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“An original idea. That can’t be too hard. The library must be full of them” - Stephen Fry

This week we talked a little more about my adventures in Windows 7, and discussed the various virtualization options available.

Then it was on to these…

U.S. Army running Vista by the end of 2009 – And you thought being tied up in 2 unwinnable wars was the worst that could happen.

Finally a release date for the Pre – The almost mythical vaporware, that is the Pre, becomes solid usable hardware on 6th June. And if Palm has bet the farm, lets hope it’s not a pig.

North Korea to allow limited Internet access on cell phones. – It’s only a matter of time now before the total collapse of Kim Jong-il’s regime. But saying that only 20,000 of the countries 23M population have mobiles anyway, so it may take a long time.

Researchers use nanotech to pump up DVD data storage – They’ve got 1.6TB so far, and are aiming for 10TB. With gold nanorods and polarization, and other tech goodies, which I was completely unable to articulate.

Wolfram Alpha soft launch. – If want websites Google it, if you want answers Wolfram Alpha is where its at. But it’s still learning, so it might not always know what to do with your input.

CES doubles space in iLounge – Is it a blatant attempt to woo Apple to CES, now that Macworld is Jobs lite. Or has the deal already been done. We’ll find out next year in Vegas.

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“The creator of the universe works in mysterious ways. But he uses a base ten counting system and likes round numbers” - Scott Adams

Gareth continued his walk down computing memory lane, and the associated connectivity problems. I, on the other hand, jumped into the future. I risked my systems stability, and my sanity by installing Windows 7, on my Mac. The good news is, its better then Vista, the bad, its still Windows.

Then we got into these…

iPhone a ‘requirement’ for Missouri School of Journalism students – Hmmm… Someone’s found a clever way to encourage students to their school.

French ’3 Strikes’ law voted in, at the second attempt – A month after failing to pass, the ‘authorities’ in France, vote in a law to throw persistent offenders off the net. I wonder, if the law had failed 3 times would they have given up on it.

Steve Jobs will be back says psychic, but not for long. – Shock, horror, gasp. A psychic guesses at what a lot of people thinking anyway. Hang on, somethings coming through, I see a lot of BS talked about Steve & Co. in the near future.

Intel mess with the EU competition regulators, end up $1.5bn worse off – After giving Microsoft a good bitch slapping, the EU start in on Intel. The fine is enough to give every citizen of the EU 3 bucks each, wonder what I’ll spend mine on.

Zune HD gonna take on Apple, Sony, Nintendo and Google. – The Zune HD (or xYz, or pink, or whatever the hell this weeks codename is) is coming and is going to blow the competition, out of the water. Or disappear without a trace. Delete as appropriate.

Sony lose a billion dollars – They’ve looked down the back of the sofa, and behind the fridge even, but it’s definitely gone. Still it could be worse, the other Japanese CE firms are competing to see who can lose most, with Hitachi winning at the moment, 8 billion so far. Beat that Sony.

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“Why is it drug addicts and computer afficionados are both called users?” - Clifford Stoll

We all love a good quote. It’s always good to start with something, just to take your mind off the drivel that follows.

Gareth’s BBC Model B retro computer arrived, and he regailed us all with the challenges of getting a 25 year old British computer up and running in the USA.

Un-boxing pictures HERE

I led off again this week, I began with…

Apple breaks into UK top 5 PC makers – It may have supplied under 5% of all PC’s sold in the UK. But it was enough for Apple to break into the top 5. And in a depressed market was the only manufacturer to increased their share. The Mac user numbers are increasing, its just a matter of time until we’ve crushed MS and become the dominant desktop. By my calculations about 100-200 years, give or take.

Firefox Takes on Chrome, IE 8 With Multi-Processor Plans – With multi-core processors in nearly all PC’s, if you don’t classify netbooks as computers, which I don’t, Mozilla are going to release the power of your CPU. Chip makers having been selling multi-core chips for a few years, emphasising the speed boost they can give. While neglecting to mention, that the software to take advantage of this ‘power-up’, needs to be rewritten to benefit.

US sales of Blu-ray players soar – Now that the dust has finally cleared from the HD-DVD – Blu-ray formatcoughwarcough skirmish, consumers are finally committing to the hi-def format, in numbers. Price cuts are helping as well. C’mon people this could be your last chance to buy a physical format for your media, before we go download only.

Board Ties at Apple and Google Are Scrutinized – With the Obama administration vowing to crack down on anything that even smells anti-competitive, the shared board members in Apple / Google are an obvious target. But there are several areas of competition between the two. So its just a matter of time before Obama knocks on Microsoft’s door.

“PSP phone could happen.” Sony Ericsson President – As previously mentioned in the episode 5 show notes, Sony Ericsson are definitely, ‘maybe’ looking into the PSP phone. You read it here first.

Kindle DX – With the new DX, Amazon are pushing the Kindle platform further. Designed for the textbook and newspaper market, the larger screened DX, is the next instalment in the ‘story for this week’ Kindle show.