(CNN) — It captivated millions of people around the world for eight days in the summer of 1969. It brought glory to the embattled U.S. space program and inspired beliefs that anything was possible.

It’s arguably the greatest technological feat of the 20th century.

And to some, it was all a lie.

Forty years after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon, a small cult of conspiracy theorists maintains the historic event — and the five subsequent Apollo moon landings — were staged. These people believe NASA fabricated the landings to trump their Soviet rivals and fulfill President Kennedy’s goal of ferrying humans safely to and from the moon by the end of the 1960s.

“I do know the moon landings were faked,” said crusading filmmaker Bart Sibrel, whose aggressive interview tactics once provoked Aldrin to punch him in the face. “I’d bet my life on it.”

Sibrel may seem crazy, but he has company. A 1999 Gallup poll found that a scant 6 percent of Americans doubted the Apollo 11 moon landing happened, and there is anecdotal evidence that the ranks of such conspiracy theorists, fueled by innuendo-filled documentaries and the Internet, are growing.

Twenty-five percent of respondents to a survey in the British magazine Engineering & Technology said they do not believe humans landed on the moon. A handful of Web sites and blogs circulate suspicions about NASA’s “hoax.”

And a Google search this week for “Apollo moon landing hoax” yielded more than 1.5 billion results.

“We love conspiracies,” said Roger Launius, a senior curator at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. “Going to the moon is hard to understand. And it’s easier for some people to accept the answer that, ‘Well, maybe we didn’t go to the moon.’ A lot of it is naivete.”

Conspiracy theories about the Apollo missions began not long after the last astronaut returned from the moon in 1972. Bill Kaysing, a technical writer for Rocketdyne, which built rocket engines for NASA’s Apollo program, published a 1974 book, “We Never Went to the Moon: America’s Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle.”

In the book and elsewhere, Kaysing argued that NASA lacked the technology in 1969 to land humans safely on the moon, that the Apollo astronauts would have been poisoned by passing through the Van Allen radiation belts that ring the Earth and that NASA’s photos from the moon contained suspicious anomalies. See improved NASA footage of the 1969 moonwalk »

Kaysing theorized NASA sent the Apollo 11 astronauts up in a rocket until it was out of sight, then transferred the lunar capsule and its three passengers to a military cargo plane that dropped the capsule eight days later in the Pacific, where it was recovered. In the meantime, he believed, NASA officials filmed the “moon landing” at Area 51, the high-security military base in the Nevada desert, and brainwashed the astronauts to ensure their cooperation.

Some believe Kaysing’s theories inspired the 1978 movie “Capricorn One,” in which NASA fakes a Mars landing on a remote military base, then goes to desperate lengths to cover it up. Others insist NASA recruited director Stanley Kubrick, hot off “2001: A Space Odyssey,” to film the “faked” moon landings.

Oh, and those moon rocks? Lunar meteorites from Antarctica.

Decades later, Kaysing’s beliefs formed the foundation for “Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?” a sensational 2001 Fox TV documentary that spotted eerie “inconsistencies” in NASA’s Apollo images and TV footage.

Among them: no blast craters are visible under the landing modules; shadows intersect instead of running parallel, suggesting the presence of an unnatural light source; and a planted American flag appears to ripple in a breeze although there’s no wind on the moon.

The hour-long special sparked such interest in the topic that NASA took the unusual step of issuing a news release and posting a point-by-point rebuttal on its Web site. The press release began: “Yes. Astronauts did land on the moon.”

In various documents, NASA has countered that the Apollo astronauts passed through the Van Allen belts too quickly to be exposed to dangerous levels of radiation; that the module’s descent engines weren’t powerful enough to leave a blast crater; that the shadows in photos were distorted by wide-angle lenses and sloping lunar terrain; and that the Apollo flags had horizontal support bars that made the flags swing.

Kaysing died in 2005, but not before grabbing the attention of Sibrel, a Nashville, Tennessee, filmmaker who has since become the most visible proponent of the Apollo hoax theories. With funding from an anonymous donor, Sibrel wrote and directed a 47-minute documentary in 2001 that reiterated many of the now-familiar hoax arguments.

Critics of moon-landing hoax theorists, and there are many, say it would be impossible for tens of thousands of NASA employees and Apollo contractors to keep such a whopping secret for almost four decades.

But Sibrel believes the Apollo program was so compartmentalized that only its astronauts and a handful of high-level NASA officials knew the entire story. Sibrel spent years ambushing Apollo astronauts and insisting they swear on a Bible before his cameras that they walked on the moon.

“When someone has gotten away with a crime, in my opinion, they deserve to be ambushed,” Sibrel said. “I’m a journalist trying to get at the truth.”

In an episode made infamous on YouTube, Sibrel confronted Aldrin in 2002 and called him “a coward, a liar and a thief.” Aldrin, then 72, socked the thirtysomething Sibrel in the face, knocking him backwards.

“I don’t want to call attention to the individuals who are trying to promote and shuffle off this hoax on people,” Aldrin told CNN in a recent interview. “I feel sorry for the gullible people who’re going to go along with them. I guess it’s just natural human reaction to want to be a part of ‘knowing something that somebody doesn’t know.’ But it’s misguided. It’s just a shame.”

It’s been 37 years since the last Apollo moon mission, and tens of millions of younger Americans have no memories of watching the moon landings live. A 2005-2006 poll by Mary Lynne Dittmar, a space consultant based in Houston, Texas, found that more than a quarter of Americans 18 to 25 expressed some doubt that humans set foot on the moon.

“As the number of people who were not yet born at the time of the Apollo program increases, the number of questions [about the moon landings] also may increase,” NASA said in a statement. “Conspiracy theories are always difficult to refute because of the impossibility of proving a negative.”

Launius, the National Air and Space Museum curator, believes Apollo conspiracy theories resonate with people who are disengaged from society and distrustful of government. He also believes their numbers are overblown.

“These diehards are really vocal, but they’re really tiny,” he said.

But Stuart Robbins, a Ph.D. candidate in astrophysics at the University of Colorado who gives lectures defending NASA from Apollo hoax theorists, believes their influence can be harmful.

“If people don’t think we were able to go to the moon, then they don’t believe in the ingenuity of human achievement,” he said. “Going to the moon and returning astronauts safely back to Earth is arguably one of the most profound achievements in human history, and so when people simply believe it was a hoax, they lose out on that shared experience and doubt what humans can do.”

In its information campaign against Apollo’s “debunkers,” NASA may have a potent ace up its sleeve, however. Its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is now circling the moon with powerful cameras, snapping crisp pictures that could reveal Apollo 11’s Eagle lander squatting on the moon’s surface.

Then again, conspiracy theorists may just say NASA doctored the photos.

“Will the LRO’s incredibly high-resolution images of the lunar surface, including, eventually, the Apollo landing sites, finally quell the lunacy of the Moon Hoax believers? Obviously it won’t,” writes astronomer Phil Plait in his blog on Discover magazine’s Web site. “These true believers don’t live in an evidence-based world.”

Source: Cnn.com

Hearing loss is a major problem in this country. According to the Hearing Loss Association of America, 1 in every 10 Americans has hearing loss. That’s approximately 28 million people. This number is expected to climb rapidly as baby boomers reach retirement age starting in 2010. Many people don’t wear hearing aids because they think hearing aids don’t look cosmetically good. Now, Lyric hearing aid may change that.

Most hearing losses develop over a period of 25 to 30 years. Nerve-related deafness (or sensorineural hearing loss) involves damage to the inner ear caused by aging, heredity, trauma, exposure to loud noise, infections, etc. Almost all sensorineural hearing loss (95%) can be effectively treated with hearing aids.

Traditional hearing aids go over the ear. This can expose the microphone to wind noises that interfere with hearing conversations. The Lyric Hearing Aid is the exception to this. It is fitted to sit inside the ear canal next to the ear drum. This brings nice clear sound to the wearer.

The Lyric Hearing Aid system was developed by ENT physicians and audiologists. It is a a miniature microphone, microchip, and tiny speaker wrapped in a small layer of foam. It may be worn 24/7. It’s battery lasts 120 days, so must be changed every 3-4 months by the ENT physician.

Lyric is NOT a surgically implanted device, but is placed and programmed in the office by a Lyric trained hearing professional. No anesthesia is required. The sizing and fitting process for Lyric takes about one hour. Replacement visits take only 10-15 minutes.

Lyric is water resistant, so showering is okay. Swimming and diving underwater are not recommended.

MRI’s can damage or dislodge the Lyric, so it must be removed before having an MRI. It does not have to be removed before having an X-ray or CT scan. Lyric makes using headphones or cell phones much easier than traditional hearing aids.

At this time, Lyric is not covered by insurance. Traditional hearing aids cost from $2000-3000. Lyric is sold on a subscription basis, meaning patients will purchase one year of Lyric hearing at a time. Currently that is approximately $1700 per year. Patients can talk with their Lyric trained hearing professional to discuss exact pricing and payment options.

Source: Emaxhealth.com

Conductor Austin Wuennenberg, 21, dead and several others injured in Disney Monorail accident

by Zack Teibloom

Disney’s monorail accidents are few and far between, but they are almost never fatal. Disney World is often called the happiest place on earth, but it got sadder this weekend after t ever. Two monorails collided head-on in the Magic Kingdom area of the park Sunday morning.

Austin Wuennenberg, the operator of one of the monorails, died, while a few others were injured from the Disney monorail accident.

The monorail system typically carries 150,000 people every day and has been running year round for 38 years. It’s the first monorail death at Disney World, and the first on a ride or rail since 2004, when a visitor was killed on the Big Thunder Mountain Roller Coaster.

Investigators are still trying to figure out why the Disney monorail accident occurred in the first place

“Today, we mourn the loss of our fellow cast member,” said Mike Griffin, Walt Disney World vice president of public affairs said in a released statement.

Griffin: “Our hearts go out to his family and to those who have lost a friend and co-worker. The safety of our guests and cast members is always our top priority. The monorail is out of service and we will continue to work closely with law enforcement to determine what happened and the approximate next steps.”

Comparisons are being made to the DC train crashes a couple weeks ago, suggesting a major overhaul of long-running rail systems is needed.

This isn’t the first monorail crash, but Wuennenberg’s passing is the first death from a monorail accident. The Monorail was closed Sunday as the park opened other means of transportation from guests such as a ferry, boat or bus. According to the Associated Press, the monorail system is set to re-open.

Guests were shaken up at the park, with some telling local affiliates that they wouldn’t want to ride the monorail again.

Our Take:

First off, let’s not panic. One accident in 38 years is a great record. Don’t be afraid to ride the monorail. If anything, extra attention will be paid to make sure the rail is as safe as possible from now on, so that no more fatal accidents will occur. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Austin Wuennenberg, the conductor who died in the Disney monorail accident.

Technology Take:

From a technology point of view this is something that appeared to happen very rarely.  Machines usually have a lot less accidents then humans when it comes to operating vehicles.  As long as the technology is tested a lot and has proven it works it is usually the best way to operate vehicles.  It is very unfortunate accident that happened here but we should still use the Monorail technology because with 38 years with no accidents is a very good record.

Source: Collegenews.com

1) Accidentally replying to everyone

Hitting ‘Reply All’ by mistake is a far too common occurrence these days. At best, you send an irrelevant e-mail; at worst, you reveal sensitive, confidential, or offensive information. If you’re going to say something that others shouldn’t hear, then do it in private to avoid compromising your job, reputation, relationship, dignity, etc. Take a minute and think things over before clicking ‘Send.’

2) WRITING IN ALL CAPS

Leaving the caps lock engaged in e-mails or chats is like constantly shouting in normal conversation; it makes you seem angry or in need of attention. It’s difficult to communicate inflection and tone in online communication, so use normal capitalization and punctuation to get your point across. If not, people won’t take you seriously.

3) Taking or posting incriminating photos

The paparazzi are some of the most reviled people out there, so why must you act like them? Please, try to avoid taking incriminating or embarrassing photos of others. It rarely ends well. If you must take these pictures, refrain from posting them on public sites. The exception? If you’re actually witnessing a crime. In that case, be a good citizen and snap away.

4) Constant, lame status updates

If you’re a constant status updater on Twitter, Facebook, or IM, please keep things interesting. For example, if you must let everyone know that you’re at the supermarket, at least spice it up with a joke about the shopping cart with one bad wheel, okay? If not, you’ll wind up with friends who simply don’t care about what’s going on with you.

5) Leaving your phone’s ringer on

Cell phones ring or vibrate loudly at inappropriate times far too often. Whether it’s out of laziness or the stress of disconnection, many people refuse to simply turn off their phone. You probably don’t need to get calls, texts, or e-mails during job interviews, movies, weddings, etc., so shut off your devices for a little while. You’ll be fine. We promise.

6) Overusing the ‘CC’ in e-mails

Sometimes you need to get the opinions of many colleagues and friends, or need to start a group discussion. But there are also many times when you don’t. People today seem to think that including more contacts in an e-mail increases efficiency, especially in work situations. More often than not, however, it wastes time and clogs inboxes. Think before you add more recipients.

7) Being a bad customer with gadgets

Ever worked in retail or as a waiter? If so, then listen up. If someone is trying to help or wait on you, don’t keep listening to music or yapping into your phone. At best, you’re making others wait, and, at worst, you’re saying, “You’re not important to me, servant.” Either way, this obnoxious behavior is easily remedied by, at the very least, removing one headphone or putting your call on hold. You have no excuses.

Source: Switched.com

1) GasBuddy

Inquiring minds want to know: Where’s the cheapest gas? GasBuddy can tell you. The site collects real-time prices from some 750,000 volunteer price “spotters,” who send in daily updates from their local stations. With prices varying by up to 50 cents from one station to the next in some cities, it pays to stay informed. A heat map displays where prices are currently the highest (California) and lowest (Wyoming). GasBuddy also shows you how prices have changed over time and can send mobile updates to your phone. Other similar but less comprehensive services include MapQuest’s Gas Prices and Gas Price Watch.

2) Howcast

There’s a reason no one ever reads the instruction manual. Ho. Hum. That’s why the video how-to site Howcast is such a gem. It breaks from its more staid counterparts, such as Expert Village and eHow, by injecting a necessary dose of humor. Come here to learn “how to make a move on a girl while watching a movie on a couch” and “how to become a saint.” Each video is rated — often by thousands of members — so you won’t waste bandwidth on the boring ones. We also like WonderHowTo, which neatly indexes and ranks how-to videos from hundreds of other sites.

3) iliketotallyloveit.com

Social shopping is a buzz phrase you’ll be hearing a lot about soon. To see it in action, head to iliketotallyloveit.com. Shoppers post photos of items they like, then solicit opinions and comments from others. The most popular items bubble to the top, serving as a way to spot trends early. Recent faves have included a pair of limited-edition sunglasses worn by rapper Kanye West and a really cool spork (a spoon/fork). For a more curated view of special products, check out Things I’ve Bought That I Love — “things” run the gamut from chocolate to lip gloss.

4) Omiru

Focused on “real style for real people,” Omiru doesn’t just tell you what the fashion trends are — it helps you figure out what actually looks good on you. High-waisted pants aren’t flattering on most people (in fact, 70% of people polled by Omiru won’t be wearing them this year, even though they’re back in style), but horizontal stripes can be (they don’t make you look fat if they’re narrow). The site recommends dresses for curvy petites and accessories for your little black dress. Sure, tips like these are sprinkled throughout more mainstream fashion sites like Glam and Style, but Omiru’s laser focus on practical fashion advice makes it a don’t-miss.

5) PsychCentral

It’s hard for many people to talk openly about their mental-health concerns, so it’s especially important to have online resources to rely on. PsychCentral is a good place to start. Visitors can take simple quizzes to get a general sense of whether they might have a problem, then check the “Ask the Therapist” section for answers to questions about all kinds of topics, ranging from borderline personality disorder to infidelity. There’s even a section in which members can rate their personal experiences with prescription drugs. If you want more news and research, visit MentalHelp.net or the government’s more comprehensive National Institute of Mental Health site.

6) TripKick

Ever spent top dollar on a hotel, only to get stuck in a crummy room? TripKick, which launched in May 2008, solves this dilemma by telling you which floors are best and which rooms to avoid. When we searched for the Hilton Las Vegas, for example, TripKick told us not only which rooms had the best view, but also which were too close to the elevators and noisy vending machines. Travelers can also add their own room ratings. For now, TripKick covers 250 hotels in 12 U.S. cities — and it’s adding a new city each month. The site borrows its concept from the airline-seat rating service SeatGuru, which has provided clear maps of the interior of commercial planes for years. Both sites improve your odds of having a truly bon voyage.

7) Wikitravel

The best travel guides have one thing in common: they’re up to date. That’s why WikiTravel has become the most invaluable travel resource on the Web. While message boards like Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree Travel Forum are great for specific questions — such as “Should I spend more than a day at Angkor Wat?” — and community sites like TripAdvisor are useful for seeing other folks’ photos and reviews, only WikiTravel keeps a concise, current directory of nearly 20,000 destinations. It’s so complete, you’ll be tempted to skip the guidebook altogether.

8 ) Yahoo! Answers

(I use this website to advertise this blog for free!

Advice is everywhere on the Web, but nowhere is it more accessible than at Yahoo! Answers. Questions are arranged both by topic and what’s most popular (e.g., “Is rinsing your hair with milk good for it?”) and get all sorts of amusing, creative and, occasionally, helpful responses. Contributors compete to boost their rankings by answering the most questions and collecting the most positive feedback on their replies. If you’ve got yet more questions needing answers, visit Ask Metafilter or the newer Try This.

9) Zeer

This is the kind of site that should have been built years ago. Zeer displays the nutritional labels for every kind of packaged food you can buy, then lets users rate and comment on their favorite items. Wondering whether you should give Doritos Hint of Lime–flavored chips a try? At Zeer, 14 out of 20 people give them the thumbs-up and will tell you exactly why. While the USDA’s National Nutrient Database has offered similar information for years, Zeer is so much better designed — with a focus on real products instead of hypothetical portions of generic food items — that you might actually use it.

10) Afrigadget.com

There’s a lot of international development news that doesn’t make it onto CNN. So bookmark AfriGadget, a site dedicated to simple, sustainable inventions in Africa. Recent entries have covered efforts to create biodiesel fuel out of local pine nuts in Sierra Leone, and programs to build bicycles out of bamboo in Ghana and Kenya. AfriGadget isn’t updated every day (and sometimes not even once a week), but it offers such distinctive reporting that you won’t want to miss a single post. For other good sites addressing sustainable development in Africa, check out the African Uptimist and Timbuktu Chronicles.

11) AskMen.com

(this is a great website that has tons of content for Men!)

Think of it as Cosmopolitan for men. Beyond the requisite yearly hot-babe-ranking (2008’s “Top 99 Women” is already live), AskMen dishes out provocative tips on sex, dating and relationships, and schools men on everything from office-party survival to the “FAQ on Semen.” Other articles on the site include “10 Signs You’re Whipped” and “Turn a Female Friend into Something More.” Racier than Men’s Health and FHM, AskMen is the go-to site for single guys on the make.

Source: Time.com – Anita Hamilton

ArtivirusPro2009 (also known as AntivirusPro 2009) is a new rogue antispyware application.  It has been causing a lot of problems for many internet users.  Once AntivirusPro2009 gets inside your machine it displays a false scanning reports, warning alerts and offers deleting malwares for $49.95.  It also has the ability to install other computer parasites on your computer that has been infected.  AntivirusPro2009 is a very dangerous application that should be removed immediately if possible.

Risk Level: High (Dangerous)

Note: You can safely and quickly detect AntivirusPro2009 by using the removal tool below.  This removal tool is for AntivirusPro2009.

Download – Removal Tool for AntivirusPro2009

When your computer is infected you can get such messages as:

• “Critical System Error”,
• “Your computer is infected”

Search and kill the following processes: AVP2009.exe, AntivirusPro2009.exe

Remove AntivirusPro2009.exe & dlls files

AntivirusPro2009.exe
C:\Program Files\AntivirusPro2009
C:\Program Files\AVP2009\avp2009.cpl
C:\Program Files\AVP2009\avp2009.exe
C:\Program Files\AVP2009\avp2009.dat
C:\Program Files\AVP2009\AVP20091.dat
C:\WINDOWS\system32\AVP2009.cpl

Remove/Modify corrupt Registry Entries

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\AntiVirus
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\AVP2009
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run “Antivirus”
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run “Antivirus”

Download – Removal Tool for AntivirusPro2009

Hopefully if you have this virus you can get rid of it safely and quickly using the tool.  Otherwise you can try to manually remove it but proceed at your own caution.  Trying to remove AntivirusPro2009 manually can be dangerous and you could potentially wreak your computer.

Who thought that NASA spacecraft the Phoenix Mars lander would be so adept at social networking and Web 2.0?

The popular website Twitter, a Web microblogging service has been sending pithy news “tweets” to the cellphones and computers of interested “followers” from the NASA spacecraft.  As of today the users following this tweet profile is 35,411.  If you are interested in following this Twitter feed yourself you can check it out at: http://twitter.com/MarsPhoenix.

Of course, the messages are not coming from Mars.  The messages are coming from Veronica McGregor, the news services manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.  What she has been doing is forwarding questions to the science team and then posting the answers.  Writing the answers in first person to save space with the tweets (since they are of limited length).

Ms. McGregor is amazed at how many people are actually on Twitter following her page.  She thinks it is great though because it is a good medium for spreading information about NASA to the younger generations.  In the past this information has been spread through podcasts, YouTube videos, blogging, and Facebook.  Now with Twitter this information can be sent up to the minute to thousands of people via their computer and cellphones.

See below for some examples of tweets just before the landing.

Atmospheric entry has started. time to get REALLY nervous. Now I’m in the “seven minutes of terror.”

Peak heating will hit in 40 seconds. The heat and energy generated during atmospheric entry would be enough to power 280,000 homes.

parachute must open next. my signal still getting to Earth which is AWESOME!

parachute opening is scariest part for the team.

parachute is open!!!!!

come on rocketssssss!!!!!

I’ve landed!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers! Tears!! I’m here!

For those of you who have not hear of Twitter before here is a short explanation of what it is.  Twitter is a privately funded startup company that was started as a side project in March 2006 in the neighborhood of San Francisco, CA.  Twitter is a real-time short messaging service that works on multiple networks and devices.  It is used to update people on friends day-to-day activities, world news, and even for businesses.  So now that you know what it is you may be thinking to yourself how is it really useful for business? Below are a few ways I have found it to be helpful for my blog.

1. Create an account.  Use the search feature of Twitter to see what your competitors are doing and read and learn from them.
2. Add a picture of your company/logo or yourself.  People like to see who you are and that way they can relate to you a bit more easily.
3. Talk to other people on Twitter. Even if it doesn’t help your business it shows you are human and are interested.
4. Point out interesting topics on your space and don’t just put things about yourself.
5. Share links to interesting places / websites / blogs.
6. Be careful about always promoting your own stuff.  Your fans will like it but not everyone else will.
7. Talk about things that are not business related as well.
8. Try to answer questions like “What has your attention?” instead of “What are you doing?”
9. When promoting a blog post, ask a question or explain what’s coming next, instead of just dumping a link. (this point is in bold because its very important for marketing your blog on Twitter)
10. Ask questions.  Twitter is great for getting opinions.
11. Tweet about other people’s stuff.  This doesn’t directly help your business but show you care about others.
12. When you DO talk about your stuff make sure it is useful.
13. Don’t toot your own horn too much. (I know sometimes I do this but try to stay away from it some of the time if you can)
14. You don’t have to read every tweet.
15. Commenting on others’ tweets, and retweeting what others have posted is a great way to build community.
16. Twitter helps with business development, if your prospects are online (like my blog readers)
17. Remember that Twitter doesnt’ replace direct email marketing.
18. Twitter works well as an opinion poll.
19. Have favorites.  When you are new to Twitter you may not have noticed but there are little star icon next to each tweet.  Watch what new followers favor and build off of that.
20. Avoid spammer stats.  Its not good to see that you have 3 followers and follow 150 people.  If you do this it shows that you haven’t revealed anything about yourself and in turn makes it so that people are unlikely to follow you in return.

Microsoft Surface is a product that came out a few years ago by Microsoft.  If you haven’t heard about it already then basically what it is is a table that’s surface acts as a computer screen.  So just imagine for a moment having a table with a 30-inch tabletop display that you can touch and move things around on your computer … wouldn’t that pretty cool?  Here is a little more information about the Microsoft Surface.

The original concept for the Microsoft Surface came in 2001 by Stevie Bathiche of Microsoft Hardware and Andy Wilson of Microsoft Research.  They came up with the concept and started working on it.   Then in 2003 a New Consumer Products Group, lead by David Kurlander presented the idea to Bill Gates and within months a prototype was born.  In 2004 more then 85 early prototypes were developed with a team that was now larger then it was in the past.  In 2007 with the help of Pete Thompson they came up with a prototype that they sold to individuals and small groups.  In the future they plan to use these surface computers for schools, businesses, homes and any number of form factors such as walls and refrigerators.

Some of the features with Microsoft Surface:

• automatically downloading images from digital camera’s
• automatically downloading music from digital audio devices
• using your phone to make plans for the evening and then guide you to your destination
• cashier that can split the bill 5 ways by dragging the items onto your credit card

Interested to see it in action?  Check out the video below:

Have you ever thought you could carry the power of a computer inside such a small device as a pen?  Well that is now becoming a reality with Digital Pens such as the one from FLY Fusion.  This device may be for a younger audience but it is none the less an interesting electronic toy.  The basic idea behind it is that you can write on special FLY Paper and it will automatically capture your ideas for upload, and helps with your homework and write essays among other things.

It has many different features such as:

• has software to create music using its Music Studio and then you are able to draw a play button and play the music with your pen
• you can write down a word in English and then have the pen translate that word into Spanish so you can learn Spanish on the fly
• get essay coaching – topic brain storming, topic outlining, and drafting
• algebra tutor – write out the equation and have the fly pen teach you how to work out the equation
• digitize anything – whatever you write can be uploaded to your computer to print, email, blog or whatever you want to do with it
• want to learn the Periodic table? Write down the element and have the FLY pen tell you the symbol
• download mp3s to your FLY pen and then draw a play button and press it to listen to your music

This electronic device will run you around $79.99 USD.  If you think this is something your son or daughter might like check it out here.  Check out the video below for more details.