U.S. commission seeks Lenovo probe

by Jordan Running Mar 28th 2006

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, or USCC, is calling for an investigation into Lenovo, the Chinese company which bought IBM's PC arm last year, before the State Department closes a $13 million deal to buy 15,000 Lenovo PCs. The USCC wants to be assured that the Chinese computers, which are built in Mexico and North Carolina with components manufactured in Taiwan, are not equipped with bugging devices that could be used to spy on the U.S. government. Lenovo exec Jeff Carlisle says the prope is unwarranted, but says Lenovo has "nothing to hide" and the company will cooperate fully.

[Via Engadget]

Tags: china, hardware, ibm, lenovo, politics, security, usa, uscc

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Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

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To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

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