turn your report into a digital audio.   Microsoft and the DAISY The two organizations said on Tuesday the collaboration was aimed at producing a free, downloadable plug-in that would translate documents based on Open XML — the default file-saving format in Microsoft Office 2007 — into DAISY XML.   The DAISY XML file can then be processed to produce digital audio and other formats.  The plug-in is expected to be available in early 2008.

This is a cool invention and i think soemtimes i find things more interesting if its read aloud read rather than you having to read it.

 Lisa stk39178

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There is an article today on Lifehacker about a pretty cool way for an intelligent agent to help you.

http://lifehacker.com/software/email/sandys-your-personal-assistant-via-email-321644.php

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The article I read was titled A First Look at the Google Phone, written by Miguel Helft on November 12, 2007.  It states that Google is not actually making a phone, instead they are working with other companies to produce the Android.  People are calling it the GPhone or the Google Phone.  These phones are supposed to look similar to the IPhone.  This article can be found at http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/a-first-look-at-the-google-phone/.

Brenna Handzo

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I read an article in the NYTimes titled Virtual Lures for Holiday Shoppers, written on November 12, 2007, by Bob Tedeschi.  This article discusses how people that do not want to go to the mall to do their shopping can just do it online easier.  It says how prices may range from not bad to pretty high.  It talks about the people who are looking for holiday recipes and how instead of being sent to a site with a bunch of different things, it will bring them directly to a site with books that make it easier.  Many sites are trying to make theirs the best and easiest, so as to make more and more people shop from it.  This article can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/technology/12ecom.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin.

Brenna Handzo

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Twice a year, every year, a list of the top 500 supercomputer is compiled.  Currently IBM dominates this list, having 232 out of the top 500 computers.  The number one computer, IBM’s Blue Gene/L Supercomputer, is used by the United States government to ensure the upkeep of it’s nuclear stockpile.  The Blue Gene runs at a mind boggling rate of 478 Teraflops (478 trillion calculations per second), which is almost three times faster than any other machine on the list.  Second place went to the Blue Gene/P Supercomputer, which is slated to operate at a Petaflop (1,000 trillion calculations per second) and more!  Most of the supercomputers on the list are used for simulations- crashes, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.  As the computers get faster, the simulations are allowed to become ever more accurate.  Right now, supercomputers can calculate building by building results of a simulated earthquake.  It will be interesting to see what potential supercomputers of the future will hold.  The full article can be found at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7092339.stm

John Goldner  

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