Neowin.net

When times come hard, wheres the place we cut the money? The R & D. :S

"NASA has instituted a review of spending for nonessential information technology, an action that the industry says illustrates how the long-expected boom in tech spending has been slow to arrive. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is requiring all of its field offices, from the Johnson Space Center in Houston to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, to review IT purchases before proceeding. Any major information technology investments, from replacing a million-dollar server to an expensive computer network upgrade, must be evaluated, said Scott Santiago of the NASA Chief Information Office.

"We want to use this as an opportunity to look at the major investments that we are making," Santiago said. "We have to be frugal" spending the agency's IT funds, he added. The moratorium began in December and should be completed by mid-February, Santiago said. The extra scrutiny generally will affect projects costing more than $100,000.The review will not affect the $1.3 billion in ongoing IT projects essential to the mission of the agency, he said.

"We have not found a lot of projects that we have had to say no to," Santiago said. "

View: Nasa.gov
View: Article @ The Washington Post

"My Photos" displays digital pictures stored in your computer and triggers a slide show. A music section accesses digital tunes stored on your hard drive. Live television flows right through this PC as well, and an on-screen television guide makes it easy to record shows.

This computer can be connected to the computer monitor or television set, though you won't be able to effectively see its computer functions from a TV screen.

Unfortunately, you can't get local radio stations or create a mix of your digital music with the Media Center PC. Microsoft, which designed the computer's operating system, said some of these features may be added soon.

Different Media Center PC makers have different visions for this device. Microsoft sees it as the first step in becoming the centerpiece for home entertainment. Gateway, to further that end, has come out with a $4,000 ver sion that includes a 42-inch flat screen television.

Hewlett-Packard, though, sees this as a powerful PC and not a living-room centerpiece.

"I don't want to set people's expectation that this is a DVD on steroids," said Bruce Greenwood, product marketing manager for consumer desktop computers. "This is a PC with extra functionality."

While this computer pushes the edge of innovation by trying to combine the PC, TV, DVD and stereo, it doesn't conform to the will of the living room.

When I first got the com puter, I wanted to place the keyboard and moni tor on a table adjacent to the television. I wanted to connect the television and flat-screen computer monitor to the computer so I could jump on the sofa to use the music and television portions of the computer or sit in a makeshift desk to work on the PC.

It is technically possible to do this, but Hewlett-Packard's Media Center PC doesn't include cords nearly long enough to handle those tasks.

So I wound up putting the computer on my coffee table and making it my sole television. Even with this design I ran into some problems.

The existing cords wound around the floor like vines from a dead houseplant. Because the keyboard and mouse don't work wirelessly, I couldn't sink into my couch, plop the keyboard on my lap and type.

Even if it did accommodate interior design, couples, families and friends wouldn't be able to replace their old computers or televisions with the Media Center PC.

The PC's 17-inch screen isn't big enough to replace many televisions. As a computer, it does too much to be used as a home's lone PC. What happens if someone wants to use the Internet and another wants to watch television? So instead, this expensive, high-powered computer would serve as secondary machine in a den or study.