Microsoft business group president Jeff Raikes wants you to pirate Microsoft products. Actually, he'd rather you not steal software at all, but if you do, Microsoft wants you to steal from them. Why?
Because if you pirate a product, you're more likely to become attached, and dependent, on the software. Once you're locked in, you're more likely to purchase it, which is what Microsoft wants. This information fits with the Windows Genuine Advantage and all the Vista anti-piracy software if once you consider Jeff's notion that Microsoft does want to crack down but not so much that piraters turn elsewhere for their goods.
What should you take away from this? That Microsoft wants you to pirate their stuff. Have at it. – Jason Chen
If You're Going To Steal Software, Steal From Us: Microsoft Exec [Information Week via TechDirt]
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Animated T-shirts might not be new but when you hook them up to an old classic, like Pong, they become pretty damn smart.
Pong, for those of you old enough, was the height of computer gaming back in the 1980s and many a wet afternoon was spent twiddling knobs [in an innocent way], shouting at the screen and cursing your siblings – some things never change.
For around £15, Thinkgeek is selling this Animated Retro Table Tennis Shirt, powered by two AAA batteries in a concealed pack. The decal is even removable so that you can wash it. It’s not 3-D animated brilliance on display but it’s got a charm all of its own.-Martin Lynch
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Regardless of taste, or lack thereof, if you have a spare £500,000 knocking around in your skintight Starship cadet's uniform, you'll be able to buy your very own Starship Voyager-themed flat in Hinckley, Leics.
Designed by Tony Alleyne, who ran into a spot of bankruptcy, this lovingly crafted one-bedroom homage is now half the price it was when he tried to flog it on Ebay not so long ago. For your cash you get moulded walls, space age lighting, a life-size transporter room, and a ‘warp coil’, which replaced the fridge. It is quite stunning, if a bit OTT.
So let’s look at the math: he bought the flat for £27,000, went bankrupt after spending £175,000 doing it up (maxing out 14 credit cards on the way), tried to sell it for over £1,000,000 and has now dropped the price to £500,000. C’mon, help a Trekkie out. Penny for the ex-Starship Captain, anyone? Regardless of what happens, hats off to the incredibly, realistic make-over.-Martin Lynch
[Starship Voyager Flat]
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Intel has launched its first series of NAND-Flash disk drives, following in the steps of Samsung and SanDisk but, targeting the low-cost computer sector, to start. The Intel® Z-U130 Value Solid-State Drive sports a USB connector will be integrated on the motherboards going into newer PCs, notebooks and servers, alongside other devices.
The drives come in 1Gb and 2Gb flavours right now but there are 4Gb and 8GB versions coming out in the coming months. By the end of the year, Intel is planning to have 20Gb and 40GB versions later in the year and by next year there will be 80Gb and 160Gb versions.
However, when it comes to these larger capacities, you can forget value for money since they will cost two or three times more than current HDDs. The Intel drive has a read rates of up to 28Mb per second and write speeds of 20Mb per second. The advantages of solid state drives (SSDs) over existing hard disk drives include faster boot-up and restore times, faster application loading, silent running, more rugged and power efficient. You will be hearing a lot about these drives and new notebooks using them in the coming year.-Martin Lynch
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Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
