They said it couldn't be done, but we managed to fit an entire Family in our 12 foot by 12 foot studio; and besides, The 404 Podcast has never been that great at following orders. Today's episode welcomes Vanessa, Joe, Sebastian, James, Christina, and Brent from the band Family of the Year, who submit themselves to a chat about their new EP Where's the Sun, new music marketing 2.0, Bogie Ogretrons, which band member has the longest legs, and what it's like to share a shower with six other people in a tiny RV touring across the country.
The band also brought a couple guitars and a shaker for a good old-fashioned in-studio performance! They play two songs on today's show, including "No Good for Nothing" (download live recording) and a track called "Stupid Land" (download live recording) off their forthcoming LP. You can also preview all of their songs on their MySpace, but if you like what you hear you can support by the band by downloading the tracks (sliding scale donation) or by purchasing a physical album that features custom artwork. Being the mixed-media artists that they are, Family of the Year is also currently offering custom-made postcards that they'll send you from the road! From the band's description of their humble RV, it sounds like every little bit helps!
The band is also impressively tech-savvy and offers several ways for fans to interact with them; in addition to their mailing list on the Web site and MySpace page, you can also follow them on Twitter or fan them on Facebook. They're currently in town promoting the new EP and playing a series of shows for the CMJ Music Festival, so be sure to go and show your support!
EPISODE 448
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... Read More
On display at the Nintendo E3 2009 press conference was a handful of yet-to-be announced portable gaming titles for the DS and DSi Shop.
A new Kingdom Hearts portable game was announced, the first DS version of the Square Enix and Disney collaboration franchise. RPG fans have even more reasons to be excited as Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story and Golden Sun DS were also announced. Expect Bowser's Inside Story this fall, while Golden Sun DS should arrive in 2010.
Nintendo showcased a desire to appeal to fans of James Patterson novels as Women's Murder Club: Games of Passion looks to provide a new way to enjoy the crime-solving novels. Using the DS, players will uncover clues, inching ever closer to the truth.
A brand-new intellectual property developed by Ubisoft, C.O.P.: The Recruit, was announced for the Nintendo DS. Gameplay footage reminded us of Grand Theft Auto, except for the fact that now you'll be playing as the police.
(Credit:
GameSpot)
Finally, Nintendo stressed how the DSi has made it easier to share gaming experiences. This philosophy will take shape starting with the announcement of two new titles to be available via the DSi Shop. Mario VS. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again will allow users to design and trade their own custom levels over the DSi's Wi-Fi connection. WarioWare: DIY branches from the same school of thought, allowing you to design and create your own WarioWare mini games. Minis March Again will be available for download June 8, while DIY should be available later this year.
That's all for the portable side of things, but make sure you check out the big Wii announcements from the Nintendo E3 press conference!
What can we say? We're in the giving spirit this holiday. Whether you like 'em or not, they're yours now! Happy Holidays, everyone!
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EPISODE 118 |
Nespresso Essenza Automatic Espresso and Coffeemakers with Nespresso Aeroccino Milk Frother
Cool party favor or life-saving tool? You be the judge
Blast Knuckles: For the woman on the go who needs that extra sense of security
Mobigrip gives you a firm grasp on your handhelds
Radio-controlled key finder makes life easy for the scatterbrained
Digital Spoon Scale, for obsessively accurate cooks
PRETTY
Sun and Moon Jars
Solar water heaters like this one are getting popular in Ho Chi Minh City.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CBS Interactive)Editor's note: CNET editor and Crave contributor Dong Ngo is spending part of December in his homeland of Vietnam and is filing occasional dispatches chronicling his impressions of how technology has permeated the culture there. Click here for more of Dong's stories from abroad.
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam--It took me a few minutes to realize how crowded Ho Chi Minh City is, and a few hours to experience the first power outage. Welcome to the dry season of the South.
The season lasts from November until April. It's when this part of the country experiences its most severe energy shortage, with rolling blackouts taking place in HCM several times a week, if not daily.
(Unlike the four-season North of the country, the South of Vietnam has only two seasons--dry and rainy. Nonetheless, it's generally sunny all year around in Ho Chi Minh City. It's hot, too, with the exception of a few weeks around Christmas when it gets a little chilly, around 60 degrees F. However, it's always humid here and you'd probably want to shower a few times a day.)
Most businesses, and even some households here, have a backup power generator. Drive around the city at any given time, and chances are you'll see some of these in operation.
With the sharp population increase, Ho Chi Minh City, now home to about 10 million, is facing an apparent energy crisis. According to HCM City Power Company, the city's power demand is now in excess of 1,000 to 2,500 megawatts every day.
To battle this, the city has turned to a source of energy that it has a lot of: the sun. Since July, it has been developing a program to support businesses that produce and sell solar-powered appliances, including water heater and lighting systems.
... Read MoreSun Microsystems made the Olympic cut. Sun will provide server technology using Intel quad-core processors for NBC's Olympic coverage.
(Credit:
Sun Microsystems)
The technology platform will enable live events to be streamed online to NBCOlympics.com during the Beijing Olympics, which take place from August 8-24, Sun and NBC said Monday.
Intel quad-core Xeon processors will power a total of 160 Sun Fire servers that will drive NBC's Web site, according to an Intel statement. Sun Fire X4150 and X4450 servers will be deployed, according to Sun.
The X4150 servers are offered with quad-core Xeon processors such as the Xeon E5440 (2.83GHz, 80 watts) and the Xeon X5450 (3.0GHz, 80W). The X4450 comes with Xeon 7300 series quad-core processsors such as the Xeon L7345 (1.86GHz, 50W) and Xeon E7340 (2.40GHz, 80W).
In addition to live streaming, the platform will provide video archives of completed events, plus blogs, live chat, and athlete profiles based on approximately 2,200 hours of live streaming Olympic broadband video coverage of 25 different sports on the site.
"Sun has worked hard to architect a powerful, energy-efficient platform for NBCOlympics.com that will rapidly scale for hundreds of millions of sports fans," Peter Ryan, Sun's executive vice president of global sales and services, said in a statement.
Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu have announced a quad-core version of the Sparc64 processor and servers to that will use the chip.
Fujitsu--which manufactures and designs the Sparc64 processor--along with Sun unveiled the M4000, M5000, M8000, and M9000 enterprise servers that use the new quad-core Sparc64 VII chip. The two companies claim the processor delivers 80 percent better performance using 44 percent less power than the previous Sparc64 VI processor.
Sun Sparc road map
(Credit: Sun Microsystems)The Sparc64 VII is made on a more advanced 65-nanometer process than the Sparc64 VI chip, which used a 90nm node.
Sun is no stranger to multicore--putting many processing cores on one chip. Its UltraSparc T2 processor can place up to eight cores on a single piece of silicon. This allows the UltraSparc T2 to run up to 64 threads--parts of a program that can execute independently--or eight threads per core. It's a feat processor giant Intel still hasn't accomplished.
Sparc Enterprise servers using the Sparc64 VII processor are targeted at high-availability, mission-critical enterprise applications, including large-scale databases, data warehousing, and enterprise resource planning.
Current Sparc Enterprise servers can be seamlessly upgraded by swapping out older processors with the new Sparc64 VII chips, the two companies said. Sparc VI and Sparc VII chips can also be mixed and matched within a "single domain."
Pricing and availability information is here.
2008 is the year of the solid state drive. That's what Sun Microsystems believes as reliability finally measures up to the rigorous requirements of server storage and the cost per gigabyte plunges.
On Wednesday, Sun announced that it is preparing to introduce solid-state drive (SSD) technology that "will completely change how server and storage infrastructure is designed and deployed in enterprise data centers." Sun said it is already shipping Solaris ZFS software "optimized" for SSDs.
Though Sun is not specifying suppliers, Intel confirms that it has collaborated with Sun on SSD development for servers. Intel is slated to bring out high-capacity SSDs in the second half of the year.
Sun follows storage vendor EMC, which announced integration of solid-state drives into its product portfolio in January.
Solid-state drives give "customers 3x better performance at one-fifth the energy consumption of traditional spinning (hard disk drive) disk offerings," according to a prepared statement by Sun.
Sun StorageTek server array
(Credit: Sun Microsystems)Solid-state drive suppliers Intel and Samsung have both discussed the huge potential for servers. Samsung said previously that companies like Citibank and American Express peg server performance on IOPS, or input/output operations per second. Hard disk drives typically achieve 120 to 150 IOPS, while SSDs are in the neighborhood of 10,000 to 30,000 IOPS, according to Samsung.
Intel also sees SSDs playing a role in the server market as a "performance accelerator." The chipmaker cited a streaming video example where 10 SSDs could essentially handle the same workload as 62 high-performance hard disk drives.
In addition to performance benefits, SSDs "save on energy costs compared to traditional Fibre Channel hard drives (and) decrease server and storage sprawl in already maxed-out data centers," Sun said. "SSDs consume around one-fifth of the power of both memory...and disk drives, have no rotating media and consume very little power when not in use."
Sun sees SSDs as a watershed technology. "Flash SSD is the most exciting innovation to happen to system and storage design in over a decade. By mid-2009, it will be in the majority of servers and deliver more capacity than DRAM and far greater overall system performance and energy efficiency," said John Fowler, executive vice president of the Sun Systems Group.
Intel is targeting SSDs for consumer and server storage
(Credit: Intel)Plunging cost is another factor. "Enterprise-class Fibre Channel hard disk drives have only exhibited a 40 percent year-over-year price decline in the last decade, while the Flash SSD price per gigabyte continues to fall between 50 to 70 percent annually," Sun said.
The Mountain View, Calif., company is expected to deliver Flash-based products to market in the second half of 2008. Sun did not cite price or capacities. Today, typical large-capacity enterprise SSD capacities start at 32GB but can range up to 512GB.
Depression among household pets may be worse than originally believed.
(Credit:
Luxurylaunches)
We thought the issue was more isolated last month upon learning of the "Fauna Sauna"--its name doesn't exactly scream credibility--a device that uses radiant heat "to bring healing to your pet right in your home." But now it has competition in the "SunSpa," another product that claims to control mood swings by simulating sunlight "for a warm and soothing heaven for your pets," according to Luxurylaunches. We're not sure about that, but it does look considerably more comfy than its competitor.
To calm the savage beast's nerves (and your pet's as well), the 150-watt light keeps the bed at a toasty 80 to 85 degrees while promising to last 5,000 hours. The bed itself is covered with "Crypton Fabric" that is odor- and water-resistant, two qualities that would probably improve any pet's disposition with or without any lights at all.
(Credit:
Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)
With a new Sun Kil Moon LP, as well as Retribution Gospel Choir's debut album (which he produced), a book, and a movie score all coming out this year, it's safe to say Mark Kozelek is a prolific artist. He sat down with us here at Studio C in San Francisco for a rare interview (he doesn't do them often) to discuss all his projects and to play us some new solo songs from is new album April.
(Credit:
Solar Breeze)
It may not be long before solar-powered bots are taking care of all our household chores. Already we've seen robotic lawnmowers get powered by the sun, and now pool cleaners are going solar too.
The "Solar Breeze" is apparently the first pool-skimming robot of its kind, capturing ultraviolet rays with two panels and storing the energy in its rechargeable batteries. It requires no electrical connections and "never stops working," according to its Web site. The bot is also capable of dispensing chlorine as it cleans, though it should be noted that another solar product, the "Floatron," can distribute chemicals on its own as well.
Stil, the Solar Breeze is likely to present some competition for other independent pool-cleaning devices. Which means there's hope that an underwater bot battle may someday be in the offing.
