■ The latest Mac Pro model
features dual quad-
core Xeon processors.
PHOTO COUR TES Y OF APPLE, INC.
with up to 33 million
possible configurations of the system.
But the eight-core
box is said to run up
to twice as fast as
the G5 quad, so if
you need the extra
crunching power,
here it is. The new
model will set you back at
least $3,997, plus whatever
extras you choose.
without using a browser. All in all,
Yahoo! is offering more than 3,400
desktop Widgets developed and
submitted by independent authors
from around the world. Best of all,
it’s free and runs on Mac OS X,
Win 2000, Win XP, and Vista.
PHOTO COURTESY
OF CELESTRON.
BE CAREFUL WHAT
YOU GOOGLE
■ The
VistaPix combines
8x magnification, fully coated
lenses, and three megapixel resolution.
WIDGETS 4 AVAILABLE
If you haven’t already checked out the
Widgets software available from
Yahoo! ( www.yahoo.com), it may be
time. If you already have, be advised
that Widgets 4 is now available.
Formerly named Konfabulator, it is
an application platform that engages
various small applications such as a
weather widget (displays weather
information), a digital clock, a stock
ticker, and so on. It includes the new
Flickr Widget, which is an extension of
the Flickr photo-sharing service. It helps
users to display, upload, and tag images,
and you can now do drag-and-drop
operations on larger groups of photos
and edit their tags and other information
Back in 2003, New Jersey
prosecutors charged Melanie
McGuire with first degree murder,
desecrating human remains, possession of a weapon for an unlawful
purpose, and perjury after her husband,
William McGuire, was found shot,
dismembered, divided among three
suitcases, and floating in the
Chesapeake Bay. Although not all the
evidence has been made public, data
gleaned from several seized computers
showed that Melanie did a Google
search on “how to commit murder” 10
days before the crime. She also scanned
the Web for such phrases as “
undetectable poisons,” “fatal insulin doses,”
“where to purchase guns illegally,” and
“how to find chloroform.” She faces 30
years to life if convicted, and hopefully
some extra time for computer illiteracy.
CIRCUITS
AND DEVICES
BINOCULARS WITH
DIGITAL CAMERA
■ The new Flickr Widget extends
Yahoo!’s photo-sharing service.
Sooner or later, every
male of the species
admires a female a
moment beyond what is
totally prudent, resulting in
the dreaded, “Take a
picture, buddy. It’ll last longer.” Well,
now you can, and from a safe distance.
Several manufacturers of binoculars are
now combining them with a digital
camera, so no matter what kind of a
birdwatcher you may be, you can record
noteworthy sightings for posterity and/or
the Internet with total discretion. You can
pick up a set at Wal-Mart for about $50,
but be advised that this will get you
resolution as poor as 0.3 megapixels,
which isn’t exactly high-res. But if you are
willing to shell out something closer to
real money, you can get both quality
optics and high digital resolution.
One example is the VistaPix 8 x 22
from Celestron, LLC (www.celestron.
com). It starts out with a basic 8 x 22 system and adds a three megapixel camera
with a 1.5-in flip-up color LCD screen for
previewing images. The LCD offers a 6x
digital zoom so you can look at details,
and a removable 8x telephoto lens
allows you to take close-up or high-magnification shots. In addition to still
photos, you can do sound-enabled video
captures, making movies of up to three
minutes in length. And just for the heck
of it, Celestron even threw in an FM
radio with earphones. The list price of
$251.95 seems pretty reasonable. Why
didn’t someone think of this sooner?
NEW COLOR
INSPECTION SYSTEM
PHOTO COURTESY OF NE W JERSEY OFFICE OF THE
AT TORNEY GENERAL.
Banner Engineering Corp.
( www.bannerengineering.
com) has introduced a pair of
vision sensors that, although not
particularly useful in the average
home, could come in handy if
you are involved in visible spectrum analysis on a commercial
level in such fields as packaging,
pharmaceuticals, and general
■ Accused Google murderer
Melanie McGuire.
June 2007 11