Human Immortality By 2040?
Possibly in the future, circa 2040 (about 30-40 years time) we could have nanotechnology expand the average life of a human being and lead to immortality. This may all seem far-fetched but the technology seems to be plausible and could in fact become a reality. Microscopic machines could be running around our bodies, repairing damaged cells or organs and possibly even backing-up our memories. Raymond Kurzweil says that nanotechnology and biotechnology could be combined together to get rid of disease, cancer, obesity and diabetes. He also stated that "The full realization of nanobots will basically eliminate biological disease and aging. I think we'll see widespread use in 20 years of [nanotech] devices that perform certain functions for us. In 30 or 40 years, we will overcome disease and aging. The nanobots will scout out organs and cells that need repairs and simply fix them. It will lead to profound extensions of our health and longevity." Nanotechnology has already been used by researchers at MIT to kill ovarian cancer in mice. Kurzweil also stated that by 2024 we could be adding an extra year to our life expectancy by every year that passes by. So in around 40 years we could more or less become immortal. He also says that this is the point of being human – basically – to evolve. "The definition of human is that we are the species that goes beyond our limitations and changes who we are," he said. "If that wasn't the case, you and I wouldn't be around because at one point life expectancy was 23. We've extended ourselves in many ways. This is an extension of who we are. Ever since we picked up a stick to reach a higher branch, we've extended who we are through tools. It's the nature of human beings to change who we are." But be careful, because just as helpful it can be it, it can also be just as harmful.
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Facebook Introduces 'Gross National Happiness Index' App
Facebook's recently introduced "Gross National Happiness Index" application aims to represent the happiness levels of the user base in graph form. It currently only charts happiness for users based in the United States, but it does so by looking out for keywords in status updates, giving words such as "happy", "awesome" and "yay" a positive score, while those such as "tragic", "doubt" and "sad" earn a negative score. According to a survey carried out on some users, Facebook also found that those using more positive words in their updates tended to report being more satisfied with their lives.
Now, some of you may be thinking that analysing the status updates of users is going to throw up some privacy issues. According to Facebook the research doesn't even involve staff reading updates, with computers doing the work of counting keywords after any personally identifiable info has been removed. For convenience the app points out important dates when spikes of positivity occur, such as the 4th of July for example. The extremity of the spikes reduces as more users are sampled (which has something of a normalising effect). What should be intriguing to see, is some comparison between geographical regions if Facebook extends the app to cover other countries (I wonder if it would tally with the Happy Planet Index). You can find the United States Gross National Happiness Index application in the prototype app section on Facebook.
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Thousands of Hotmail Passwords Posted Online
Though the information has now been removed, it has been confirmed that thousands of passwords for Hotmail accounts were posted online on October 1st by an anonymous user at pastebin.com. The list contained details for over 10,000 accounts beginning with the letters A and B, with the suggestion that there could be additional lists of comprimised accounts. Neowin were the first to report the leak, and claim that most of the accounts appear to be based in Europe and include those with @hotmail.com, @msn.com and @live.com endings. According to BBC news, Microsoft are aware of the problem and requested that the details be removed as soon as it learned of the leak. It has determined that it was not a breach of internal Microsoft data, with the details likely being acquired through a phishing scheme. If you use a Hotmail account (or anything else that requires your Windows Live details, say Messenger), then it is suggested that you change your password (and security question) as soon as possible.
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"Free" Upgrade to Windows 7 May Not Be Free After All
Remember all of the manufacturers and retailers saying that if you buy a computer with Windows Vista loaded on the machine after June 26th, that you can upgrade to Windows 7 after its release for free? Remember the stir it caused? Well, as it turns out, those upgrades may not be free after all. Some manufacturers and retailers/e-tailers may have you pay the shipping and handling charge for your "free" upgrade. Lenovo, HP, and Dell all have listed in their terms and conditions that they may charge for shipping and handling. MousePrint.org contacted the manufacturers and put together a nice little chart to figure out if you have to pay or not:
| Manufacturer | Fees |
| Acer/eMachines/Gateway | $0 |
| Compaq | $0 for most buyers; others pay $12.99 for first kit |
| Dell | $0 for US online and retail purchasers |
| HP | $0 for most buyers; others pay $12.99 for first kit |
| Lenovo | $17.03 all buyers |
| Sony | $0 for some buyers; $14.99 for others |
| Toshiba | $0 for most buyers; $11.25/$12.99 for others |
Other notes of interest are that Vista Home Basic doesn't qualify, and neither does XP (sorry netbook users). Also, if you bought the boxed version of Vista, you have to pay Microsoft $9.99 for shipping and handling.
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NVIDIA Releases new GeForce 191.07 WHQL Drivers
NVIDIA just released new drivers for their cards (here for Windows 7/Vista 32-bit, here for 7/Vista 64-bit, here for 32-bit XP, and here for 64-bit XP), and they come with some improvements listed below. For all of the improvements and bug fixes, see the release notes (here for Windows 7, here for Vista, and here for XP).
Adds support for OpenGL 3.2 for GeForce 8, 9, 100, 200-series and ION GPUs. Adds SLI support for Aion, Darkfall, Dawn of Magic 2: Time of Shadows, Dreamkiller, Fuel, Need for Speed: Shift and more. Includes the following key fix: for graphics cards supporting multiple clock states, 3D clocks correctly return to 2D clocks after exiting a 3D application. Accelerates performance in several games, such as (comparison between 191.07 and 190.62 drivers, results may vary): o Up to 50% performance increase in Call of Juarez: Blood in Bound with SLI enabled
o Up to 34% performance increase in Prototype with antialiasing enabled
o Up to 14% performance increase in Fallout 3 (indoor scenes) with antialiasing enabled
o Up to 12% performance increase in ARMA 2
o Up to 10% performance increase in Far Cry 2 (DX9 version) with antialiasing enabled
o Up to 8% performance increase in Batman: Arkham Asylum with GPU PhysX enabled
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Samsung Designs an Android Phone
T-Mobile has announced the fourth Android phone in its catalog, the Samsung Behold II. The Behold will be the first Android based phone released by Samsung in the United States. The phone will be available later this year, though an official date hasn't been announced. The phone will feature the TouchWiz interface, allowing users to customize the home screen with one of three options. Notable features of the phone include a 3.2 inch touch screen, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a GPS.
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New Windows Mobile Phone Coming to AT&T
A new phone from handset maker HTC will soon be available for AT&T customers. The HTC Pure is a version of the HTC Touch Diamond2, and will feature Windows Mobile 6.5. The phone will retail for $149 and will feature a 3.2 inch touch screen. The 3G enabled phone will also feature Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a GPS. Media capabilities include a 5 megapixel camera, an FM radio, but the phone lacks a 3.5mm headphone jack. The Pure will bring another touch screen competitor to the AT&T lineup, but how will it fare against the iPhone?
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