Now you see me, now you don't...

Its emerged this week (not that you would be able to see it) that scientists have created two new types of materials that are edging us closer to the invention of that must-have Harry Potter-accessory, the invisibility cloak.  Its been reported that new innovations by scientists at the University of California-Berkeley in the field of ‘meta-materials’ are capable of bending light the wrong way, leaving the potential for the creation of a  matter that is invisible to the human eye.

There are a couple of different approaches at work, but both have properties that are not found in nature – such as negative refractive indexes, which means that rays are refracted on the same side of the material on exposure, rather than being absorbed or permeating  the object. Whilst this is on a nano scale at the moment – and for the foreseeable future, no one is going be hiding tanks from satellites, it does raise the suggestion that some time in the future this could develop further, and there is the possibility for 'cloaking' an object, or a person.

And whilst my head is no where near egg-shaped enough to understand the complexities, it does raise a few questions…

Like a true superhero - would you choose to use the powers of such an innovation for good or bad? Whilst keeping it clean, because I know what a lot of peoples first reaction would be (!), I can see the benefits of an invisibility cloak. It would make getting into nightclubs easier when I’ve got trainers on, and I can’t see me paying for the tube any time soon. However, there’s a lot of people out there who might just start engaging in some undetected robberies and a whole lot of industrial espionage. Not to mention the possibilities for terrorists no longer needing to hide a sniper when a world leader walks past…

I would have liked to have put a picture up of what the cloak might look like, then I realised that would be a bit pointless. Oh, and if you are thinking of getting one, just don’t lay it down anywhere and forget where you put it..

Tricky decisions and tough choices...

As my time at Tamar comes to a close (roughly about 7 weeks now) I have the daunting prospect of finally starting University.

One of the standard purchases every student seems to make before starting, especially for those reading Computer Science such as myself, is a trusty laptop. But with student loans being relied upon to get you through drinking the year away, budgeting is crucial... Yet you need to get something that won't be keeling over before the end of the next 3 years.

So where to start? The first decision is the standard Mac versus. Microsoft.

As Kristian would say, if you're gonna spend money on something that will last, go for the Mac. They're reliable and sturdy and of course, beautifully engineered. They won't fail on you last minute (unless you completely lose it and throw it out of a window), and if you really do need to run Windows on it, Leopard comes with Boot Camp. So assuming you have a copy of XP or (God forbid) Vista, you can run your Mac alongside with Windows with ease.

Now of course all of that is lovely and wonderful - but the cost is something you have to consider. The standard MacBook will burn a hole in your bank balance - at the lowest price of £699.00. With that you will get a 2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB of memory, 120GB hard drive and a Combo drive. Not much for your money considering, but the cost does contribute to the software you receive with your MacBook. Add an extra £130, and you'll get an extra GB of RAM, 40GB more hard disk space, and dual-layer superdrive.

At this point I'm starting to wince at the price. I had set myself a budget of £800/£900 but that was to include any software or accessories I'd require to completely kit myself out.. And I was sort of hoping it wouldn't have to reach that much.

So keeping the possibility of a Macbook in the back of my mind, rather than getting rid of it completely, I started to looking to alternatives.

I thought I had found the perfect thing... The Toshiba A300-1BZ. With a spec of 3GB memory, 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 15.4" screen, 250GB hard drive... With a cost of £649.99, how could you go wrong?

I'm not one to be obsessed with looks... Not much anyway... But this thing is sinfully ugly. It looks pretty nice on all the flashy photos provided by Toshiba... But in real-life the speakers look like something out of Alien, and they appear to have pinstriped a design across the base surface.

Now that's not a very strong negative argument, but to later find out it shares its memory for its graphics, instantly put it in the 'Not for me' pile. To some people this may not be a crucial turning point on decision making, but the finer print of my degree is 'Computer Science with Games Technology'.

Accepting I may have to actually reach my budget in order to get something worthwhile, I had a glance at the Sony VAIO. The screen is a little smaller than I'd have liked at 14.1", but it does undeniably make the whole thing lighter to carry around. The specs are almost identical to the Toshiba, but 50GB less hard disk space. The hard drive space is almost irrelevant as I had planned on investing in a MyBook external hard drive for around £64.99.

Unfortunately, their after-purchase support is pretty poor from previous experience, and I don't know if I'd be prepared to be stuck on a support line for hours on end, in the middle of night when I am desperately trying to complete coursework due in 5 hours time. However it's arguable that if I treat it with the love and care it deserves, it won't flip out on me and break in the first place.

Of course HP is always a winner when it comes to entertainment and quality, but unfortunately the extensive time they spend on the inside of the laptop doesn't stretch to the outside, and their products still remain bulky and ugly. The cost for such a high-quality product is also generally beyond my budget... So I won't bother making myself unhappy by browsing their site in full detail.

So I am still undecided... If you have any thoughts, please let me know!

Microsoft TouchWall

Deciding on what to put on that empty white wall in the office or boardroom? How about a painting, maybe something more high tech? How about a Digital Photo frame? No? Then how about turning that simple old white wall into a multi-touch interactive display? Sounds to good to be true, but yesterday Bill Gates demonstrated the new technology at the Microsoft CEO Summit in Redmond.

The new technology, known as TouchWall, refers to the touch screen hardware setup that will allow you to turn your wall into a user interface. The necessary software, known as Plex, is already built into the standard version of Vista.

At first, the technology might be confused with Microsoft Surface, which was introduced in 2007, but Microsoft made it clear that these two technologies are very different.

TouchWall is a fundamentally simpler mechanical system than Surface and while Microsoft Surface will costs close to £5,200, TouchWall will only cost you a couple of hundred Pounds.

TouchWall consists mainly out of three infrared lasers that scan the display surface. As soon as something breaks through the laser line, the information is captured by a camera which in turn feeds back the information to Plex.

The system allows for usual browsing, scrolling, basically everything you would do with a mouse pointer.

Only bad news though, Microsoft says it’s only a demo and that they don’t have any current plans to produce the hardware, so how about putting that painting back on the wall.