Geekly Update - 29 August 2011

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

For a cool million dollars, space-minded tourists will be able to spend their 2016 vacation aboard a Commercial Space Station built by the Russian company Orbital Technologies. The new CSS will have elite suites for its patrons with both horizontal and vertical beds. Somehow I think they'll still charge an extra $10/day for wifi.

Woot! The New Oxford English Dictionary added several words to its latest edition, acknowledging our trend of all things Internet. Included are "retweet," "sexting," "cyber bullying."

If you went into a coma over the weekend, then you probably missed the HP fire sale at Best Buy. The company is offering its 16GB Tablet for a mere $99.99 until supplies run out.

Sony will release their new DEV-3 and DEV-5 3D Binoculars this November. Both have full HD and 3D recording, still capture, and HDMI output at prices of $1,400 and $2,000 respectively. Still no x-ray capability? I'll wait for the DEV-9.

Most CDs and DVDs only have a lifespan of about 10 years but a new optical disc promises to store data for up to 1,000 years. Millenniata has designed the M-DISC that stores information in the same way as previous discs but the new ones are impervious to temperature, humidity or sunlight. Yes, but will we have CD-ROM drives in the year 3011?

Save a tree, and kill a Kindle! Nook now does magazines, complete with a 14 day free trial (no charge for subscription holders.) And while the company is obviously going after the female market with titles like 'O' and 'Cosmo', 'Time' and 'Sports Illustrated' were recently added to the list.

Facebook has finally made some major changes to protect its users, including dropping the term "everyone." Subscribers can control who can see certain postings and minors can only share with friends. Unless they lie about their age.

United Airlines will be distributing iPads to 11,000 pilots to replace their flight manuals. The electronic flight bags (ELB), loaded with the app FliteDeck, will also conserve fuel because of the lighter weight. It's now that much harder to swat a fly in the cockpit.

Cool or creepy? Ticketmaster has teamed with Facebook to allow users to find whether their "friends" are attending a concert and even locate their seats with an interactive map. "Hi Doc! Great concert, huh? Would you mind taking a look at this rash after the song is over?"