Meet DustCart: The intelligent 'bin on wheels' robot that will come to pick up your rubbish when you call

By Niall Firth

A resident in the Italian town of Peccioli gets to grips with DustCart during the trial


It might seem like something out of a 1960s, Jetsons-style vision of the future.
But this handy little robot could end the row over fortnightly bin collections once and for all.

Researchers have developed an intelligent robot that can navigate itself around a city’s streets and collect resident’s rubbish on demand.

An EU-funded project has resulted in a human-sized robot, called DustCart, that balances on a Segway base and can navigate itself to stop outside your door when summoned.

Professor Paolo Dario, the coordinator of DustBot said: 'We've taken the very best and most advanced robotics components to build DustCart which solves a very real problem for waste authorities across Europe,' explains Professor Dario.

'Yes, it is a bin on wheels – there's the drawer in which you place your bag of rubbish or recycling – but there's a lot more to the robot than that.'


The robot is able to guide itself around narrow streets


The robot is mounted with cameras and other sensors so it can 'see' where it is going. It scans the path ahead and processes the information to avoid stationary objects.

It also picks out moving objects like pedestrians or bikes ad quickly computes their trajectory and alters its course to avoid a collision.

The visual images are also relayed to a control centre where human operators can check everything working properly and are able to intervene if necessary.

DustCart uses a clever triangulation system to navigate its way to a resident's home by interacting with wireless networks.

The network can pinpoint the robot, calculate optimal routes between pick-ups, and communicate this information to the robot.

Professor Dario said: 'It is the dream of every robotics research to develop a fully automated and intelligent system but we have chosen a different approach.

‘Here, we have a smart robot in a smart environment; the robot 'talks' to its surroundings and the surroundings communicate back. This means the robot has access to a lot more information and computing power.'

DustCart has three levels of intelligent control. First there are the autonomous, built-in systems including motion sensing, obstacle avoidance and user-interface functions including speech recognition.

It also uses 'intelligent' data processing to help it navigate it through the streets.

Finally, a human control centre monitors operations, but only intervenes in an emergency - if someone tries to steal the robot, for example - or where the technology fails.


Two DustCart robots sits eitherside of their counterparts DustClean and who is a street cleaner


Professor Dario said: ‘We have substantial information on the performance of the system and its safety. We have had no major failures yet and no safety breaches. The robot is supervised through CCTV.

‘And we also have insurance, which basically means that the insurer is satisfied that the robot is safe to use on the streets.'

In May, DustCart entered a two-month period of service in the small town of Peccioli in Italy – around 100 households being served by two DustCart robots.

The DustCart has performed demonstrations in six European locations, plus two in Japan and one in South Korea.

The developers say that if upcoming trials prove successful then a working commercial model could be available by the end of this year.



source: dailymail

History in the making: U.S. space shuttle Atlantis lifts off on final mission

By Anny Shaw

Lift off: The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis blasted off this evening in what is expected to be its final mission


The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis blasted off last night on what is expected to be its final mission.

Carrying six crew members, the space shuttle left the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 7.20pm on its last historic journey.

The shuttle should reach its destination - the International Space Station (ISS) - which was orbiting 220 miles over the South Pacific at the time of lift off on Sunday.


*** Scroll down for video ***


All aboard: Atlantis Commander Ken Ham, right, smiles as he holds a viewing mirror reflecting pilot Tony Antonelli as the crew prepares for launch


More than 40,000 people gathered on roads nearby the NASA base and on the beaches of Florida's Space Coast, keen to witness history in the making.

The six astronauts - all men - waved and shook their fists as they headed to the launch pad this morning.

Aware of the significance of the task ahead of them, the crew said they were keeping focused on the job in hand.


Historic moment: Atlantis rocketed into orbit for the first time in 1985. This will be its 32nd trip and the 132nd shuttle flight overall


'In a lot of ways you can't afford to get too distracted,' Ken Ham, who will command Atlantis, told the BBC.

'This is the kind of thing that's going to hit all of us after the mission, when we realise what part in history we played. I think the space shuttle is the single most incredible machine humanity has ever built.'

The crew is led by Ken Ham, who will command an all-veteran flight crew including pilot Tony Antonelli, and mission specialists Michael Good, Garrett Reisman, Piers Sellers and Steve Bowen.


On a mission: The 12-day journey will see Atlantis delivering a Russian module to the ISS, as well as batteries and a communications antenna


Spectacle: More than 40,000 people gathered on roads nearby the NASA base and on the beaches of Florida's Space Coast, keen to witness history in the making


The men were given substantial breakfasts this morning, with three of them feasting on steaks and chips, one eating a cheeseburger and the other two filling up on sandwiches.

The 12-day mission will see Atlantis delivering a Russian module to the ISS, as well as batteries and a communications antenna.

Atlantis rocketed into orbit for the first time in 1985. This will be its 32nd trip and the 132nd shuttle flight overall.


Stand by: Atlantis stands ready for lift off this evening before its historic journey


On their way: Aware of the significance of the task ahead of them, the crew said they were keeping focused on the job in hand


NASA has been asked to concentrate its efforts on developing space shuttles that can reach more distant targets and to hand over missions to and from the ISS to private companies.

It is expected Atlantis will be given to a museum once it has been retired, although it will remain on standby after its mission to the ISS in case astronauts on November's Endeavour flight should need rescuing.

President Barack Obama has announced a new exploration policy that would take humans further than the ISS, beyond the Moon and even to Mars.


Final mission? The space shuttle sits on its launch pad early this morning



source :dailymail

The virtual battles where soldiers can't die: MoD trains Army to fight using sophisticated video games

By Claire Bates

Captain Terry Newton from the Royal Tank Regiment shows how the training system works at the MoD centre in Bristol. It can simulate a variety of terrains faced by troops in the Middle East


Poised with his rifle in the searing heat of the Afghan desert, a British soldier suddenly has to dive for cover as he comes under enemy fire.

However, despite the bullets whizzing all around he is in no real danger ... because he's sitting in an Armed Forces base in Bristol 3,500 miles from the front line.

Although this might seem like fun and games it is a serious part of the pre-deployment training for troops heading into the combat zone.

Called Op JCOVE, the virtual system made only for the Armed Forces runs on PCs and laptops and allows soldiers to experience a wide range of scenarios both in patrol vehicles and on foot.


JCOVE at work: Soldiers roam around realistic terrain and can work in teams using a multi-player option


Out on the frontline: Royal Marine Commandos on the ground in Helmand, Southern Afghanistan


Before they 'head out' into the computer combat zone on their laptops they are briefed on the scenarios they might face.

The system simulates various types of terrain found in the Middle East and arms the 'gamers' with virtual versions of the latest British equipment. Each player has a life bar and face enemy characters that are responsive and 'free-thinking'.

The soldiers interact with each other during the game and if one of them 'dies' during the exercise the others will carry on. Once it is over their mistakes are examined.

Captain Terry Newton, who fought in Afghanistan last year, said: 'JCOVE is a fantastic tool to build up the basics for going on operations.

'The verbal communications we would use and the drills we would do for example to call in a rescue helicopter can be mimicked on this system.


Soldiers from 1 Rifles try out the training system that lets them practice various drills they will need to know once they get sent to the frontline


Concentrating hard the soldiers try out the gaming system. After each exercise they talk through what they can improve in how they tackled the situation


'One of the main benefits is that the modern generation of soldiers are very used to computer consoles so they pick up on the simulation and treat it like a rehearsal very quickly.

'And for the younger soldiers who may not have been on operations before it is a relatively relaxed way to build up their confidence, build up their verbals.'

The JCOVE system even has characters dressed as Afghan civilians who enter a building, pick up a weapon and come out as Taliban.

Captain Newton said: 'This obviously reflects reality. When you're in Afghanistan the Taliban don't wear a uniform. You can only distinguish them once they have a weapon and are firing at you.

'We let a soldier run through the scenario, pause it and if he's made a mistake take him back let him redo it again. So when he gets on operations he can do things instinctively.'

John Brookes, JCOVE project manager, added: 'Originally this system just looked a vehicle convoy operations, now with the upgraded VBS2 software we can focus on more dismounted operations.

'We made sure as much UK kit as possible was represented within the software.

'It can do foot patrols, section attacks, 'call-for' fires, almost anything you can think of as a military exercise can we represented within the system.'

The system is also used by the U.S Army and Marine Corps and other Nato members.

The software manufacturer Bohemia Interactive, have developed a pared-down version of the game called JCOVE Lite for the British public.

It was paid for by the Ministry of Defence to give people, particularly potential recruits, an idea of how the British military trained for combat.



source: dailymail

Tattoo-removing lasers used to lift dirt from great works of art

Art conservationists cleaned the two angels on the left with traditional restoration methods. They cleaned the one on the right using an advanced laser technique, which produced better results


A laser technique that removes unwanted tattoos has been used to clean several famous works of art, including wall paintings.

The technique removes material from a solid surface by vaporising it with a laser beam. Called laser ablation, it can lift dirt without damaging the underlying surface.

Long used to preserve stone sculptures and metal artifacts, it has now been applied to the delicate wall paintings of the Sagrestia Vecchia and the Cappella del Manto in Santa Maria della Scala, Italy.

Dr Salvatore Siano and Renzo Salimbeni from the Applied Physics Institute-CNR in Italy, described the results in the journal of the American Chemical Society.

Dr Siano said: 'This is a more delicate situation than metals or stone as the pigment is much more fragile.'

The pigments of paintings endure laser light better than they do the corrosive and damaging chemicals that have been traditionally used to clean them.

Different lasers are used for different paintings because the frequency and the duration of the pulses affect how localised areas are heated.

In some cases a long heating can be harmful while a short heating is detrimental in others.

The technique was also used on masterpieces like Lorenzo Ghiberti's gilded bronze panels Porta del Paradiso and Donatello's bronze David.

'This was the first time a well recognised masterpiece was treated with laser cleaning,' Dr Siano said.

The team also reported encouraging results of laser cleaning underwater for materials that could deteriorate if exposed to air.


source: dailymail

Why A BlackBerry Outage Is Good For You

By Brad Miles
Lifestyle Correspondent

It’s a common enough scenario: Your buddy just got a new home theater system complete with a gigantic LCD screen, and he invites you over to watch the game and bask in the HD glow of his new setup.

After the requisite couple of minutes spent being impressed by his new system, you settle in for some quality uninterrupted sports watching -- but he won’t shut up about the “killer feature set” of his new obsession. “Just check this out for a sec,” he keeps saying, and yet another dialog box pops up at the bottom of the screen. You’re very tempted to tell him to shut up; can’t a guy just watch the game? The image quality is awesome, yes, in the end it’s all about the game, not the gadget -- right? We’re beginning to worry that for some guys, that distinction is getting blurred.

What really matters? Hint: not iPhone apps

Enjoying an experience -- whether it’s the thrill of watching the one-handed catch that leads to a touchdown win or finding the nearest beer store without the help of your iPhone -- is lately getting overwhelmed by our obsession with the gadgets that are meant to help us. And over time, we’re concerned that our increased reliance on these gadgets will erode our resourcefulness, or at the very least our ability to enjoy the simplest pleasures of manhood -- like a long stretch of undisturbed football on TV, or the confidence you have in your innate sense of direction.

We’re going to get right to the point here: You need to be able to function without your smartphone, GPS and home theater. If you can’t, you’re not much different than a baby who cries when his pacifier is taken away. We’re encouraged to think that as men, being proficient with tech is crucial – and it is. But, when the chips are down, who cares how many e-mails you can bang out on your BlackBerry while waiting for your latte to be ready? The skills that really matter are those that come into play when the network is down.

The legendary plastic saxophone concert
In May of 1953, the legendary jazz saxophone player Charlie “Bird” Parker, along with four other celebrated musicians, were scheduled to play a concert at Massey Hall (Toronto, Canada). Parker was a heroin addict, and, in a characteristic move, he pawned his saxophone in the days leading up to the show in order to get money for drugs. He showed up in Toronto without a horn, and given that it was evening, all of the music stores were closed. He and his band combed the city for something for Parker to play, and they finally found a plastic Grafton sax – hardly the instrument for the job.

Nonetheless, Bird played the plastic sax like his life depended on it, and the resulting live recording (released under the name The Quintet: Jazz at Massey Hall) is often cited as one of the best live jazz recordings ever made.

Now, we’re not trying to glorify heroin addiction, but the fact remains that few musicians today operate with such resourcefulness as that shown by the Quintet that night.

take control of your resources
There’s something impotent about obsessive control, whether it takes the form of getting just the right image quality on your flat-screen or shaving that last 30 seconds off your commute with the help of your GPS. Next time you’re in a new city, we encourage you to go GPS-free; next time your smartphone dies, try taking a couple of days off to see how you handle the challenge. It might take a day or so to get used to, but you’ll feel like a human, and the inconvenience might just bring about some unexpected brilliance.


source: askmen

Would YOU be happy to take the 'naked' body scan?

By Vanessa Allen

Fears over airport security could leave millions of passengers facing the indignity of a 'naked' body scan and paying higher fares to fund it.

Hi-tech body scanners can see through clothes to detect hidden weapons or explosives such as those used in the failed Christmas Day plot.

They produce an anatomical image of passengers' bodies, including breasts and genitalia, and have been attacked as too intrusive. Critics have described them as a 'virtual strip search'.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson said the Government was looking at the use of the full body scanners, but admitted there were cost and privacy issues.

The scanners are on a year's trial at Manchester Airport, where security officers have already been banned from using them on children following warnings that the images could break child pornography laws which outlaw the creation of images of youngsters.

The machines cost £80,000 each, meaning it would cost millions to install them in all
of Britain's airports. Inevitably the cost would be handed on to passengers through higher air fares.

But security experts have said they would speed up safety checks by quickly revealing any concealed weapons or explosives.

Dutch airport authorities said yesterday that they would make the new scanners mandatory after syringe bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was able to board his flight from Amsterdam to Detroit without the explosive sewn into his underwear being detected.

Heightened security ordered by the U.S. in the wake of the failed bomb plot has
caused massive delays on both sides of the Atlantic, as airports struggle to cope with the new measures.

The machines would speed up checks as they eliminate the need for passengers to take off their shoes, belts, coats and scarves and would reduce the number who were then subjected to 'pat-down' searches.

Instead, the fully-clothed passenger steps between two screens and is instructed to stand with fingers touching the sides of the head, to provide a clear image of the body.

The machine performs a simultaneous front and back scan using electromagnetic waves, similar to a low-level X-ray.

According to the manufacturer, Rapiscan, passengers can be scanned safely up to 5,000 times a year. They say a dental X-ray produces 20,000 times more radiation.

The scans show every contour of the body, including intimate areas, and also reveal body piercings, colostomy bags, false limbs and even breast enlargements.

Airport security officers inspect the images in a separate office, away from the scanner, to reduce the potential embarrassment for passengers.

If the scan is clear the whole process should take around 20 seconds, and the image is then deleted. If security officers see anything suspect, the passenger is searched.

Officials have said the images cannot be stored or captured, but the scheme has led to fears that scans of celebrities could be leaked on to the internet.

Civil rights campaigners have expressed fears that the scans are too intrusive and could prove offensive, particularly for Muslim women. Security officers at Manchester have been warned not to scan under-18s over fears that the legislation could lead to them facing criminal charges.

There have been no known terrorism arrests at Manchester since the trial began in October. It is not known if the machines have been used to detect other offences at the airport.

When the trial ends in ten months, the Government will decide if the scanners should be used nationwide.

In the scheme, passengers can opt not to have a full body scan and to go through a traditional metal detector and 'pat-down' search instead.

But critics have questioned how useful an 'optional' search is, and whether it would be feasible if the scanners are installed permanently.

The Home Secretary said the Government would weigh the privacy and cost issues against national security.


source: dailymail

Captured on Google's Street View: Moment man collapses in middle of busy New York road

By Anny Shaw

Google's Street View roaming cars with cameras strapped to their roofs have become known for snapping unsuspecting people leaving shops, entering churches or, at worst, kissing someone they should not be.

But one of Google's camera cars captured a far more disturbing scene in New York.
A man is pictured collapsed in the middle of a busy road on the junction of Park Avenue South and East 29th Street. A newspaper lies strewn by his head

Passersby are also caught on camera looking shocked and concerned for the injured man, who lies metres away from the wheels of a passing car.

Google Street View is an application designed to provide web-surfers panoramic views of famous landmarks and tourist highlights in cities across the world.

Series of photographs are stitched together to allow web-users to click on a specific address to see a street level picture of that spot, or to take a virtual tour further around the neighbouring streets.

The images are updated every year.
The cars have attracted criticism for invading privacy. Earlier this year residents of Broughton in Buckinghamshire joined forces to see off a Street View car that arrived in their village to take photographs for the website.

So far Google have not responded to a request for comment.

Mystery solved? Norway's spiral light display 'was down to a failed Russian Bulava missile test'

By Will Stewart

New evidence emerged today that a mysterious spiral light display which appeared in the dark skies over Norway yesterday morning was caused by an embarrassing failed test launch of a jinxed Russian missile.

The Bulava missile was test-fired from the Dmitry Donskoi submarine in the White Sea early on Wednesday but failed at the third stage, the Russian military confirmed today.

New video also emerged today showing a simulation of what would happen if such a missile were to fail - video that bore an uncanny resemblance to the light display seen in the Norwegian sky.



The video, a 3-D simulation of what may have occurred to produce the light display, was put together by a British engineer named Doug Ellison. Ellison runs the forum unmannedspaceflight.com.

On YouTube, Ellison, who is an animator and multimedia producer for a medical firm in Leicester, described the video as 'a set of rendered views using 3DS Max to produce a coarse simulation of what may have occurred to produce the beautiful formation in the sky over Norway'.

'Once I saw the photos, and knowing a fair amount about space flight, the cause of the beautiful pattern seemed quite obvious to me,' he told the MailOnline.

'Trying to explain it in layman's terms is quite hard, so I used some basic animation tools to try and emulate the effect.

'I bolted two virtual particle emitters onto a small box - spun the box, then moved it at speed and low and behold, the spiral pattern, and the trail behind, both emerged as a result.

'The people in northern Norway are lucky to have been in the right place, at the right time!'

The confirmation of a test launch emerged despite earlier reports denying a missile launch yesterday.



The military did not confirm, however, that the failed test launch was behind the mysterious spiral lights that have baffled millions since they were spotted - though, as the new video today showed, it appears increasingly likely.
The mystery began when a blue light seemed to soar up from behind a mountain in the north of the country. It stopped mid-air, then began to move in circles. Within seconds a giant spiral had covered the entire sky.

See video showing part of the light display, and a simulation showing how the display may have been created below
Then a green-blue beam of light shot out from its centre - lasting for ten to 12 minutes before disappearing completely.

Onlookers describing it as 'like a big fireball that went around, with a great light around it' and 'a shooting star that spun around and around'.

Yesterday a Norwegian defence spokesman said the display was most likely from a failed Russian test launch.




The military did not confirm, however, that the failed test launch was behind the mysterious spiral lights that have baffled millions since they were spotted - though, as the new video today showed, it appears increasingly likely.
The mystery began when a blue light seemed to soar up from behind a mountain in the north of the country. It stopped mid-air, then began to move in circles. Within seconds a giant spiral had covered the entire sky.

See video showing part of the light display, and a simulation showing how the display may have been created below
Then a green-blue beam of light shot out from its centre - lasting for ten to 12 minutes before disappearing completely.

Onlookers describing it as 'like a big fireball that went around, with a great light around it' and 'a shooting star that spun around and around'.

Yesterday a Norwegian defence spokesman said the display was most likely from a failed Russian test launch.




Tromsō Geophysical Observatory researcher Truls Lynne Hansen agreed, saying the missile had likely veered out of control and exploded, and the spiral was light reflecting on the leaking fuel.

Last night Russia initially denied it had been conducting missile tests in the area.
However this morning the military reversed its stance, admitting that a missile had indeed been launched from the White Sea. Test firings are usually made from the White Sea, close to the Norwegian Arctic region.

Kommersant newspaper reported today that a test-firing before dawn on Wednesday coincided with the light show in the northern sky.

It also emerged today that Russia last week formally notified Norway of a window when a missile test might be carried out.

This included a seven hour period early on Wednesday at the time when the lights were seen.
The submarine Dmitry Donskoy went to sea on Monday, ahead of the test, and some reports suggest the vessel is now back in port.

A Russian military source said today that 'the third stage of the rocket did not work'.

The Bulava, despite being crucial to Russia's plans to revamp its weaponry, is becoming an embarrassment after nine failed launches in 13 tests, prompting calls for it to be scrapped.

In theory, it has a range of 5,000 miles and could carry up to ten nuclear weapons bound for separate targets.

A previous failure in July forced the resignation of Yury Solomonov, the director of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology which is responsible for developing the missile.

However, he is now working as chief designer on the jinxed project.
The Norwegian Meteorological Institute was flooded with telephone calls after the light storm yesterday morning.
Totto Eriksen, from Tromsø, told VG Nett: 'It spun and exploded in the sky,'

He spotted the lights as he walked his daughter Amalie to school.

He said: 'We saw it from the Inner Harbor in Tromsø. It was absolutely fantastic.

'It almost looked like a rocket that spun around and around and then went diagonally down the heavens.

'It looked like the moon was coming over the mountain, but then came something completely different.'

The lights appeared to be unconnected with the aurora borealis, or northern lights, the natural magnetic phenomena that can often be viewed in that part of the world.
Celebrity astronomer Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard said he had never seen anything like the lights.

He said: 'My first thought was that it was a fireball meteor, but it has lasted far too long.
'It may have been a missile in Russia, but I can not guarantee that it is the answer.'

Air traffic control in Tromsō claimed the light show lasted 'far too long to be an astronomical phenomenon'.

See video showing part of the light here, and a simulation showing how the display may have been created below






source: dailymail.co.uk

The show Dinosaurier

An actor performs during the show Dinosaurier Im Reich der Gigangten (Dinosaurs - In the empire of giants) during a dress rehearsal in Berlin, December 10, 2009. The 15 dinosaurs puppets up to 11 metres high and 17 metres long are partially remote driven in this show running from today until December 13 in the German capital.








photo: Reuters

'Fake fingerprint' Chinese woman fools Japan controls

All foreigners are fingerprinted when they arrive in Japan

A Chinese woman managed to enter Japan illegally by having plastic surgery to alter her fingerprints, thus fooling immigration controls, police claim.

Lin Rong, 27, had previously been deported from Japan for overstaying her visa. She was only discovered when she was arrested on separate charges.

Tokyo police said she had paid $15,000 (£9,000) to have the surgery in China.

It is Japan's first case of alleged biometric fraud, but police believe the practice may be widespread.

Japanese police suspect Chinese brokers of taking huge sums to modify fingerprints surgically.

Local media reports said Ms Lin had undergone surgery to swap the fingerprints from her right and left hands.

Skin patches on her thumbs and index fingers were removed and then re-grafted on to the matching digits of the opposite hand.

Japanese newspapers said police had noticed that Ms Lin's fingers had unnatural scars when she was arrested last month for allegedly faking a marriage to a Japanese man.

The apparent ability of illegal migration networks to break through hi-tech controls suggests that other countries who fingerprint visitors could be equally vulnerable - not least the United States, according to BBC Asia analyst Andre Vornic.


source: news.bbc.co.uk

Japan launched its fifth spy satellite

An H-2A rocket carrying a spy satellite lifts off from a space center on the southern island of Tanegashima, on Saturday Nov. 28, 2009. Japan launched its fifth spy satellite Saturday in a bid to boost its ability to independently gather intelligence, the government said.










credit photo: AP

Mars Rover 'Spirit' Has Amnesia. Again

By Tariq Malik

NASA's Mars rover Spirit is suffering a new bout of amnesia, one that comes after months of being stuck in deep Martian sand.

The 6-year-old rover's latest memory lapse occurred Oct. 24 and came more than six months after a series of four other amnesia events earlier this year. During the events, the plucky rover failed to record science observations in the part of its flash computer memory that stores information overnight when other systems are powered down.

"We still don't have information about what causes these amnesia events," said rover project manager John Callas at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., in an update.

In the latest event, Spirit did not use its flash memory between Oct. 24 and Oct. 27. The rover does have an alternate memory system in which to store data, but must beam that information home to Earth before entering an overnight sleep period, mission managers said.

Callas said engineers are weighing Spirit's amnesia problem to determine how it may affect day-to-day operations for the long term. Aside from the memory glitch, the rover is in good health and communicating with Earth.

"If they are intermittent and infrequent, they are a nuisance that would set us back a day or two when they occur. If the condition becomes persistent or frequent, we will need to go to an alternate strategy that avoids depending on flash memory," Callas said. "We would only get data collected the same day and any unsent data from an earlier day would be lost. The total volume of data returned by the rover is expected to be about the same."

Meanwhile, the new memory lapses will likely further delay NASA's efforts to extricate Spirit from its Martian sand trap. The rover has been mired in deep sand since April, unable to move.

An independent team of robotics experts is currently reviewing recent NASA tests that used a ground-based version of Spirit to come up with escape plan for the stuck rover on Mars. NASA has mounted a "Free Spirit" campaign to come up with ways to free its beloved rover.
NASA launched Spirit and its robotic twin Opportunity in 2003 on a mission to explore Mars. The rovers landed in different parts of the planet in January 2004 and spent more than five years roving across Mars and uncovering clues to the planet's watery past.

While engineers try to free Spirit, its robotic twin Opportunity is headed toward a giant Martian crater called Endeavour. Earlier this month, Opportunity spotted a Martian meteorite dubbed Shelter Island on the heels of another space rock find — called Block Island — in September. The rover used its onboard instruments to study both meteorites.

Initially built for a 90-day mission, the two rovers have received repeated life extensions. Spirit is the older of the two rovers and has spent five years and nine months exploring Mars.


source: foxnews.com

Defriending can bruise your 'digital ego'

By Breeanna Hare, CNN

(CNN) -- If you harbor a bit of angst over Facebook friend requests gone unanswered, a surprise "defriending" or being deserted by your Twitter followers, you're not alone.

Elaine Fogel has amassed more than 500 connections on LinkedIn, a professional networking Web site, by extending invites to those who appear to fit her wide array of career interests.

"Ninety-nine percent of the time, people just say yes," she said.

But then came "this one woman" who Fogel encountered on one of the 40-plus discussion groups she belongs to on LinkedIn. The woman offered interesting opinions, so Fogel sent her an invitation to join her network.

"She sent an e-mail saying, 'I only connect with people I know, and hopefully our paths will cross one day,' " said Fogel, of Phoenix, Arizona, her voice still carrying notes of disbelief. "I read that, and I said, 'Oh, my God, I've been rejected.' "

Fogel echoes other users who have felt the twinge of hurt and surprise from social media rejection. Some may think hers is an overreaction -- it happened online, with a woman she didn't know -- but recent research shows that our "digital egos" can bruise as easily as we do in person. In fact, rejection online may have the potential to sting even more.

"People tend to think that these relationships are trivial and not very deep, but this is what we're moving towards, having a lot of our communications play out over the Internet," Purdue University social psychologist Kip Williams said. "That's the way it's becoming; this is how we interpret our worth. People care how many [online] friends they have."

Or, increasingly, how many Twitter followers they have. This year, a third-party service launched Qwitter, which allows Twitter users to determine who's stopped following them and which tweet may have turned them off.

Experts say rejection on social networks can hurt worse than an in-person snub because people are usually more polite face-to-face than they are online.

"I think the thing that is often clearly worse online is when it's relatively anonymous, and people use that as a cover and are more cruel than they would be otherwise," said Jean Twenge, a San Diego State psychologist who has studied the way social networking affects personality development.

Online rejection also doesn't lessen the physical reaction we have to emotional pain.

"Pain is divided into two components," said Baldwin Way, a UCLA researcher who studies the way human brains respond to social rejection.

"If you put a red-hot poker on your arm, one part of your brain says, 'This pain is on your arm,' and the other part says, 'Ow, that hurts' and is less concerned with where it is and more concerned about the emotional meaning of it," he said. "That [second] part also seems to be activated when someone's left out or excluded and rejected."

To Way's surprise, that neurological reaction holds true even when the rejection comes in a digital form, lacking the real-world body language, vocal intonations and other aspects that can influence the way rejection is perceived and felt.

"If you'd asked me a few years ago if you'd get the same effect online as you would in person, I'd say no way," Way said. "I thought doing something in person would have stronger effects than doing something online, but interesting data has come out in the last few years that show mental representations are just as powerful as the real thing."

These data include Williams' "cyberball" studies, which ask a participant to play a virtual ball-tossing game with two other icons. In one study group, the participant plays the game for the entire six minutes, but in the second group, he or she is included for only a fraction of that time and then ignored. The second group reports feelings of anger and lower levels of self-esteem.

Whether participants believe they're playing with humans doesn't appear to affect their feelings of rejection.

"Even when people get rejected by the computer, they feel bad," Twenge said.

Kenneth Loflin, a student who participated in Williams' study, got so frustrated by his fellow players that he gave the computer screen an offensive gesture.

"I'm a people person, and I like people to like me," he said.

The study also affected the way Loflin interacts online. Out of the 1,200 friends he has on Facebook, 400 of them he doesn't really know, many of them being friends of friends.

"I thought about defriending them, but I didn't want them to feel how I felt" during the "cyberball" game, Loflin said.

By contrast, Bruce Hammond doesn't have a problem giving the rejection slip to Facebook hangers-on.

"For the most part, the people that I'm defriending are the people that I don't have a relationship with: the people I haven't talked to in 15 years," said Hammond, 30, of Chicago, Illinois. "I don't let someone know if I'm going to defriend them. I just do it."

Similarly, Hammond doesn't expect any of his Facebook contacts to let him know before giving him the ax. If someone rejected him in real life, he would ask why the person felt that way, but when the relationship is online, his thinking changes.

"If I come on [Facebook] tomorrow and see I have 425 friends instead of 426, I'm not going to go through my list and see who did it and be upset with them," he said.

Cecilia Sepp, a Washington, D.C.-area consultant, said she avoids the issue entirely by limiting her online network to about 100 friends.

"I don't have a problem with defriending because I don't accumulate [enough] to have a high number," Sepp said.

"When I first heard that defriending was beginning on social networks, it was through a blog post by someone who was shocked that this person had defriended them because they didn't understand why," she said. "The person wanted to know had they done something, had they said something, should they ask, 'What did [I] do?' "

Sepp believes that online "defrienders" should extend the courtesy that Fogel's LinkedIn rejecter gave her: an e-mail explanation.

"You have no facial expression online; you have no tone of voice online; it's very easy to misinterpret phrasing in an e-mail. You have to be very careful about your wording and be more explicit with people when you're making or removing connections," Sepp said. "That's why it's so important to connect with people that you actually know."


source: CNN.com

Internet domain names set to appear in non-Latin scripts

CNN) -- The group that controls top-level domain codes for Internet addresses is poised to permit non-Latin language codes for the first time in its history.

"It's the single biggest change in 10 or 15 years," said Rod Beckstrom, CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

The board of directors of the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will vote on the proposed protocol for Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) -- those represented by local language characters -- Friday at its meeting in Seoul, South Korea.

The change, which has a target implementation date of November 16, would allow Web addresses in Cyrillic, Arabic, Hindi, Chinese and others.

"This is one of the most exciting developments for the users of the Internet globally in years," said Beckstrom. "IDNs will enable the people the world over to use domain name addresses in their own language."

Beckstrom said support for the change is strong around the world and that all objections had "been handled."

"So I think it's just extremely probable, and we're really excited to move forward with that," he said.

And if, as expected, it does move forward, it means that Web surfing is about to get easier for about half of the world's 1.6 billion Internet users.

"There are over 40 million users in the Arab world," said Wael Ghanim, Google's product and marketing manager for the Middle East and Africa, "and this number is expected to increase in the coming days, which in turn makes the Arabic language one of the strategic languages through which a lot of companies, for instance Google, are interested in."

But some worry that the change could lead to more miscommunication.

"If Korean is used during the international communication, foreigners won't be able to understand and won't be able to read it well enough, so there could be some problems in communication," said South Korean Internet user Chang Yong-woong.

But others see the IDNs opening the Internet to a much broader population.

"If they can make this technology work, and people can use their own language to enter in addresses, I think that that would really expand the practical applications of the Internet," said Chinese Internet cafe owner Zhang Zhiming.

"People from different walks of life and different age groups could get more engaged with it."

One question that has not yet been resolved, however, is how people in countries that use the Latin script will be able to access Web sites with Korean, Hindi or Arabic domain names.

ICANN doesn't have an answer to that, but is confident a new technology will fill that gap soon.


source: CNN.com

Google changes to aid music searches

By Alan Duke, CNN

Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- The Internet's most popular search engine should get smarter about music, as Google updates the algorithms that power its searches this week, a company spokesman said.

"You don't have to know what your looking for," Google's Jennie Johnson said.

"If it looks like they're looking for a song, we're including in the regular search result links to hear songs from partners," Johnson said.

Contrary to techie rumors, Google is not launching a music download service, but it will give music searchers a direct link to commercial sites that do offer songs for sale.

Only sites that have licensing deals with artist labels and music publishers will be included in the links that "take you to a music discovery service," she said.

Those partners include -- but are not limited to -- iLike and Lala, she said. "Links to explore further, including Pandora and Rhapsody artist pages, will also be packaged in the music search results," she said.

The song download sites will not pay Google for driving traffic their way, she said.

"It's not like we get a fee," she said. "The value to us is really realized through better search."

There will be no new search box or hyperlink on Google's famously sparse homepage, because the change will be built in to every search request, Johnson said.

You don't even need to know the name of a song or artist to find the music in your head.

"They can enter some fragments of the words," Johnson said. "If it matches a song, there's a good chance that we're going to give you a song for that result."

One wrinkle that may take time to work out is nonmusic search terms that may seem like a song, she said.

This launch, which is only in the United States for now, is "the beginning step" that will allow Google to "refine how people are digging into it," Johnson said.

"You can expect to see it improved," she said.

Google's music search enhancements address an area that is important to a large number of Web users, she said.

"Two of the top 10 queries in the United States are music-related," she said.



source: cnn.com

The Ares Liftoff: Learning from Space Shuttle Mistakes

By Barbara Liston / Cape Canaveral

With the future of the space agency up in the air, NASA can certainly use the good p.r. that will flow from Wednesday's picture-perfect test launch of its Ares I-X prototype rocket, which is being designed to replace the aging space shuttle and ignite a new era in human space exploration. Mission managers took quick advantage of changing weather conditions to blast the rocket through a small hole in upper-level clouds that passed briefly over Launch Pad 39B.

Pencil-thin and taller than any other working rocket in the world, Ares I-X — a simulated version of what the Ares I and its Orion crew capsule will look like; for testing purposes, it's made up mostly of spare shuttle parts and a mock segments — lifted off at 11:30 a.m. The rocket's first and upper stages separated on schedule, approximately two minutes into the flight. And early indications are that the more than 700 onboard sensors did their job by streaming back to Earth a treasure trove of data to validate Ares computer models, information to be used in tweaking the final design. Ares I-X got off the ground just 30 minutes before the launch window closed for the second day in a row.

The lead-up to the launch had already produced a YouTube moment. On Tuesday, in the minutes before the expected takeoff, engineers were scheduled to pull on a lanyard to yank off a little red sock protecting a probe atop the rocket's nose. The yank cleared the probe, but the sock caught on something at the top of the rocket, something an amused NASA spokesman later insisted hadn't occurred in 500 practice runs. It took nine minutes of mostly close-up, viral-video-quality tugging before the dangling sock released, even as engineers debated whether the snafu amounted to a launch-canceling problem.

Wednesday's launch marked the first time in more than 40 years that NASA has tested a prototype of a new rocket system to take passengers beyond Earth orbit. Ares I is part of a family of new rockets in NASA's Constellation program, which was propelled by former President George W. Bush's 2005 space initiative to go to Mars or back to the moon. Ares would be equipped to fill in for the aging space shuttle — which is planned for retirement in 2010, although scheduled shuttle flights are likely to extend into 2011 — on missions to the International Space Station.

Regardless of the success of the $445 million flight test, the significance of the 327-ft. rocket is uncertain. A report delivered to the White House on Oct. 22 from the Human Space Flights Plan Committee said the Constellation program's goals were underfunded. The committee, headed by Norman Augustine, retired chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp., concluded that NASA needs another $3 billion a year to pursue meaningful human space exploration beyond low Earth orbit. Facing a $1.4 trillion federal deficit, even NASA's most ardent supporters in Congress, who represent some of the 60,000 jobs associated with the agency, acknowledge that additional funding will be hard to come by.

Alternatives offered up by the Augustine committee include stimulating a competitive commercial space industry in hopes that it might eventually result in lower launch costs. In deciding which direction to go, the Augustine committee warned of "perpetuating the perilous practice of pursuing goals that do not match allocated resources."

That ground was covered by earlier Administrations, from which sprang the inherently dangerous design of the space shuttle in the 1970s. Budget cuts and compromises led to the critical mistake of designing the shuttle to fly horizontally but launch vertically, leaving the ship helpless and without any abort option right after launch if something went wrong.

The Ares, with its Orion capsule sitting atop a rocket, returns NASA to the Apollo model, which went into retirement in the 1970s having never lost a capsule crew in flight. (The program did have its disasters, though: the Apollo 1 crew perished in a launch-pad fire and Apollo 13 suffered an oxygen-tank explosion and power failure on its way to the moon.) Shaped like the Apollo capsule but three times larger, the Orion can be reused up to 10 times. The Ares I and V, vertically stacked launch vehicles, make use of reusable solid rocket boosters.

The Ares' Orion crew capsule includes a launch abort system, which is scheduled to undergo the first of three tests next year. The abort system involves three separate motors to pull the capsule away from the rocket, to provide directional control and to separate and jettison the entire launch abort system so the capsule can parachute back to Earth.

source: Time.com

What Happens to Your Facebook After You Die?

By Dan Fletcher

In an Oct. 26 blog post, Max Kelly, Facebook's head of security, announced Facebook's policy of "memorializing" profiles of users who have died, taking them out of the public search results, sealing them from any future log-in attempts and leaving the wall open for family and friends to pay their respects. Though most media reports claimed this was a new Facebook feature, a spokeswoman for the company told TIME that it's an option the site has had since its early days.

The company decided to publicize the policy because of a backlash caused by a new version of the site's homepage rolled out Oct. 23, which includes automatically generated "suggestions" of people to "reconnect" with. Within days of the launch, Twitter users and blog posts from across the Web complained that some of these Facebook suggestions were for friends who had died. "Would that I could ...," complained a user on Twitter before ending her tweet with the hash tag #MassiveFacebookFail.

"We understand how difficult it can be for people to be reminded of those who are no longer with them, which is why it's important when someone passes away that their friends or family contact Facebook to request that a profile be memorialized," Kelly said in the post. To discourage pranksters, Facebook does require proof before sending a profile down the digital river Styx. Family or friends must fill out a Facebook form, including a link to an obituary or other information confirming a user's death, before the profile is officially memorialized. Once that is completed, the user will cease showing up in Facebook's suggestions and certain information like status updates won't show up in Facebook's news feed, the stream of real-time user updates that is the site's centerpiece. If relatives prefer not to have the profile stand as an online memorial, Facebook says it will remove the account altogether.

Better publicizing memorialized profiles is an attempt by Facebook to answer lingering privacy concerns. Canadian privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart investigated the company in July and issued a report that asked Facebook to explain certain areas of its privacy policy, including policies regarding the profiles of deceased users. In response, the company promised to issue a new privacy policy that better articulates how user information is treated postmortem and offered the commissioner an outline of its memorializing policy, nearly three months before the blog post explained it to users. Spokeswoman Anne-Marie Hayden says the privacy commissioner was "quite pleased" with Facebook's response to the office's concerns and says the commissioner will review the detailed version of the site's new policy, expected in late October.

Facebook's attempt to clearly state its policy is prudent, as other social-networking sites have struggled with the question of users' deaths. MySpace in particular has had a difficult time with digital rubbernecking — during the site's heyday, a handful of well-trafficked blogs specialized in matching MySpace profiles directly to obituaries and posting the pairings online for all to see. By sealing profiles to family and friends and removing profiles from search results, Facebook assuages users' fears that they'll be fodder for online voyeurs in the event of their untimely demise — and hopefully will put the issue to rest.


source: time.com

Making the most of Twitter

An American student is arrested in Egypt, and manages to send a brief text with a single word - "ARRESTED" - which is picked up around the world, and leads quickly to his release, helped by a lawyer hired by his university back in the US. In Britain, the prime minister's office decides people should be able to find out what their premier is doing; as of today, more than 2,000 people do. During an interview at the SXSW festival in March, audience dissatisfaction with Sarah Lacy's interviewing style with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg spills over into silent but powerful discourse among the audience: one calls it a "train wreck". People fleeing from fires in California say where they are; that proves more useful and timely than official goverment information.

The common factor? Twitter, the free (at present) service which lets you send a 140-character message, or "tweet", to a site where anyone can read it, though it will only be sent directly to those who have chosen to "follow" you (though if you want, you can pick and choose who you allow to follow you). Twitter's first prototype was built in two weeks in March 2006 and launched publicly that August. It has only been a company since May 2007, but its growth has been explosive - so much so that it constantly struggles to keep running as a growing number of people sign on, sending more and more tweets.

One of the first questions people ask is "what is Twitter for?" As with any social network, the answer is the same: whatever you make of it. Some think that its immediacy makes it ideal for spreading news. Others find it useful to ask questions of their peers; still others, for following what people or topics they're interested in. The BBC and the Guardian, for example, already offer Twitter services for breaking news (check out the Guardian Technology Twitter feed). It will be surprising if IBM does not offer a Twitter service with results from the All-England Tennis Club Championships in July.

Hitwise, the web measurement company, notes that traffic to Twitter has risen eightfold in the past year, more than doubled in the past three months and up 60% in the past month. By Hitwise's measure, it's only ranked 439th in social networks - outside the mainstream - but Heather Hopkins, senior Hitwise analyst, adds quickly that: "Twitter's size is notoriously difficult to measure as there are so many access points (mobile phones in particular)."

That is a key point. Measurement companies like Hitwise tend to rely on browser-based metrics to see where samples of people are going. But whereas Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and Habbo Hotel are only usable through a web browser, Twitter has broken free of the web; its text message-length "tweets" can be received on a mobile phone or other device. You don't have to visit the web page to use Twitter; in fact, doing so may be one of the slowest ways of using the service. And many of the systems that are built around Twitter use web pages to interface directly to its database (via a published API). Twitter didn't respond to a request asking how many active users and how many tweets are sent each day; but it's a safe guess that both are in the millions. TwitDir, a Twitter directory, suggests there are now 1.05 million Twitter users - up from 518,000 in October.

With Twitter thus poised to enter the mainstream, we offer here our list of the best tools presently available on, and built on, Twitter. As ever, this is a moving target: within months we expect there will be even better ones. And we will watch our Twitter feeds for your responses and suggestions

First steps

Twitter.com obviously. You don't need to sign up; you can watch the flow of messages from a particular user at their username (eg Guardian Technology's, which is at twitter.com/guardiantech). However, Twitter only becomes useful once you can sift through the huge volume of posts. Signing up is free and you're not obliged to follow anyone, or post anything, or let anyone follow you.

Next steps
You can follow Twitter at the website, but that's inefficient. Smartest moves: get a program for your PC, Mac or Linux box to watch the flow.

Windows
Madtwitter; Twitteroo; Twitterlicious

Mac OS X
Twitteriffic

Linux
Deskbar; Twitux

Mobile phones
Twittter for iPhone; Twitterberry (for BlackBerries); hahlo.com (iPhone and others)

Firefox
Tweetbar

Finding people
Whoshouldifollow.com answers that simple question. Given your username, it will look for other users with some overlap with the people you follow, and suggest them as people for you to follow. Add some of the names there and then repeat the process, and you'll quickly build up a large network.

Twitdir.com, a directory. Find people, and quickly see the top 100 most-followed and busiest twitterers.

Twitterholic.com, the top users and accounts: choose, then repeat as above.

Searching and organising
Summize.com, search for a word or phrase across the entire Twitter feed. Interested in Scotland? Explosions? Burma? Plug the search in and view the results; or take an RSS feed, which will automatically update when new tweets match your search.

Quotably.com creates threads of discussions between people.

Terraminds.com, another search engine, for users or phrases.

Tweetscan.com, search by user and time.

Twitterlocal.net finds twitterers near you.

Sharing
Twitthis.com, lets people looking at your site or blog share the URL via Twitter.

Twitturly.com, what's being most linked-to and talked about?

Tweetmeme.com, what sort of topics are being discussed?

Visualise
Twittervision.com, real-time Google Maps mashup showing where the latest tweets are being posted.

Twitterverse, tag clouds based on the messages flowing through twitter.

Twistori.com, love, hate, think, believe, feel, wish: what people are saying where the tweets use those words.

Twittearth.com, processor-heavy, but fascinating, visualisation of tweets, put onto a spiralling globe.

Tweetwheel.com, which of your friends are already following each other?

Miscellaneous
Tweetspeech, Yahoo Pipes module that converts (incoming) tweets to speech, playable via RSS.

Tweeterboard, a "leaderboard" of who the busiest, most popular, most chatty users are.

Twitter fan wiki, lots more Twitter information and applications.

Twittersnooze.com, hit the "snooze button", briefly, on verbose friends.

Twitter balloon, your tweets superimposed on an image of your choosing.

Latest Scores, latest football scores, as tweets.

twerpscan.com, avoid followers who befriend everyone: may be spammers.


source: guardian.co.uk

To tweet or not to tweet?

AKQA's Tom Bedecarré tells Media140 London delegates of the exciting opportunities Twitter can bring to businesses and brands

Keynote speaker, Tom Bedecarré, chief executive of the creative agency AKQA, opened the Media140 London internet conference this morning with the question "Why Twitter?", and one of his answers was to be in touch with the "zeitgeist". For him, Twitter is like a wire service.

He said: "I travel a lot between our six offices and it helps me stay in touch, and lets me stay in touch, with what is happening. I follow a lot of people and in my job I have to know what the zeitgeist is.

"The world is split between Twitter haters and Twitter lovers and I am fascinated with Twitter haters. Lots of journalists love to write about Twitter haters. Since Ashton Kutcher got a million followers and it became famous, a lot of people hate it. But journalists particularly hate it, and maybe this is because Twitter may be a threat to journalism. So the best way to get a headline in a newspaper for a brand, is to get a study on how rubbish Twitter is.

"When I ask my clients: 'Are you in social media?' And the answer is: 'I don't have time'. Or they answer: 'Oh my God, I just got on Facebook and now I have to do Twitter?' Some journalists talk to me and say, 'I was on it for an hour and I don't get it. And I even wrote two tweets.' Well.

"One important question is, how to understand the change from a push model to a collaborative discussion. I find that clients struggle with that change. The good thing is, whatever is new and interesting gets a lot of attention. For a brand, last year it was the iPhone application, this year it is the Facebook page ...

"Twitter is used for a lot of different things – that is one of the interesting things about it. People are creating business opportunities, use it to communicate with friends, publish something or tell the people out there about a brand. This is why I don't understand Twitter haters. There is something really exiting about Twitter. This is going to be a platform that will lead to great ideas."

Media140 London is a one-day conference which sets out to explore the impact of Twitter and real-time social media on agencies, marketers and brands. The conference in London is dedicated to brands, and the event will also travel to India, Italy and Australia.


source: guardian.co.uk

8 Hidden Gems in Windows 7

By John Brandon
Foxnews.com

Has Microsoft learned a lesson from Windows Vista?

The Vista operating system, which shipped in early 2007, sold reasonably well but ran slowly and was plagued by hardware problems. The successor is called Windows 7. It comes out Thursday, and it should make your PC quicker, smarter, and more fun.

Windows 7 is an attempt to fix Vista's problems — meaning technical issues as well as the public's perception —and give Microsoft Windows a much need PR boost. Just one example: Vista has something called "User Account Control," a term that sounds a bit ominous and translates as a barrage of security warnings for common tasks, even installing well-known software like Apple iTunes. In Windows 7, these prompts are nearly absent, and Microsoft argues that security is even tighter.

"The biggest problem with Vista is that it had been delayed many times, so drivers were a mess, which made it very unreliable — although eventually this got fixed," says Rob Enderle, a consumer analyst with Enderle Group. "Drivers" are bits of code that tell an operating system how a piece of hardware works, and they're notoriously unreliable.

"Vista was relatively slow, particularly for gaming, and required a lot of extra hardware to feel acceptably quick and many games wouldn’t even run on it initially," Enderle continues. "Combined, this made the OS painful to use for many. Most of this, particularly the drivers, was eventually fixed, but the impression had already been made that Vista was unreliable."

But Windows 7 is more than just a Band-Aid for your struggling computer. In fact, there are quite a few hidden gems that will appeal to business users, mobile mavens, accountants, gamers, and Web surfers alike. Here’s a rundown of the eight best.

1. Smarter windows
One cool Microsoft feature borrows some DNA from the Apple iPhone. In Windows 7, when you click on any window's title bar and shake it, every other open window goes away. This reduces the clutter on your screen, letting you focus on the one window you care about. Shake it again and the other windows reappear. Microsoft calls it Aero Shake, and it also lets you clear off the desktop completely. Just move the mouse to the lower right of the screen to hide all the open windows and get your bearings back.

2. More-detailed graphics
Next year, developers will start releasing games built on DirectX 11, a game engine that provides more detailed graphics. DX11 is an integral part of Windows 7. It supports a technique called tessellation borrowed from CGI movies to add tons of detail without slowing gameplay. Games that will support DX11’s improved graphics include "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat" and Dirt 2 – and they'll ship this year, not some distant point in the future.

3. A TV Guide for Internet videos
The Windows Media Center program lets you connect your cable or satellite television feed to your computer and record shows, and in Windows 7, it's vastly improved. One impressive improvement is Web TV Channels, a way to find streaming Internet video sites and view popular clips without any fuss. Microsoft includes Media Center in all versions of Windows 7 except the starter version.

4. A hundredfold speed boost
Some technology fans think "DirectCompute" is the most revolutionary part of Windows 7. It's a technology that controls where computers do their calculations, moving some math-heavy processing onto the graphics card. This could result in as much as a hundredfold speed increase in, say, photo and video editing, and could lead to faster computing overall.

5. Massive monitors
Ever considered linking up to three monitors together to make one colossal screen? It's useful for tradeshows — or anyone who absolutely must have the largest screen possible — and Eyefinity in Windows 7 makes it possible. A first for Windows 7, Eyefinity requires the ATI 5870 graphics card, which costs $379, but the tech will probably trickle down to other hardware shortly.

6. 64-bit computing
Microsoft sold a separate version of Vista for computers that used 64-bit processors, meaning they can access massive amounts of memory and perform certain calcuations substantially faster. Want tons of memory? You've had to go out of your way to track down that 64-bit version. The latest laptop and desktops now ship with 64-bit processors, however. So nearly every version of Windows 7 includes both the 32-bit and 64-bit version — and can support all the memory you want.

7. Faster startups
Windows 7 boots much faster than Windows Vista. In my tests using a Lenovo S20 Workstation PC, Windows 7 booted about twice as fast as Windows Vista. Windows 7 is also snappier when resuming from a sleep state after the screen has dimmed; in fact, it's almost instantaneous.

8. Touch computing
With a touchscreen PC, you can swipe your fingers across your computer screen to browse through images, click buttons, and scroll through lists. You'll need a touch-screen monitor, of course, but Microsoft argues that using your hands to sort through data is much more intuitive than pointing and clicking.

Do these features warrant an upgrade? Absolutely – especially since Windows 7 not only provides the latest OS bells and whistles, but fixes most of the problems with Windows Vista