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I finally found out what the “mystery product” from Microsoft is: Microsoft Surface. It doesn’t come cheap though, expect to cough up between US$5,000 and US$10,000. So what is this “surface computer” thingy from Microsoft?

Microsoft Surface, which has a 30-inch display under a hard-plastic tabletop, allows people to touch and move objects on screen for everything from digital finger painting and jigsaw puzzles to ordering off a virtual menu in a restaurant.

It also recognizes and interacts with devices placed on its surface, so cell phone users can easily buy ringtones or change payment plans by placing their handsets on in-store displays, or a group of people gathered round the table can check out the photos on a digital camera placed on top.

The world’s largest software maker said it will manufacture the machine itself and sell it initially to corporate customers, deploying the first units in November in Sheraton hotels, Harrah’s casinos, T-Mobile stores, and restaurants.

Cool, eh? This will probably be the first generation of those computers you see in Minority Report.

A family from Illinois is suing Microsoft, claiming that an XBox 360 overheating power supply sparked a fire that killed their infant son:

According to the suit, the wiring that connected the Xbox 360 to an electrical outlet became so hot that it started a “catastrophic” fire at a house in Warsaw, Illionis. The victim, an infant named Wade Kline, died in the inferno.

“The fire was a direct and proximate result of the overheating of the game’s power supply and wiring,” claims the lawsuit, which was filed in State Circuit Court in Illinois. Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and an unnamed power-supply maker have been named in the suit.

Hmm… what an event to preceed Microsoft’s planned launch of a “mystery product”. Perhaps the mystery product is a fireproof power supply unit for the XBox 360

Apparently a lot of creative works of art.

Recycled art?

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 21 May 2007: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today simultaneously launched the fastest microprocessor ever built and an ultra-powerful new computer server that leverages the chip’s many breakthroughs in energy conservation and virtualization technology. The new server is the first ever to hold all four major benchmark speed records for business and technical performance.

Read the rest of IBM Unveils World’s Fastest Processor »

Although aircons may not necessarily be the cause of such hard disk deaths directly, it’s the most frequent trigger for power surges that makes your hard disks fry according to Associated Content:

“On average we see a 20% increase in failed hard drives hitting our lab in the summer as in the winter,” Carmitchel says. “We also see a seasonal change in the types of problems hard drives experience. In the warmer months, we diagnose far more electronic-related issues. From surveying some of our customers, we’ve found that power surges caused by air conditioners may play a significant role in the springtime increase.”

Home cooling systems can increase the electricity usage in a house by 50%, and this additional strain can cause dangerous power surges and outages that damage computers. It’s not just air conditioners that threaten data during the warmer months, either–a larger amount of thunderstorms and hot Summer weather can mean the end of hard drives and with them, computer users’ valuable information.

The article makes me wonder what sort of power consumption levels do aircon units in the US have? It must be significant to cause such noticable surges.

I use a 1.5HP Carrier (the aircon is good but the web site sucks; you have been warned!) air con unit, and it doesn’t seem to be causing me any pains… thankfully