Showing posts with label Computers and Electronics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Computers and Electronics. Show all posts

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Week in tech: System Guide, supercomputers trading stocks, and more

4chan

The Tenenbaum trial and the Microsoft-Yahoo search deal weren't the only big tech stories from the week gone by. Here are some others you may have missed:

Supercomputers pitted against one another in a high-stakes battle of attack and counterattack over a global network where predatory algorithms trawl the information stream, competing every millisecond to gain an informational advantage over rivals. It sounds like Hollywood fiction, but it's just an average trading day on the stock market.

The Ars System Guide is back, this time with our special gaming edition. If you're looking for upgrades to spice up your summer gaming, the Value Gaming Box and the Performance Gaming Box have you covered.

A high school cheerleader claims a coach forced her to give up her Facebook account login information, only to see her account's contents shared widely with school officials, resulting in extensive disciplinary action. She's now suing everyone involved.

Last weekend, AT&T began blocking 4chan's image server because of what the telecom calls a denial of service attack originating from IP addresses connected to a 4chan server. The blockage has since been removed, but not before 4chan denizens tried retaliating against AT&T.

A new Plasma-based custom KDE desktop shell is designed to deliver a better user experience on netbooks and other devices with small screens. Ars takes a look at the prototype to see how it compares to the conventional KDE desktop environment.

Other hot stories from the past seven days:

- Ever wanted to know how to build a desktop WYSIWYG editor with WebKit and HTML 5? We show you how
- Despite claims to the contrary, there is no such thing as a WiFi allergy
- A tweeting tenant is now being sued by an angry landlord
- The record labels thing it's unreasonable for us to expect that we can listened to DRMed music we lawfully purchased in perpetuity
- Google has released the Wave protocol implementation source code

Monday, July 27, 2009

Philips Norelco 8170XLCC $48.99

norelco 8170xlcc
norelco 8170xlcc

Final Price: $98.99 - $50 = $48.99 + Free Shipping

Philips Norelco 8170XLCC major savings. Now only $48.99! Limit once per account and good only to the first 300 customers. No backorders will be honored. Note: Your discounted price will appear when you add the Philips Norelco 8170XLCC to your shopping cart.

Samsung SCX-4725FN All-In-One Printer for $99.90 Shipped OOS

scx-4725fn
scx-4725fn

Staples.com has the Samsung SCX-4725FN All-In-One Printer for a good price.

Item has a rating of 4/5 from 53 reviews

Pricegrabber Price : $118.65 ~ $379.99 Shipped

1. Staples price : $199.90
2. Coupon Price : -$100.00 | Code : 73166
Final Price : $99.90 Shipped

Friday, July 24, 2009

Acer Aspire One A110L / Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz / 512MB / 8GB SSD / 8.9 - £89.99

acer+aspire+one+a110l
acer+aspire+one+a110l

The Aspire one is great for getting things done: whether you're checking your mail, managing your online bank account or chatting with friends, the Aspire one offers a simple, intuitive Linux interface that clearly organizes everything you need to surf, work or simply have fun. The pre-installed software is separated by functions and presented in 4 distinct areas on the screen - Connect, Works, Fun and Files - that is so simple it's impossible to get confused: the easier it is to get things done, the simpler it is to enjoy life.

Ergonomics and reduced dimensions do not mean the view isn't spectacular: the Aspire one has an 8.9" CrystalBrite LED backlit display with a resolution of 1024x600 pixels. Integrated in the top of the screen is the unique Acer CrystalEye webcam for live video streaming, video chats and conferences.


• Processor: Intel Atom N270 1.6Ghz Processor (533 MHz FSB, 512 KB L2 cache)
• Memory: 512MB
• HD Capacity: 8GB SSD
• Display: 8.9• WSVGA (1024 x 600)
• Graphics Card: Integrated
• Operating System: Linpus Linux Lite
• Optical Drive: None
• Networking: 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, 10/100 Fast Ethernet,
• Interfaces:
• 5-in-1 card reader (SD, MMC, MS, MS PRO, xD)
• SD card reader
• 3 USB 2.0 ports
• External display (VGA) port
• Headphone/speaker/line-out jack
• Microphone-in jack
• Ethernet (RJ-45) port
• DC-in jack for AC adapter
an ultra-portable laptop you need without compromising on performance, you can't go wrong with the Aspire one 110L.

Condition : As New
Warranty: 90 days

Sunpak 5200D Platinum Plus Tripod Price and Features

sunpak 5200d
sunpak 5200d

For photography and videography lovers out there, here is a perfect companion for cameras – the Sunpak 5200D Platinum Plus Tripod. This digital camera tripod is lightweight making it very portable. It can extend up to 52 inches of height but only measures 20.5 inches when closed.

List of Sunpak 5200D Platinum Plus Tripod Features:

- Three-way ultra smooth photo/video pan head
- Quick release plate with a video indexing pin
- Pan head bubble level
- Geared center column with tension adjustment
- Body bubble level
- D-shape three-section legs with flip lever leg locks and heavy-duty self-leveling rubber feet
- Leg braces for added stability on uneven surfaces

Sunpak 5200D Platinum Plus Tripod price for ones ranges at $25 – $30 each. Today on Woot, 1 Sunpak Platinum Plus Tripod can be purchased for as low as $5.99 + $5 shipping. The specs and review of this 52″ lightweight tripod by Sunpak will be given in a separate article.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Bill Gates on Natal, research and Chrome OS

google chrome
os chrome

Bill Gates surfaced to give an interview with CNET, where he shrugged at Google's nebulous operating system project, talked up the Richard Feynman lectures he's sharing online through Microsoft Research, and chatted about his new role.

Gates also reiterated Microsoft's intentions to bring the Project Natal technology to the PC, as Xbox executives disclosed last month at the E3 conference.

Some tidbits, including Gates on the Feynman lectures:

Well, I didn't get to see these until I was about 30, and so I would love it if lots of young people saw them, and got a sense of the fun, and how science works, and what's complicated, and what's not. I hope some people who teach science are inspired by the way that Feynman managed to make it interesting without giving up the depth of how it works.

With super-high-quality material like this up there for free, I hope people see the potential, and that they'd benefit from this one in particular, and then it starts to push forward the idea if someone is great lecturer, then their work should be out there and available.

On Chrome OS:

Well ... there's many, many forms of Linux operating systems out there, and packaged in different ways, and booted in different ways. So I don't know anything in particular about what Google is doing. But, in some ways I'm surprised people are acting like there's something new. I mean, you've got Android running on Netbooks; it's got a browser in it. In any case, you should make them be concrete about what they're doing. It is kind of a typical thing. When Google is doing anything it gets this -- the more vague they are, the more interesting it is.

On his new role:

Well, the foundation work is very rewarding, and there's a lot of interesting complexity that comes with it. I'm pretty much doing what I expected to be doing, which is very different than what I was doing before my job changed. I do have about 20 percent involvement with Microsoft, where topics like their future of Office, of search, or various things that Steve [Ballmer] asked me to look into and help out with come along. So that's developed pretty much like I would expect.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Happy birthday, Nikola Tesla!

nikola tesla
nikola tesla youtube

Friday marks the 153rd birthday of one of the greatest geeks and most amazing minds of all time: Nikola Tesla. This genius is almost certainly why you have electricity in your house. What's more, most of the gear you own is powered by parts that use his ideas. We owe this man the modern age.

So what better way to celebrate his birthday--and thank the man--than to share a video of two Tesla coils playing the Super Mario Bros. theme song?

We couldn't think of one either. It's not the newest or most impressive Tesla coil demonstration on YouTube, but it's probably the most fun.




The Android OS comes to the PC

chrome os
download google os

GOOGLE'S MOBILE PHONE operating system called Android has come to the PC in a LiveCD version.

A couple of blokes have recompiled the OS so it's capable of running on a common x86 platform. This is just in time to see what Android is really like, before Acer, Asus, MSI and others officially release their netbooks with the operating system preloaded on them.

The PC version has been ported from an Asustek EeePC 701 netbook running Android. As with every other try-before-you-buy LiveCD, you simply download the ISO file, burn it onto a CD or DVD, and then boot with the disc.

With a LiveCD, there's no need to install the OS, so you can test-drive the software without writing it to your system's hard disk. The LiveCD can also run under virtualisation such as VirtualBox or VMware or the other thing by the Vole.

You can grab the Liveandroid version 0.2 from Google.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

$79.99 Linksys WRT110 RangePlus-n Wireless Router

linksys wrt110
linksys wrt110

What do you do if you have several computers in your household and only one Internet connection? You get a wireless router! Here is a very interesting and cheap device: Linksys WRT110 RangePlus-n Wireless Router. This beauty features 802.11b/g/n, 802.3/802.3u, 4 x Ethernet ports, CAT5e cabling, 2 x built-in antennas, one reset button, and WiFi protected setup.

The Linksys WRT110 RangePlus-n Wireless Router measures 7.99 x 1.38 x 6.30-inch, while weighing 9.52 oz. The wireless router is very safe thanks to a SPI firewall, WPA2, WEP, Wireless Mac Filtering, and 128-bit security key bits. The antennas on this device manage a 1.8dBi gain, and 16.5 dBm RF power.

This device is very easy to setup, and easy to handle. I appreciate its sleek design and the blue color of the LEDs. I like blue. Well, the Linksys WRT110 RangePlus-n Wireless Router is available today for only $79.99 at Woot. Hurry up and go get it!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Google's Chrome OS could make cloud computing 'real'

google chrome
os google

Cloud computing may be ready for prime time with the announcement this week that Google will be unveiling its own operating system next year which one expert says is "custom built for the cloud."

In his column for InfoWorld, Neil McAllister writes that when people look back at Google's announcement of Chrome OS people will see it as "the moment when cloud computing finally became real."

McAllister notes that this might be the beginning of what he dubs the "invisible PC" where computer users are not tied to a desktop or operating system and applications are instead based on the web.

It would appear that Chrome OS is truly the first operating system built with cloud computing in mind. When Google announced its new operating system this week the company said that it would begin by targeting the increasing netbook population - computers which have limited memory and are therefore much better suited for working in the cloud.

On its official blog, Google seemed to point out how important the web will be to the new operating system, mentioning that users of Chrome OS will be able to be on "the web in a few seconds" after startup.ADNFCR-2178-ID-19258991-ADNFCR

Friday, July 3, 2009

Acer Aspire One AO751h-1273 White 11.6″ Netbook for $449.99

acer aspire one


Acer Aspire One AO751h-1273 White 11.6″ Netbook for $449.99

Newegg offers the Acer Aspire One AO751h-1273 White 11.6-inch netbook for $449.99. This is the best price for this product in the US market. The Acer Aspire One AO751h-1273 White features the Intel Atom Z520 processor, 2GB of DDR2 memory, a 250GB hard drive, the integrated Intel GMA 500 graphics, a 6-cell battery, and Windows Vista Home Basic OS.

Help with connecting modem cable to PC

cable modem
Help with connecting modem cable to PC

Q. i have a question.... i am not so cable modem literate so bar with me. I have a PC that has a wireless adapter in it now. we took out the original ethernet connection thing a few years ago... therefore the plug which connects the modem to the PC went with it and there isnt another one on the back of the PC.. i am not going to be in a network anymore, and i am wondering how i would connect a modem to my computer if there isnt a plug to plug in the cable into my PC... any help would be great!


A. The fastest and most stable way to connect a computer to a cable modem is through an Ethernet Adapter. (AKA: Network Interface Card or NIC)

If you removed one from your computer, I would suggest replacing it if you still have it. If not, they are not very expensive. You should be able to get one on eBay or Craigs List for about $5.00

The alternative would be using a USB cable but that would require the specific driver for the cable modem you have.

If you want to use the wireless adapter and your Cable Modem doesn't have wireless built-in, You could get a Wireless Router. Their not very difficult to get working but you should find out what the wireless card is in your computer and match the technology of it. For example if it is an 802.11G wireless adapter, get a "G" Router.

Navigon Portable Navigation Devices

navigon
Navigon Portable Navigation Devices

hello i recently purchased a refurbished navigon 2000, for 70 dollars from tiger direct.. So anyway i charged it up, and it was working great Smile I decided to upgrade the software and it upgraded to the latest firmware i forget what the latest is through the NAVIGON FRESH APPLICATION. So i then took it out for its first trip to a friend of mines house. It gave me great directions and i got there great.

So then, when i was about to leave i was turning it on again to set it to get me back home, and when i turned it on, it came to the disclaimer page about being a good driver while using this blah blah blah. THEN GUESS WHAT? IT WOULDNT LET ME CLICK OK.

SO WHAT DO I DO? I DO A RESET FROM THE LITTLE HOLE, same story. So next i use a hard reset which sets everything back to factory settings, and it brought up the navigation cursor calibrator where u have to press on the screen and let go at the different spots, it moves from the middle to the upper left slot on its on, and doesnt respond to my touch or anything, its not frozen as i can still connect it to my pc and it will register along with charging it, it also shows up when accessed in the NAVIGON FRESH, and the standby countdown still comes on when u disconnect a power source, i want this to be fixed.

I DON'T WANNA SEND IT BACK, AS I HAVE A BIG TRIP ON THE 8TH OF JULY I REALLY WANNA MAKE, AND IF I SEND IT BACK I WONT BE ABLE TO RECEIVE MY NEW ONE TILL AFTER THE 8TH

The only thing i could see causing this, is the upgrade in software, but then again i don't think that's correct as I was able to use it going to my destination with no problems.

Please help me, id appreciate it.

Unboxed – Nokia 6700 Classic

nokia 6300
Unboxed – Nokia 6700 Classic

With this summer's deluge of smartphones showing no sign of abating, it's easy to forget that an unassuming Series 40 Nokia is actually the biggest-selling phone in the world. That phone is the Nokia 6300, and this is its shiny successor – the 6700 Classic.

While it has the same form factor as its predecessor, the 6700 is actually a big upgrade. Firstly, it feels much weightier in the hand thanks to its full-body stainless steel shell – it's a lot like a candybar version of Nokia's 8800 from a few years back.

It may not be a smartphone, but the specs have been vastly improved too. There's now a 5MP camera with small LED flash, HSDPA connectivity and the handy combination of GPS and Nokia Maps.

The only change we think 6300 fans might not take a liking to are the keyboard buttons, which have much less travel – though a quick play found them to be just as capable of speedy texting.

We'll have a full review very soon.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Acer Aspire One AO751h

acer aspire one
Acer Aspire One AO751h

Acer’s first 11-inch netbook offers a bigger screen than the competition and long battery life, but its processor is somewhat slow.

In many ways, the Acer Aspire One AO751h, the company’s first 11.6-inch netbook, is an improvement over its recently refreshed 10-inch cousin: users get an extra inch of screen real estate, a roomier keyboard, and more than 7 hours of battery life (its smaller kin, the AOD150, lasts an hour less). But although it’s larger, the AO751h has a weaker processor. The result is a netbook that looks and feels great but offers slower performance than other machines in its class.

Design

If you’ve seen the 10-inch Aspire One AOD250, the 11.6-inch version will look familiar. It, too, has a glossy black lid with Acer’s metal logo impressed in the lower corner; the lid picks up fingerprints fairly easily. Like the slightly more upscale Timeline series, it has a gray palm rest and keyboard deck with a black keyboard and thin bezel to match.

As with the Timeline series, the overall effect is conservative, but not cheap-looking. The real cornerstone of the Aspire One’s design is not the color scheme anyway, but its thinness. Whereas its competitors, such as the ASUS Eee PC 1005HA, can be as thick as 1.4 inches and weigh close to 3 pounds (the 1005HA weighs 2.8), the Aspire One has a minimal footprint of 11.2 x 7.8 x 1.0 inches, although it weighs 3 pounds (and 3.6 with its adapter). In the hand, it feels just slightly heavier than the Toshiba mini NB205, but that’s offset somewhat by the thinner build.

The only catch: its six-cell battery juts out the back, whereas some netbooks, such as the Eee PC 1005HA, have comparably sized batteries that are more flush with the system (and manage to deliver longer battery life, to boot. More on that later).

Keyboard

Like the Aspire Timeline AS3810T, the Aspire One A0751h has raised keys, whose plastic has a slightly textured feel. The layout is close to full size, and we appreciate that the right Shift key is full size and in the proper place. Touch typists will have no problem with this netbook, but we noticed that the keyboard flexed as we pounded out responses to IMs.

On our first Ten Thumbs Typing Test, we scored 71 words per minute; our highest score on our desktop computer is 88 words per minute. Then, we immediately took the test again and scored 86 words per minute, which suggests you’ll likely acclimate quickly.

Touchpad and Touch Button

When we reviewed the latest 10-inch Aspire One, we complained about the tiny touchpad. With the A0751h’s slightly wider footprint, however, comes a wider touchpad (2.5 x 1.6 inches), which was a pleasant improvement over the AOD250’s 2.0 x 1.5-inch pad. It’s still fairly short, though, especially compared to the NB205’s (3.1 x 1.6 inches) enormous touchpad.

We have a bigger concern the single touch button, which we found too stiff and narrow. Aside from the stiffness, we would have preferred two buttons, as there are on the NB205 and other netbooks.

Display and Sound

One thing the AO751h offers that most of its 10-inch competitors don’t is a high-res screen. Whereas the 1005HA, NB205, and 10-inch Apsire One all have displays with 1024 x 600-pixel resolution, the AO751h’s 11.6-inch display has a resolution of 1366 x 768. Those extra vertical pixels, in particular, mean you won’t have to scroll down as often when you’re viewing pages, a common inconvenience with netbooks.

We were immediately impressed by the screen’s brightness. When we watched a Saturday Night Live sketch on Hulu.com we enjoyed pleasant colors and, moreover, good viewing angles even from oblique side angles. The glossy finish limited our viewing angles from the front, however, when we dipped the lid forward slightly we were still able to make out the clip. By the time we got to a 45-degree angle, however, the screen appeared washed out.

The volume, as you would expect with a netbook, is weak. Watching a clip in a quiet room with the netbook right in front of us, the sound was never too loud. Music, too, sounded predictably tinny, but no worse than it does on other netbooks: the bass in “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes, for instance, was distant.

Ports and Webcam

The AO751h has a standard selection of ports: three USB ports, VGA output, an Ethernet jack, headphone and mic ports, and a 4-in-1 memory card reader. The memory card reader, VGA, and one USB port on the right side, and the rest on the left.

The netbook comes with an embedded 1.3-MP webcam. In a Skype chat, our friend reported minimal latency with better colors and brightness than on his Apple iSight camera.

Canon Powershot G10 Real World Review

canon g10
Canon Powershot G10 Real World Review

Steve Huff has reviewed the new 14.7 megapixel Canon Powershot G10 - an update to the G9 - it features a wide angle 5x optical zoom lens with optical image stabilisation, RAW support, 3" screen, VGA video recording and ISO1600. The Canon G10 is available for £353:

"My first results were good, no issues, no problems. The lens did at times seem a little slow to me. As soon as you zoom a little you lose that 2.8 and most of my shots had to be taken at F4.5 or smaller. I have to be honest here. I MUCH prefer the little F2 lens in the Leica D-Lux 4 and if Canon comes out with a G11 they should add HD video and put in a faster lens."

Uproar over Windows 7 upgrade limitations

windows 7
Uproar over Windows 7 upgrade limitations

Microsoft has announced that Windows 7 upgrades will be limited to just 25 machines per company for those that purchased new computers between now and the official release of the Windows 7 operating system on October 22. This could have major implications for organizations planning larger upgrades, though was not initially publicized by Microsoft for obvious reasons.

"Gartner believes Microsoft designs these program limitations to persuade organizations to enter Enterprise Agreements, enroll licenses in Software Assurance or purchase upgrade rights to run Windows 7," Gartner analyst Michael Silver wrote in a report. This obviously does not sit well with detractors who have criticized Microsoft and are charging the company with attempting to charge twice for the same OS. Finally, it must be pointed out that the program for a free upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 will cease once Windows 7 SP1 becomes available.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

How Belgian tax on web was out of service for a day

Computer
Tax on web is used by thousand of civil servants and accounts who fill in online thousands of tax forms for individuals during these last few weeks. Last week the service was bugged down during nearly a day. There were several questions in the parliament and from the answers we can read the following.

There was a cable to a harddisk that was posing problems so that the harddisk was not accessable. Maybe you should read this again and than take your IT-architecture handbooks and look up the following words

fail over - monitoring - pre-testing - business continuity - virutalisation - spare parts -.... and so and so on

Remember this is one of the most popular and most critical installations of egov in Belgium. of an applications that still is easy to spoof by the way - something we blogged about .... a year ago. If their hardware installation has been tested the same way one can understand the problems they had.

Security people should never underestimate hardware or take it for granted. It is only hardware.

'Virtuality' Is Brilliantly Captivating Human Drama

virtuality
'Virtuality' Is Brilliantly Captivating Human Drama

"Virtuality" is the kind of science fiction that successfully does so many things right that it's nearly impossible to find anything wrong; it's got a bold, realistic, and fresh perspective that shows what science fiction is – or could be – if only given the right effort; its characters are complex, developed individuals that draw the audience into the world so naturally and completely that they may never wish to leave; its setting is stylish and imaginative; and its mysteries and questions intriguing.

The basic concept involves the members of a deep space exploration mission struggling with the pressures and stresses of daily life inside a tin can millions of miles from Earth as they struggle with a fateful choice ... a choice about their mission, their lives, and future of the human race. It involves the question of whether to proceed with their mission or back out, and about whether to proceed deeper into the unknown or return quietly back to the nest. To complicate this choice is a collection of factors both within the ship's crew and external to the people. If they say yes, they cannot back out. If they say no, mankind may face its own extinction within a century.

But the concept also possesses an even deeper avenue of storytelling and this is the series namesake mash up of two words: virtual reality. In this world virtual reality simulation technology isn't just an idea, it's, well ... a reality. The technology is capable of allowing the crew to live outside the ship, in worlds of their own imagination. They can explore mountains, surf waves, play in rock bands, fight in old battles or raise children, take a vacation wherever and whenever they choose. To, in nearly every possible way, escape the struggles and stresses of their lives for better and more interesting ones.

Yet within this virtuality there are mysteries, questions and a possible setup for more sinister or benevolent forces at play. Appearing for unforeseen and unknown reasons in the various virtualities of the crew is a man of unknown origins - he's not part of the crew and he's not registered as part of any program. Within each of the virtualities he operates by his own apparent rules independent of any know system. He's effectively a literal ghost in the machine, a Virtuality Man. His existence contradicts everything the crew knows, is he a programmed A.I., an alien entity, angel or something else entirely un-thought of by the human mind?

All of these wonderful mixed staples of science fiction coalesce beautifully into a captivating story. Something reminiscent of "2001," "Star Trek," and a dramatized "Big Brother" all merged seamlessly into a new vibrant reality. A story that captivates the viewer with genuinely clever and intelligent style and substance, that is both timeless and futuristic.

Yet, despite all of these wonderful attributes, I have doubts that the concept would work as a series for Fox. The two hour movie, which may function as a series pilot, works because it offers a quick and compelling look into another world. But offering a 2 hour fully realized glimpse of a world is much different than fleshing out 18 to 22 hours of time in this world per season. The setting severely limits the ability to tell new stories or offer new locales. The virtualites of the crew potentially allows the writers to expand the stories in new and interesting ways, but as the virtual realities are styled to clearly not look entirely real they don't offer a the writers a truly viable way of escaping the ship. So the end result is the potential for overly dramatic soap opera-ish writing wherein the crew acts more as teenagers on "90219" or "Gossip Girl," squabbling in personality clashes over mundane events (though admittedly that may be the goal of the concept).

And therein lies another possible concern: the crew is composed of 12 individuals so far from Earth that adding new characters to a series is severely limited. While the crews virtualities may allow them the ability to meet new characters, the visual style of the virtualities make the use of characters, in my opinion, lack substance. They can only exist inside the virtualities, inside a clearly fake reality. They can possibly act out of character as the Virtuality Man I mentioned earlier. But using that concept too much can downplay the effectiveness of the mystery built around the character. His presence in affect would be pointless, no longer special but yet another character among many others.

Finally as a series the concept could suffer from 'holodeck syndrome,' wherein the writers run out of ideas and are forced to rely on the same technology run-a-muck story used repeatedly in some of the less than popular episodes of 'Star Trek'. Where the virtualities or become a crutch that the writers lean on. In such an event the series would quick lose traction, failing into a trap of its own making.

But whatever the end result, as a start, there is much promise here. The movie shows us that star ship series aren't dead and that truly compelling characters can offer truly solid and enjoyable experiences.

What Worked

The realistic nature of space travel in the series: this ship does not possess a faster than light form of travel. The crew cannot simply jaunt of course and visit a planet. The crew cannot communicate in real time with people on Earth. The ship's course is set and that is that, the crew it's literal prisoners.

The writing/actor delivery dynamic: the writing is extremely natural, fluid, and realistic but coupled with the delivery of the cast everything takes on a much more believable nature. The audience feels as if these are real people. They feel as if this mission could happen to people living today.

What Didn't Work

For a series set at least a hundred years into the future, the sets and some props feel a little too contemporary at times. Are we, as an audience, honestly to expect that the future will look almost exactly as it does today? Yes there are some technologies that looks futuristic, but no more futuristic that something that could be released next year. For example in one scene a member of the crew is watching a video from her sister using a device that looks like a slightly larger than normal iPod. Yet at the same time the series posses virtual reality, wouldn't it make more sense to watch a virtual reality projection of the sister taken from her home back on Earth? Or how about a holographic display flowing in mid air?

The score was at times far too heavy handed. During tragic moment it felt like a slightly upgraded form of muzak, ultimately detracting from some of the most dramatic moments (of course in other scenes it fit perfectly).

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

"Virtuality" was written by Ronald D. Moore and Michael Taylor, and was directed by Peter Berg.