This laptop cooler - probably one of the better looking ones out there today - is not only equipped with a 3-port USB hub, it also comes with a 2.5-inch SATA HDD slot.

With the new GoPal P5430 Medion is emphasizing the extra large screen that measures 5″ diagonally. The rest of the features are also medium to high end. There’s even a finger print sensor. It uses the SiRF InstantFix II GPS receiver which reduces the time to first fix by guessing where those satellites might be.

MEDION GoPal P5430 comes with maps Western and Eastern Europe; provided by Navteq, and an integrated TMC traffic antenna to help you stay out the mess. Other features include:

• Avoid traffic jams with traffic Master
• Voice control
• High performance SiRF Titan 600 Mhz processor
• Text-to-Speech for precise traffic guidance
• Pre-loaded safety camera locations
• Lane and Speed advisor
• 3 GB memory

Actually it’s not Wikiscanner Creator Virgil Griffith’s laptop case above, but we can image how mystical it will. The below is a snip from Virginia Heffernan’s New York Times profile of Virgil Griffith, the creator of Wikiscanner.

Girls hang on Virgil Griffith. This is no exaggeration. At parties, they cling to the arms of the 25-year-old hacker whose reason for being, he says, is to “make the Internet a better and more interesting place.” The founder of a data-mining tool called WikiScanner, Griffith is also a visiting researcher at the mysterious Santa Fe Institute, where “complex systems” are studied. He was once charged, wide-eyed rumor has it, with sedition. No wonder girls whisper secrets in his ear and laugh merrily at his arcane jokes.
WikiScanner, which Griffith created last year, makes it possible to figure out which organization made which edits to a Wikipedia entry by cross-referencing IP addresses with a database of IP address owners. You can imagine how much fun this tool is to deploy — to see how someone with a senate.gov address tinkers with the Jeremiah Wright entry, or how Diebold apparently protects its reputation by deleting criticism of its voting machines and political connections. The promise of WikiScanner is to help free Wikipedia from both propaganda and sabotage. But Griffith says he also aspires “to create minor public-relations disasters for companies and organizations I dislike.”

He’s a troublemaker, then. A twerp. And a magnet for tech-world groupies. At the WebbyConnect conference in Southern California last month, I saw it with my own eyes: Griffith, enjoying a White Russian that I first mistook for chocolate milk, reveled in the attention of his female fans. He smiled broadly. He seemed like a young Henry Kissinger, but sweet, or Arthur Fonzarelli, but not a dropout. from NYT: Internet Man of Mystery

OK, the whole Star Wars thing? A little misleading.

Basically, the Herald Sun is reporting on a technology that involves firing a laser beam accurate enough to puncture a hole in an individual cell. Sounds more like The Authority--or any other Mark Millar-written comic--than Star Wars to me.

Anyway, Professor Kishan Dholakia and Dr. Frank Gunn-Moore--both of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland--say the "light saber" could be used routinely on cancer patients within the next five years.

The method would allow chemotherapy drugs to be pumped directly into cancer cells. The researchers believe hard-to-reach cancers such as that of the pancreas would especially benefit.

The researchers have managed to mount the light syringe on an optical fiber the width of a human hair. The next step is to develop it for use on endoscopes, the tubes used by surgeons to pass miniature cameras through the body.

"You could think of these as tiny light sabers like they had in Star Wars inside your body," Gunn-Moore said.

"We can use lasers to punch tiny holes exactly where we want them," he continued. "We can produce a rod of light--sometimes described as a sword--that can even go around objects. It really does sound like science fiction."

So not really "Star Warsian," exactly, but mentioning Star Wars has surely led to better coverage of the team's research. But hey, if more coverage leads to more funding, then more power to them.

Scientists at the University of St Andrews in Scotland have developed a novel form of syringe, formed solely from light, that they hope will deliver highly targeted chemotherapy drugs.

(Credit: University of St Andrews)

via [cnet]

It’s also possible to search for programs by actor, title, director, and keyword, with additional functions including Daily Recommendations and Most Popular. Access to the site is open to all, even those without compatible TiVo DVRs, with the company seemingly pushing it as a general listings guide as well.

With $4000, you can get a GenevaSound Home Theater system. This all-in-one electronic-furniture hybrid features sleek piano-lacquered wooden cabinet that includes a 700-watt amplifier, 7 speakers, a 12-inch subwoofer, CD player, FM radio, and an integrated iPod/iPhone dock. The TV is not included, so you will need some extra cash for TV if you get this, that will be funny if a 15-inch was put on top on this cabinet.

Motorola has launched its new 5.0-megapixel camera phone, the VE66. Yup, it has the 5.0-megapixel camera with auto focus, LED flash, red eyes correction and auto stabilization functions. Its Crystal Talk technology is going to filter off those background noises, giving you a superior call quality. VE66 has the FastScroll navigation, a one touch wheel to get you easy with your music files and FM radio.

The phone also has an HSDPA/UMTS radio for 3G cellular access in both Europe and North America along with a Wi-Fi module. The Motorola VE66 will be available by the end of 2008 but pricing is still unavailable at the moment.