burns

All's quiet at Burning Man--for now

BLACK ROCK CITY, Nevada--It's Thursday night, three days before the gates officially open to Burning Man, but already a lot of people have arrived here for set-up. The arts festival is quickly taking shape.

On this night, it's oddly quiet on the Black Rock desert. Oddly because if you've ever been to Burning Man, you're used to nights being filled with noise of all kinds--music, explosions, screaming, laughing--coming from every direction. But because the only people here right now are helping to build things--art projects, theme camps, public infrastructure--people are plumb tuckered out.

But it was … Read more

Evoking the romance of space travel, 1940s style

OAKLAND, Calif.--Want a trip back to the romanticism and innocence with which space travel was associated in the 1940s? Then get yourself to Burning Man, starting August 31 in Nevada's Black Rock Desert.

That's where the Raygun Gothic Rocketship, a retro rocket "made" in 1944, will be on display for the thousands of participants at the annual countercultural arts festival to play in and around.

In reality, of course, the rocket wasn't made in the 1940s; It's being made as we speak in a warehouse in a run-down part of Oakland, just across … Read more

Fireplace impersonator

3D Realistic Fireplace Screen Saver provides users with a fairly lifelike fireplace on their screen. While simple to operate, the program's options are what makes it red hot.

The interface is so intuitive that users will not need a trip to the Help file, though it is available if necessary. The program is well labeled and all the options make perfect sense. We had no trouble navigating it and customizing our flames. We were pleased by the fireplace and how easy it was to set up. While it will not fool anyone into thinking your computer is on fire, … Read more

No hassle backups

Nero's BackItUp and Burn makes the whole process of regular data backups easier for everyone. Using an intuitive tabbed interface and simple controls, just about anyone can pick up BackItUp and Burn and start a regular schedule for backups in only a few clicks. The software even offers the option of sending you an e-mail notification when automated backups are complete.

In addition to regular backups, BackItUp and Burn also includes full burning capabilities (as the name suggests) letting you burn your music, videos, data, and pictures to CD, DVD, or Blue-ray disks. Nero offers a free Gigabyte of … Read more

Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy to retire

Xerox Chairman and Chief Executive Anne Mulcahy, credited for the company's turnaround over the past several years, will retire on July 1, reported the board of directors on Thursday. President Ursula Burns will become the new CEO.

Starting as a sales rep in 1976, Mulcahy worked her way through various management ranks before becoming president and CEO in 2000 and chairman in 2002. She took on the role at a time of financial turmoil for Xerox and has been praised for revitalizing the company through creative new products and services.

"As CEO, Anne successfully led a multibillion-dollar turnaround … Read more

One heart, one function

Fire Heart Desktop Gadget claims to be an exciting icon that not only looks realistic, but also helps perform a function. However, users may be under-whelmed by this product and its limited capabilities.

This freeware leaps to life on your screen as a heart that simultaneously beats and looks like it is on fire. However, this novelty wears off fast, especially if you are using a slower computer, which may not let users see it beat in real time.

Right-clicking the heart lets users see their options with the heart. Here you can adjust the size, show its reflection, and … Read more

Pauli Sauce Pot claims you'll never burn another sauce

When I was first learning how to cook, I burnt my fair share of sauces. And stews. And beans. And most other things I tried to cook. You get the idea. Put a guy with no experience and no formal training into the kitchen and see what happens. Chances are not very good that the resulting dishes will be very edible. I (almost) always ate what I made and learned from my mistakes. One of the first lessons I learned was not to turn the burner all the way up for everything. Seems like common sense now, but then common … Read more

Artist envisions turning fake eye into bionic eye-cam

Three years after losing her left eye in a car accident, San Franciscan Tanya Vlach wants to make her artificial eye more useful: She's planning to put a video camera in her eye socket with the goal of having a bionic eye.

Asked in an e-mail what her inspiration is, Vlach wrote:

The Bionic Woman and maybe Bladerunner! Ever since I lost my eye I would fantasize about having a bionic eye. So I did research and I realized that as technology becomes increasingly smaller it seemed doable to engineer a miniature video camera small enough to put inside … Read more

Launch several OS's from one disc

Highly versatile and especially proficient with boot discs, UltraISO Premium creates, edits, and burns disc images in several popular formats: ISO, BIN, Nero, Alcohol, CloneCD, and Xbox. It also converts images among formats. UltraISO supports data and audio/video discs and includes a simple MP3 encoder, but it really excels at creating bootable discs. It even can create a disc with a menu for booting several OSs.

The interface is well organized, though rather plain, and we wish its icons were more readable. Also on the negative side, the program can't mount CD images, which will diminish its value … Read more

Nero 9 debuts

German software publisher Nero has taken the wraps off of Nero 9, the latest iteration of its eponymous software suite. In addition to CD and DVD burning, version 9 includes a wide range of functions, including video editing and transcoding, DVD authoring, media streaming, and file backup.

Among the major improvements that Nero is highlighting:

Improved Nero StartSmart: Once a glorified program launcher, the latest version of StartSmart is more of a central control for the entire Nero suite that's designed to be easier for newbie users.

Enhanced format/codec support: FLAC (lossless audio), Matoska video (.mkv), and AVCHD … Read more