This desktop could be all you need. Not to mention the stunning 23" monitor that comes along with the package. Not sure if it has a proprietary motherboard since it's a mini tower, but there are some upgrade options given to you before you checkout.
[Via TechDealDigger]
You have dual monitors on your desk, or maybe even 3 or 4 - you think you're pretty fly... right? I mean what can't you do? Need to watch a torrented episode of the Office, while checking your email, and surf t3chh3lp at the same time? That's no problem for you! Or is it?
"Increasingly, people who are looking at their computer screen are frequently watching TV, listening to the radio, maybe reading print media, chatting, texting," said Cliff Nass, a co-author on the study from Stanford University.
"On the computer you could be emailing while you have three chats going on while you're playing World of Warcraft. If you look at classical psychology textbooks, people cannot multitask - but if you walk around on the street, you see lots of people multitasking," he told BBC News.
According to a study reported on by the BBC, there are two types of multi-taskers: high and low 'taskers. Those in the high category were some who consumed two or more different types of media at the same time regularly. The low were those who weren't use to that sort of thing. Each group was put to do certain tasks, many at a time and were graded on how well they could handle all of them.
The results:
"The shocking discovery of this research is that [high multitaskers] are lousy at everything that's necessary for multitasking," Professor Nass said.
"The irony here is that when you ask the low multitaskers, they all think they're much worse at multitasking and the high multitaskers think they're gifted at it."
There you have it. So think hard next time whether you need that 3rd or 4th monitor.
[Via BBC News]
Can't step away from your computer for a second without feeling disconnected? You aren't the only one. A rehab center specializing in a program to get you back on track with your offline "A game" is opening up in Fall City, Washington. For those monitoring the activity on the net this only seems natural as certain people are unable to un-glue their eyes off of youtube or their friends latest twitter updates.
However, there is quite a bit of opposition towards this whole operation. Opposition that calls internet addiction a bunch of bull - a made up addiction. When compared to cocaine and heroin addicts, you're not looking at someone who is addicted to myspace or mmorpg's. The use of the internet is not harmful, and neither is playing a game, but using drugs to alter your mind and thoughts uncontrollably and harm your natural balance of chemicals. The internet doesn't do that at all. So it's all within your control, every second of it. In other words, it wouldn't be an addiction, but a condition. There seems to be a difference. You don't see fat rehab centers. And why? Because the food, although harmful, is always within the control of the person eating. You can see the effects gradually. Internet use would be the same way, however not as easily.
I don't see what the big deal is really. Why does it HAVE to be considered something addictive? Does it really matter? It truly isn't. If I go online and don't get addicted then the problem isn't the internet, but the person - but then again you could say the same with alcoholics vs people who don't drink much. Eh, I'll leave this debate to the "experts."
[Via ArsTechnica]
Aaron Zinman, who is of MIT's Media Lab, with the help of a few others, have created this project titled: Personas.
What's an Internet Persona?
In a world where fortunes are sought through data-mining vast information repositories, the computer is our indispensable but far from infallible assistant. Personas demonstrates the computer's uncanny insights and its inadvertent errors, such as the mischaracterizations caused by the inability to separate data from multiple owners of the same name. It is meant for the viewer to reflect on our current and future world, where digital histories are as important if not more important than oral histories, and computational methods of condensing our digital traces are opaque and socially ignorant.
And how does this site gather your info to determine your online persona?
Personas scours the web for information and attempts to characterize the person - to fit them to a predetermined set of categories that an algorithmic process created from a massive corpus of data. The computational process is visualized with each stage of the analysis, finally resulting in the presentation of a seemingly authoritative personal profile.
All that make sense? In simple terms it looks up your name, the more unique your name, the better, and it searches the context around sites or articles that somehow contain your name within them. If you have a generic name then you're going to get a mix of mostly other people's work and activity. The activity is then represented within categories, each color coded.
(Kind of hard to see but that green section in my persona bar says "illegal". Woah, wonder what I've been doing?!)
Find out your digital persona: HERE
[Via TechCrunch]
This update affects Live Messenger and ummm, whatever else is in the "Essentials" collection. Funny name - for them being named essential, I don't use any except messenger. Hmmm... but was the update necessary? Not really. Well, not for the applications other than Movie Maker and Family Safety. Ars Technica got some time in with Microsoft and wondered why all the essentials were given updated build numbers? This was their answer:
"...From a technical perspective, we had to update the build numbers since we were updating these two services." - Microsoft spokesperson.
Wow. So what changed?
"Today, we announced the launch of an updated version of Windows Live Family Safety. Based on customer feedback, the newest version of Family Safety features tighter integration with Windows User Accounts and Windows Parental Controls. This results in a seamless login experience and enhanced reporting capabilities to help parents understand what their kids are doing on the computer and online. We have also made enhancements for web browsing such as locking Safe Search for children and helping them find sites designed for kids with http://fss.live.com/kids. These updates will make Windows Live Family Safety easier for parents to get started, and it's easier for them to keep their kids safer online."
I don't have kids, and I certainly don't use movie maker... sooo does that mean I update for no reaosn? And here I was thinking I was getting new far out features for messenger. Like that'd happen. On that note, what sort of IM software do you think is the best?
[Via ArsTechnica]
There's been a lot of buzz surrounding James Cameron's latest film, Avatar.
AVATAR takes us to a spectacular new world beyond our imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption and discovery, as he leads a heroic battle to save a civilization. The film was first conceived by Cameron 14 years ago, when the means to realize his vision did not yet exist. Now, after four years of actual production work, AVATAR delivers a fully immersive cinematic experience of a new kind, where the revolutionary technology invented to make the film, disappears into the emotion of the characters and the sweep of the story.
Watch the trailer in HD on Apple's site below
[Via Apple]
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