[H]ard|OCP

Super-Soft Toilet Paper Flushing Boreal Forest Down the Toilet

This is not at all technology related story, although an important topic to cover. While we are targeting Third World countries for clear cutting forests, Canada is doing the same all for the comfort of soft toilet paper. I suppose you could say they really do give a crap, but not for their forests.

And the ancient trees, some hundreds of years old , are being cleared for the production of disposable paper that is used for the messiest of jobs, says Bennett. Greenpeace, which has led a campaign to drastically reduce toilet-paper usage, says that if every household in Canada replaced one roll of regular tissue with 100 per cent recycled paper, 47,962 trees could be saved.

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Warp Speed Will Kill You

I guess somebody forgot to tell Zefram Cochrane

I'm not saying that we know everything and that it's impossible. I'm saying it's kind of impossible based on what we know right now.

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Facebook Games Translated for People Who Don't Care About Them

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I laugh at it, but then I realize I know some of these people.

Peter has no actual bowling friends.

Apple's iPad Could Kill The Mac

Would this be considered patricide or just the natural order of things.....progression without feeling for your ancestor? Well I for one hope not. I still have friends with Macs and I haven't used up all of my jokes yet.

Netbooks and nettops have been popular in the Windows world, and it looks like Apple will try to seize some of those buyers with iPhone OS-running mini-PCs. (The iPad is just the first.) If that market explodes and Apple takes its focus away from the Mac, the Mac platform very well might wither in favor of this new, smooth, controlled experience.

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Move Over Jetsons, I Got Me a Jetpack

Bored of your morning commute? Planes, trains, automobiles not doing it for you? Well later this year you'll be in luck! Maybe one of you knuckleheads won that eBay auction a while back?

With a range of 31 miles and a maximum speed of 63 miles per hour, you'll be able to jaunt to the store at will, or to the gas station for a fill-up.

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Move over Band of Brothers and Make Way for The Pacific

It looks like Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg have collaborated again in an attempt to eclipse arguably the best war movie ever made. The Pacific is a miniseries airing on HBO tomorrow night and from the previews, it could very well replace Band of Brothers as the best. The series will be airing each Sunday through May 16th.

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Google to Shut Down Search Engine In China

The battle between search engine giant Google and the Government of China to allow freedom for its users in China has not surprisingly gone awry.

Talks with China over censorship have reached an apparent impasse and Google, the world’s largest search engine, is now "99.9 percent" certain to shut its Chinese search engine, the Financial Times said on Saturday. It said in a report on its website Google had drawn up detailed plans for closing its Chinese search engine.

No Google, even you can't bring freedom of speech to China.

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Behind the Wheel of the Volt.

The Chevy Volt has been electrofying the car world since its infantile concept debut. The Volt is a 110v re-chargeable electric car that is rumored to run 40 miles between charges. Here are some pictures of the the headline making vehicle.

You can plug it into any three-pronged household outlet, and it'll take about eight or nine hours to charge, or about three hours at a specially built 240-volt charging station. GM is working with some third-party charging-station companies as well.

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Awesome Avatar Review Spoof

I’m not sure who is behind the animation of GregMutt, but this video is just full of awesomeness.

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Nvidia Launches Anti-Intel Web Site

The gloves have officially been off for a long time. . . but I just cant get enough of these two going at each other.

The site is a one-stop resource for those looking to get up to speed on actions being brought against Intel for impeding competition, stifling innovation and for not living up to its agreements which were filed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

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Supermicro hits Super Effecient.

Super Micro took the news of their TwinBlade solution to the CeBit computer show in Hannover, Germany. The Twin Blade suports 20 dual-socket server blades per 7u enclosure. What sets the industry-leading bar though is its 94 percent power supply efficiency.

The company’s new Double-Sided Storage system also pays special attention to the power supply: they also operated at Platinum level efficiency.

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Spring Forward Messes with More than Time

Ah, Spring is right around the corner for most of us and your fancy lightly turns to thoughts of....Daylight Saving Time? Well you better pay it some attention today since the time springs forward and you lose an hour's sleep tonight. According to some sources, you may lose more than a little sleep adapting to the change.

But when the country jumps ahead an hour Sunday morning, that one little lost hour of sleep has a big impact. "It turns out that it takes two to three days - sometimes even longer - to make up and to adjust to that extra hour lost," said Dr. Sonia Ancoli-Israel of the University of California San Diego School of Medicine.

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OnLive’s Cost Still Looks Like a Sticking Point

I'm going to file this one with eBooks. Maybe it was growing up with Atari and Nintendo. . but I just like being able to trade my games, resell them, play them 20 years from now, or stroke them lovingly.

I’m still willing to give OnLive the benefit of the doubt that its technology will work.

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Round 2 goes to Facebook.

Round 2 of a fight between Greenpeace and Facebook. The skirmish which started with Greenpeace and others calling out Facebook for not using renewable energy for its new "green" data center. Yet the fact seems that Greenpeace isn't as green as they preach to be.

And that's Facebook's stance as well: "Facebook's commitment is, regardless of generation source, to use electricity as wisely and as efficiently as possible," a company spokesman told Miller.

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Captain Kirk Vs. Facebook

This is bound to have been a Trekkies wet dream, William "The Shat" Shatner has decided to get into the Social Networking. This has Win written all over it.

"I will be monitoring all Starship projects, and reviewing each Captain's Log, where progress will be recorded each step of the way," Shatner explains on the home page.

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Computer Controlled Hand and Arm Support Device

This is a pretty cool application of an age old painter's tool adapted to 21st century technology. There would be a demand for this in many tech related fields, I just hope that they can get the prototype to reduce in size a wee bit before going into production.

Provancher will discuss development and testing of the Active Handrest on March 25, during the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Haptics Symposium in Waltham, Mass. Haptics is to the sense of touch as optics is to the sense of sight."The Active Handrest would benefit surgeons and other medical personnel, artists, machinists, workers performing pick-and-place tasks, or anyone requiring dexterous control of tools," Provancher wrote in a paper prepared for the meeting.A person using the handrest puts their wrist on a support that can slide horizontally in any direction. Their elbow rests on a support attached to the device.

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"Predators" Sneek Peek

Wow Laurence Fishburne in a Predator movie? Sign me up.

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PlayStation Move vs. Project Natal

I am not sure who is going to come out ahead in this battle hopefully its gamers.

If you wanted to play several different kinds of Move games, that could require a hefty hardware purchase.

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Is Bloom Energy Blooming at the Right Time?

Bloom energy has released news about its Bloom Box. The company showed off its "power-plant-in-a-box" for large enterprises at a luncheon in Silicon Valley. Among the attendees were The Governator and Colin Powell. Is this just another green gimic or will this truly green up your I.T.?

The eBay campus has been powered by five Bloom Servers since July 2009, according to Schwarzenegger, who introduced KR Sridhar, the company's chief executive. Each generates 100 kilowatts.

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Top 10 Geek Anthems

With SXSW going on this weekend, it was only a matter of time before someone decided do some absurd Top 10. I'm surprised 'All About The Pentiums' wasn't on there though.

From love songs about writing HTML code to synth-fueled denunciations of the cool kids, these odes to geekery are as good as it gets.

Netflix Cancels Million Dollar Contest

I have a feeling in my gut that says we are not getting the full story.

But it turned out that letting very smart computer scientists and statisticians dig through the video rental site’s data had one major, unforeseen drawback.

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iPhone 4.0, Multi-Tasking This Summer

I've been using the Android platform and while sometimes I think I might like an iPhone then "new" features are announced and I come to my senses.

Apple this summer will go a long way towards silencing critics and catering to one of the most prevalent demands of its iPhone user base, when it introduces a multitasking solution through the handset's 4.0 software update that will finally allow several third party apps to run concurrently and in the background.

If you want these features today I hear getting your phone jailbroken is the "in" thing to do.

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Only a Fool Would Pre-Order an iPad

Okay just so we are clear I'm not calling anyone a fool but this guy is. I can't say I totally disagree with him.

Maybe the infamous Jobs reality distortion field does have limits after all.

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Valve CEO Steaming About DRM

Valve Co-Founder and CEO Gabe Newell, the great folks who brought us Steam, spoke at an award show about the downsides of heavily restrictive DRM. Anyone else think the timing is just perfect?

I think 'If you have DRM, just make it as painless as possible' is an axiom most of us can get behind, isn't it?

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MW2 Map Pack Coming March 30th

Call of Duty(R): Modern Warfare(R) 2 Stimulus Package Coming to Xbox LIVE March 30. Begin the countdown to a new infusion of Call of Duty! The Call of Duty(R): Modern Warfare(R) 2 Stimulus Package will strike worldwide on March 30. Representing the first new multiplayer maps from the biggest entertainment launch in history, Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package will release first on Xbox LIVE(R), Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) announced today. Additionally, Silver Xbox LIVE members who have not yet experienced the exciting adrenaline rush of "Modern Warfare 2" will be able to try it with a Multiplayer Unlock event running from March 12 to March 15.

Rumor has it there will be 5 new maps, 2 from COD4 and 3 brand new to Modern Warfare 2!

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Dual-Screen E-Reader Makes a Half-Assed Debut

Another E-Reader tosses it's hat into the ring....well maybe missed the ring, but put itself out there anyway. The market is coming alive with digital books, etc and the readers are hot in pursuit. The Entourage eDGe E-Book Reader, is hefty in both price and size in comparison to many of the other devices, but can possibly find a niche market of large rich people who like to read.

You'd think this mash-up would be fabulous. It's not. Despite our initial enthusiasm, after testing the eDGe we found it to be a Frankenstein-ish monster that's hobbled by a slow processor, some puzzling design choices and touchscreen technology that seems like it was cooked up during the Clinton administration.

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Go 'Spider PC'!

One of the more cooler case concepts I've seen in a while, Lian-Li's arachni-case. Spidery Super Heroes beware.

The Lian Li PC-T1 is the most unique chassis I have ever laid my eyes on

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Digital Signs Recognize Viewers, Target Ads to Them

This is from the "Better get used to this" file since it looks to be the wave of the future. Scanners digitalizing people and profiling them for target ads....in malls no less. Big Brother will indeed be watching you soon. If these scanners are accurate, I would either get ads for Budweiser or McDonalds or both.

The vast majority of people walking in stores, near elevators and in other public and private spaces have no idea that the innocent-looking flat screen TVs playing videos may be capturing their images and then dissecting and analyzing them for marketing purposes," the nonprofit, Southern California-based World Privacy Forum warned in a report it issued on digital signs in January. "Controls need to be put in place now, before this technology runs amok.

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Tricks to Keep Your Device’s Battery Going and Going

Just like the Energizer Bunny, it keeps on going and going and going, but unlike the Bunny, your batteries will discharge and according to Murphy's Law, it will happen at the worst possible time. And no, I'm not talking about your 1-900 calls either.

While a standard cellphone’s charge can easily go three days or more, many smartphone owners are dismayed to learn that their new mobile toy requires charging every 24 hours, or even more often. The answer was not to desperately search for an electrical outlet to recharge the phone (though I’ve done that) or to consider giving up the phone (done that, too), but rather to figure out a strategy to reduce energy consumption while still having it available for essential tasks. Whether you’re using a laptop or a smartphone, the devices can be tweaked to get the most out of its lithium-ion batteries.

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Mobile That Allows Bosses to Snoop on Staff Developed

Japanese researchers have developed a mobile phone that will not only track you, but interpret your activities such as walking, climbing stairs or even cleaning can be identified, the researchers say. I'm sure the possibilities are endless, both for the good and the bad. If this device is so accurate, it may put a crimp in the style of millions of workers and they will actually have to go back to real work.

The KDDI system, is able to detect more complex behaviour by using analytical software - held on a server back at base - to match patterns of common movements. For example, the KDDI mobile phone strapped to a cleaning worker's waist can tell the difference between actions performed such as scrubbing, sweeping, walking an even emptying a rubbish bin. The aim of the new system, according to KDDI, is to enable employees to work more efficiently and managers to easily evaluate their employees' performance while away from the office.

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