MSN Virtual Earth
Hopefully we can build apps around this (like Google Maps)…Today at “D” Conference in Carlsbad, CA, Microsoft founder Bill Gates presented his vision of MSN Virtual Earth, an exciting new component of Microsoft’s Search vision that gives consumers a deeply immersive search experience where they see what it’s like to be in a location and explore what they can do there. MSN Virtual Earth uses location as the way in which people interact with the information on the web so that they can more easily find, explore and plan activities relevant to that location. Link.
Is using an empty baked-bean can to grab a Wi-Fi signal from a mile away high technology? The answer is yes if you’re an entrant in Intel’s International Science and Engineering Fair being held this week in Phoenix. Steven Buss, an 18-year-old Wi-Fi buff from Palm City, Florida, built three different types of antennas to see which provided the greatest range for his wireless network 
Out here it pays to be self sufficient: the nearest town is across the Rupununi river and down a gruelling four-wheel-drive track – about three hours away in the dry season, or about three days away in the wet. There’s no telephone, no mains electricity, no anything really. Except, surprisingly, broadband internet access, in all its glory. With a satellite dish outside the house, and electricity provided by solar panels and a current inverter, DeFreitas is possibly the world’s least likely internet nerd. [
If you use Roxio Toast (Lite or Titanium) to make your own CDs/DVDs from audio purchased from the iTunes music store, those days are over if you upgrade to 6.1 – “Following discussions with Apple, this version will no longer allow customers to create audio CDs, audio DVDs, or export audio to their hard drive using purchased iTunes music store content” 
Shopping list, prices, and step-by-step instructions to build a durable and versitile home studio…for less than $100! This is a good guide if you want to make your own photo studio on the cheap. The sections are divided in to plumbing, nuts and bolts, electrical, oversized wood and backdrops. It looks like many of these things might already be laying around most basements, so you could do it for even less than $100. 
The new Sting-Ray Electric shares the original design characteristics of the Street Series Sting-Ray, but adds an electric motor and a battery pack in the form of a motorcycle engine casing so it looks even more like the chopper it originally emulated when it took the world by storm way back in the early sixties. The new Sting-Ray Electric will reach 14 mph and the battery will last up to two hours for a price of US$399. Those specs are distinctly commuter machine territory. 
