Cache & Carey

Miami event to break the world-record for overclocking

Calling all hardcore tech-heads in South Florida! The CompUSA store in Dadeland is hosting the AMD Overclocking World-Record Breaking Attempt on Tuesday, May 26th at 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. (Directions below.)

There will be professionals on-site who will use liquid nitrogen and liquid helium cooling to attempt to break the 7 GHz threshold and set a new world record for computer processing speed. And there will be prizes given out, like a AMD processor, motherboard, video card and of course T-shirts, USB drives, hats and whatnot.

If you've never heard of overclocking before, basically it's where you modify your computer to work faster than the factory settings, but you have to do extra stuff to keep it cool (like use liquid nitrogen) since the faster it goes, the hotter it gets. If you never saw it done before or just want to learn more about building your own computer, you might get a kick out of watching people compete.

I'm also told there will be special sales going on, like 50% off Thermaltake cases and power supplies, Patriot desktop memory, and select Diamond ATI video cards.

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Product Review: Laptop haters might love the Atek OnBoard Travel Keyboard

If you simply hate the idea of having to do work on a laptop because you're not used to typing on laptops, then the Atek OnBoard Travel Keyboard might be for you.

But I can't relate to the laptop haters out there. For me, I just adapt -- especially since I do most of my work on laptops.

It's a desktop keyboard, but just designed travel-size. It's Windows and Mac compatible, but not all keys work with Mac OS X.

And I can understand the need for this if you never work on a laptop except a couple times a year when you have to work in a hotel room for a business trip. It's just faster to work on this kind of keyboard.

I had no problems using it. But it's not a perfect desktop keyboard. A normal desktop keyboard has 104 keys -- this has 99. (The five keys it does not have are Print Screen, Scroll Lock, Pause Break and right side Ctrl and Windows keys.)

See more about the keyboard in the video below, or check out my print review at MiamiHerald.com.

Beam a Star Trek theme to your desktop

If you need some Trek-tastic stuff to keep you happy until the new Star Trek movie comes out next month, then check out the official Star Trek theme from The Skins Factory. You can choose from command, sciences and engineering themes.

I wrote about this Cooper City, Fla. company back in November. Back then I got a chance to check out its Disney and Wall-E themes, and they were very well done. It costs $14.95 and the themes transform practically everything on your Windows XP desktop -- it's WAY more than icons and wallpaper!

 

Update: Here's a video showing the skin's audio player animation and sound FX:

AT&T and Verizon improving wireless coverage in South Florida

Over the past few weeks I've gotten notices about improved wireless coverage in certain parts of South Florida for AT&T and Verizon.

AT&T announced it will add about 100 new cell sites throughout Florida this year to expand its 3G coverage. AT&T has invested about $725 million in its Florida network since 2006. As part of this year's investment, the company plans to introduce 3G service to Ocala, Panama City, St. Augustine, Palm Coast, Palatka and Lake City. It's also expanding 3G in Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Gainesville, Daytona Beach, Cape Canaveral and Melbourne.

Here are some of AT&T's new cell sites for South Florida:

• Along the Florida Turnpike in Homestead
• The commercial area to the east of Tamiami Airport, S.W. 137th Avenue and the expanding residential areas in the vicinity (Kendall)
• The Crossings shopping plaza at Killian Parkway and S.W. 127th Avenue in Kendall and the surrounding residential neighborhood
• Downtown Miami
• The industrial area near the Miami International Airport
• Along State Road 836, Miami International Mall, and the commercial areas to the east
• The Flagler business park in Hialeah, Doral, and the Florida Turnpike between Okeechobee Road and N.W. 41st Street
• Hialeah Hospital complex and the surrounding medical buildings and dense residential area
• Downtown and western Parkland and Heron Bay in Broward County
• Along A1A in Lighthouse Point
• Central Miramar
• Pembroke Lakes Mall, Pines Boulevard and surrounding dense shopping/residential areas, west of I-75 between 184th and 102nd Avenue and northern Pembroke Pines
• Southwest Ranches, west of I-75

Monroe County will also see improvements in Key West and Lower Matecumbe Key, and Palm Beach County will see improvements in Boynton Beach, Palm Springs, Wellington, Royal Palm Beach and West Palm Beach. Here is the list of the other parts of Florida that will also see AT&T 3G improvements.

Verizon has pumped up its 3G service in Miami-Dade County with two new cell sites in Homestead:

• On SW 162nd Avenue, just south of the Turnpike Homestead Extension (West Dade Expressway)
• Along US 1 for several new residential communities and businesses in the area

Verizon also installed a new cell site north of the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. Aside from the airport, it will also serve the residences and golf courses in Palm Aire. Verizon invested $1.8 billion in Florida since the company was formed.

BYOC - Bring Your Own Computer - to work?

In today's Miami Herald, I have a story about how Citrix and Intel are pooling their talent to improve virtualization technology and change the way we think of computers at work.

The grand idea behind virtualization is that you can access your work desktop from anywhere (with the right technology, of course). So on your personal home laptop you could access work software and files without having to download anything.

Virtualization already is around, but this new product they are working on will be built into new computers -- and the two companies say that the new product makes it much more secure and will help the technology be adopted on a much wider scale.

About 300 Citrix employees are already doing BYOC -- bring your own computer -- to work. They got vouchers of $2,100 to each go out and get a laptop (that has the new product in it) -- and it would be their own personal laptop. They don't have a computer at work anymore, meaning IT employees don't have to manage their computers anymore. Rather, they oversee the virtual "image" of your desktop. And any malware or non-work-related programs on your personal computer wouldn't effect the corporate desktop because it exists separately.

Does it sound like something you would want your workplace to incorporate? It's a nice perk for work/life balance since it encourages bosses to let more employees work from home (or anywhere). Or do you think something like this would just be a hassle?

Product Review: Livescribe Pulse is a notetaker's dream come true

It's not often I get wowed by a writing utensil, but there's always a first for everything. The Livescribe Pulse Smartpen has an infrared camera that tracks everything you write and draw on special Livescribe dot paper. It also records audio and syncs it to what is being written.

So if you're trying to decipher your chicken scratch or don't remember why you wrote a particular word down, just tap on a word with the pen to playback what was said when that stroke was drawn.

As a journalist, this is a fantastic tool. And I know this would have been a helpful study aid for those classes when the professor talks faster than you can write!

You can also upload your notes as images, share them with classmates and search for words within the notes. Surprisingly, it was able to understand my bad handwriting.

It also did a great job at recording audio from a work conference room meeting. There's the option to use your headphones as recording microphones, but the mic inside the pen was good enough to catch people speaking across the conference table. (Had to turn up the volume to hear the folks speaking far away from me, but for the most part it did a pretty good job of catching everything.)

I didn't get to test out the recording quality from a college-type lecture hall. But when I used the earbud headphones to record sound in a large room, it would be so sensitive that it amplified the sound of my pen scratching against the paper. The pen's internal mic worked best for me in meetings and interviews, but I can't say how close you have to be to the professor in an auditorium to get good audio.

In today's review (which you can read here), I mention that this pen only works when using special Livescribe brand dot paper, so you'll have to buy Livescribe notebooks for it to work. I've been told today that in a few months they will allow users to download and print as much dot paper they want for free.

Now if only this pen could actually do your homework for you...

Office Depot gives you gift cards for your old electronics

Have an old gadget just collecting dust? Too lazy to put it on eBay? Don't throw it in the trash. Get some money for it by sending it to Office Depot. In exchange you can get a gift card. But if it has no trade-in value, you can still send it to be recycled.

Office Depot will accept things like mp3 players, cameras, notebooks, desktops, smartphones, televisions and game systems.

The site said I could get $32 for my Sansa San-Disk mp3 player in good condition. Not too shabby... but of course that could go down if the person inspecting it doesn't find it to be worthy of $32. And the site said it would give me $22 for my Sega Genesis with all my games... no way would I give up Sonic for that price!

Go to officedepot.com/techtradein to see for yourself. Just remember to properly wipe out your data before shipping it off.

How much will technology influence your vote for president?

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama promises to appoint the nation's first chief technology officer if elected.

Last week he made mobile history by sending a text message to 2.9 million people announcing that he picked as his running mate Sen. Joe Biden, who isn't beloved by the geek elite. Biden scored a 37.5 percent on the voter guide for CNET, a technology news site.

Sen. John McCain, meanwhile, has told the press he doesn't send e-mails and is still getting accustomed to using the Internet.

But the same doesn't go for his running mate, the BlackBerry-wielding Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who had bloggers buzzing early Friday about her tech-centric lifestyle. She's also three years younger than Obama.

Does the next president need to be wired to gain the vote of the American people? It's an issue that has been raised frequently in technology communities and exploited by campaigns to gain an advantage.

How much does it impact your decision on who to vote for?

Read my full story online here.

Apple sues Mac clones from Doral

By EVAN S. BENN
ebenn@MiamiHerald.com

A Doral company founded by two South Florida brothers has been sued by technology giant Apple, which is attacking the Mac clones the brothers started selling in April.

Attorneys for Apple are accusing Psystar Corp., owned by Rudy and Robert Pedraza, of copyright and trademark infringement and breach of contract for building and selling "cloned" computers that run on Apple's Leopard operating system.

Click here to read the full story.

Cities face crisis in search for tech workers

A crisis in the technology workforce is brewing. A growing number of baby boomers are leaving, and not enough young people are enrolling in science and technology education. Add to that the number of people who are lacking computer skills, and cities have a challenge with being economically competitive.

"Some may not view it as a crisis yet," said Maria Wynne, a Microsoft senior director of economic development in the U.S. public sector. "In the U.S., up to 70 percent of the jobs in the next 5 to 7 years ... will require computer and communications skills. We do not have a pipeline of skilled people to fill these jobs."

Mayors and government technology employees gathered in a casual setting today at the annual U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Miami. They shared ideas on best practices of improving digital literacy in cities, and Miami Mayor Manny Diaz presided over the forum.

Diaz advised other mayors to look to the private sector for funding, since city resources can be limited.

"Don't go crazy trying to Wi-Fi the entire city," Diaz added, warning that when a project is too ambitious, there will be problems with paying the bills.

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels stressed that cities cannot just depend on luck that its residents will keep up with the changes in computers in the future. Even with Microsoft Corp. and  Amazon.com in its backyard, 20 percent of Seattle does not have a computer in the home, Nickels said.

If a city is going to have a competitive economy, "you've got to have the people with these skills, regardless of what your base industries are," Nickels said. "Even if your main industry seems to be one that's a smoke-stack industry - it doesn't matter."

After the forum I spoke with, James E. Osteen Jr., assistant director of Miami's information technology department. He said if education isn't improved, South Florida will lose more jobs to other tech hubs and jobs will be outsourced overseas.

"If we want to bring more industries in here, we have to have an edge,''  Osteen said. That includes having a stronger pool of computer competent workers and intelligent consumers.

The city's Elevate Miami program is working to do just that through partnerships with the education system and having public computer and Internet access at parks and senior centers. There are also programs to educate small business owners on things such as how to create websites, use accounting software and locate funding sources.

"I think the most important investment in people is education," Diaz told the crowd. "And digital literacy is giving them the tools. Not everyone is going to take advantage of it. But at least your giving them the tools, the fighting chance, to compete."