You might have a Digital Frame buy you might still have the old Photo Album. Well, now with TruView Digital Photo Album, you can do that.

Todd Cochrane talks with Ray about this new idea in Digital technology. A built in memory card storage will allow you hold 18 cards of many different types. With special software, you can have single pictures, or multiple.  Everything is plug and play, USB connection. The product will be out shortly, so you can share all your memories in one area and still have the feel of the old scrapbooks without pictures falling out of the pages.

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Other Posts of Interest:

• Otter Box Shows Off the New Defender and Impact Series – CES 2010
• Hypershop: External Batteries for Your iPhone and iPad in Hypermac Mini, Micro and Nano – CES 2010

It’s amazing how many of my friends with iPhones have these cases.

The Otterbox protects your Blackberry, iPhone and Palm Pre with up to three layers of protection and plastic screen protectors to keep the display scratch free. The Impact series which is a simple skin. The defender series is a tough model rated for 3 Feet to concrete.

Todd Cochrane talks to Kristen about the models available. Starting at $30, you can protect your investment. With iPhone replacements costing $400, it makes sense.

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Other Posts of Interest:

• Hypershop: External Batteries for Your iPhone and iPad in Hypermac Mini, Micro and Nano – CES 2010
• TruView Digital Takes the Photo Album into the Digital Age – CES 2010

1992 – Comp.os.minix was the location for famous thread “Linux is Dead”. 73 Posts went back and forthe before Bill Mitchell closes it.  Andy Tanenbaum (MINIX) started the thread and Linus Torvolds shot back. This is how the thread started out:

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I was in the U.S. for a couple of weeks, so I haven’t commented much on LINUX (not that I would have said much had I been around), but for what it is worth, I have a couple of comments now.

As most of you know, for me MINIX is a hobby, something that I do in the evening when I get bored writing books and there are no major wars, revolutions, or senate hearings being televised live on CNN. My real job is a professor and researcher in the area of operating systems.

As a result of my occupation, I think I know a bit about where operating are going in the next decade or so. Two aspects stand out:

1. MICROKERNEL VS MONOLITHIC SYSTEM
Most older operating systems are monolithic, that is, the whole operating system is a single a.out file that runs in ‘kernel mode.’ This binary contains the process management, memory management, file system and the rest. Examples of such systems are UNIX, MS-DOS, VMS, MVS, OS/360, MULTICS, and many more.

The alternative is a microkernel-based system, in which most of the OS runs as separate processes, mostly outside the kernel. They communicate by message passing. The kernel’s job is to handle the message passing, interrupt handling, low-level process management, and possibly the I/O. Examples of this design are the RC4000, Amoeba, Chorus, Mach, and the not-yet-released Windows/NT.

While I could go into a long story here about the relative merits of the two designs, suffice it to say that among the people who actually design operating systems, the debate is essentially over. Microkernels have won. The only real argument for monolithic systems was performance, and there is now enough evidence showing that microkernel systems can be just as fast as monolithic systems (e.g., Rick Rashid has published papers comparing
Mach 3.0 to monolithic systems) that it is now all over but the shoutin`.

MINIX is a microkernel-based system. The file system and memory management are separate processes, running outside the kernel. The I/O drivers are also separate processes (in the kernel, but only because the brain-dead nature of the Intel CPUs makes that difficult to do otherwise). LINUX is a monolithic style system. This is a giant step back into the 1970s. That is like taking an existing, working C program and rewriting it in BASIC. To me, writing a monolithic system in 1991 is a truly poor idea.

2. PORTABILITY
Once upon a time there was the 4004 CPU. When it grew up it became an 8008. Then it underwent plastic surgery and became the 8080. It begat the 8086, which begat the 8088, which begat the 80286, which begat the 80386, which begat the 80486, and so on unto the N-th generation. In the meantime, RISC chips happened, and some of them are running at over 100 MIPS. Speeds of 200 MIPS and more are likely in the coming years. These things are not going to suddenly vanish. What is going to happen is that they will gradually take over from the 80×86 line. They will run old MS-DOS programs by interpreting the 80386 in software. (I even
wrote my own IBM PC simulator in C, which you can get by FTP from ftp.cs.vu.nl = 192.31.231.42 in dir minix/simulator.) I think it is a gross error to design an OS for any specific architecture, since that is not going to be around all that long.

MINIX was designed to be reasonably portable, and has been ported from the Intel line to the 680×0 (Atari, Amiga, Macintosh), SPARC, and NS32016. LINUX is tied fairly closely to the 80×86. Not the way to go.

Don`t get me wrong, I am not unhappy with LINUX. It will get all the people who want to turn MINIX in BSD UNIX off my back. But in all honesty, I would suggest that people who want a **MODERN** “free” OS look around for a microkernel-based, portable OS, like maybe GNU or something like that.

Andy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vu.nl)

P.S. Just as a random aside, Amoeba has a UNIX emulator (running in user space), but it is far from complete. If there are any people who would like to work on that, please let me know. To run Amoeba you need a few 386s, one of which needs 16M, and all of which need the WD Ethernet card.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:27 — 3.9MB)

Other Posts of Interest:

• February 7: Mafiaboy DDos to 7 Sites – Day in Tech History
• February 5: Victoria Secret becomes the First Major Webcast – Day in Tech History

Almost Didn’t do the show tonight because of another issue that put me in a very bad place. 8-12 inches snow coming down here in the Midwest. Looking for a better Webcam Producer – Webcammax doesn’t get it. We are giving away another copy of Diskeeper 2010. We also go through a correction on information from the 5 Tech Things.

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I – S.U.N. (Straight Up News)
Rhapsody Gets Away from Real
Superbowl Finally Beats M*A*S*H*
Foursquare and Zagat
Intel Security Chip Hacked
Microsoft Says It’s the Battery’s Fault
Macworld is Happening
Kindle Books Under 2000 Words
New Texas Instruments Chip with GPS, Bluetooth, FM
Pwnage Tool for 3.1.3
Aperture 3 in Apple Store
Will iPad Survive?
Android Censored in Application Store
Google Translator
Intel Exec Guilty in Galleon Case
Verizon Blocks 4Chan
Intel Launches New Itanium
Lawmakers Find Other Ways To Pay for Roads

Poll – Would You Buy The Day in Tech History in a Daily Audio Callendar Format?

II
Social GMail in Buzz
- Geekazine Coverage on Google Buzz
Hulu Should Block Boxee
Broadband for £45,000

CES 2010 Video Feed – Geekazine
Check out the other podcast: Day in Tech History

Contacts: Twitter – Plurk – Myspace – Facebook Group – FriendFeed or Digg the Podcast. The Geekazine Podcast is under a Creative Commons no-deriv license

Music for Podcast by the John Masino Band

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At first this looked like another IPTV box. But as Todd Cochrane started talking to Chris Zagg, we found out the ZAGGbox was a lot more than that. It is a media box with a 1TB hard drive. However, it’s also a component controller. If you have a satellite, you connect it through the box and let the ZAGGbox control your DirectTV or Dish signal. If you want to record a show, you use the ZAGGbox to take care of that.

The remote control pretty much replaces all your other controls. The on-screen controls help you with what you want to watch.

It is also a streaming device, so you can watch media on your internet devices including iPhone. You can also connect more hard drives for more storage.

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I have salivated over Drobo for a few years now. RAID configuration on the desktop that is not a bulky rackspace is definitely something I geek out on. Therefore, when we saw Data Robotics Drobo, I had to go over and see what was new for this year.

The first drive is the 4 drive Drobo has a USB or Firewire solution for $399. The Drobo S is 5 bay with eSATA and Single or Dual drive redundancy so it could be shared between two people. The 8 Bay Pro is for a single server solution. It has iSCSI and direct attachment in.

However, the Elite is my favorite. It’s an iSCSI SAN with support up to 16 Servers. It’s a cost effective solution for $6,000 for any small business.

Jeffrey Powers talks with Jim over this storage solution.

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Well the big news from Google today was Google Buzz. Not to be confused with Yahoo Buzz – which might cause some  friction because they are both social networks. Some even say it’s trying to be Facebook.

Google Buzz is GMail in real time. You can add to email in real time. Kinda like Wave does, except it can be on a personal level. It has some Twitter functionality – @geekazine will be recognized. You can even speak in your comments and they will be transcribed.

Buzz will also be available for the mobile phone. A little Augemented 2D action – Hit the Nearby option on Google Maps in the phone and find out what others are saying. Geotagged Buzz posts will show you what is being said. Another movie premier killer option right there.

Here is where you can see a commercial about Google Buzz. It won’t be available for everyone just yet, But you know you have it when you look under your “Inbox” and it says “Buzz”. Technically it’s in Beta, although they don’t seem to be calling it a Beta.

The iPhone app is simply a link to the page you can place on your Home screen. I instantly saw my Buzz and a comment from someone only a few miles away from me. Moved the Map over to CA and there was a lot of Buzz.

It will be interesting how this application will cultivate. Will it be a Facebook Killa? Will it change the way we use E-Mail? Will the “G” in GMail become GeoTag Mail? Will Yahoo sue Google for “Buzz”? Only time will tell. What do you think of this new innovation from Google?

Back in 2004, Mogo created a mouse that stowed in the PC-Card slot. It would charge the mouse until it was used. You would then pull it out, and slip the card back in and charge it.

Nowadays, Notebooks and netbooks do not have those older PC-Card slots. That’s O.K, for the new version of the MoGo is integrated right on the Netbook. Slip out the wireless mouse and surf away.

Andy McCaskey talks with Stewart about how the MoGo has changed. They also talk about a new device for iPhone that lets you stow a Bluetooth headset right into the case. Of course then there is the MoGo Daptor – a USB dongle for the wireless devices.

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Do you buy music from iTunes, Amazon or other areas? Having a problem organizing those purchases? Well you might want to check out Dazzboard – it manages your online media.

Android users have another advantage with the partnership that Dazzboard has. You can back up applications on your computer so you can restore them later. Also you can download directly from partners like GetJar.

Andy McCaskey talks with Taro about this great software. This is a program for IE and Firefox and will soon have support for Mac and Safari. It’s a browser extension Web based application, therefore it’s free.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (59.6MB)

I have used labelers for many jobs. As an IT Admin, I would label a PC with an easy to ready number for my inventory. As a musician, I would label cords so I know they are mine and where they go to. But now Brother has taken it one step farther – labels for the crafters.

The Brother P-Touch has the Simply Stylish line of Labelors. PT-90 for school or home labelling. The PT-1290 adds creativity called Decco Mode. Use the labels to decorate, craft and a lot more.

Todd Cochrane talks with Linda at Brother about these great products. The PT-90 is $29, the PT-1290 is $39 and a PC connectable for $79 (which is a straight up printer for your PC).

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Last year when Todd talked to John about Spot, we learned that GPS tracking can be vital for those who go off the beaten path. The device has been used in over 500 rescues. This year, they are back with the new SPOT GPS Messanger.

Scott talks with Derek about this new version of the GPS tracker. The device sends a geolocation message to check in. If you are in trouble, the device will send an SOS. It will also send an automated tracking mode that can update Googlemaps on a 10 min interval. Real-time data can be sent to friends and family, or to a social network like Facebook or Twitter.

The service is $100 per year, and utilizes the SPOT Satellite Network .

Height: 3.7″ (9.4 cm)
Width:  2.6″ (6.6 cm)
Thickness:   1″ (2.5 cm)
Weight: 5.2 oz (147.4g)
Operating Temp: -30C to 60C (-22F to 140F)
Operating Altitude: -100m to +6,500m(-328ft to +21,320ft)
Humidity Rated:MIL-STD-810F, Method 507.3, 95% to 100% cond.
Vibration Rated:Per SAE J1455
Battery:  3 AAA Energizer™ Lithium Ultimate 8X

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