“The Mutant Mouse Edition” of Dr. Bill Netcast #170!

Dr. Bill Netcast – 170 – (12/30/10)

Happy holidays from the Doctor! The Logitech Pro HD C910 webcam, mutant singing mice? 1000 cores in a CPU? Amazing times ahead! Have a great 2011!

Links that pertain to this Netcast:

techpodcasts.com

Logitech


Start the Video Netcast in the Blubrry Video Player above by
clicking on the “Play” Button in the center of the screen.

(Click on the buttons below to Stream the Netcast in your “format of choice”)
Streaming M4V Audio
 Download M4V


 Download WebM
Streaming MP3 Audio
 Download MP3
Streaming Ogg Audio
 Download Ogg

Available on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeINjhA3PV0

Available on Vimeo at: https://www.vimeo.com/18332526

A 1,000 Core CPU is Possible!

Wow! Now THAT would fly! As long as applications used the processors!

Intel: Why a 1,000-core chip is feasible

“Chipmaker Intel has been investigating the issue of scaling the number of cores in chips through its Terascale Computing Research Program, which has so far yielded two experimental chips of 80 and 48 cores.

In November, Intel engineer Timothy Mattson caused a stir at the Supercomputer 2010 Conference when he told the audience that one of the Terascale chips–the 48-core Single-chip Cloud Computer (SCC)–could theoretically scale to 1,000 cores.

Mattson, who is a principal engineer at Intel’s Microprocessor Technology Laboratory, talked to ZDNet UK about the reasoning behind his views and why–while a 1,000-core chip isn’t on Intel’s roadmap–the path to creating such a processor is now is visible.”

Geneticist Wants to Create “Mickey Mouse!”

Singing MouseOkaaay! This is weird on so many levels! A scientist in Japan is has made a mouse that tweets like a bird. He says near the end of the article: “Uchimura dreams of further “evolution” of mice through genetic engineering. ‘I know it’s a long shot and people would say it’s ‘too absurd’… but I’m doing this with hopes of making a Mickey Mouse some day,’ he said.” Yeah. Just what we need, a genetically modified mouse that speaks like Mickey Mouse! Anybody else think this is just too weird!?!?

‘SINGING MOUSE’ MADE WITH GENETIC MODIFICATION

“Japanese scientists said Tuesday they had produced a mouse that tweets like a bird in a genetically engineered “evolution” which they hope will shed light on the origins of human language.

A team of researchers at the University of Osaka created the animal in their “Evolved Mouse Project,” in which they use genetically modified mice that are prone to miscopying DNA and thus to mutations.

‘Mutations are the driving force of evolution. We have cross-bred the genetically modified mice for generations to see what would happen,’ lead researcher Arikuni Uchimura said.

‘We checked the newly born mice one by one… One day we found a mouse that was singing like a bird,’ he said, noting that the ‘singing mouse’ was born by chance but that the trait will be passed on to future generations.”

Here is the YouTube link to hear the “Singing Mouse”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLu37VvCozw

“The Quantum Duck Edition” of Dr. Bill Netcast #169

Dr. Bill Netcast – 169 – (12/18/10)

New setup for the Netcast! Marshall MXL 990 mic, Alesis MultiMix 6 USB Mixer, Merry Christmas! The Biggest Scientific Breakthrough of 2010: Teleportation! Quantum Ducks! GSotW: Smart Defrag! Love for Tux! Moving colored blocks! Tell your friends!

Links that pertain to this Netcast:

techpodcasts.com

Marshall MXL Microphones

Alesis Audio

IObit Smart Defrag


Start the Video Netcast in the Blubrry Video Player above by
clicking on the “Play” Button in the center of the screen.

(Click on the buttons below to Stream the Netcast in your “format of choice”)
Streaming M4V Audio
 Download M4V


 Download WebM
Streaming MP3 Audio
 Download MP3
Streaming Ogg Audio
 Download Ogg

Available on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C699H2rJr8g

Available on Vimeo at: https://www.vimeo.com/17969958

Geek Software of the Week: Smart Defrag!

Smart defragAwesome! That is the word for this software! I like being able to “see” the defrag like back in the early days of Windows, and now, even with Windows 7, I can again! Not to mention enhanced optimization!

IObit Smart Defrag

“What’s the primary cause of slow/unstable PC performance? It’s disk fragmentation. Smart Defrag helps defragment your hard drives more efficiently than any other product on the market –– free or not. This powerful, award-winning free defragmenter is 100% safe and clean with no adware, spyware, or viruses.

Key Benefits

Exceptionally Efficient Defragmentation

Smart Defrag has the world’s fastest defragmenting engine. It’s been specially designed for modern, large hard drives, so it eliminates long waiting time.

Optimize Disk Performance

Smart Defrag doesn’t just use simple defragmentation. It also streamlines your file system, places the frequently used files and directories into the fastest
area of the disk, enabling your computer to run at top speed with the most stability.

Always-on to Work Automatically

Smart Defrag works automatically and quietly in the background, so it continually and constantly keeps your computer fragment-free.

Extremely Easy to Use

Its intuitive interface makes Smart Defrag the ideal utility for complete computer novice.

Data Safe and Reliability Guaranteed

Besides, unlike other “Automated” Defragmenters, Smart Defrag does NOT constantly perform analysis and defrag, which does damage your hard drive and shorten
its life. Smart Defrag has a “Safe Intelligence” technology that can assure the health of your disk by deciding When and How to execute defragmentation.

Free Defragmenter Forever

Smart Defrag is 100% freeware. Download, use, and update it absolutely free for your personal computers, business or enterprise servers –– it won’t cost you a penny.”

What Was The Biggest Scientific Breakthrough of 2010? Teleportation!

Yep… you read that right! “Beam me up, Scotty!”

Beam Me Up: ‘Teleportation’ Is Year’s Biggest Breakthrough

“Thanks to physics, and the truly bizarre quirks of quarks, those Star Trek style teleporters may be more than fiction.

A strange discovery by quantum physicists at the University of California Santa Barbara means that an object you can see in front of you may exist simultaneously in a parallel universe — a multi-state condition that has scientists theorizing that teleportation or even time travel may be much more than just the plaything of science fiction writers.

Until this year, all human-made objects have moved according to the laws of classical mechanics, the rules governing ordinary objects. Toss a ball in the air and it falls back to Earth. Drop a coin from your roof and it falls into your yard. But back in March, a group of researchers designed a gadget that moves in ways that can only be described by quantum mechanics — the set of rules that governs the behavior of tiny things like molecules, atoms, and subatomic particles.

And the implication — that teleportation and even time travel may someday, somehow be a reality — is so groundbreaking that Science magazine has labelled it the most significant scientific advance of 2010.”

The “Royal We Edition” of Dr. Bill Netcast #168

Dr. Bill Netcast – 168 – (12/12/10)

Dr. Bill’s Video Netcast is now on the Techpodcasts video feed! Roku info correction, segment on Google Chrome Extensions: ForecastFox, AdBlock, Screen Resize, Slick RSS. New Studio look, what will change next week? The ‘royal we?’ A segment on Thinstation LiveCD… re-purpose your old PCs! Geek Software of the Week: Tunnelier! Dr. Bill’s 2011 predictions! 300,000 Androids activated per day!

Links that pertain to this Netcast:

roku.com

Google Chrome Extensions

techpodcasts.com

Thinstation

Bitvise Tunnelier


Start the Video Netcast in the Blubrry Video Player above by
clicking on the “Play” Button in the center of the screen.

(Click on the buttons below to Stream the Netcast in your “format of choice”)
Streaming M4V Audio
 Download M4V


 Download WebM
Streaming MP3 Audio
 Download MP3
Streaming Ogg Audio
 Download Ogg

Available on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuvX6agbuvA

Available on Vimeo at: https://www.vimeo.com/17750516

Activating 300,000 Android Phones Daily!!!

Dewd! Android is taking over the world!

Google: We’re activating 300,000 Android phones daily

“Android activations have now surpassed 300,000 per day which equals the number of activations for Symbian worldwide, according to data provided by Google. It also indicates that the now near-continuous stream of new Android phones is having a positive effect on sales overall.

Back in October, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the company was activating about 200,000 phones per day. The new number also comes from Google’s engineering chief Andy Rubin, who tweeted it on Wednesday night. It is not out of the question to think that Android may become the top platform in the world early next year.

Such a milestone shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise: analysts have been expecting this to happen for quite awhile now. However, the speed at which it has happened — a fivefold increase in just the last year alone — likely gives its competitors some pause, if not cause for concern.

Surveys show that Android is now comprising about half of all smartphone sales in the US in the third quarter, and comScore found that the OS had nearly 15 percent of the worldwide market in October.”

Predictions for 2011, from the Doctor!

Jeffrey Powers, from Geekazine, a fellow Techpodcasts.com netcaster, asked the TPN crew what we were predicting for next year in tech; here’s my predictions!


Dr. Bill – The Computer Curmudgeon (www.DrBill.TV)

I predict that streaming video, and Internet Protocol TV will continue to grow in audience. Set-top boxes like the Roku box, and the Boxee Box will become even more popular, and more and more people will begin to get their TV fix from the net!

Google Chrome as an operating system will make decent strides this year, and there will be increasing interest in the Chrome based hardware that Google will introduce. Also, Android will gain even more market share from the iPhone!

Net Neutrality will become a “cause celeb” and will become more prominent as folks begin to push harder for Internet freedoms, as well as personal freedoms! This will be compounded by the increase in personal expression, such as podcasts, video netcasts, and the like, in which individuals will become more important than corporations in producing news and entertainment programming!

Geek Software of the Week: Tunnelier!

This is a VERY cool SSH client, file transfer over SSH, and terminal session, all in one client! Awesome! It is my new, favorite VMware SSH tool. I used Veeam’s before this (which is still really good), but this one is better for me, as it allows me to do file transfer and terminal session with one login! No more puTTY and Veeam separately!

Bitvise Tunnelier

“Free* SSH file transfer, terminal and tunneling!

Tunnelier is our SSH and SFTP client for Windows which incorporates:

* one of the most advanced graphical SFTP clients;
* state-of-the-art terminal emulation with support for the bvterm, xterm, and vt100 protocols;
* support for corporation-wide single sign-on using SSPI (GSSAPI) Kerberos 5 and NTLM user authentication, as well as Kerberos 5 host authentication;
* support for RSA and DSA public key authentication with comprehensive user keypair management;
* powerful SSH port forwarding capabilities, including dynamic forwarding through integrated SOCKS and HTTP CONNECT proxy;
* powerful command-line parameters which make Tunnelier highly customizable and suitable for use in specific situations and controlled environments;
* an advanced, scriptable command-line SFTP client (sftpc);
* a scriptable command-line remote execution client (sexec) and a command-line terminal emulation client (stermc);
* an FTP-to-SFTP bridge allowing you to connect to an SFTP server using legacy FTP applications;
* WinSSHD remote administration features;
* single-click Remote Desktop forwarding.”

1 2