| Local CHP officers get new in-car computers
SANTA FE SPRINGS - CHP Officer Joe Zizi pulled over a driver for speeding Thursday morning on Orr and Day Road. With a few taps on his new laptop, Zizi verified that the driver did indeed match the photo on her driver license. It's something he wouldn't have been able to do a year ago. By Oct. 1, all officers in the California Highway Patrol's Santa Fe Springs office will be able to check drivers' DMV photos, map out routes via a global positioning system and write reports while still in the field. To date, only two of the office's 36 patrol cars have laptops with the new software. "Our car truly is an officer's office now," Zizi said. It's only been recently that CHP officers statewide were able to file reports online or access the Department of Justice's CalPhoto program for driver photos from their patrol cars, according to Officer Vinnie Smith of the CHP's Mobile Digital Computer Support Unit in Sacramento.
Buying an HP Pavilion laptop for GNU/Linux
A corporation is not the person the legal fiction makes it so much as a collection of different interests. I was reminded of this fact a couple of weeks ago when I went shopping for a laptop. Remembering that Hewlett-Packard almost singlehandedly solved the basic problem of laser printer support for GNU/Linux, I ended up buying one of the company's laptops. Consumer reports, price, and HP's listing as one of the greener hardware manufacturers according to Greenpeace also affected my decision, but my impression of HP as a free software friendly company was a large criteria. Unfortunately, the impression was skewed. In contrast to HP's printer division, the laptop division has almost no awareness whatsoever of non-Windows operating systems. Partly, this impression comes from my interaction with Sheridian the human auto-responder in HP technical support, who during our chat session, could only repeat such comments as "HP will support only for the preinstalled operating system" and "HP does not recommend to change the preinstalled operating system" and could only suggest that I call something he called "Liux support" but couldn't specify what he meant.
Matsushita knew about defective cellphone battery problem in May, sources say
Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. knew as far as back as May that a glitch in the manufacturing process could cause its cellphone batteries to overheat, but it decided not to publicize the fact, sources said. Since then, two accidents involving batteries used in cellphones made by Nokia Corp., the world's largest handset maker, have occurred in Japan alone. It was only on Tuesday that Nokia announced a worldwide recall of 46 million batteries made by the Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. subsidiary. According to the sources, Matsushita Battery was first informed by Nokia in December 2006 that its BL-5C lithium-ion battery could overheat. The month before, the company had renovated its production line for batteries used in Nokia handsets at its main factory in Moriguchi, Osaka Prefecture.
Review: New iMac is a tempting Apple for Windows user
NEW YORK - Apple Inc. has dropped "Computer" from its name, but its computer business is still growing, even if the iPod player is the company's real star. Apple's resurgence started with the first iMac, in 1998. Little by little, Apple has been persuading people to opt for Macintosh computers over Windows PCs. After Apple refreshed its iMac line last week, I decided to test one from the perspective of a Windows user. I found it to be a powerful if not completely irresistible enticement to switch. If you haven't looked at iMacs in a while, they now look like half a laptop - the display half, with the processor and other components built into the flat-panel screen. The new iMacs ditch the plasticky look that's been a hallmark of the line since the beginning, replacing it with an aluminum casing that's even thinner than before.
Nokia Announces Product Advisory for BL-5C Battery
Nokia today issued a product advisory for the Nokia-branded BL-5C battery manufactured by Matsushita Battery Industrial Co., Ltd. of Japan between December 2005 and November 2006. This product advisory does not apply to any other Nokia-branded battery. Nokia has identified that in very rare cases the Nokia-branded BL-5C batteries subject to the product advisory could potentially experience overheating initiated by a short circuit while charging, causing the battery to dislodge. Nokia is working closely with Matsushita and will be cooperating with relevant authorities to investigate this situation. Nokia has several suppliers for BL-5C batteries who have collectively produced more than 300 million BL-5C batteries. This advisory applies only to the 46 million batteries manufactured by Matsushita between December 2005 and November 2006, from which there have been approximately 100 incidents of overheating reported globally.
Whig.com
Missouri is the only state in the country lacking a mechanism to fund wireless 911 service, and 17 counties in the state have no 911 service at all. Efforts to bring such service to all of Missouri keep hitting a brick wall funding. Voters have twice turned down ballot initiatives to fund 911 statewide. State members of the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) say a simple user fee one that could be placed on tires or batteries, for example doesn't need voter approval. Such a fee could be tacked onto a cell phone owner's monthly bill for wireless 911 service. Missouri NENA President Mike Kimble said getting government officials to act on a measure is the group's challenge. Legislation was readied for this past session but never made it to a vote.
Review: New iMac tempts a Windows user
Apple Inc. has dropped "Computer" from its name, but its computer business is still growing, even if the iPod player is the company's real star. Apple's resurgence started with the first iMac, in 1998. Little by little, Apple has been persuading people to opt for Macintosh computers over Windows PCs. After Apple refreshed its iMac line last week, I decided to test one from the perspective of a Windows user. I found it to be a powerful if not completely irresistible enticement to switch. If you haven't looked at iMacs in a while, they now look like half a laptop - the display half, with the processor and other components built into the flat-panel screen. The new iMacs ditch the plasticky look that's been a hallmark of the line since the beginning, replacing it with an aluminum casing that's even thinner than before.
Beijing Olympics to use 50 Li-ion battery powered buses
About 50 buses powered by Li-ion battery will be put into service for the Beijing Olympics next year, running a total distance of 10.4 kilometers for athletes and officials, according to a Beijing official.
The buses will be used in three loop lines in the Olympic village, the northern area of arena and the press village, according to Zheng Jichun, deputy director of Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission.
On request of the organizing committee of the Beijing Olympics which was committed to a green Olympics, vehicles using electric power are needed during the games.
All the 50 buses are solely powered by a kind of Li-ion battery which is different from various of existing hybrid electric vehicles, according to Sun Fengchun, an electric car expert with Beijing Institute of Technology.
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