"The strongest argument in favor of the personal computer is the iPad. Supposedly, the iPad spells the death of the laptop. Supposedly, we're going to do all of our computing in the cloud. Some folks believe both of these statements, which is a bit like believing in laissez-faire communism."

"Two scientists were injured outside Monterrey Technological Institute's campus in the State of Mexico on the outskirts of the capital. One of the boffins was involved in robotics research. Mexico State Attorney General Alfredo Castillo said at a news conference that the group's involvement was identified from a partially destroyed note found at the scene. The group opposes experiments with nanotechnology and has staged attacks on academics before. It has been linked to attacks in several different countries of Europe, including Spain and France."

"By now, with films like Iron Man, its sequel, and Avatar, Hollywood has made us thoroughly familiar with the idea of the robotic exoskeleton. Less well known, however, is that researchers are actually building robotic exoskeletons like the ones envisioned by Hollywood and the comic book visionaries from whom Hollywood pilfers its most lucrative ideas. Among the developers of real-life Iron Man suits (of which there are many, the world over) is a group called Raytheon Sarcos.

"Start-up Millenniata and LG plan to soon release a new optical disc and read/write player that will store movies, photos or any other data forever. The data can be accessed using any current DVD or Blu-ray player.

Millenniata calls the product the M-Disc, and the company claims you can dip it in liquid nitrogen and then boiling water without harming it. It also has a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) study backing up the resiliency of its product compared to other leading optical disc competitors.

"And you thought you hated Farmville? A 10-year-old girl, reportedly bored with farm-style video games such as the wildly popular game Farmville, has uncovered a security flaw in mobile video games, CNET reported.

"Chipmaker AMD is apparently planning to enter the memory module market in style. The outfit is readying to introduce several DDR3 modules as part of its new Radeon memory line. Judging by AMD’s own website and some retailer leaks, AMD will introduce three distinct memory module series. Entertainment class modules are rated at 1333MHz (9-9-9 latencies), Ultra Gaming Pro modules run at 1600MHz (11-11-11 latencies) and there’s also the Enterprise series, but it hasn’t been spec’d yet..."

"Too much gear for collaboration, social networking and communication tools is making people ruder, according to a new survey from some ginks working for a “social email provider” harmon.ie. The study found that during face-to-face meetings, 41 per cent of UK workers remain glued to their communication devices, sending instant messages, responding to texts, listening to voicemails or checking their emails. This figure rises to a staggering 70 percent during virtual meetings and webcasts.

"IDC has slashed its processor shipment forecast for 2011 due to slow demand in the US and Europe. Global processor sales are expected to grow by 9.3 percent, down from 10.3 percent originally forecasted this year. CPU shipments dropped sequentially by 2.9 percent, while sales were down 4 percent compared to Q1.Year-on-year shipments were a tad stronger, with 0.6 percent growth..."

"In the face of mounting external pressure to begin paying bug bounties, Microsoft is instead launching a new program that will pay a $200,000 top prize to a security researcher who develops the most innovative defensive security technology. The program is designed to "inspire researchers to focus their talents on defensive technologies," the company said.

"IEEE has just announced a new Wireless standard 802.22 that can cover up to 12,000 square miles. The standard is designed for Wireless Regional Area Networks or WRAN which uses the white spaces left in the TV frequency spectrum..."