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Having just tried its hand at developing a digital music player, Microsoft is working on something new: digital furniture.

The company plans to unveil a touch screen computer today called Microsoft Surface, featuring a 30-inch screen embedded in an acrylic tabletop. The device’s electronic guts are hidden in the low-slung table’s thick pedestal.

At first glance, Surface is reminiscent of an old-fashioned arcade game table around which patrons played Pac-Man. But there is no joystick here, and no mouse or keyboard either. The device is controlled by touching the tabletop display.

Microsoft says this touch screen computer will allow people to “interact with digital content the same way they have interacted with everyday items such as photos, paintbrushes and music their entire life: with hands, with gestures and by putting real-world objects on the surface.”

For example, when a digital camera with Wi-Fi capabilities is placed on the display, the table recognizes the camera and, at a touch of the screen, downloads its photos and video clips. The digital pictures can be sorted and sized by “handling” them as if they were physical prints.

The device uses cameras under the display to detect touches, and unlike traditional touch screens it can handle multiple touches at the same time, said Jeff Gattis, the director of product management for Surface.

Similarly, Surface can read bar codes and identification tags embedded in objects like hotel chain membership cards.

Microsoft hopes this touch screen computer will someday be common in homes, but its first uses will be commercial. By the end of this year, Surface will appear in hotels, restaurants, retail stores and public entertainment sites, where it will serve as an information kiosk and handle things like basic customer service. Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, was scheduled to unveil the product today at The Wall Street Journal’s “D: All Things Digital” conference in Carlsbad, Calif.

“With Surface, we are creating more intuitive ways for people to interact with technology,” Mr. Ballmer said in a statement. “We see this as a multibillion-dollar category, and we envision a time when touch screen computers will be pervasive, from tabletops and counters to the hallway mirror.”

Microsoft also named several partners that will be among the first companies to use Surface, including Harrah’s Entertainment, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide and T-Mobile USA. The device’s cost was not disclosed.

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Acai, Anthocyanins, and the French paradox

Have you ever seen beautiful purple flowers? How about a deep red grape or a bright red Fuji apple? If you answered yes (and if you said no – stop reading this article and go out and enjoy nature more!) then you have seen anthocyanins. Anthocyanins are flavonoid pigments that plants and fruits synthesize. Anthocyanins give plants and fruits their beautiful pigmentation – but it is not all about looks. Anthocyanins can acts as a sunscreen for plants and in fruits the bright color attracts animals which feast on the fruits and in the process disperse the seeds. However, the aspect of Anthocyanins that is of most interest in regard to the Acai fruit is their antioxidant properties.

Fruits (like the Acai Berry Fruit) that are exposed to strong sunlight face a tremendous amount of ultra violet light stress. This UV light triggers free radicals to form in the fruit. Fruits, such as the Acai berry, develop high levels of anthocyanins because they have very strong antioxidants properties and can quench the free radicals. Here is the interesting part – the antioxidant properties of anthocyanins are maintained even after they are eaten by another organism. This is why fruits with bright pigmentation tend to have the great ORAC values – they are loaded with anthocyanins! Yes, you guessed it – Acai berries have a tremendous concentration of anthocyanins.

The French have a diet very rich in cheese, sugar, coffee, nicotine, sugar and white flour. With this type of diet you would expect the French to have a very high rate of heart disease, however, the exact opposite is true. The ability of the French to consume a heart clogging diet and yet have a very low rate of heart disease has been labeled the French Paradox.

Researchers now believe they have the reason for the “French Paradox” – anthocyanins! The French drink a significant amount of red wine and the the red wine grape, due to its anthocyanins is what is believed to be responsible for the very low incidence of heart disease. While red wine has a good quantity of anthocyanins, the Acai berry has over 30 times the anthocyanins as red wine.

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If I were to describe a typical Republican, I would say he (or she) would be against same sex marriage, against abortion, for preemptive military action, eager to explore untapped wilderness regions for fossil fuels, and a card carrying member of the NRA.

I have just described Sarah Palin, John McCain’s choice for running mate in the upcoming Presidential elections. Sarah Palin has, in the past, claimed that she is as pro-life as any candidate, and she has described abortion as an atrocity.

These views are undoubtedly not going to make her popular with a good chunk of the population, but apart from their individual merits, they show that Sarah Palin is a woman who has the will and ability to stick by her convictions. Sarah Palin has demonstrated these qualities throughout her relatively short political career; it is these qualities that have so endeared her to her constituents; it was these qualities that helped, as Governor of Alaska, gain circa 90% approval ratings in polls in 2007.

In a world where politicians are prone to change their mind on a subject if it will win them more votes, Sarah Palin’s direct approach to the things she believes in is refreshing and new.

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Trusting the Internet is a very difficult – and very dangerous – thing to do. The wonderful thing about the web is that it is such an open and easily accessible medium on which to air your views and opinions. The bad thing about the web is that it is such an open and easily accessible medium on which to air your views and opinions. This ease of use and inherent flexibility presents a double-edged sword for those wanting to gather information.

Take a search I did recently, for example: I wanted to find a lot more about Wealth Masters International for an article I was writing. My searches started off well with Google giving me a lot of information. Then I realized that quite a few of these repositories of information about Wealth Masters International were written by those with an alternative agenda.

Here are some rules of thumb that I developed. Is a site telling you that Wealth Masters International is the ‘best ever’ without offering any reasons why it might not work for you? Then you’ve probably found an author with a vested interest in the program. If a site is telling you that Wealth Masters International is absolutely the worst thing ever invented then, again, you might be looking at a vested interested.

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Overhearing a conversion on Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill recently, my curiosity was sparked when the conversation turned to sex. Well it didn’t actually turn to sex, per se, but to the sex content of Think and Grow Rich. As I said at the time: I have owned this book for nearly a year and I hadn’t seen this. Someone pointed out that maybe I should try reading it. Maybe I should!

I went home and found my copy of Think and Grow Rich in a dusty old cupboard; I stared through the contents page. There it was: chapter 11. Naturally the question is why is there a full chapter dealing with sex in a book about creating your own wealth? You’ll just have to read it and find out!

Fortunately I did read it and, after seeing how some simple ideas really could help my life, I started from the beginning of Think and Grow Rich with the intention of letting Hill show me how to Think and Grow Rich. These concepts that he brings out – all pretty simple concepts, really – and all things I would have probably done but consciously and not in a concerted effort to better myself. A great read, all in.

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Yesterday I had a bit of a revelation. I was walking through town, innocently shopping for some clothes for my little sister’s baby girl, when I glanced through the window of a gadget shop and saw, there in front of my eyes, an iPhone. Its crystal clear screen and sleek, sexy lines stared right out at me. I knew there and then that I simply had to have one.

I went in and took a proper look at the little machine. My original hypothesis about wanting one was confirmed. As I was staring into its beautiful eyes I noticed, scattered around the room, loads of iPhone accessories that would go wonderfully with my new baby.

First up, and arguably the best buy, was the most boring of all iPhone accessories. The most boring but the most useful. It was a protective case so that my new baby could retain its stunning looks.

Next up on my iPhone accessories shopping list was a Bose headset – expensive but astounding quality – so I could listen to my music in super high quality. I’m a huge music lover and the salesperson had already sold me the virtues of the music capabilities of the iPhone.

A great shopping trip. Much poorer but richer for having an iPhone and a load of iPhone accessories.

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If you want to email, chat and get maps on your phone, then join the queue. You’ll probably be thinking that you need and iPhone, but that’s not necessarily the case. In fact, for a much lower price tag you might even find that you can soon pick up the latest sexy gadget from Google herself. The gPhone is all over the web and will shortly be released. The gPhone is actually a T Mobile G1 handset that runs Google’s Android software. Whatever we want to call it, it is a gPhone!

The Android platform will allow the gPhone to act pretty much as you would expect a powerful home computer to act. Think of it like your PC but much smaller; and you’re able to make calls on it, of course, although this is a gadget of the highest order so actually using for something useful is not that important. More important is the fact that you can access YouTube, Google Mail, Google Talk and many other frivolous apps on there without even moving towards your computer. Fantastic!

The impressive T Mobile G1 handset actually has a fully QWERTY keyboard so, unlike the iPhone, doing productive things is actually easy! This does not have the sex appeal of an iPhone, but it might just have the practicality.

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