Dell's got a new notebook computer on the market: the Inspiron R.  The next iteration on Dell's Inspiron series of notebook PCs, the Inspiron 14R, 15R and 17R appeared in stores yesterday, starting at a retail price of $529.99(14R) to $579.99(15R and 17R). Pretty good for a laptop, especially when you consider what's beneath the case. . 

Let's take a deeper look, shall we? 

If someone were to ask you to name the world's oldest computer, you'd probably mention The Babbage Engine, Konrad Zuse's Z3 or  The UK's Colossus.  If you were asked when humanity built the first computing device, your estimates wouldn't go higher than a few hundred years or so.

What if I told you that there exists a computer system that was operational almost two thousand years ago?

The highest pinnacle of computer technology is the supercomputer.  Never mind gaming rigs like the Pure Luxury or the Alienware Area 51. If one were ever used for gaming, they'd blow them out of the water in a split second. These systems are powerful enough that they've their own unit of measurement for their processing speed-the petaflop.

Here are the five supercomputers  in particular that stand out above the others as the best of the best; the cream of the crop.

When you think of a computer or robot putting someone out of a job, what sort of job comes to mind? If you're like most people, it's probably a lower-end career: one which requires minimal education and may or may not involve manual labor (for example, a supply line worker at an automotive plant).A lot of people decry such a situation, but at the same time sit secure in the fact that their own job is safe from such an occurence.

Or is it?  

Let's face it, if you want to build a gaming computer, how it looks is almost as important as how it runs. I mean, who's going to want a superpowered rig if it burns the eyes just to look at it? The guys and gals over at PurePC and Darwin Machine understand this, and they've put a rather...interesting spin on things.

Since the Ipad's release in April 2010, Apple's moved virtually millions of units.It kind of makes sense. Apple's garnered a very positive reputation in the market, and they didn't exactly have much competition for their new product. When they announced the Ipad 2, it seemed like last year would repeat itself over again.

 But then HP made an announcement of their own. 

Computers that talk to us. Programs that recognize human emotions and respond accordingly. An electronic device that knows the face of its owner. Sound like science fiction? 

Birmingham University researcher Lijun Yin wants to make it a reality. 

If you're into PC gaming, you've probably heard about Razer. Founded in the 1990s, Razer USA is responsible for designing and producing some of the best gaming mice on the market. In 2009, they started making peripherals, as well- these too were met with positive reception.Fact is, these people know what they're doing when it comes to computer games. 

Recently, they've announced plans to design a gaming laptop.

Recently, financial institutions across Canada began mass-producing new debit cards, and sending them to their customers. Each new card contained something previous generations hadn't- a debit chip. Now, instead of swiping the strip on one's card, most businesses will have the customer insert it into a chip reader.

But why the change?