Ben Hourahaine, a future trends analyst, claims that, by 2259, cash will be obsolete because technology, known as RFID, will means that as soon as a customer walks in to a pub, a reader above the door will scan their microchip, automatically note their order and deduct a payment. High-tech beer pumps will be able to brew the perfect pint on the spot, tailored for each individual drinkers' tastes, while magnetic levitation trays will deliver drinks straight to wherever customers are sitting. Buying another round will be as simple as placing an order on the touch-sensitive tables dotted around the pub, while friends will be able to enjoy a drink with pals in different towns or other countries, thanks to hologram technology that will make it feel as though the other person is in the room. Even the glass customers drink from will boast cutting-edge technology, he suggests, keeping the drink at the perfect temperature, as well as a running tally of the number of units consumed. Mr Hourahine said: "The average British pub is steeped in history, and despite significant developments in bar technology over the past 250 years, the majority of pubs have managed to retain their original character and popularity amongst local communities. "Exciting technological innovations will only enhance the customer's experience, actively engaging them and inspiring them." According to the most recent figures from the British Beer and Pub Association, around 39 pubs are closing each week in the UK as a result of the economic downturn and increased competition from supermarkets.

( www.telegraph.co.uk )

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With the help of digital marks that are built into movies, it will be possible to spot the seat from which a video pirate made an illegal copy of a film. Through audio watermarks it is possible to say the approximate distance of the pirate from the cinema's speakers and even spot the actual seat of a pirate. Together with his team, Noboru Babaguchi of Osaka University in Japan says that if the cinema, where the pirate showed up, is known, then it is possible to identify where the person was sitting. He says that the audio watermark is introduced into the soundtrack of a movie by a little variation of the waveform of music and speech at standard intervals. Noboru Babaguchi and his colleague developed a watermark that has its specific signal in each channel of the soundtrack. The soundtrack is played by different loudspeakers in the cinema. If the researchers study the audio recorded on the pirated tape, they can identify the distance between the microphone of the camera and the loudspeakers, informs NewScientist.

"This is a brand new application of the digital watermarking technique," researchers write in a paper that will be published in IEEE Transactions on Multimedia.

( www.infoniac.com )

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NVIDIA has been propping up volume by selling below cost for a bit now, and the latest price drop of the GTX260 is sure to bring smiles to the faces of users. The problem is that add-in-board (AIB) partners can't make money on them. Losing money on each card is not a good business strategy, and making up for it in volume does not make things better. Mercedes could sell S-Class cars for $US10, and volume would skyrocket, but that wouldn't be a very sound business strategy. For some reason, Nvidia not only thinks this is a sound strategy, it is implementing it. The problem is the same one we told you about almost a year ago, the GT200 die is too damn big. Even with a shrink, it is still too damn big, almost twice the size of its closest rival, the ATI R770/4870. Even with poor yields and an expensive board, the card loses to its much more economical rival from ATI. This means Nvidia has to fight a price war against an an opponent with lower costs. That brings us back to the latest news, the 260 has dropped to $US169, which puts it between the price of a 512M and 1G 4870. The problem is that the GTX260 costs Nvidia partners a little less than that to make, they are going to bleed cash over this one. Hang on for a close look into the costs of building a modern GPU. We will say up front that the numbers given here are the best case scenario. If we are given a range of prices, we will give Nvidia the benefit of the doubt and pick the cheapest. In reality, things are worse than we are stating.

Starting out with the selling price, retailers won't touch a product without a 15 per cent margin... it isn't worth their time. That means that $US169 retail price boards have to sell for $US144 to trade to meet that number. Lets assume packaging, shipping and add-ins like cables, dongles and software only cost $US9, probably quite low all-told. That means the NV partners need to get the 260 out the door for $US135 or they are losing money. The first problem is that Nvidia sells the ASIC bundle, basically a 260 kit with chips and RAM for between $US110 and $US120. Lets be kind and say it is $US110, and there are no shipping or handling costs. FWIW, the GT206 costs around $US80-100 to manufacture based on TSMC volume wafer costs and yields someone told us about. Nvidia isn't making much on this, if anything, 14 16 x 32 high bin GDDR3 chips aren't that cheap, cost for volume purchasers is between $US1.50 and $US2.00 per unit. I would bet NV is losing money here on the kit, 14 x $US1.50 = $US21. $US21 + 80 = $US101, best case, they have $US9 wiggle room, more likely it is a money loser, not counting MDF funding or rebates.

So that leaves the OEMs with $135 - 110 = $US25 to make the boards. Board components are well over $US15, this includes all the passive components, resistors, caps and bits with magic smoke in them. Think everything other than that included in the kit. That puts us at $US25 - 15 = $US10 left in the pot. A 10 layer PCB is north of $US10, this is easy enough to get prices on. $US10 - 10 = $0. Ruh-roh Shaggy, we have a problem. Heatsink/fans are $10 or so as well, and that brings us to $0 - 10 = $-10. Whoopsy, we have a bigger problem. Add in about $US5 labour that all the AIB vendors tell me it takes to make a board, and we are at $-15.
Looking at the best case numbers, Nvidia board partners are eating $US15 per board, but it's likely more than that. They can either jack up the price and hope people pay... or lose money.

Nvidia doesn't like partners who buck their pricing proclamations, and people will buy from the one company which doesn't raise prices. The OEMs are trapped. If someone steps out of line and hits the $US169 price point, they will clean up on sales, and the others will lose. Bad situation, but Nvidia has a price point to hit, and they aren't the ones taking a bath. Actually they are, just not that much, and Nvidia can do no wrong. Just ask them. Ironically, the price cut will spur sales, and everyone will lose money, except the end users. They win. At the end of the quarter, Nvidians will surely blame economic conditions: it can't be that they are putting their own ego and market share above piddling things like profit. Market share is king, and if they ever have a sane reason to back this nutjob theory up, we will bring it to you. Don't stay up waiting.

( www.atomicmpc.com.au )

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According to a US security company, botnets, which represent networks of hacked computers used to support cybercrime without any awareness from their owners, may become mobile in the near future. It is worth mentioning that a new cell phone virus is able to spread by sending out a number of text messages that ask users to visit a weblink. In its latest report, Fortinet, a network security firm with headquarters in California, states that though users have to choose in order to follow the link, the cell phone worm generates a bridge that connects cell phones with the Internet. Statistics show that one in four computers in the United States is part of a botnet. Botnets can link millions of computers that can be then used to send out spam email or get money from website owners. One of the latest cell phone viruses is entitled Yxes.A or Sexy View. The worm targets cell phones that are running the S60 3rd edition of Symbian OS. One of such phones is Nokia 3250.According to Derek Manky, project manager for cyber security and threat research at Fortinet, in the near future different mobile devices will face much more threats than they do now.

"We are just starting to see the tip of the iceberg with Sexy View, but we predict much more to come with the growth of mobile platforms, applications and broader bandwidth," he said.

Besides being able to interfere with a cell phone's function, Sexy View is able to collect information about the serial number of the phone and the cell phone number of the user, which is the main goal of the worm. Gathered information is sent back to a remote server. However, experts still don't know how hackers use the gathered information. In case the cell phone worm is upgraded to the level where it can gain more access to a phone, it may lead to the creation of botnet-like mobile networks. Thus, hackers will be able to attack websites using zombie cell phones.( www.infoniac.com )

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A new kind of warfighting technology was inveiled by security company Lockheed Martin at the recent Association of the United States' Army Winter Symposium in Florida. It's not a weapon, or a new kind of vehicle. But it could be a soldier's new best friend. The Human Universal Load Carrier (yes, it's a HULC suit) is a powered exo-skeleton designed to increase a soldier's load carrying capacity while deployed on foot. As a great deal of a soldier's fatigue and even potential for injury comes from the large loads they are forced to carry, the HULC allows even greater weights to be carried, and with less risk. "With our enhancements to the HULC system, soldiers will be able to carry loads up to 200 pounds with minimal effort," said Rich Russell, director of the extremely cool-named Sensors, Data Links and Advanced Programs at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "Lockheed Martin is developing an entire line of ground Soldier technologies that will improve Warfighters' ability to effectively complete their missions." The HULC suit features battery powered, titanium re-inforced leg struts that allow load to be transferred directly to the ground, while an onboard computer handles the syncing of the exo-skeleton's movement with its user. The HULC (HULC! HULC!) allows a full range of squats, crawls and upper-body lifting, and is hydraulic powered. ( www.atomicmpc.com.au )

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