Ubuntu 8.10 Released, Includes Bootable USB Maker [Featured Download]
Ubuntu 8.10 includes a simple, working tool that puts a bootable Ubuntu system on a memory stick and lets you use persistent space on it to store settings and documents—in other words, keep a real Home folder there. I really wish, however, that you didn't have to download an Ubuntu ISO to make the disk, or that it could at least point you to a list of mirrors to find one on. In a perfect world, it would just create your USB disk from your current system, removing any specific hardware references and the like. As it is, though, it's a pretty handy tool for any spare thumb drives you've got.
Also new in the release candidate and final version! s of 8.1 0 is a "System Cleaner" applet. I couldn't dirty my brand-new desktop quick enough to give a good screenshot, but the Cleaner will apparently show any unneeded and abandoned software packages hanging around your system, and will also alert you to bad or leftover lines in your /etc/fstab (drive configuration), /etc/X11/xorg.conf (display and device manager), and all the other files you want to back up before messing with. If it works as promised, it's a pretty good step toward that "for humans" slogan the distro touts.
Tell us your impressions of the final Intrepid Ibex in the comments.
Way back in 2005, Samsung technically showed off a 40-inch OLED screen. We didn't want to be rude and say anything at the time, but it wasn't sporting HD resolution and the contrast ratio was a measly 5,000:1. Now Samsung is showing off their new 40-inch OLED (that's a mere 8.9mm thick), and needless to say, its specs are more than a little worth our attention.
The prototype runs at a full 1080p resolution and features an overkill contrast of 1,000,000:1. (Most scientists will tell you that the eye cannot distinguish such contrast, but marketers will disagree.)
Those little interlaced blades of ice you sometimes get on the edge of ultra-cold things in wet air: that's the image that popped into my head on seeing the Cara lamp. It's by designer Andreas Ostwald and that fragile crystal-like shape is composed of interlocked flat white circuit boards with silver tracks, sprinkled with 70 white LEDs. How lighting should be to my mind: simple, elegant and stunning. Though presumably it's designer status gives it a price premium that'll place it beyond my lustful reach. [
We've seen netbooks bundled with a cellular data service contract popping up in other parts of the world, but a report today by the 
We don't know the last time that a demo kiosk has actually caused us to look twice, but if a place like Best Buy or Fry's were filled with Dreamoc 3D displays, we'd probably be more interested in the sales pitch than the product. Because not only can the system display 3D video—it can display 3D video that mixes with real world objects. In other words, the Dreamoc can make it look like your phone has holograms shooting out of the screen:
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