Thought Google was going to be the only game in town for those wanting to do keyword searches through entire libraries of books?  Think again.  Microsoft own book scanning project is being added to the company's Live Search system, Microsoft's attempt to match Google.  Initially, the database will be searchable through a beta homepage or as a category on the Live Search page.  The beta only includes text from non-copyrighted books from the collections of the British Libra...

It's no real secret that war and conflict is perhaps one of the biggest driving influences on the development of new technology.  Modern computers and the Internet were inventions brought about to deal with war situations.  It seems the latest advance in wartime technology is a non-lethal weapon that basically cooks the target like a TV dinner in a microwave oven. Declared ready for deployment in Iraq, the Air Force has developed a weapon it's calling the Active Denial System. ...

Essentially, there is nothing in the tech world going on at the moment beyond the Vista business launch and all the press activity related.  So, what's another cautionary Vista story amidst the flood of others?  CNet has a new article providing 10 points to consider when evaluating Vista for purchase.  This isn't so much a pro/con list, and it's not especially critical of the new operating system.  It merely puts forth ten very important points to think about when considering...

Uusally around here, we talk about changing the look of your PC by changing through software like WindowBlinds .  One thing we rarely talk about because, well this is a Windows site, is skinning on the Macintosh.  ShapeShifter, a theming product from Mac software developer Unsanity cleared beta on its latest version, 2.4.  Usanity is one of several skinning applications available for Mac users. While not yet as powerful WindowBlinds, it is a solid start for Mac users who are g...

Ok, we've talked about Vista in the business, Vista for the gamer, Vista for Grandma Josephine, so what's left?  Vista for the living room of course!  One of the big pushes with Vista, especially Ultimate with the media center capabilities, is to begin to take over the home entertainment market, and to move the PC into a more prominent role in the cabinet next to the TV, DVD player and stereo.  This comes as Apple and Google work together to launch the iTV product, a box connectin...

To continue with the "Yay, Vista is here!" theme we have going the past few days, here's an article from bit-tech.net taking a look at Windows Vista and DirectX 10, and what it means for PC gaming.  The article looks at the architectural differences in DX10/Vista and what it likely means for games from both the developer and gamer perspective.  Overall, it is a very good primer on the changes to how Vista works with graphics hardware and how games should theoretically see improved perf...

Today marks the official launch of Windows Vista as a purchasable product.  Microsoft began selling copies to business customers today so we'll soon be seeing some of the first Vista installs "in the wild" so to speak.  Now, a lot of people are going "So what?" over this latest iteration of the world's most dominant operating system, so the good folks over at silicon.com decided to write their top five reasons to love (and hate) Windows Vista. Some of the "love" points: Integra...

A lot of commotion has been made the past year or so about the spiffy keyboard from Art Lebedev that could display dynamic images on the keys themselves.  Combined with programmable function keys, it looked like the Optimus keyboard might offer something really new and interesting to the pretty boring world of keyboard tech.  Well, time came and went and it looked like the Keyboard of the Future wouldn't materialize.  Then the company reappeared saying it was still coming, but the...

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced that Windows Vista had finally reached "RTM" status, the point at which the code is declared done and ready for distribution and sale.  Part of the rollout plan for Vista was to release to business customers in advance of general retail availability.  Well, tomorrow, November 30th is that launch day!  Starting tomorrow, people (well, companies) will begin purchasing physical copies of Windows Vista as well as Office 2007.  What will hap...

All of the individual winners have been announced for all the events, with JJ Ying walking away with the Alienware Laptop.  Winners have been notified and the process of distributing prizes has begun!  But wait, it's not over yet.  Now that all the medals have been awarded and the points tallied, we can now announce the top teams from this year's competition!  Skinners had the option to band together in teams to be eligible for additional cash prizes at the end of this...

Later this week, Microsoft makes Windows Vista available to business customers.  Microsoft is expecting Vista to be the fastest adopted version of Windows ever, expecting enterprises especially to leap at the opportunity to upgrade from XP as soon as possible.  Many have questioned this expectation, and Silicon.com put the question to its 12-person CIO panel.  The result?  Only one of the 12 plan on upgrading within the first year of Vista's release.  6 of them said they...

I'm sure everyone's noticed the steady increase in the number of junk messages that come through your e-mail inbox every day.  What was once an occasional nuisance has now become such a large problem that it has spawned a multi-billion dollar industry in e-mail security tools and appliances.  It has turned into an arms race between spammers and spam blockers, as each side is continually both trying to circumvent known protections/exploits as well as developing brand new tools to defeat...

Many people remember the fish screensaver that was part of AfterDark from Berkeley Systems years ago.  The cute little fish leisurely floating across the screen was oddly hypnotizing and you could lose hours just watching your virtual fish float along.  There are reports of some people actually naming their little virtual pets. Aquarium Desktop from Stardock is sort of the spiritual successor to that long-lost screensaver, only ten times better!  (Ok, maybe a mere 9.5x, but ...

For the past few months, Stardock has been working hard to create a whole new team dedicated to bringing you the best content for your computer. You may have noticed the recent upswing in premium content like the Argos suite, Texas Hold Em and Fortune to name just a few. This new division also has the goal of working with companies, universities, sports teams and more to deliver extraordinary, custom branded looks for Windows Vista and Windows XP. This new Stardock team is ...

It's time once again for our monthly featured skinner to be announced!  This month, we're honoring SK Originals , an active member of WinCustomize , Skinning.net and the Stardock IRC channel.  SK has contributed a number of skinning tutorials to Skinning.net, medaled in this year's GUI Championships and has in general been a positive influence and addition to the skinning community at large.  SK is currently working on a tutorial for us to post, which we hope to have read...