Microsoft Coffee Table

Popular Mechanics Microsoft Surface Video - Touchscreen, Multi Touch Coffee Table: "The software giant has built a new touchscreen computer—a coffee table that will change the world. Go inside its top-secret development with PopularMechanics.com, then forget the keyboard and mouse: The next generation of computer interfaces will be hands-on."

Way cool.

African Bushmen Track Wildlife with PDAs

Discovery Channel :: News - Technology African Bushmen Track Wildlife with PDAs: "In Africa, one might expect to see a lion with a fresh kill, a baboon with a toothy grin, or an elephant with its herd. But a Bushman with a PalmPilot? It's possible.

Expert hunters and gatherers such as the Bushmen, the indigenous people of the Kalahari Desert, are being equipped with smart phones with special software for tracking plants and animals. Called CyberTracker, the free program combines a database of icons of animals and plants with GPS software to allow people who cannot read or write to record complex information."

Checkers Solved: It's a Draw

Checkers Solved: With 500,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible play positions, checkers has been solved for every possible smart move.

Faculty Summit 2007: Bright Future for Computing

Faculty Summit 2007: Bright Future for Computing: "On July 15-17, Microsoft Research Redmond’s External Research & Programs (ER&P) group will host the eighth annual Faculty Summit, for which more than 350 academic leaders, representing 175 institutions, will gather at the Microsoft Conference Center to discuss how computing is being used in virtually every educational discipline."

Programming with Pictures

Programming with Pictures: "many computer science departments are a quarter century behind on adapting their instructional methods for the purpose of attracting and retaining students, continuing to teach the gateway course to the field — introductory programming — just as they did 25 years ago."

We can fix this!

'Smart' Cars as Efficient as Hybrids

Discovery Channel News Technology The future of traffic control & fuel savings: "So-called 'intelligent' cars fitted with sensors to predict traffic flows can deliver the same fuel efficiency as vaunted hybrid vehicles, according to a study published on Wednesday.

"... 'Intelligent' cars are conventional vehicles... fitted with telematics.

These are sensors and receivers that work in a network, swapping information about the traffic ahead in order to speed up the car or slow it down so that the ride is smooth and avoids the stop-start phenomenon that so drains fuel."

'Guessing' robots navigate faster

New Scientist Tech 'Guessing' robots navigate faster: "Robots that use educated guesswork to build maps of their surroundings are being tested by US researchers. The approach could let them navigate more easily through complex environments such as unfamiliar buildings, the researchers claim."