If you know anything about me, it’s that I love scooters. I drive this to work each day, and also own one of these, and I wrote a column about scooters called “Why Geeks Love Scooters” for ZDNet that was so popular it was posted in the break room at Apple, I was told.

Today I found a great history of the scooter in of course, the geeky web magazine/website, Gizmag. Here’s a little about the Vespa and then you can click over and read the whole history. Great piece!

“The scooter was invented in 1947 as a low cost alternative to the automobile in war-ravaged Europe – it was designed as transport for the masses and it caught on so quickly that it became one of the great transport phenomena to sweep the world in the 20th century. The Vespa (which means “wasp” in Italian) was the result of Enrico Piaggio’s determination to create a viable alternative to the automobile for the masses. As the war drew to a close, Enrico studied every possible solution to get production in his plants going again.

“A motor scooter was produced, based on a small motorcycle made for parachutists. The prototype, known as the MP 5, was nicknamed “Paperino” (the Italian name for Donald Duck) because of its strange shape, but Enrico Piaggio did not like it, and he asked Corradino D’Ascanio to redesign it.

“But the aeronautical designer did not like motorcycles. He found them uncomfortable and bulky, with wheels that were difficult to change after a puncture. Worse still, the drive chain made them dirty. However, his aeronautical experience found the answer to every problem. To eliminate the chain he imagined a vehicle with a stress-bearing body and direct mesh; to make it easier to ride, he put the gear lever on the handlebar; to make tyre changing easier he designed not a fork, but a supporting arm similar to an aircraft carriage. Finally, he designed a body that would protect the driver so that he would not get dirty or disheveled. Decades before the spread of ergonomic studies, the riding position of the Vespa was designed to let you sit comfortably and safely, not balanced dangerously as on a high-wheel motorcycle.”

Read the Complete History
Read Alice’s Column, “Why Geeks Love Scooters”

Gadgets are supposed to make you smart and efficient communicators, but researchers have a different story to tell. According to a study sponsored by HP (no wonder they fired Carly if HP was wasting money on these lame studies.) email distractions can cause a 10 point drop in your IQ, or double what smoking pot will do. Alice’s Demi Rant: I am not sure why they keep doing these stupid studies - talking on a cell phone while driving makes your responses equal that of an 80 year old, texting while walking makes you stagger like a drunk and so on. We get it! Why don’t we all just accept that using devices that make you do more than one thing at the same time will cause you to lose focus - I have called myself a “scattered freak” for years. That’s just the reality of the gadget era. Or maybe being hyper focused is just different, so chill out, man.

“Researchers at the University of London Institute of Psychiatry have found that the constant distractions of email and texting are more harmful to performance than cannabis. Those distracted by incoming email, phone calls and text messages saw a 10-point fall in their IQ, more than twice that found in studies of the impact of smoking cannabis, according to the researchers.

“Some 1,100 volunteers were used in the study, sponsored by HP. Half of those questioned said that they reply to emails instantly or as soon as possible, and one in five admitted to breaking off meals or social engagements to deal with email. This constant shifting of concentration makes the brain more tired and less focused, and causes the temporary IQ fall-off.” Source: Vnunet.com

By David Johnston
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews.com

Word has gotten out that Microsoft is going to be releasing Windows XP Professional 64-bit tomorrow. The new OS is actually based on Windows Server 2003 instead of Windows XP and will support only the newest Pentium 4’s with EM64T technology and Athlon 64/FX’s. Among other things, the new OS will allow for an increase in the maximum amount of RAM a system can have from 4GB to 16TB (so that shouldn’t become an issue for the home user for quite some time) and will run both existing 32-bit applications and new 64-bit applications natively.

Having used Windows XP Pro 64-bit Release Candidate 2 a bit, I can say that my system felt a bit more responsive overall though the improvement was not breathtaking. It is said that Microsoft will allow current users of Retail versions of Windows XP Professional to get a free upgrade to the 64-bit edition via a download on Windows Update, though this may deactivate your 32-bit license. Because of this, I’d highly reccomend checking to see if *all* of your hardware is supported by 64-bit drivers because you cannot use your existing 32-bit drivers. The most troublesome devices to find drivers for are printers and other peripherals as well as some soundcards (it’s funny that my nForce4’s onboard soundcard doesn’t have 64-bit drivers though the board was supposedly designed to be used with Windows XP 64-bit edition).
Source: Information Week

Calling All Research (and Carpeting) Experts: I don’t usually get too personal here but I have a pretty awful situation I could use some technical help with. Or maybe it’s chemical or scientific help. Here’s the story:

This week I finally got some new carpeting installed. Quick background: I bought a funky weekend place in Sonoma (with my CNET money pre-crash thank God) and it had the most horrible “salmon” aka “pink” carpeting throughout that I could not afford to replace until now. This week the installers came and I brought my cat up from San Francisco with me for company. The job was a two day job that of course turned into three, and yesterday she appeared after the installers left looking literally like a different cat. I honestly thought she went blind. She was disoriented, slipped off the couch like she couldn’t see the edges, paced the room back and forth until she would hit a wall and turn, and it was so upsetting and serious that I ended up having to drive to the only 24 hour animal hospital over an hour away where they immediately decided to keep her there for a battery of tests and observation.

This morning according to the hospital she showed signs of improving and now they think it might be the carpeting. (Last night they said it was impossible.) I went online and any Google search I could find on Stainmaster and cats turned up a bunch of respiratory stuff about birds. So my questions to the many smart scientists and home improvement experts in this audience are:

–Do carpet installers use glue or something toxic she could have eaten while hiding?
–Can walking on new super stain treated carpet harm an animal that licks and grooms itself as much as a cat?
–Should I ever bring her back to Sonoma now that the new carpeting is in?

Anyway, I apologize for not posting anything truly technical today. If you can do a beter Google search or know more about carpet technology, I would really appreciate it. My cat is 15 as of this psat Feb, and very small - about 6 pounds. Until yesterday she has been more active and nimble than cats half her age and her last medical exam showed no sign of any problem more than being a bit underweight. I have to leave now and go pick her up and drive back to the city and then back out to Sonoma to supervise the carpeting, so unfortunately that will be it for today from me. I feel bad because this week RealTechNews.com has had record traffic and I wanted to build on the wave, but I thank you for your understanding.

Ah science…sometimes it sure can bite you when you least expect it. If you find out anything please let me know. Thank you!
–Alice

I have to say that the PSP has eclipsed the Mac Mini in terms of geeky hack and projects. Sure, you can turn a Mini into a car entertainment server, but can you control everything in your home? (I am sure there is someone out there who just answered yes, but let’s move on to today’s story!) Engadget has a contest going for best hack, and here is a guy who did the ultimate PSP hack. Think of it as X10 on steroids:

“So far I have the ability to turn my lights on and off. Have full control (Play, Stop, Pause, Menu) of my DVD player, TIVO, and High Def TV, all wirelessly from my PSP. I can also send commands to my PC running Winamp to tell it to Play Stop and Pause my music, or even browser my playlists.

“To do most of the controlling I used this tiny little web server control box called the WACI NX. It’s great because it has an HTTP and FTP server and uses regular HTML to issue the commands making it the perfect match for my PSP, which does not support any fancy Javascripts or DHTML. The PSP talks to the WACI NX via wifi through the network. In turn the WACI emits the IR signal to the TV through one of my IR Emitters, just as if I had pressed the button on the remote.

“The WACI NX has a built in IR Learner so you can grab all of your remotes, learn all the button commands, and save them in the WACI to be played back and emitted later. You could even do macros so it sends out a sequence of button presses with a specified delay between each button press.”

The Complete How-To Here

We may as well call this AMD Day because the news is rolling in from all over the Web. When did you ever hear of of a company showing a product early because a team executed better than expected?! AMD is on Fire!! Here’s some more info from our friends at Extreme Tech:

“Advanced Micro Devices will announce its dual-core “X2″ desktop processors in an event in New York later today, months in advance of earlier predictions. The new X2 chips, priced between $537 and $1,001 in individual lots, will range in speed from between a rating of 4200+ to 4800+, with actual speeds of between 2.2- and 2.4-GHz. AMD isn’t characterizing the event as a “launch” for the new X2 parts, as the dual-core processors will be released to OEMs in time for X2 PCs to be delivered in June.

“The new X2s were complemented, as expected, by a rollout of the company’s first dual-core Opterons, which will be released in two phases: the models 865, 870, and 875 for 4-way servers and above are scheduled to be delivered immediately to OEMs, while the 265, 270, and 275 for 2-way machines will be shipped in late May, AMD said.

“AMD originally scheduled the X2 to ship in the latter half of the year. However, AMD pulled the schedule in after AMD’s manufacturing teams executed better than expected, according to Ben Williams, vice president of AMD’s commercial business.

“The new X2s will not require a new heat sink or socket, and can be used with existing motherboards. AMD will draw distinctions between the company’s “Direct Connect” architecture that ties memory controllers directly to the processor core, and Intel’s own Pentium D approach, which funnels memory requests through a single unified front-side bus, Williams said. The differing speed grades will be enabled through a combination of clock speed and cache size. The 4800+ and 4400+ processors will contain a full megabyte of level-2 cache per core, while the 4600+ and 4200+ will use 512 Kbytes of level-2 cache per core. ” Source: ExtremeTech

I think it finally happened. Intel became Mircosoft and AMD is now Google. Or something like that.

Not sure about you, but I turned my PC around years ago.

It was much easier finding one CD button on the “back” when I wanted to install new software or play a game, than it was to find a free USB port, a mic jack, the monitor plug that got disconnected and on and on. Eventually I added a second 7 port USB hub and a keyboard with 2 built in USB ports, I screwed my monitor plug in as tight as it could go. made sure my speakers and mic were not going anywhere, and over time kept the hassle down to a minimum.

But here’s an innovative use of your empty front 5.25 in drive bay (if you have one): a 20-in-one panel that gives you a set of built in memory card readers, USB ports, Firewire, audio and more. Looks tempting but I don’t think it’s worth it. Here’s hoping all future PCs come with more front-side connectors going forward.

Would you add one? Now would you, if I told you it was $35?

More Info Here (3DXtreme via Gizmodo)

Did you know that DRAM prices have fallen over 40% this year? Sounds pretty good. But did you know that if you can hold out on a new system or memory upgrade a few more weeks, even lower prices are just around the corner?

“The plummeting price of DRAM (dynamic RAM) chips bodes well for consumers buying a new PC or looking to add a bit of speed to their aging computers. PC vendors often put a bare minimum of DRAM into new computer systems to keep costs down, but many software applications will perform better the more RAM they have available.

“The ongoing price declines should also prompt DRAM makers to more aggressively promote the next generation of double data rate DRAM, dubbed DDR2, on which profit margins are greater. That could cause DDR2 to overtake DDR as the most widely used type of computer memory in the second half of the year, said Crystal Lee, DRAM industry analyst at ABN-Amro in Taipei.

“The falling prices will likely cause two major changes in mainstream DRAM technology this year: the transition to DDR2 from DDR, and to 512Mb chips from 256Mb ones, said Joyce Yang, a manager at DRAMeXchange. The company expects 512Mb DDR2 running at 533MHz to become the next mainstream chip, beating out the 400MHz version of the same chip, because the 533MHz chip runs faster with the front side bus used in newer PCs.

“But prices on both kinds of chips should continue to decline in the near term, thanks to increases in production and because the second quarter is traditionally the slow selling season for PCs. Users looking for more DRAM — or a new PC — should aim to make their purchase in late June, before makers begin restocking ahead of the back-to-school season, said Lee.” Source: InfoWorld