sputnik

Linux arrives on loaded Dell ultrabook

Dell began selling its sleekest ultrabook today with a version of Ubuntu Linux.

The XPS 13 ultrabook comes with Ubuntu 12.04 preloaded and is the fruits of a project at Dell to create an Ubuntu-based developer laptop.

"Our first project officially launches today for customers in the United States...We loaded a super sleek Dell machine with Ubuntu to give developers the essentials they want," Dell said in a statement.

And, at $1,549, it is loaded indeed with lots of fast silicon including an Intel Core i7-3517U Ivy Bridge processor, 8GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz, and a 256GB solid state drive. It also sports a 1,366x768 13.3-inch display. … Read more

Celebrating 50 years since Yuri Gagarin's 'Let's Go!'

"They've got a man up there. It's Gagarin."

With those fictionalized words (see video below), spoken by actor Jeff Goldblum in Philip Kaufman's terrific 1983 screen adaptation of Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff," millions of viewers were ushered into the era of manned space flight.

Goldblum's harried alert to a roomful of top American policymakers represents just a little of the reaction in the United States to what happened 50 years ago today, on April 12, 1961, when 27-year-old Flight Major Yuri Gagarin, who was born on a collective farm west of Moscow … Read more

Drop-dead sexy audio gear from here and abroad

Ultimate AV Magazine's Scott Wilkinson has an eye for style. He regularly posts some of the most beautiful shots of high-end audio exotica I've seen, so I decided to share a few of them here.

Leave it to the Italians to come up with a radically different approach to speaker design. Behold the Book of Music's Teti Extreme; its twisted curves look great and improve sound quality. With the standard finish each speaker carries a hefty price tag of $9,920; or if you're really willing to splurge, go for the special "liquid-rubber" paint … Read more

Attack of the ceiling eyeball speakers

As if there aren't already enough alien eyeball speakers to keep us awake at night, now they're descending from the ceiling to prey upon us as well.

The pair of "Venus" speakers shown on the left can be stacked and suspended with a built-in cable system, housing both woofer and tweeter in their evil orbs. It's one of two ceiling-hanging systems just released by Everything But The Box, according to AudioJunkies, the other being the "Sputnik 12S" subwoofer pictured at right.

It's only a matter of time before the invasion begins. You'… Read more

The space age: Your fondest memories

Many people--even those who aren't in the tech set--find outer space captivating. It's the great unknown, the wild black yonder, the final frontier. As the 50th anniversary of the Sputnik launch approaches, we've taken a look at where we stand on space exploration today, how it is changing, and the technologies and companies it's given rise to.

For the final day of our multipart series, we'd like to pull together some of our readers' fondest memories related to space. What are yours? Being huddled around the TV as the first man walked on the moon? … Read more