Help in keeping it off

Maintaining the motivation to stick to a weight loss diet is difficult. Autom is a health robot that can help its users follow through on lifestyle changes. Autom functions as a weight loss coach. Users talk to Autom for a few minutes each day in order to stay on track towards weight loss goals. No two conversations with the robot are alike and Autom gives encouragement and advice to keep dieters focused.

In a recent randomized controlled study, the scientists at Intuitive Automata, the creators of Autom, compared people using Autom to people using a computer-based system or a paper-based system for keeping track of how much they were eating and exercising each day. The study found that Autom helped people to stick with their diets for nearly twice as long as with other methods. This research concurs with human-robot interaction research conducted at MIT by Intuitive Automata’s founder and CEO Cory D. Kidd, Ph.D. Kidd’s studies showed that people were more engaged by a robot and when they received information from either a robot or an animated character, consistently found a robot to be more informative and more credible.

Save ink, save money

Using a printer consumes paper and ink. New printers commonly offer double sided printing as an option to conserve paper. But those pages are still covered in ink. What if ink or toner could last longer?

That’s where the Ecofont can play a role. This is a Dutch font with holes, or small circles, strategically placed in the structure of each letter to save ink. The result is that the font uses up to 20 percent less ink. It might not be the best font for a fancy presentation, but for everyday printing it’s very usable. The Ecofont is based on the Vera Sans, an Open Source letter, and is available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. The font is free to download and free to use. There is also a print solution for business environments. Get them both from www.ecofont.nl

Take your apps along

PortableApps.com Suite (http://portableapps.com) is a complete collection of portable applications including a web browser, e-mail client, office suite, calendar/scheduler, instant messaging client, antivirus, audio player, Sudoku game, password manager, PDF reader, minesweeper clone, backup utility and integrated menu, all preconfigured to work portably. Just install it on a portable device such as a USB flash drive, iPod or external hard drive, and the applications will run from the device when it is hooked up to any Windows PC.

This allows users to carry favorite computer programs along with all of their bookmarks, settings, e-mail and more. The programs are used on any Windows computer without installation and no personal data is ever left behind. The entire platform is open source and free.

Quad-Core CPU for under $100

As part of the new desktop platform designed for mainstream consumers, AMD has created the first ever quad-core processor for less than $100 Suggested System Builder Price (SSBP). The power of this new AMD Athlon II X4 quad-core processor will be balanced with the AMD 785G chipset featuring ATI Radeon HD 4200 graphics, to deliver smooth High Definition visuals and the foundation for a great Windows 7 experience. When matched against similarly priced competitive processors, the AMD Athlon II X4 620 processor delivers superior multitasking performance allowing mainstream users to do more in less time, for less money.