Tech Today w/ Ken May

Hi all! Starting January the 7th, we will be broadcasting from AM1520KVTA at 7am on Saturdays. This is a great step up, and we expect to have about 8x the listeners!

Looking to add some muscle to your mobile recording kit? MOTU waited to pull the curtain back on the MicroBook II until after NAMM , revealing a revamped portable audio interface for those who fancy tracking on-the-go. The studio-quality kit plays nice with both Mac and PC, offering a compact 4-input / 6-output, bus-powered recording option with 96kHz recording and playback support. Sporting inputs for mics (XLR), guitar, keyboard and powered speakers, the MicroBook II connects to your computer of choice via USB 2.0 and boasts on-board volume controls. All four inputs can be recorded simultaneously while internal CueMix tech allows for a unique stereo mix for each output pair. Speaking of outputs, the dimunuative box houses six of said channels alongside TRS 1/4-inch, stereo mini, S/PDIF, and 1/4-inch headphone offerings. You’ll have to wait until Spring to snag one, but for now hit the PR after the break for a full list of specs. Continue reading MOTU sneaks in MicroBook II post-NAMM, ships this Spring for $269 MOTU sneaks in MicroBook II post-NAMM, ships this Spring for $269 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink    |   |  Email this  |  Comments

What happens when you take a PogoPlug , add 8GB of flash storage, some radios (WiFi, GPS) and perhaps a few sensors, then stuff everything in a 3D-printed box? You get the F-BOMB (Falling or Ballistically-launched Object that Makes Backdoors), a battery-powered surveillance computer that costs less than $50 to put together using off-the-shelf parts. The 4 x 3.5 x 1-inch device, created by security researcher Brendan O’Connor and funded by DARPA ‘s Cyber Fast Track program, is cheap enough for single-use scenarios where costly traditional hardware is impractical. It can be dropped from an AR Drone , tossed over a fence, plugged into a wall socket or even hidden inside a CO detector. Once in place, the homebrew Linux-based system can be used to gather data and hop onto wireless networks using WiFi-cracking software. Sneaky . Paranoid yet? Click on the source link below for more info. F-BOMB $50 surveillance computer hides in your CO detector, cracks your WiFi originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink    |  Forbes  |  Email this  |  Comments

redletterdave writes “Microsoft chairman and philanthropist Bill Gates pledged $750 million to the troubled global AIDS fund on Thursday and urged governments to continue their support to save lives. Since the fund was launched 10 years ago, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given $1.4 billion to the charity, having already contributed $650 million prior to the latest donation. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria accounts for around a quarter of international financing to fight HIV and AIDS, as well as the majority of funds to fight TB and malaria.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

For a variety of obvious reasons, it’s impossible to reproduce the exact environment in which galaxies form. The lack of direct experimental tests for a the models astrophysicists use creates a disconnect between what astronomers observe and theoretical work. However, that barrier is being broken down by a combination of high-powered lasers and a new understanding of how lab-scale experiments can be related to vastly larger systems such as galaxies. Researchers at the Laboratoire pour l’Utilisation de Lasers Intenses (LULI), along with colleagues at various universities, have successfully simulated the magnetic fields that form in early galaxies. Naively, there seems to be no correspondence between the experiment and the real astrophysical system. The lab set-up is very small, works on a very short time frame, and uses carbon rods and lasers; the real environment for galaxy formation is clouds of gas and dark matter, and the time-scale is hundreds of millions of years. Nevertheless, a magnetic field strength (along with other effects) has been observed in the lab that corresponds to that experienced by early protogalaxies. Read the comments on this post

Computer meltdown? No backup? Well, at least your tunes are safe. Google Music just gained a new feature that lets you to download your entire library including purchased songs. A simple click in the Music Manager is all it takes to restore your entire collection — or just your purchased music — from the cloud . In addition, the web interface now allows you to select and copy multiple tracks to your device of choice. While there are no limitations when using the Music Manager, purchased items are restricted to two downloads each via the web interface. So next time your system crashes go right ahead — rev up that broadband and fill up those hard drives . Google Music now lets you download your entire library originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink   Phandroid  |  Android (Google+) , Google  |  Email this  |  Comments

What happens when you reply to an email in which the entire German Parliament is looped in? You send that mail server into complete and utter chaos which, i would assume, brings der legislative machine to a screeching halt. More »

Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has promised us a permanent Moon base by 2020 . Many people have been calling Newt’s vow a publicity stunt, while others have chimed in by attacking the idea of a lunar base in and of itself, with assertions like “real scientists know [a Moon base] is fantasy.” More »