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Seagate Technology Inc. plans to increase disk capacity by 10 times with new technology it has just patented, meaning a computer hard drive could soon be storing as much as a terabyte of data. See technology details Here
The Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) technology created by Seagate includes nanotube-based lubrication to allow the read/write head of a disk to get closer to the surface and store more information.
The smaller the data-recording areas on a disk surface, the more of them that can be packed together, and subsequently the greater the capacity of the disk, Seagate said. But reading and writing ever-smaller bits means that the read/write head has to come closer to the disk surface, requiring a tough lubricant layer on the surface.
Storing data properly in extremely small areas requires the magnetic material to be heated during the writing phase, but this causes the lubricant film deposited on top of the magnetized recording layer to evaporate.
Seagate's patent resolves this problem by having a reservoir inside the disk casing that contains nanotube-based lubricant. Some of this is periodically pumped out as a vapor and deposited on the surface of the disk, replenishing the evaporated lubricant. The vapor deposition process is similar to that used in the production of CDs and DVDs.
Seagate anticipates that the new technology could increase disk capacity by a factor of 10, making possible a 600GB 1.8-in. drive, a 1.46TB 2.5-in. drive, and 7.5TB Barracuda 3.5-in. drive. The lubricant reservoirs will be built to last the life of the disk.

Seagate has not given a date by which the technology will appear in products.

sa: http://www.computerworld.com/action/...rce=rss_news50

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As a result of a redesign to reduce the weight of the F-35B short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant, AA-1 is a one-off and not fully representive of the production JSF. It is being used to validate design, manufacturing, assembly and test processes for the 14 development flight-test aircraft that will follow.

Powered by a Pratt & Whitney F135 engine, AA-1 is equipped with most of the vehicle systems planned for later F-35s, including the fly-by-wire/power-by-wire flight controls and flat-panel cockpit displays. The mission systems, incuding active-array radar and 360deg infrared sensors, will be tested in later aircraft.

Assembly of the next flight-test aircraft, the first optimised-airframe STOVL F-35B, is already under way at Lockheed and partners Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems, with the aircraft scheduled to fly in February 2008. The first optimised-airframe F-35A is to fly in August 2008 and the first F-35C carrier variant in Januray 2009.

AA-1 carries the flags of the eight international nations involved in development the JSF (pictured below): Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Turkey and the UK, which is the only Level 1 partner. Lockheed and the US government are hoping the eight nations will sign a memorandum of understanding on the JSF production, sustainment and follow-on development phase in December.

sa: http://www.flightglobal.com/Articles...+official.html

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Recently, two of the biggest Apple advocates out there have officially announced their abandonment of the popular Apple OS.

The first is Cory Doctorow, sci-fi writer and co-editor for Boing Boing, an apparent Mac addict. The other is Mark Pilgrim, a software developer and writer. Both have made the 'switch' from Mac OSX to, not Windows, but Ubuntu. This Linux distribution has been growing in popularity over past years, as has Linux in general. There are some reasons for their change of digital heart. Pilgrim has said that Apples DRM (Digital Rights Management) and proprietary file format have started to become an ever increasing problem for him. Apparently, Apple has been turning into 'Big Brother' ever since the release of the iPod.

sa: http://www.neoseeker.com/news/story/5920/

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Intel hints that Conroe is going to release at B-2 Stepping as Intel Core 2 Duo processor. As for the previous version, a problem was found to make the system full loaded. It’s only solved in the new stepping. We don’t encourage anyone to buy the engineering sample from the web. The retail version is going to release in the end of this month, and it’s much stable.
Further, some of the manufacturers noticed that the released Intel P965 chipset has got the expected performance from Fast Memory Access technology, performing the same as i975X with DDR2 800. Intel has promised to fix the problem in the next P965 C-2 Stepping, and is expected to release in late July.

sa: http://www.hkepc.com/bbs/itnews.php?tid=627088

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A well-known hacker has vowed to disclose the details of at least one browser flaw every day in July as part of a project, called the Month of Bugs, that is designed to draw attention to unpatched security vulnerabilities.
Since the beginning of July, H.D. Moore, a researcher and the creator of the widely used Metasploit security toolkit, has already exposed several unpatched flaws in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Apple's Safari.
"The vendors have been notified and the time has come to start publishing the results," Moore said in a blog posting. "This information is being published to create awareness about the types of bugs that plague modern browsers, and to demonstrate the techniques I used to discover them."

Bug Infestation

Inspired by the work of another security researcher, Moore wrote a program that could test and gauge the effect of mangled Web page code on leading Internet browsers. Hundreds of crashes later, Moore discovered several dozen flaws, including 50 in Internet Explorer alone.
While Moore has already begun to release detailed data on flaws he identified in the major Web browsers, he noted in his blog that none of the information published during the Month of Bugs would include specifics that could result in malicious attacks or enable a hacker to run unauthorized code on a remote computer.
Even so, the practice of disclosing such flaws to the general public is widely derided by the software companies, who have traditionally argued that it would be more responsible to alert the companies first so they have time to patch the software before those with malicious intent can develop exploits that take advantage of the flaws.

sa: http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=44305

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The claim that AMD wants to buy ATI was made back in late May this year by RBC Capital Markets analyst Apjit Walia. For evidence of such interest, the market watcher could only point to AMD's cash pile and its desire to boost output over the next few years. He also said ATI had an attractive stock price.
ATI's market capitalisation is $3.83bn, its share price $15.10 at the close of trading on Nasdaq yesterday. AMD's share price closed at $23.83, leaving it with a market cap of $11.54bn. It quit Q1 FY2006 with $2.63bn in the bank.
Yesterday, AMD said it expects its Q2 sales to total $1.215bn, up 52 per cent up on the year-ago quarter but down nine per cent on the previous three-month period. The chip maker's second-quarter numbers are due 20 July.
If AMD does buy ATI, it will have to tread very carefully to avoid annoying its other chipset partners like Nvidia and VIA. Maybe it wouldn't mind, using an ATI acquisition as the basis of its own integrated and discrete chipset product lines in a bid to match Intel's chipset offerings.

This story is unconfirmed.

sa: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/07...ut_deal_claim/

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Computer viruses are like real-life viruses: When they're flying around infecting every PC (or person) in sight, they're scary. But after the fact...well, they're rather interesting, albeit in a gory kind of way. With this in mind, we shamelessly present, in chronological order, the 10 most destructive viruses of all time.

The 10 Most Destructive Viruses

• CIH
• Blaster
• Melissa
• Sobig.F
• ILOVEYOU
• Bagle
• Code Red
• MyDoom
• SQL Slammer
• Sasser

CIH (1998)
Estimated Damage: 20 to 80 million dollars worldwide, countless amounts of PC data destroyed

Unleashed from Taiwan in June of 1998, CIH is recognized as one of the most dangerous and destructive viruses ever. The virus infected Windows 95, 98, and ME executable files and was able to remain resident in a PC's memory, where it continued to infect other executables.
What made CIH so dangerous is that, shortly after activated, it would overwrite data on the host PC's hard drive, rendering it inoperable. It was also capable of overwriting the BIOS of the host, preventing boot-up. Because it infected executable files, CIH wound up being distributed by numerous software distributors, including a demo version of an Activision game named Sin.
CIH is also known as the Chernobyl virus because the trigger date of certain strains of the virus coincides with the date of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident. The virus is not a serious threat today, thanks to increased awareness and the widespread migration to Windows 2000, XP, and NT, none of which are vulnerable to CIH.

Melissa (1999)
Estimated Damage: 300 to 600 million dollars

On Friday, March 26, 1999, W97M/Melissa became front-page news across the globe. Estimates have indicated that this Word macro script infected 15 to 20 percent of all business PCs. The virus spread so rapidly that Intel, Microsoft, and a number of other companies that used Outlook were forced to shut down their entire e-mail systems in order to contain the damage.
The virus used Microsoft Outlook to e-mail itself to 50 names on a user's contact list. The e-mail message contained the sentence, "Here is that document you asked for...don't show anyone else. ;-)," with an attached Word document. Clicking open the .DOC file -- and thousands of unsuspecting users did so -- allowed the virus to infect the host and repeat the replication. Adding insult to injury, when activated, this virus modified users' Word documents with quotes from the animated TV show "The Simpsons."

ILOVEYOU (2000)
Estimated Damage: 10 to 15 billion dollars

Also known as Loveletter and The Love Bug, this was a Visual Basic script with an ingenious and irresistible hook: the promise of love. On May 3, 2000, the ILOVEYOU worm was first detected in Hong Kong. The bug was transmitted via e-mail with the subject line "ILOVEYOU" and an attachment, Love-Letter-For-You.TXT.vbs. Similar to Melissa, the virus mailed itself to all Microsoft Outlook contacts.

Continued Here

sa: http://www.techweb.com/showArticle.j...leID=160200005

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Security researchers have identified a worm virus masked to appear as Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage anti-piracy program, while end users have filed a second lawsuit against the software giant's use of the actual program.
Workers at anti-virus specialist Sophos were among the first to unearth the worm disguising itself as WGA. Dubbed by the firm as Cuebot-K, the virus is spreading over AOL's popular instant messaging network posing as Microsoft's controversial anti-piracy software.
ADVERTISEMENT Sophos said Cuebot-K is registering itself on infected PCs as a new system driver service named "wgavn" that also bears the public display name of "Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Notification." The virus automatically runs during system startup, and users who view the list of services offered by the threat are informed that removing or stopping the service will result in system instability.
Researchers indicated that once in place, Cuebot-K disables the Windows OS firewall and opens a backdoor to infected computers, which could potentially allow hackers to gain remote access of a machine to spy on users or launch DDOS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks.
Adding to the threat is widespread controversy over WGA that has forced Microsoft to offer an updated version of the program, a previous iteration of which some people have labeled as having spywarelike capabilities. End users looking for that update could unknowingly expose themselves to Cuebot-K, experts said.

sa: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1985060,00.asp

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Seagate will start shipping its second-generation network-attached storage (NAS) device, the Maxtor SharedStorage II, this month.
Seagate will start shipping its second-generation network-attached storage (NAS) device, the Maxtor SharedStorage II, this month.
The major change is the addition of a 1TB size capacity to the SharedStorage family, faster data transfer speeds, gigabyte Ethernet and a new chassis. The 1TB model will ship on July 10 in the USA with a $899 suggested retail price.

sa: http://www.smarthousenews.com.au/Com...orage/A6S3U6A5

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Taiwanese chipmaker, Via Technologies, has announced what it claims is the first single chipset for ultra mobile PCs (UMPCs) that will enable these devices to be produced with smaller form factors and extended battery life.

UMPC is a design concept developed by Microsoft, originally named Origami. For a device to be officially labeled as UMPC, it needs to conform to some pre-set hardware specifications which include:
Approximately 7” diagonal display (or smaller)
Minimum 800 x 480 resolution
Approximately 2 pounds (or 0.91 kilograms)
Integrated touch panel
WiFi- and Bluetooth-enabled
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005.

Microsoft has a website devoted to UMPC. There is an Intel-sponsored website devoted to the concept. http://www.umpc.com/ And Intel also has its own website dedicated to UMPCs.
The VIA VX700 chipset complements the VIA C7-M processor to provide the core silicon for a UMPC. VIA says it is able to reduce overall chip size and power considerably by combining the 'north bridge' and 'south bridge' functions onto a single chip.
According to a white paper on the VX700 on VIA's website, the VX700 & VIA C7-M combination has a CPU 21x21mm, a north bridge 35x35mm adding up to total silicon real estate of 1666 sq mms. In contrast, the Intel Pentium-M ULV, 915GMS and ICH6-M combination represents total silicon real estate of 2915mm.

sa: http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/4892/127/

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Trying to bridge the gap between next-generation optical disk formats, Ricoh said it has developed an optical component that reads and writes all disk formats—Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD, as well as DVD and CD—with one pickup and one objective lens.
Ricoh will show the optical device at the International Optoelectronics Exhibition '06 outside Tokyo on July 12-14. The company intends to offer the device to OEMs by year's end.
The component is a 3.5-mm diameter, 1-mm thick round diffraction plate with minute concentric groves on both sides which function as a diffraction grating.
The diffraction plate is placed between lasers and an objective lens. The diffraction grating is designed to adjust a light beam to an optimum incident ray relative to the objective lens so that light focuses on the proper position for each disk format.
The data layer of the Blu-ray Disc resides 0.1 mm from the disk's surface, while the HD-DVD data layer is 0.6-mm deep from the disk's surface, the same as DVD disks. CDs have a data layer depth of 1.1 mm from the disk surface.
Multiformat players and recorders can identify which format disk is loaded. Based on the disc information, Ricoh's optical diffraction component adjusts the laser beam with its diffraction grating for each format and passes it to the objective lens. The lens then forms a beam spot at the appropriate depth for each disk format.
"This diffraction device is the first one that is ready for four formats, including BD and HD-DVD," claimed a Ricoh spokesman. "It will make it possible to build players and recorders ready for all formats, which will benefit consumers," he added.

sa: http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/s...leID=190300953

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IPod users now have a new way to recharge their players – using a hydrogen fuel cell.

British company Voller, which makes fuel cells for industrial use, has released a portable battery charger with a USB port so that it can supply power to USB-based devices, including iPods and other portable music players.
Fuel cell technology – where power is supplied by a chemical cartridges rather than batteries – has been touted for some years as the answer to notebook power problems, but this is the first time it has been applied to smaller devices.
The Voller Automatic Battery Charger (ABC) is powered by hydrogen gas, using refillable cartidges or by connecting a compressed gas cylinder. The company says the device doesn't produce any waste – only heat and water.
Recently, the computer manufacturer Toshiba announced that it hoped to start selling notebooks powered by fuel cells in 2007.
For the time being, though, the only drawback for home users is the price – the device, which weighs 9kg, is currently selling for US$7,495 (£4,070) in the USA.

sa: http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.a...&src=site-marq

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That's right, today we are going to look at not one but two fans from bluegears. These two fans both combine function with fashion, and are designed to enhance the coolness of your case in more ways than one.
The first fan we will look at is the b-ice. This 120mm fan is a chrome fan, with internal blue lighting. The chrome reflects the lights in the casing, and gives an overall cool effect to your PC.
The second fan is the b-COOL. This 80mm fan not only has integrated lighting, but it also has an LED readout that shows the current temperature of the air going through the fan. You know those cool pens that you can shake back and forth, and they spell out a word in the air using timed LEDs? This is the same thing, but in a fan.

Okay, let's open up these fans and get to work
Continued


sa: http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/PC-Co...nd-b-ice-fans/

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The color of metal colloids is highly dependent on their size and therefore being able to control the size is very important to tune the metal colors systematically.

By controlling the wavelength of optical resonance of metal nanoparticles and their composition, researchers in South Korea have found a way to fabricate various colored metal colloids both easily and reproducibly. These findings could be very useful for biological assays.
The deposition of metal nanoparticles on the surface of nanospheres gives rise to significant changes in the optical properties. Compared with originally colorless polymers, metal-coated polymers turn to yellow or red, depending on the components of the deposited metals. This then makes them useful in biological sensing applications such as contrast agents, blood flow cytometry or surface-enhanced Raman scattering.
To control the color of metal colloids, numerous researchers have tried to fabricate different sized and shaped nanoparticles using various metals. They succeeded in synthesizing various colored metal colloids by controlling the size, shapes (spherical, cube, rod, triangle, prism, etc) and geometry (core/shell, hollow, etc) ot the particles. However, they need different chemical reaction conditions to synthesize different colored metal colloids.
One of the disadvantages of current approaches is the fact that it is very difficult to synthesize monodispersed metal colloids on a large scale. The production yields are also very low.
In contrast to the previous approaches, researchers at the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) suggest a method that is very easy and reproducible.

sa: http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/6670/

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The chip, called magnetoresistive random-access memory (Mram), maintains data by relying on magnetic properties rather than an electrical charge.
One analyst told the Associated Press news agency that the chip was the most significant development in computer memory for a decade.
Mram chips could find their way into many different electronic devices.
The benefit of Mram chips is that they will hold information after power has been switched off.
Freescale has been producing the four-megabit Mram chips at an Arizona factory for two months to build up levels of stock.
A number of chip makers have been pursuing the technology for a decade or more, including IBM, but Freescale is the first company to offer a chip with practical usage for many of today's electronic devices.
'Radically new'
"This is the most significant memory introduction in this decade," said Will Strauss, an analyst with research firm Forward Concepts.
"This is radically new technology. People have been dabbling in this for years, but nobody has been able to make it in volume."
Unlike flash memory, which also can keep data without power, Mram has faster read and write speeds and does not degrade over time.
Ram chips in most electronic devices, such as PCs, lose data when their power is switched off.
Currently flash memory is used in portable devices such as MP3 players and for portable storage in the form of small cards that are used in cameras.
Mram chips could one day be used in PCs to store an operating system, allowing computers to start up faster when switched on.
Bob Merritt, an analyst with Semico Research, said memory chip manufacturers were seeking technology that will be faster, smaller, cheaper and retain data when the power is off.
"The older memory technologies are awkward to work with in a mobile computing environment," Mr Merritt said.
"This is a significant step forward and absolutely critical for moving into the smaller forms that consumers and industry want."

sa: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5164110.stm