Adult Star Ron Jeremy Talks Porn at CES

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2357912,00.asp

Adult Star Ron Jeremy Talks Porn at CES
01.08.10
by Brian Heater

LAS VEGAS - "Porn King" Ron Jeremy brought a little bit of the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo to the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Friday for a debate on the ins and outs of pornography in the age of the Internet.

Jeremy and Craig Gross, an anti-pornography media activist, faced off for "The Great Porn Debate," though the event was really more a light-hearted discussion.

Jeremy kicked off his opening remarks by referring to pornography as entertainment, not unlike football games. "World of sport versus world of spurts," he joked to the groans of the crowd."

"Porn is a cheap substitute for sex," countered Gross. "[It] has become [childrens'] sex ed. It's a false expectation."

Jeremy insisted that the industry only caters to the over-18 crowd. "We don't want kids to watch porn," he told the crowd. Though if they do, he added, there are far worse influences out there — like video games. "[Studies have] found that violent video games are much bigger a negative influence on kids."

Gross, on the other hand, argued that even while the porn industry may not be targeting children specifically, the Internet has made adult content nearly ubiquitous.

"The Internet has changed the game completely. What we used to have to work hard to find, you now have to work hard to avoid," Gross said.

The filtering, Jeremy argued, should be up to the parents. "Parents better start to learn the Internet," Jeremy said.

Gross, it seems, agreed with the sentiment, telling the crowd, "For the most part, kids are smarter about technology than their parents. That has to change."

Gross did, however, happily take a shot at Jeremy's own tech savvy, adding, "Ron uses a fax machine. If you want to get a hold of him, you have to send him a fax."

Anybot's QA: The Best Humanoid Robot Yet

http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/technology_news/4298623.html

January 9, 2009
Anybot's QA: The Best Humanoid Robot Yet

Las Vegas– Every year, we hope for the best. We prowl the tiny neighborhood of robotics-related booths here at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, dutifully covering the various models aspiring to be the next Roomba (while looking and performing suspiciously similar to it) and DIY kits for making your own 12-in.-high breakdancing humanoid robots. This time around, there was a $6000 fuzzy baby seal that stands in for traditional animal therapy, batting its eyes at you and responding to petting. There was also the Automower from Husqvarna, essentially a giant Roomba that autonomously cuts grass. Unless iRobot introduces a new model, the Robotics Techzone is usually a complete disappointment, another reminder of the fragile, early state of the consumer robotics market.

But this year, for the first time, a robot showed up with all the eerie promise and engineering rigor that’s been missing from this corner of the convention. The QA from Anybots is a humanoid robot with no arms, that balances, Segway-like, on two wheels. It’s designed for telepresence, giving off-site users a physical, mobile presence during meetings, factory tours or inspections. When a user is logged on to the QA, it’s LED eyes light up. If more than one person is speaking through the robot, the eyes switch back and forth between each user’s designated eye color. When the QA is driven around, it autonomously steers itself around obstacles, using a bottom-mounted LIDAR (or laser radar) sensor along with its neck-mounted visible/infrared camera. It also has a green laser pointer, allowing users to point out something on a whiteboard or factory floor, something that Anybots engineers claim is a surprisingly common necessity during telepresence situations.

The market for this robot is, admittedly, limited. It costs around $30,000 at the moment, putting it in the reach of a select few corporate customers with regular telepresence needs. Or, as Anybots hopes, maybe a tech-savvy company like Google will simply think it’s too cool not to try. But whether anyone actually buys the QA, it’s an inspiring piece of technology, from a company that’s already made news for its research into humanoid walking robots. The QA, says Anybots, is a stripped-down bot, intended to help make companies comfortable with the idea of having robots around the workplace, and paving the way for more sophisticated models, such as ones with arms.

The QA is impressive in its own right, a 50-pound robot with a sleek, androgynous humanoid design and enough self-balancing algorithms to keep itself upright after we shoved it across the both. Anybots hopes to eventually bring the price down as low as $5,000, but the real goal is that quasi-philosophical acceptance of workplace robots, in this case as a surrogate for off-site employees. If there’s enough customer demand for arms, Anybots could apply its ongoing research into hydraulic limbs in follow-up models. For now, this is the closest CES has ever come to the heady potential of robotics as inspirational technology. Whether it sells or not, or ushers in a wave of ambitious, sophisticated robots, the QA’s most important job for the moment is to stand there, and look as cool as a robot should.

—Erik Sofge

The Ultimate Virtual Driving Experience

http://compsimgames.about.com/b/2009/01/12/from-ces-the-ultimate-virtual-driving-experience.htm

From CES - The Ultimate Virtual Driving Experience
Fred Zahradnik
Monday January 12, 2009

LAS VEGAS - The Consumer Electronics Show has its share of practical devices, but it's also a great place to have some fun with over-the-top tech toys you just won't find at your local Best Buy. That's certainly the case with SimCraft's Apex SC830 (shown in the photo) which is used by real race car drivers and pilots, but is destined for the consumer market, as well. The Apex SC830 features a chassis suspended over hydraulic mechanisms that add instantaneous and realistic motion loading to your driving or flying experience. Driving the Apex SC830 is downright exhilarating (until you spin into a wall), and can be all yours for just $39,000. There may be a more affordable SimCraft in the future, as the company is working on a consumer model for to be released in 2010.

Steve Jobs, tech's last celebrity CEO

http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/19/technology/fortt_tech_ceos.fortune/

Steve Jobs, tech's last celebrity CEO
With the Apple chief's decision to step out of the spotlight at next month's Macworld Expo, an era comes to an end.
By Jon Fortt, writer
December 19, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO (Fortune) -- Where have all the high-flying tech CEOs gone?

This week the tech world lost another headliner when Apple CEO Steve Jobs made it known that he'll no longer deliver his signature keynote speech at next month's Macworld Expo trade show.

Since the announcement comes the same year that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates gave up his traditional keynote at another high-tech extravaganza, the Consumer Electronics Show, it underscores the fact that there aren't many superstars left who can rally big crowds and carry the banner for tech.

It had to happen eventually. The sun is setting on the first generation of rebellious whiz kids who invented the PC, commercialized the Internet and grew their companies into powerhouses.

In bygone days, Gates regularly talked up his plans for world domination. Scott McNealy, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, led a defiant rebellion against Gates and his Redmond, Wash., juggernaut. Craig Barrett, the outspoken former CEO of Intel, ushered the chipmaker's glorious entrance into the age of mobile and wireless computer.

Today, all three have stepped back from operational roles, and are more likely to champion education policy than to unveil the next must-have gadget or service. Even the sole remaining old-school tech CEO, Oracle's Larry Ellison, is keeping a lower profile these days; he's in the news for his yachts and planes as much as anything else.

Help Wanted: A few geeky CEOs

The rest of today's crop of CEOs is a different breed. As innovators like Intel and Microsoft have grown into corporate giants, they haven't looked for clones of their iconoclastic founders to take over; instead, they've looked to manager/salesmen like Intel's Paul Otellini, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, Hewlett-Packard's Mark Hurd and IBM's Sam Palmisano.

These guys are uber managers, not tech visionaries. They may be business-school rock stars, but engineers don't line up for their autographs.

Given the way companies mature, perhaps it's only natural that the current crop of CEOs looks different from the last. It takes one set of skills to think up a brilliant new idea, motivate starry-eyed recruits and inspire investors. It takes an entirely different set to manage thousands of employees, glad-hand customers and placate Wall Street; and it's rare to find all those skills in one person.

Are there any leaders left with geek cred? Sure - Web 2.0 celebrities like Google's Eric Schmidt, Sergey Brin, and Larry Page, and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg have plenty - but none of them could be mistaken for inspirational speakers. Likewise, Adobe's Shantanu Narayen and AMD's Dirk Meyer have impressive engineering chops, but they seem more comfortable in the lab than on the stage.

In the end, the guy best suited to draw a crowd and speak for tech is probably Michael Dell - but Dell Inc. is in such rough shape that he won't have much time for speeches.

Which brings us back to Steve Jobs. So as long as he remains at the helm of Apple and its products stay popular, we're not likely to miss his Macworld keynote too much - when he has something to say, he'll figure out ways to draw a crowd. The question is what happens when His Steveness steps away from the company, or when its products are no longer the toast of the town.

When that happens - and it's a matter of when, not if - we may all get wistful about the good old days of the Macworld keynote, when the techies of the world huddled like kids on Christmas, and expected to be blown away.

GM envisions driverless cars on horizon

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080107/ap_on_hi_te/gadget_show_driverless_cars

GM envisions driverless cars on horizon
By TOM KRISHER, AP Auto Writer
1-7-8

Cars that drive themselves — even parking at their destination — could be ready for sale within a decade, General Motors Corp. executives say.

GM, parts suppliers, university engineers and other automakers all are working on vehicles that could revolutionize short- and long-distance travel. And Tuesday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner will devote part of his speech to the driverless vehicles.

"This is not science fiction," Larry Burns, GM's vice president for research and development, said in a recent interview.

The most significant obstacles facing the vehicles could be human rather than technical: government regulation, liability laws, privacy concerns and people's passion for the automobile and the control it gives them.

Much of the technology already exists for vehicles to take the wheel: radar-based cruise control, motion sensors, lane-change warning devices, electronic stability control and satellite-based digital mapping. And automated vehicles could dramatically improve life on the road, reducing crashes and congestion.

If people are interested.

"Now the question is what does society want to do with it?" Burns said. "You're looking at these issues of congestion, safety, energy and emissions. Technically there should be no reason why we can't transfer to a totally different world."

GM plans to use an inexpensive computer chip and an antenna to link vehicles equipped with driverless technologies. The first use likely would be on highways; people would have the option to choose a driverless mode while they still would control the vehicle on local streets, Burns said.

He said the company plans to test driverless car technology by 2015 and have cars on the road around 2018.

Sebastian Thrun, co-leader of the Stanford University team that finished second among six teams completing a 60-mile Pentagon-sponsored race of driverless cars in November, said GM's goal is technically attainable. But he said he wasn't confident cars would appear in showrooms within a decade.

"There's some very fundamental, basic regulations in the way of that vision in many countries," said Thrun, a professor of computer science and electrical engineering.

The Defense Department contest, which initially involved 35 teams, showed the technology isn't ready for prime time. One team was eliminated after its vehicle nearly charged into a building, while another vehicle mysteriously pulled into a house's carport and parked itself.

Thrun said a key benefit of the technology eventually will be safer roads and reducing the roughly 42,000 U.S. traffic deaths that occur annually — 95 percent of which he said are caused by human mistakes.

"We might be able to cut those numbers down by a factor of 50 percent," Thrun said. "Just imagine all the funerals that won't take place."

Other challenges include updating vehicle codes and figuring out who would be liable in a crash and how to cope with blown tires or obstacles in the road. But the systems could be developed to tell motorists about road conditions, warn of crashes or stopped vehicles ahead and prevent collisions in intersections.

Later versions of driverless technology could reduce jams by directing vehicles to space themselves close together, almost as if they were cars in a train, and maximize the use of space on a freeway, he said.

"It will really change society, very much like the transition from a horse to a car," Thrun said.

The U.S. government has pushed technology to help drivers avoid crashes, most notably electronic stability controls that help prevent rollovers. The systems are required on new passenger vehicles starting with the 2012 model year.

Vehicle-to-vehicle communication and technology allowing cars to talk with highway systems could come next.

Still in debate are how to address drivers' privacy, whether current vehicles can be retrofitted and how many vehicles would be need the systems to develop an effective network.

"Where it shakes out remains to be seen but there is no question we see a lot of potential there," said Rae Tyson, a spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
___
Associated Press Writer Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report.

Here comes the terabyte hard drive

http://www.news.com/Here-comes-the-terabyte-hard-drive/2100-1041_3-6147409.html

Here comes the terabyte hard drive
By Michael Kanellos
Fri Jan 05 2007

Last year, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies predicted hard-drive companies would announce 1 terabyte drives by the end of 2006. Hitachi was only off by a few days.

The company said on Thursday that it will come out with a 3.5-inch-diameter 1 terabyte drive for desktops in the first quarter, then follow up in the second quarter with 3.5-inch terabyte drives for digital video recorders, bundled with software called Audio-Visual Storage Manager for easier retrieval of data, and corporate storage systems.

The Deskstar 7K1000 will cost $399 when it comes out. That comes to about 40 cents a gigabyte. Hitachi will also come out with a similar 750GB drive. Rival Seagate Technology will come out with a 1 terabyte drive in the first half of 2007.

The two companies, along with others, will tout their new drives at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and will show off hybrid hard drives, as well.

A terabyte is a trillion bytes, or a million megabytes, or 1,000 gigabytes, as measured by the hard-drive industry. (There are actually two conventions for calculating megabytes, but this is how the drive industry counts it.) As a reference, the print collection in the Library of Congress comes to about 10 terabytes of information, according to the How Much Information study from U.C. Berkeley. The report also found that 400,000 terabytes of e-mail get produced per year. About 50,000 trees would be necessary to create enough paper to hold a terabyte of information, according to the report.

Who needs this sort of storage capacity? You will, eventually, said Doug Pickford, director of market and product strategy at Hitachi. Demand for data storage capacity at corporations continues to grow, and it shows no sign of abating. A single terabyte drive takes up less space than four 250GB drives, which lets IT managers conserve on computing room real estate. The drive can hold about 330,000 3MB photos or 250,000 MP3s, according to Hitachi's math.

Consumers, meanwhile, are gobbling up more drive capacity because of content like video. An hour of standard video takes up about 1GB, while an hour of high-definition video sucks up 4GB, Pickford said.

Consumers, though, tend to be skeptical of ever needing more storage capacity.

"We heard that when we brought out 1 gigabyte drives," Pickford said.

The boost in capacity for desktop drives comes in part through the introduction of perpendicular recording technology to 3.5-inch-diameter drives. In perpendicular drives, data can be stored in vertical columns, rather than on a single plane. Drive makers have already released notebook drives, which sport smaller 2.5-inch-diameter drives, with perpendicular recording. The 1 terabyte drives will be Hitachi's first 3.5-inch drives with perpendicular recording.

Currently, Hitachi sells 3.5-inch drives that hold 500GB of data, while Seagate has come out with a 750GB data drive.

Drive makers convert to perpendicular recording when the need for areal density, the measure of how much data can be crammed into a square inch, passes 125 gigabits. The terabyte drive (and the 750GB drive) can hold 148 gigabits per square inch, or 148 billion bits. Hitachi's previous 3.5-inch drives maxed out at 115 gigabits per square inch.

The hard drive turned 50 last year, and over the past five decades data capacity has increased at a fairly regular and rapid pace. The first drive, which came with the RAMAC computer, weighed about a ton and held 5MB of data.

Hard-drive scientists say that increases in capacity will continue because of technologies like heat-assisted recording and patterned media.