Author: Duncan Geere
.tel launches today
.tel – the domain name service that I got all excited about back in October, launches to the public today. To briefly recap, it’s a global contact database that stores contact info in the DNS. For a much more detailed explanation, check the earlier post.
Today, the services becomes available to the public. I could buy duncangeere.tel. I could probably wait a while though – because it’s not exactly a common name. If you’re John White, though, I’d get moving. Right now. Here. Go.
.tel (via ShinyShiny)
Related posts: Exploring .tel – a communications profile parallel to the internet | Internet Explorer 8 release candidate now available
How to: Fix your parents' PC remotely with TeamViewer
Teamviewer did a fantastic job this morning when I used to it to help my Dad troubleshoot a network issue. Despite him living in a remote village in eastern France, I was able to quickly and securely view his desktop. If I’d wanted to, I’d have been able to conduct a presentation, transfer a file, or join a VPN.
All he needed to do was install a small program, and give me a userID and password. Seriously – if my Dad could manage it, then it can’t have been tricky. It’s free for non-commercial use, and very functional. I can’t recommend it enough.
Now all you need to know is how to actually fix the damn thing. For that, I recommend this guide from Lifehacker. Good luck, and don’t forget to set their homepage to Tech Digest when you’re done.
Related posts: Skype 4 for Windows now available | Google Earth adds oceans, hits 5.0
Canon doesn't make vacuum cleaners
Today, ladies and gentlemen, Canon did not announce a vacuum cleaner. It didn’t announce one yesterday either, or one the day before. In fact, it’s never announced a vacuum cleaner. That’s why Canon’s Russian service personnel were a little confused when people started calling saying that their vacuum cleaner was broken.
What seems to have happened is that a major electronics supplier bought a job lot of vacuums that a dodgy Chinese factory had produced with the Canon label, figuring (correctly) that it’d help them sell. Hilarious. If you’ve got one, then please send it to us – we’d love to review it.
(via EnglishRussia)
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Orange adds HP Compaq Mini 700 and Toshiba L300 to its 'connected' product line
Since November, Orange has been offering the Eee PC 901, complete with a 3G module, for £25 a month on a two-year contract. It’s an interesting blend of the mobile phone and PC business models, and has presumably proved successful, because the company is rolling out more laptops.
The HP Compaq Mini 700 and the Toshiba L300 have been added to the available range. You’ll get the former for £30 a month, and the latter for £35. They both come with the ‘internet everywhere’ service – meaning ‘everywhere you can get a phone signal’, anyway. That gives 3GB of monthly data allowance – not a great deal for heavy users.
iMu Vibrating Speaker – less rude than it sounds
Although the name conjures up memories of the Ohmibod, the iMu is totally safe for work. So long as people don’t get annoyed by you turning the big conference room table into a huge speaker anyway. That’s right – the iMu claims to turn any hard, flat surface into a speaker.
How does it work? Well, it turns music signal into vibrations via a compound called Terfenol-D – developed by the US Navy. Place the Terfenol in an aluminium case, wrap a coil round it and pass a current through, and it’ll vibrate with the current – playing your songs.
The frequency response isn’t great – 70Hz to 30Hkz – but you’ll get 30W out of this thing. I’ve asked if we can get one in to see what it sounds like in person, and how loud you can get it without shattering whatever you’re vibrating. That could be fun. If you’re already convinced, then it’s £50 and available now.
Gadget Shop
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USA orders Sequoia – "the fastest supercomputer in the world"
Not content with owning the fastest computer in the world, the USA wants to keep its title, so it’s ordered one fifteen times faster. The current fastest, IBM’s Roadrunner, is designed for 1.7 Petaflops, whereas the new one should be able to crank out 20 – that’s 20,000 trillion floating point operations per second. Impressive.
It’ll be packing 1.6 million processor cores, putting my quad-core to shame, and will be based on IBM’s Blue Gene/Q supercomputer. What are they going to use it for? Managing their nuclear weapons stockpile. Yes, they’ve still got that many. It’ll occupy 96 server racks over an area the size of a tennis court, and use 6 megawatts of power.
While they’re building it, they’re building a smaller supercomputer to build the applications that’ll run on the big one. “Dawn” will run at 500 teraflops. The only thing unspecified? How much the whole project’s going to cost. I suspect it won’t be cheap.
(via PC World)
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Google Earth adds oceans, hits 5.0
James Cook. Ferdinand Magellan. Vasco Núñez de Balboa. Hannu. Want to count yourself among their ranks? You could do worse than installing the new version of Google Earth – which features the oceans.
Previously, 70% of the earth’s surface in Google Earth was just covered with a basic blue blob. It vaguely reflected what was below, but not in any detail, especially when compared to Google’s land coverage. Well, now you can explore the seas in huge detail. You can even go below the surface and view data points – video, photos and text of ocean life and expeditions.
Five best snow gadgets
Continuing the chilly theme around Tech Digest Towers today, you’re probably wondering “how on earth can I make the perfect snowball?”, or “how can I make a brilliant home-made snowball cannon?”. Well, fear not, We’ve got you covered.
For our top five snow-related gadgets, just click through to the main post.
Related posts: TD Tips: Winter Gadgets | Winter: the survival-horror Wii title that was canned for not being a kid’s game
Top 5 awesomely informative sites to track the February blizzards online
Four inches? Five? Twelve? I’m talking about the snow, you filthy individual. You might have noticed the white stuff accumulating outside at an alarming rate today – at the time of writing it’s still coming down in North London – and you’re probably starting to worry if it’s ever going to stop.
I can assure you, it will. As for when – well, it’ll probably be sunnier tomorrow, but then go back to sleety snow for the majority of the week. But you want more detail, right? Right. Well, here’s my top five places where you can track this week’s snowfall online in-depth. Click over the jump to begin.
Flash Game Challenge: Winterbells
Last week’s Flash Game Challenge was won by the illustrious, the magisterial, the benevolent and formidable commenter David. He rules, ladies and gentlemen. For a week anyway. Want to take his crown? Well then you better be good at making little rabbit sprites jump into bells.
That’s right, this week, the game I’ve picked is Winterbells. To coincide with the mountains of snow outside, this game features frozen water too. Tonnes of it. I managed a top score of 4690, but I just know that you can do a lot better than that. Prove me right in the comments below.
Previous challenges: Armour Academy | The Crossing
