One Laptop Per Chewbacca writes "Nicholas Negroponte, the leader of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, has announced that the organization will be laying off half of its staff, cutting salaries of the remaining employees, and ending its involvement in Sugar development. The organization has had serious problems with production and deployment and has been fragmented by ideological debates as Negroponte shifts the agenda away from software freedom and towards Windows. Ars Technica concludes: 'The OLPC project's extreme dependence on economy of scale has proven to be a fatal error. The organization was not able to secure the large bulk orders that it had originally anticipated and fell short of meeting its target $100 per unit price. The worldwide economic slowdown has made it even more difficult for OLPC to find developing countries that have cash to spare on education technology.'"pa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/07/2212256amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=09/01/07/2212256"/a/ppa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/07/2212256amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/8R3DQZ5X270nGFD8IRmEM4iJQXc/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/8R3DQZ5X270nGFD8IRmEM4iJQXc/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/IjmAFTPfqB4" height="1" width="1"/

SlappingOysters writes "Gameplayer has gone live with their best PC hardware configurations for Q1 2009. They've broken it into three tiers depending on the investor's budget. And while the prices are regional, it is comparative across the globe. The site has also detailed the 10 Hottest PC Games of 2009 to unveil the software on the horizon which may seduce gamers into an upgrade."pa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/07/1330248amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=09/01/07/1330248"/a/ppa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/07/1330248amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/gFq5g86ZjjNuJ2QggBGgeYyHVPo/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/gFq5g86ZjjNuJ2QggBGgeYyHVPo/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/6Nys9lHcepw" height="1" width="1"/

txmadman writes "Like a lot of my colleagues and all of my three children, I have several SD , mini-SD, and micro-SD cards for various purposes: cameras, cell phones, my laptop, etc. These things are handy to have around, offer easy and significant storage, but are very easily lost. We have also have run into some instances where it wasn't clear whose SD card was whose, and have also started to see a need for a storage mechanism. I have seen SD card 'wallets' and such, but have never seen anyone actually use one. So: How do you manage and keep track of your SD cards?"pa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/07/007204amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=09/01/07/007204"/a/ppa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/07/007204amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Q8QtJF8HE3XC95DPjB03WrOOyLM/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Q8QtJF8HE3XC95DPjB03WrOOyLM/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/ljHxLlVkWUI" height="1" width="1"/

snydeq writes "Security researchers from Invisible Things Lab have created software that can 'compromise the integrity' of software loaded using Intel's vPro Trusted Execution Technology, which is supposed to help protect software from being seen or tampered with by other programs on the machine. The researchers say they have created a two-stage attack, with the first stage exploiting a bug in Intel's system software. The second stage relies on a design flaw in the TXT technology itself (PDF). The researchers plan to give more details on their work at the Black Hat DC security conference next month."pa href="http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/06/2132247amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=09/01/06/2132247"/a/ppa href="http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/06/2132247amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/4UR4zqJ1aiYE_ksGnpMYwaLpK00/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/4UR4zqJ1aiYE_ksGnpMYwaLpK00/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/xZxqXx7T0UE" height="1" width="1"/

ruphus13 writes "Now, the suits and the geeks can unite mdash; Barry allows BlackBerrys to serve as modems for Linux machines. From the news post, 'Barry, created by open source software vendor Net Direct, lets you not only sync your contacts and calendar but also use your smartphone as a computer modem. Sure, it's not as fast as T1 or cable, but you can't beat it if you're stuck somewhere with no Internet access. Currently, there are packages available for Ubuntu, Debian, Mandriva, and Fedora (although syncing is not supported on Fedora 9). Most older BlackBerrys work just fine with Barry, but the newest generation of devices mdash; the Storm and Bold mdash; are not yet fully supported.'"pa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/06/152213amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=09/01/06/152213"/a/ppa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/06/152213amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/fEXHUffJFQz0Hs_DLLwSSflayic/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/fEXHUffJFQz0Hs_DLLwSSflayic/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/gToVZzGxbTs" height="1" width="1"/

ptorrone writes "Make: television debuted online and on public television (broadcast / cable tv). The series encourages everyone to invent, reinvent, recycle, upcycle, and act up. Based on the popular Make magazine, each half-hour episode hopes to inspire viewers to think, create, and, well, make. Each episode can be viewed or downloaded DRM-free, in HD on makezine.tv mdash; the show is also available on Vimeo, YouTube, blip.tv and iTunes."pa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/06/048212amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=09/01/06/048212"/a/ppa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/06/048212amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/kSoYkWmjT_hmytfHGE6NccagUC4/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/kSoYkWmjT_hmytfHGE6NccagUC4/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/IgqWup8Yze8" height="1" width="1"/

PCWorld reports on an upcoming Lenovo PC that includes a remote control with functionality similar to that of the Wii Remote. It will control games using the same motion-based method, and Lenovo appears to be coming out with sports games like tennis and bowling to demonstrate its capabilities mdash; an unsurprising choice given the huge success of Wii Sports. "Lenovo is trying to capitalize on the trend of entertainment options merging into the PC. Few are able to play motion-based games, which could make this motion-based game controller a pioneer. In addition to controlling TV functions and video recordings on the PC, the remote control can also be used as an air mouse that moves the mouse pointer when waved. It has some advantages over a conventional mouse mdash; it can function without being on a surface and be used at a distance mdash; when sitting on a couch, for example."pa href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/06/0821237amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=09/01/06/0821237"/a/ppa href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/06/0821237amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/WPIQTBYESo1pf3sO5ru1Kzh1XJo/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/WPIQTBYESo1pf3sO5ru1Kzh1XJo/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/aj4GsE8l3fg" height="1" width="1"/

thepacketmaster writes "The Star reports about a new power generation model using smaller distributed power generators located closer to the consumer. This saves money on power generation lines and creates an infrastructure that can be more easily expanded with smaller incremental steps, compared to bigger centralized power generation projects. The generators in line for this are green sources, but Hyperion Power Generation, NuScale, Adams Atomic Engines (and some other companies) are offering small nuclear reactors to plug into this type of infrastructure. The generator from Hyperion is about the size of a garden shed, and uses older technology that is not capable of creating nuclear warheads, and supposedly self-regulating so it won't go critical. They envision burying reactors near the consumers for 5-10 years, digging them back up and recycling them. Since they are so low maintenance and self-contained, they are calling them nuclear batteries."pa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/05/1954234amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=09/01/05/1954234"/a/ppa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/05/1954234amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/3cY0MNu9rwkY9EEUh7pBCz3jyhg/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/3cY0MNu9rwkY9EEUh7pBCz3jyhg/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/8Co9HNDoFyI" height="1" width="1"/

Z80xxc! writes "FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) has officially announced the 2009 FIRST Robotics Competition. This competition, started by inventor Dean Kamen, encourages high-school students to design and build robots to compete with and against other FRC teams. The competition overview video is available from NASA. This year's competition is called 'Lunacy.' The game consists of a series of 135-second face-offs during which the student-designed robots must pick up 9-inch game balls and deposit them in trailers hitched to the opposing teams' robots. The game field is coated with regolith, a slick polymer material, and special wheels are used to create a low-traction interaction with the crater's surface. Together, these combine to simulate the one-sixth gravity on the surface of the moon. For any readers who are interested in participating, FRC teams can always use more adult mentors."pa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/03/2354209amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=09/01/03/2354209"/a/ppa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/03/2354209amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/5eDEmlxdzrMTb2DjCj0AVG03cjg/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/5eDEmlxdzrMTb2DjCj0AVG03cjg/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/erpIlTW2z18" height="1" width="1"/

AOL has been shutting down its free Web services, in some cases with little or no notice to users, and they are not the only ones. This blog post on the coming "datapocalypse" makes the case that those who host Web content should be required to provide notice and access to data for a year, and be held strictly accountable the way landlords are before they can evict a tenant. Some commenters on the post argue that you get what you pay for with free Web services, and that users should be backing up their data anyway. What do you think, should there be required notice and access before online hosts take user data offline for good?pa href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/03/203255amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=09/01/03/203255"/a/ppa href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/03/203255amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/IUNZ5UNKODbD2H5YKrTo4d3UvkQ/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/IUNZ5UNKODbD2H5YKrTo4d3UvkQ/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/fbDICRAo8mU" height="1" width="1"/

Timothy R. Butler writes "Much to the chagrin of owners of various 2G cell phones on ATamp;T Mobility's network, including the highly visible (and originally highly expensive) first-generation iPhone, we have discovered that ATamp;T has been quietly adjusting its network in ways that degrade 2G network performance as it has sought to build out its next-generation 3G network. Many of the phones affected, including BlackBerry devices, are still well within their two-year contract period."pa href="http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/03/1818206amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=09/01/03/1818206"/a/ppa href="http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/03/1818206amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/He7Qv7mdAVEtXVpppQJBijKibME/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/He7Qv7mdAVEtXVpppQJBijKibME/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/MBUSO_RWTJA" height="1" width="1"/

jjohn_h writes "Two guys at VentureBeat have managed to take the source code for Google's Linux-based operating system for mobile phones, Android, and compile it for an Asus netbook. Immediately, speculation began that Android will soon be running on PCs and laptops. '... we discovered that Android already has two product "policies" in its code. Product policies are operating system directions aimed at specific uses. The two policies are for 1) phones and 2) mobile internet devices.' Though some remain skeptical, I surely hope it is going to happen. Since Android does not rely on X11, but has its own framebuffer graphics, that would indeed be a cosmic shift."pa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/03/1334220amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=09/01/03/1334220"/a/ppa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/03/1334220amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/j1tAx0T5x4Nz9Z9Ih9ScwD6GcGA/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/j1tAx0T5x4Nz9Z9Ih9ScwD6GcGA/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/ucqj7upRIxk" height="1" width="1"/

Craig writes "Journalspace.com has fallen and can't get up. The post on their site describes how their entire database was overwritten through either some inconceivable OS or application bug, or more likely a malicious act. Regardless of how the data was lost, their undoing appears to have been that they treated drive mirroring as a backup and have now paid the ultimate price for not having point-in-time backups of the data that was their business." The site had been in business since 2002 and had an Alexa page rank of 106,881. Quantcast said they had 14,000 monthly visitors recently. No word on how many thousands of bloggers' entire output has evaporated.pa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/02/1546214amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=09/01/02/1546214"/a/ppa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/02/1546214amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Y4DYBC7Yy2Ur9iJmxm8MYCca7kY/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Y4DYBC7Yy2Ur9iJmxm8MYCca7kY/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/rfrhYP9Tdrw" height="1" width="1"/

Brendan Gregg of Sun's Fishworks lab has an interesting video demo up at YouTube demonstrating just how bad vibes, if expressed with sufficient volume in front of a rack full of disks, can cause a spike in disk latency. White noise, evidently, doesn't do them much harm. (Maybe they just feel awkward to get yelled at on camera.)pa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/02/0626201amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=09/01/02/0626201"/a/ppa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/02/0626201amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/WzwleXGFZ_2B9MGLJhFnpRsGf50/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/WzwleXGFZ_2B9MGLJhFnpRsGf50/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/CGA25a15nKA" height="1" width="1"/

The Wall Street Journal is running an article about a recently released book entitled "The Race for a New Game Machine" which details Sony's development of the Cell processor, written by two of the engineers who worked on it. They also discuss how Sony's efforts to create a next-gen system backfired by directly helping Microsoft, one of their main competitors. Quoting: "Sony, Toshiba and IBM committed themselves to spending $400 million over five years to design the Cell, not counting the millions of dollars it would take to build two production facilities for making the chip itself. IBM provided the bulk of the manpower, with the design team headquartered at its Austin, Texas, offices. ... But a funny thing happened along the way: A new 'partner' entered the picture. In late 2002, Microsoft approached IBM about making the chip for Microsoft's rival game console, the (as yet unnamed) Xbox 360. In 2003, IBM's Adam Bennett showed Microsoft specs for the still-in-development Cell core. Microsoft was interested and contracted with IBM for their own chip, to be built around the core that IBM was still building with Sony. All three of the original partners had agreed that IBM would eventually sell the Cell to other clients. But it does not seem to have occurred to Sony that IBM would sell key parts of the Cell before it was complete and to Sony's primary videogame-console competitor. The result was that Sony's Ramp;D money was spent creating a component for Microsoft to use against it."pa href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/01/0657211amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=09/01/01/0657211"/a/ppa href="http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/01/0657211amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/8T4eTjd5swazXDueDTv2_5H-5Hw/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/8T4eTjd5swazXDueDTv2_5H-5Hw/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/UiQgtV51Xts" height="1" width="1"/

Ender_Stonebender writes "TechCrunch is reporting that three independent sources have mentioned to them a large form factor version of the iPod Touch, with either a 7 or 9 inch screen, to be released fall of 2009. The device is expected to have access to the iTunes App Store. Beyond that, everything about it appears to be pure speculation."pa href="http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/01/0012259amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=09/01/01/0012259"/a/ppa href="http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/01/0012259amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Jqf18lLXJeKMJj79--DbySuggpc/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Jqf18lLXJeKMJj79--DbySuggpc/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/J4mLRFtItzs" height="1" width="1"/

Roland Piquepaille writes "The Cyberknife is not a real knife. This is a robot radiotherapy machine which works with great accuracy during treatment, thanks to its robotic arm which moves around a patient when he breathes. According to BBC News, the first Cyberknife will be operational in February 2009 in London, UK. But other machines have been installed in more than 15 countries, and have permitted to treat 50,000 patients in the first semester of 2008. And the Cyberknife is more efficient than conventional radiotherapy devices. The current systems require twenty or more short sessions with low-dose radiation. On the contrary, and because it's extremely precise, a Cyberknife can deliver powerful radiation in just three sessions."pa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/01/002220amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=09/01/01/002220"/a/ppa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/01/002220amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/UsxP2qxrHaiEOY4bH4v__rVc9jo/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/UsxP2qxrHaiEOY4bH4v__rVc9jo/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/995Pum7k8MU" height="1" width="1"/

Roland Piquepaille writes "The Cyberknife is not a real knife. This is a robot radiotherapy machine which works with great accuracy during treatment, thanks to its robotic arm which moves around a patient when he breathes. According to BBC News, the first Cyberknife will be operational in February 2009 in London, UK. But other machines have been installed in more than 15 countries, and have permitted doctors to treat 50,000 patients in the first semester of 2008. And the Cyberknife is more efficient than conventional radiotherapy devices. The current systems require twenty or more short sessions with low-dose radiation. On the contrary, and because it's extremely precise, a Cyberknife can deliver powerful radiation in just three sessions."pa href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/01/002220amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=09/01/01/002220"/a/ppa href="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/01/002220amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/1UqTzX1P4lC6YOTA8BgRK7-6LYo/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/1UqTzX1P4lC6YOTA8BgRK7-6LYo/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/EkwX3eoopUM" height="1" width="1"/

We are among the thousands without power in the northeast. Day four actually, and we've decided to look into generators so that next year's New Year's doesn't involve fears of frozen pipes bursting and hypothermic babies and cats. At the very least we just need enough juice to run the furnace blower, but if we're going to lay down the cash I'd like to know what it would take to get a little more power ... like enough to run a fridge, router, laptop and lightbulb. I know nothing about this sort of thing, but figure there are more than a few experts out there so I call out to the wisdom of the mob. What am I looking for? How difficult is the wiring? What will it cost me? On the extreme edge, what would it take to get off the grid entirely? (And on a side note, thanks to DTE Energy for telling us we had power when we didn't, for losing the ticket for our neighborhood, for telling us it would be back every single day when it wasn't, and for the helpful DTE representative who warned us that our pipes might burst. Thanks)pa href="http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/31/1724251amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/12/31/1724251"/a/ppa href="http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/31/1724251amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/cp1IHfsLhH_Ssn1M1Op1GKWNiAc/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/cp1IHfsLhH_Ssn1M1Op1GKWNiAc/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/6aJjq-OdttQ" height="1" width="1"/

ThinSkin writes "Now that the folks at ExtremeTech have finished writing about the best keyboards for every occasion, they conclude their roundup of input devices with the best computer mice in every category, which includes ergonomic mice, gaming mice, notebook mice, and so on. While this year's crop of gaming mice didn't impress much, there were advancements in non-gaming mice and tracking, as demonstrated by Microsoft's Explorer Mouse with BlueTrack technology--which is considered more precise than optical and laser. Even ergonomic mice saw little growth in the year--prompting the reviewer to rely on the older Zero Tension Mouse as a favorite." Link To Original Sourcepa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/31/1636211amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/12/31/1636211"/a/ppa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/31/1636211amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/4UllTC-nvLGtz_IfqL9oF3YDUdg/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/4UllTC-nvLGtz_IfqL9oF3YDUdg/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/RX9sAeCsT2U" height="1" width="1"/

jddeluxe writes "There are multiple reports springing up all over the internet of a mass suicide of Micro$oft 30Mb Zune players globally. Check Zune forums; Gizmodo; or other such sites, the reports are spreading rapidly, except apparently to the Microsoft official Zune site."pa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/31/1428254amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/12/31/1428254"/a/ppa href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/31/1428254amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/ZnGDL7Ty8Kp2fW1wx8kcRcZyfw0/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/ZnGDL7Ty8Kp2fW1wx8kcRcZyfw0/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/yrOoot6ldNM" height="1" width="1"/

jddeluxe writes "There are multiple reports springing up all over the internet of a mass suicide of Microsoft 30GB Zune players globally. Check Zune forums, Gizmodo, or other such sites; the reports are spreading rapidly, except apparently to the Microsoft official Zune site."pa href="http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/31/1428254amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/12/31/1428254"/a/ppa href="http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/31/1428254amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/wDZ9P1IW85igacbmfQmZtmSmmwQ/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/wDZ9P1IW85igacbmfQmZtmSmmwQ/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/ywyDVSokNss" height="1" width="1"/

Iddo Genuth writes "Cliff Kushler, the inventor of the T9 keyboard technology for numeric keypads, has developed a new alphanumeric entry technology for touch-screen laptops and Smartphone devices. This latest technology, named Swype, works with an on-screen QWERTY keyboard similar to ones found on Windows Mobile and the iPhone. The difference from the usual method of typing in the letters is that a finger or stylus is used to slide in the first letter, then without lifting the finger, the user continues writing the entire word. Only once the word is completed can the finger be lifted off. According to the developers, this leads to a much faster way of 'typing,' or as we might call it soon, 'swiping.'"pa href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/30/2326244amp;from=rss"img src="http://hardware.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rssamp;op=imageamp;style=h0amp;sid=08/12/30/2326244"/a/ppa href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/30/2326244amp;from=rss"Read more of this story/a at Slashdot./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/jmU198FAPKuADUQA6MdSjjLpHr8/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/jmU198FAPKuADUQA6MdSjjLpHr8/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~4/srNjv4CjMcY" height="1" width="1"/