Microsoft launched Windows Vista: See How It’s More Than an Operating System (SHIMTAOS) today. There are a number of short videos that demonstrate some of what developers can produce using Vista it’s cadre of technologies. If you saw the MIX06 sessions then most of these are old news, but look at the package they’ve been wrapped in!

Set aside for a moment the irony in an man who’s pushing 80 years of age presenting 21st century technology, and instead realize just who is showing you Vista. He’s known to most of people my age as Commander Mike Metcalf, callsign Viper.

I can only hope that Mr. Skerritt’s appearance here hints at a Tom Skerritt learning AI that will launch with Vista:

It looks like you’re trying to fly the F14 right to the edge of the envelope, faster than you’ve ever flown before…and more dangerous…”

In 7 days around E3, Xbox Live delivered a great deal of content. Trailers for Halo 3 and Nacho Libre were viewed by over a million people, as well as add-on game content and celebrity multiplayer sessions. And keep in mind most of this content, if not all of it, is presented in High-Definition.

During those 7 days, over 600 terabytes of data were pushed out to Xbox Live members (The Library of Congress contains about 20 terabytes of printed material). It should then come as no surprise that Xbox Live is now the largest High-Definition On-Demand platform. On the other hand though, Sony’s got…

(via PC Vs Console)

According to the Times, The USS New York will be one of the first amphibious assault ships built by Northrop Grumman for the Pentagon. It will be able to deploy 700 marines onto coastline without the need of a traditional port. The New York will cost one billion dollars and is slated to join the US Navy in 2007.

By now you’re probably denying the inevitable truth about why this ship has been named the New York. The name is most certainly in reference to the September 11th attack, and it’s construction most certainly involves over twenty tons of steel from the remains of the World Trade Center.

the New York was half-completed when Katrina suplexed the shipyard where it is being constructed. While the ship came out unscathed many of the workers on the project, some of whom deferred retirement to work on it, are now living in a shanty town at the shipyard.

I suppose if the government had taken a few months to think, then perhaps after Katrina had done its damage the steel from the World Trade Center could’ve been used to help rebuild New Orleans.

It’s the longest river in Asia and the third longest in the world at 3,859 miles long. It supplies water to almost 200 cities along its banks, through some of China’s most concentrated populations. It’s the Yangtze River, and just on the other side of this decade, it will be a dead river.

According to China’s state media, billions of tons of waste and sewage will obliterate the river’s remaining plant and wildlife species. This news follows the terminal pollution of the Yellow River last year. It is estimated that 300 million people in China live without safe drinking water.

So first the Three Gorges Dam is installed in order to supply power and prevent floods, and now pollution will render the water unsafe. Hydrate by candlelight or die under fluorescent bulbs…

(via BBC, Wikipedia)

Even though Microsoft hasn’t announced any pricing for Vista or Office 2007, that won’t stop the lunatics journalists from pulling values out of the rarified air.

Stan Beer of iTWire is reporting that the Ultimate versions of Vista and Office 2007 will clock in at $450 and $679, respectively. His conclusion is that the cost of the latest and greatest software will outweigh the cost of your average computer, and therefore many users will avoid upgrading.

Setting aside the complete his baseless pricepoints, the more interesting thing is how this reflects on Microsoft. Why do Windows and Office command the prices they do? Why are there so many features, when most consumers only utilize a sliver of their functionality?

These applications are built to enable law enforcement agencies and governments. Suzy Homemaker and her $999 PC that’s tasked with reading email and punching out PTA newsletters doesn’t need Microsoft Office.

(via Engadget)

Some lunatic Brits have leased an island from the Fijian government. Their venture, Tribewanted, involves 5,000 people who will pay for timeshare slices of a south Pacific island paradise. 100 people at a time will be on the island for 7, 14, or 21 days to help to develop a functional, ecologically-friendly community.

The first tribespeople will hit the island September of this year. Once there, they’ll address issues of infrastrucutre, culture, education, and most importantly adventure. The island’s development will be captured on film and broadcast through the website for the rest of the world to watch.

There are all sorts of interesting questions related to technology and it’s role in a remote, clean-slate community. How do you implement reliable electricity at low cost? Do you use that electricity to run lights and radios, or just limit its usage to communications? What sort of devices will function effectively and over the long haul in that environment?

I’d love to cover this for 10. Give me a ToughBook, a camera, a VOIP phone, and a plane ticket. I’m gone!

(via BoingBoing)

David N. Wallace is a writer and IT Coordinator who lives in Adelaide, South Australia. He also writes lifekludger, a blog about workarounds for problems most of us don’t even consider because Dave is a C4 Quadriplegic. He’s posted a review of the Acer C200 Tablet that has stopped me dead in my tracks.

For most of us, we read or write reviews of gadgets that rarely have a truely unique viewpoint. Most of them we’d like to have, but rarely do we talk about something that would seriously enable our lives.

If the boys on Amphitheatre Parkway pride themselves on anything, it’s their algorithms. They are the magic that makes Google the best search engine to date, and they’re also the driving force behind the real money, advertising.

One of the big draws to Google’s AdSense program is the low entry costs. The dream is for anyone to be able to show their wares to the world for pennies a day. Well Bob Cringely has something to say about that. He’s lifted the curtain and exposed some fairly serious problems with the AdSense universe.

My friend Mario Fantoni is a victim of click fraud, which in this case is simply defined as his Google AdWords bill climbing from $250 one month to $4,000 the next with no change in the campaign or increase in sales. Mario contacted Google, which, after an “investigation,” decided that he was, indeed, a victim of click fraud.”

In a world of automated bill pay, can the little guy afford that kind of dent at the expense of Google’s ever-beta algorithms?

Looks like next week is for the gamers. A major update to the Xbox 360 is coming down the pipe, and it looks glorious. The night owls at Joystiq got the inside scoop from Aaron Greenberg at Xbox Live.

There will be some simple menu changes, perahps the most useful being a ‘Newly Released…’ item for videos, games, and everything else. The update will also provide the ability to download up to six items in the background, something I can’t believe anyone has lived without until now. Also included are some usability enhancements, like setting your system to launch directly to the Dashboard on power-on and “full” USB keyboard support (aka wireless USB keyboard support).

Now that the cat’s out of the bag on this, I’m hoping we’ll get a walkthrough posted on 10 this coming week.

eBay will now be purchasing Yahoo ads, both of the graphical and text variety, and displaying them on eBay pages. I was initially surprised, but after a bit of thought this really should’ve happen sooner. Yahoo’s ad business is massive, and eBay is in the commerce business and they can’t bury their heads in the sand about targeted advertising.

Most of the coverage I’ve read this afternoon points to this agreement as a defensive tactic against Google’s war machine. eBay and Yahoo are recognizing that search is the ultimate leveler and that there are very few shopping destinations on the net, even if Ms. Whitman doesn’t think so. From the New York Times:

“There is a lot more to running a marketplace than getting a lot of listings,” Ms. Whitman said. “There is trust and safety, and payments and reputation. That stands eBay in good stead.”

It’s disappointing to me how slow Microsoft seems to be in finding a ticket to the dance on this one. Yet another example of how being a large organization can hold you back I suppose.

(via John Battelle’s Searchblog)