Micron, the company that makes memory chips, have cut 2,000 more jobs due to the decrease in demand for DRAM. This action will cut jobs mostly in the Idaho site to nearly 500 employees.

Submitted by: Desjon Chambers

Comcast OnDemand

Comcast OnDemand Goes Online
Brennon Slattery, PC World
timestamp(1235404740000,'longDateTime')
Feb 23, 2009 10:59 am
Comcast, the U.S.'s largest cable provider, plans to bring its OnDemand cable service to your computer by the end of 2009.
"OnDemand Online," as it is tentatively called, will function like the cable-based OnDemand service, bringing network and cable shows, movies, and various other entertainments to Comcast subscribers for no additional cost.
OnDemand Online will have to function within the perimeters of Comcast's 250GB bandwidth cap, and while that may not be a big deal to light to moderate Internet users, those moving a lot of material online could find their OnDemand service crippled.
It's a smooth move for the cable provider, as more and more television content is making it online. One might think sites like Hulu and TV.com would be a loss for a cable company, so the wise solution is to offer content only watchable by current and future paid subscribers. Expect the library to be huge, too: because of Comcast's advertising revenue and proliferation across the states, OnDemand Online will likely get many shows and movies unavailable to sites like Hulu.
Coincidentally, as Comcast enters the VOD market, Hulu has witnessed its viewership shrink due to content providers blocking it from Boxee and TV.com. Some theorize that companies like Comcast may be behind the white-out. Posted by Phyllis Wyatt

Atlantis Spotted on Google Earth?

Many people have heard of the long lost city Atlantis. However, with Google Earth's new Ocean View feature, some say they have found this fabled city. Scientists on the other hand have a different theory. After researching the Google Earth data, scientists believe that the anomaly caused in the image was caused by sonar equipment used during the capture of the ocean data. On the other hand, who knows, Google Earth just might have found of the biggest archeological finds of the 21st century.

For more information, Click Here.

NanöNanu,
Pat Crowe

Getting techinal:Defining the latest sports technology advances

Tarek Tomes, as the president of ASN Technologies, a software company based in Woodbury, MN, and also an a assistant basketball coach at Tartan High School in St. Paul for the past eleven years, has a pretty good idea of what coaches are seeking in sports-related technology.

That relationship has produced the Practice Manager and XO Illustrator. Created by coaches for coaches, the basketball coaching software is cutting edge in its design and simpliflies both the teaching aspect and the technological use of the product.

"The use of technology allows coaches to organize themselves and gain efficiency," says Tomes, a former professional basketball player in Germany. "Right now, technology is relatively on the bottom end of the proverbial hockey stick. But, whether it's video editing packages or play diagramming packages, as the tools mature they will become easier to use.

"Many of the tools created by great technology people aren't really pertinent for coaches. They are too difficult to use or too time-consuming. They have to be made with an eye toward the basketball problem that the coach is trying to solve, not the technology problem."

From video and digital editing systems to software to scoreboards and video display systems to sound systems, coaches and AD's expect a smooth, glitch free procedure that is simple to operate and produces maximum results. LRS Sports Software is making great strides in productivity and performance. Its Ultima Multi-Stream video editing workstation has a new feature called multi-capturing, or quad-capturing, as the company refers to it. The technology allows the user to capture four streams of video simultaneously from one computer.

"You call do four times the work," says Ron Wojcicki, LRS Sports Software's marketing manager. "College video coordinators keep asking, 'How can I get the video and the data faster In the coaches?' Now they can".

LRS's Gamer digital video editing and game analysis system allows the user direct edit from digital and analog cameras, using a firewire cable out of the camera Straight into a hard drive connection.

This allows the user to not only capture the video to a tape, but also capture the video to a hard drive. The hard drive version is a file copy that can be reproduced.

John Barkley, director of marketing and business development for Pinnacle Systems, Team Sports makers of the popular SportsEdit digital video editing and analysis tool, knows that coaches are looking for ways to help expedite the burden of team preparation.

First, they don't want to deal with videotape anymore. Second, they want a complete set of tools that work together-a nice seamless environment in which to get through their day and complete their game plan.

"They're looking for a greater integration of tools," says Barkley. "They want to do more, better, and faster produce more streams of video in quicker time or speed up the process of getting to digital video."

Barkley used a sports technology analogy that would combine Excel, Power Point, and Word a complete Suite--in order to streamline the tasks of play drawing, game planning, and team meetings.

Barkley estimates that 30% of Pinnacle's customers are tapeless today, meaning once it's on the computer they never go hack to tape. Mow and more high school coaches are making the transition to video editing.

"I think people wig centrally to go digital," says harry Bryant, president of CoachComm Sports Electronics, which has partnered with Pinnacle in the sales of SportsEdit. "More and more are doing so because they want to. But a lot of is because they have to. There's just not enough analog equipment out there.

"If you try and lind a full size VHS camcorder, you won't succeed because basically it doesn't exist. You have to get one of the smaller formats. Schools are looking for that standard to swap tapes. It used to he VHS forever. Now schools are being forced to go digital or go another route."

As an aside. CoachComm has developed the Commando Control RF wireless remote. It uses radio frequency (RF) instead of infrared. Features include a familar button layout, built-in laser pointer, and instant replay on select models.

"With your home remote, if you point it at the TV it works fine," CoachComm's Bryant says. "But if someone walks in front of it and breaks thai infrared beam, it blocks it. All coaching remotes, up until this one, have been wired remotes, This will allow coaches to be mobile."

The beauty of a product such as SportsEdit--which is Windows compatible and runs, the gamut from football and basketball to lacrosse and hockey to soccer and volleyball is its simplicity. Even the least computer savvy coach can be up and editing within a co.pie of hours.

"You're making cut ups in two and a half hours," Barkley says. "Which is something you really can't do on videotape. It's simple and intuitive."

submitted by Steve Gentry

The Dirt Devil has came out with a USB powered vacuum cleaner called the "KWIK" that is specialized in cleaning keyboards, crumbs around a desktop, and cleans dust from game consoles.


Submitted by: Desjon Chambers

New Research from Forrester and Microsoft Shows Millions of Aging Baby Boomers Can Benefit from Accessible Technology
Cartoons and humor take the sting out of aging to help older workers learn how accessible technology can help them keep their competitive edge at work.

Submitted: Patricia McManus

3-D Ready HDTV's

The next big thing to follow high-def television: high-def television in 3D. Samsung and Mitsubishi are currently the leaders in the 3D-ready HDTV space. In 2007, technology for the first DLP 3D television was developed for displays by Texas Instruments. Samsung utilized this DLP 3D technology in its new line of 3D-Ready DLP HDTVs, "equipped with technologies that have inherent speed advantages over the digital micromirror device (DMD) to generate the left and right images required for stereoscopic viewing." Samsung's line includes Series 5 (HL67A510 model), Series 6 (HL72A650, HL61A650, and HL56A650 models), and Series 7 (HL67A750 and HL61A750 models), with prices ranging from $1,499 to $2,799. These models are ENERGY STAR compliant, and you're required to use VESA-compatible LCD shutter glasses (like the Nvidia GeForce 3D Vision) and a signal transmitter in order to view 3D movies and gaming.

For the past several years, Mitsubishi has invested in bringing 3D into the home with its 3D-ready Home Theater TVs. All of Mitsubishi's 2008-09 Home Theater TVs are 3D ready and feature thinner frames, increased brightness, and screen sizes from 57 to 73 inches.
In October 2008, Mitsubishi announced the availability of the world's first laser-powered television. The LaserVue L65-A90 ($6,700) is an energy-efficient high-def 1080p TV with laser beams that, according to the company, "provide an extensive range of rich, complex colors, along with truly distinct clarity and immersive depth of field." The LaserVue is also equipped with 3D-ready viewing capabilities.
Panasonic expects to offer a 3D-capable HD plasma by next year, while Samsung demonstrated at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) a 3D HDTV with 2D content electronically converted to 3D from a standard Blu-ray player. PC Mag.com Posted by Phyllis Wyatt