Vista is Out!

Windows Vista finally came out yesterday! New PC, here I come...not. Oh well, I can always dream.

Three More Days...

Three more days until Windows Vista! The sleek new operating system is now shipping with some Dell computers, as well as a few Toshiba laptops. Windows Vista, myyyy precioussssss....

Cool New Camera

The new Olympus SP-550 UZ, announced today, looks pretty amazing. According to www.dpreview.com, (and therefore, Olympus), it has an 18x optical zoom, optical image stabilization, and 7.1 megapixels of pure joy. I would definiteley consider this if I didn't already own the awesome Canon PowerShot S3 IS.

Windows Vista - Ten Days Away!

In just ten "short" days, on January 30, Windows Vista will be released! Finally, I'll be able to start thinking about a getting a computer that can actually read CD's (my current one is so old that the disc drive no longer functions). Looks like some cool new machines are coming out, including the HP TouchSmart PC and the Dell XPS 710 H2C, not to mention some cool new laptops from ASUS.

Not Another Space Article! Thoughts on Extrasolar Planets

The year 1995 was a significant point in the history of science: two scientists at the University of Geneva discovered a planet orbiting the distant star 51 Pegasi. This was the first verified extrasolar planet discovery of the time, and now, twelve years later, over 200 extrasolar planets have been found orbiting other stars.

Although most planets discovered thus far are gas giants many times larger than Jupiter, some searches have turned up planets only a few times the size of Earth. On December 27th of 2006, just a few weeks ago, the first satellite designed specifically to find extrasolar planets was launched. The orbiting telescope, called CoRoT, was put into space by the European Space Agency, and is designed to find planets a few times the size of Earth.

Planet hunts are also in the future of NASA, with the Kepler mission, SIM PlanetQuest, and others. The tentative Terrestrial Planet Finder, or TPF, will search nearby star systems for planets roughly the size of Earth. In the event of the discovery of not only an Earth-sized planet, but chemical signatures of life as well, the age-old question of "are we alone?" would finally be answered. Although planets of a terrestrial-type are the holy grail, the larger cosmic bodies will not be forgotten. Gas giant planets should not be ruled out in the search for other Earths, as moons of several thousand miles in diameter are likely to be found orbiting these giants. Titan, for example, a moon of Saturn, is nearly as large as Mars and has a thick atmosphere. It is conceivable that a hypothetical gas giant could have a moon as large as Earth.

The search for extrasolar planets continues in 2007, and will likely turn up dozens of new worlds. With so many possibilities out there, one can be almost sure that the at least part of the future of humanity will lie in space...

Here are some cool sites on extrasolar planets:

PlanetQuest- http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm

The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia-

http://vo.obspm.fr/exoplanetes/encyclo/catalog.php

The Speculation Is Over: iPhone Announced.

Today, Apple told released details of the new iPhone, and I must say, this thing looks pretty sweet. With the capability of browsing the Internet, listening to songs, watching movies, viewing photos, and, of course, making calls, the iPhone looks like it will be a hot seller in the tech world. The sleek-looking media device has a huge 3.5-inch screen, a two megapixel camera, and amazing touch-sensetive technology. And as Steve Jobs said, its unbeleivably thin.

Rumors and pictures of the iPhone have passed through the Internet for months, and now, finally, techies and Mac-addicts are gonna get what they've been waiting for...

Here is a link to Apple's website so you can drool over pictures:

http://www.apple.com/

Technology Moves Forward in 2007...

With the Consumer Electronics Show, Macworld Expo, and the launch of Windows Vista all crammed into this month of January, new gadgets and products are coming out faster than consumers can get their hands on them. This week at CES, hundreds of gadgets and products are being announced, like a Blu-ray/HD-DVD combo drive from Korea's LG, new computers, a 108-inch television from Sharp, cool new digital cameras from Samsung, and even an external GPU from Taiwan's ASUS Computer.

Macworld, the Apple Computer show in San Francisco, with its keynote set for tomorrow, has people wondering if an "iPhone" or a full-screen video iPod will be announced. I am curious as well.

2007 looks like it will be an exciting year for technology, and with the new Microsoft operating system, Windows Vista, a wave of revised personal computer tech may start to sweep through America's homes and offices like the surf on the North Shore of Oahu. But, of course, not everyone will be using Windows Vista, as exemplified by Mac and Linux users.

Happy New Year...