Leaving on a Jet plane

The Sleuth is back in the Valley, the Test Bed (Las Vegas branch) is closed and the rest of VNUnet are coming home today.

It's been busy, hard work and exciting.

With a few days recovery we will be ready, willing and able to tackle MacWorld.

As ever we will be bringing you all the news, gossip and buzz from the show floor, courtesy of the Silicon Valley Sleuth

Don't blog it Vlog it! The rise of video blogging

Video blogging has been making an impression at CES, with software, services and web cams aimed at people that want to take their blogs to the next level.

Serious Magic is bringing out its Vlog It software within a couple of weeks, which lets people script, film and create their own video blogs. We've got an early copy of the software and will be testing it over the coming days – you'll see the review on the Personal Computer World site.

John Felts from the company told us that they took the idea of the traditional video editing software and “scrapped it because it's too complicated for the average person”.

You write your script, which then appears on a teleprompter. Any effects or images are dragged and dropped to appear at a particular point of the script. Once filming the image automatically appears on screen at the right point in the script.

It costs $50, but will also be bundled with Creative Labs' web cams in future. Creative has launched Zen Cast Organiser over the past few days. A public beta, it is the company's answer to iTunes, and  ties users to Creative's products (just as iTunes ties users to Apple's products) – in this case the Zen Vision and Zen Vision:M.

At the moment the site, zencast.com, is a little like an RSS feed, where it aggregates information, but in future you'll be able to add your video blogs.

I'll Drink you drive: DARPA’s Touareg

It might not be a fireapple red convertable that can burn through Baker, Barstow and Berdo on its way to Las Vegas on a savage search to find the American dream, but its still a pretty cool motor.

You may remember “Stanley,” the Touareg who won the $2 million prize at the DARPA’s race back in October. Well Stanford went and brought the champion out here for all to ogle. The Stanford robot Volkswagen Touareg finished the course in 6 hours 53, minutes beating everyone else to take the record, so it’s pretty cool to see something this expensive and powerful up close. I noticed they had a tent to hide it from the sun. I suppose they were afraid it’d drive off on it’s own and run over the CES crowd. Johnny 5 is alive!

What do CES delegates do at night?

All in the name of research, naturally, as we have never seen a bull in a bikini..ahem

Robosapiens get outclassed at Las Vegas Hilton

Its Saturday, CES convention goers get $10 off, so resistance is futile. And if you want to check out the future of graphics and what films and games engines could be like in the fuuture go check out The Star Trek Experience: its: "Awwwwwwwwesome," as they say over here.

And don't forget to have one of these, a Borg Sphere complete with C02--although you may need the assistance of another officer.

World Poker Tour and VNU Competition Winners

When VNUnet contacted ComputerActive reader Stan Harris to tell him that he had won the prize to go to the CES show at Las Vegas courtesy of our partners at the world poker tour (WPT), he initially thought it was another one of those irritating sales calls we all seem to get when we are in the shower or just leaving the house.

"I thought it was someone trying to flog me a time share at first," Stan said but when he was told it was for real he was delighted because he said he had never "won" anything in his life before and had never been to the US.

Now, Stan and his wife Jean are hooked on Vegas and hope to return. In preparation for the trip, Stan also told us that his daughter had bought him a poker set in anticipation. So watch out users of VNUnet's poker rooms, you might see our Vegas high rollers in the rooms very soon.

The sights, sounds and smells of CES part #6

Ahhh, who said they couldn't attract any attention to the stand .

The sights, sounds and smells of CES part #5

So if you have a crash you just press ctrl, alt, delete right?

The sights,sounds and smells of CES part #4

$35 for 10 rides, eeeeh, it were $20 last year and I remember when't monorail were free, lad.

The sights, sounds and smells of CES part #3

Everything is big in Las Vegas....