I am back sooner than expected from my vacation in Nevada, Manchester airport considered the weather conditions too dangerous for my plane to land which led to the cancellation of my flight, unfortunately nothing could be rescheduled within reasonable time so here I am still in Manchester!

On the bright side I just picked up some new games for the Xbox 360:

• Assassin’s Creed 2
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• Forza Motorsport 3
• Monkey Island: SE

I really can’t get over the Super Mario reference made by Ezio’s uncle Mario (in Assassin’s Creed 2) when he introduces himself with the line “it’s a me – Mario!”, that truly invoked a nostalgic moment.

On the latest episode of the Hak5 podcast Darren Kitchen demonstrated how to install and boot Chrome OS (the new operating system being developed by Google for those of you who don’t know) from a USB flash drive, check out the video below to view the segment of the show which covers it.

The torrent mentioned in the video as well as further instructions can be found here: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/download-google-chrome-os-and-run-on-a-real-computer/

If you want to watch the full episode head over to: http://www.hak5.org/episodes/episode-618

I recently ordered one of Apple’s new Aluminium Keyboards and as I expected I had some issues getting it fully working on a Windows machine, having never actually used an Apple keyboard before I was unaware that the alt keys on the Apple keyboards are actually where the Windows key would be on a regular keyboard, and the print screen and scroll lock keys are not present either, instead replaced by extra function buttons.

The only solution I came across was to extract the Windows drivers from Boot Camp however I didn’t want to fuss around trying to convert Apple’s DMG files to a format that can be mounted with any standard virtualisation software such as Daemon Tools.

Instead I made use of a tool called SharpKeys and re-mapped the appropriate keys, so now I can touch type as normal with my CTRL and ALT keys in the correct positions and use scroll lock and print screen, in addition I have also set F18 to lower the system volume and F19 to raise it.

If you are looking for the same functionality simply download This File, unzip the file inside and double click it, it will insert the appropriate values into your registry, after doing so you will need to restart your machine for the changes to become active.

Alternatively you can insert the following values yourself into the registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]
“Scancode Map”=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,07,00,00,00,37,e0,64,00,46,00,65,00,\
5b,e0,38,00,38,00,5b,e0,2e,e0,69,00,30,e0,6a,00,00,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout\DosKeybCodes]
“00040402″=”bg”
“00000c04″=”ch”
“00001004″=”ch”
“00001404″=”ch”
“0001041f”=”tr”
“0000041f”=”tr”
“00000412″=”ko”
“00000804″=”ch”
“00000425″=”et”
“00000426″=”us”
“00010426″=”us”
“00000427″=”us”
“00000411″=”jp”
“00000423″=”us”
“00000402″=”bg”
“00000419″=”ru”
“00010419″=”ru”
“00010c1a”=”us”
“00000c1a”=”us”
“00000422″=”us”
“00010402″=”us”
“00020402″=”bg”
“00030402″=”bg”
“00020422″=”us”
“0000041C”=”us”
“0000041a”=”yu”
“00000424″=”yu”
“00000405″=”cz”
“00010405″=”cz”
“0000040e”=”hu”
“0001040e”=”hu”
“00000415″=”pl”
“00010415″=”pl”
“00000418″=”ro”
“00010418″=”ro”
“00020418″=”ro”
“0000041b”=”sl”
“0001041b”=”sl”
“00000442″=”tk”
“00000813″=”be”
“0000080c”=”be”
“00001009″=”us”
“00010c0c”=”cf”
“00000c0c”=”cf”
“00000406″=”dk”
“00000413″=”nl”
“0000040b”=”su”
“0000040c”=”fr”
“00000407″=”gr”
“00010407″=”gr”
“0000040f”=”is”
“00001809″=”us”
“00000410″=”it”
“00010410″=”it”
“0000080a”=”la”
“00000414″=”no”
“00000816″=”po”
“00000416″=”br”
“0000040a”=”sp”
“0001040a”=”sp”
“0000041d”=”sv”
“0000100c”=”sf”
“00000807″=”sg”
“00000809″=”uk”
“00010409″=”dv”
“00030409″=”usl”
“00040409″=”usr”
“00020409″=”us”
“00000409″=”us”
“00000452″=”uk”
“0000046e”=”sf”
“00000408″=”gk”
“00010408″=”gk”
“00020408″=”gk”
“00050408″=”gk”
“00000404″=”ch”

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout\DosKeybIDs]
“0001041f”=”440″
“0000041f”=”179″
“00010415″=”214″
“00000442″=”440″
“00000410″=”141″
“00010410″=”142″
“00010408″=”220″
“00020408″=”319″

If this has helped you then please Digg It so that others may come across it too!

Intel has unveiled a prototype chip that packs 48 separate processing cores on to a chunk of silicon the size of a postage stamp.

The Single-chip Cloud Computer (SCC), as it is known, contains 1.3 billion transistors, the tiny on-off switches that underpin chip technology.

Each processing core could, in theory, run a separate operating system.

Currently, top-end chips for desktop computers typically contain four separate processors.

Intel and rival AMD will both launch new six-core devices in 2010, allowing computers to simultaneously tackle a number of complex tasks, such as processing graphics.

‘Tiny islands’

The chip has won the “cloud” name because it brings together the computing resources typically filling several racks in a data centre.

The SCC is made up of 24 “tiles” each one of which is effectively a dual-core processor.

The chip maker said the research that had gone into the chip suggests that it could, eventually, cram 100 cores onto a single piece of silicon.

In 2007, the firm showed off an 80-core processor, whilst earlier this year a US firm called Tilera announced a 100-core chip. Also graphics chip maker Nvidia has previewed its next-generation processor that has 512 cores.

However, unlike both of these, the SCC is based on Intel’s X86 architecture, meaning it can run operating systems found in normal desktop computers such as Windows and Linux.

Microsoft said it had already put SCC into its development pipeline so it could exploit it in the future.

Intel said it had already demonstrated Linux running on each core. It has also found a way to slash the management overhead required to keep the processors crunching data in synch.

In a bid to keep power consumption down, the tiles making up the chip can be divided into islands of different sizes that run at separate voltages.

“Over time, I expect these advanced concepts to find their way into mainstream devices, just as advanced automotive technology such as electronic engine control, air bags and anti-lock braking eventually found their way into all cars,” said Justin Rattner, Intel’s chief technology officer.

Intel said the SCC would be made officially available during the first half of 2010. More details will be released at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco on 8 February, 2010.

Original article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8392392.stm