Phoenix's Instant Boot BIOS is UEFI based, which means it can turn on those devices simultaneously to hit that roughly 1 second mark. Regular BIOS types—used by most current notebooks—turn on devices one at a time. That's why it takes up to 10 seconds before the operating system even gets the chance to load.

In this demo from the Intel Developer's Forum, a Lenovo T400s boots a usable Windows 7 desktop in about 10 seconds. It's also helped by a solid-state hard disk, a clean install without any crap-ware, and by not running fancy Aero graphics. Bottom line: Nice, but I'd like to see more of a real world scenario.

Phoenix says it can improve that time further with tweaks specific to individual laptops. It didn't say if any big names had signed the tech up, but I'm thinking some will. Waiting for your laptop to load is an inconvenience we've learned to live with, but I'd pay a little extra to make it a thing of the past. What about you? [LAPTOP Magazine and GottaBeMobile]

Cnet says that the Falcon Northwest Mach V has the latest and bestest combination of components there is, which is what makes it the fastest thing on chips:

• 3.79GHz Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition.
• An Intel X58 chipset.
• 12GB of 1,066MHz DDR3 SDRAM.
• 2 x 1GB ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
• 1TB 7,200RPM Hitachi hard drive.
• 80GB Intel X-25M solid-state drive.

All this comes at a pretty hefty $8,028 price tag, including the Ferrari red paint job, which is a $500 option. Unfortunately, the automotive-class red paint job reportedly helps you get at least three extra frames per second in Crysis. Fortunately, there's a potential DIY fix to save those $500: Apply a few adhesive flames to the chassis, and Bob's your uncle. [Cnet]

The system uses a battery of sensors—everything from simple cameras to infrared sensors to eye-safe laser radars—to do its job, and it then collates the data to determine if people are displaying biological markers that betray mal-intent. In recent tests, in which volunteers were asked to sometimes deliberately act suspiciously, the system even apparently had a 78% success rate, which sounds amazing.

But, as fans of Minority Report will note, it sounds like FAST is crossing into new moral "pre-crime" terrain. And all that data could detect that you have an illness that you didn't know about, or want publicized...detection by the DHS could be seen to constitute an invasion of privacy.

The DHS says that's not a problem, since the data is never linked to an identity and is only used to help officers decide if a suspicious person should be interviewed. Though it's not known if the spokesman was standing before the FAST sensors when he made that statement.

The research has a long way to go, and has yet to face its real challenge: how well it impacts public safety without compromising people's time or privacy, when thousands are streaming past a FAST sensor array. Those are big hurdles to get over, before you start seeing FAST booths at airports or big public events. [NewScientist and DailyTech]

The FAST system consists of a hardened pouch that can hold three spring-loaded 30-round M-16 magazines. It's currently in a prototype phase, but a review by Mil-Spec Monkey deemed it to be a decent piece of equipment. However, they were a bit miffed by the bulk and the flimsy Velcro strap connecting it to the body. Hopefully they can get things worked out before you are forced to wage war with the undead. [Defense Tech and Mil-Spec Monkey]

Micron's P200 RealSSD drives will use single-level cell technology for the Enterprise market, and the C200 versions use multi-level cell tech for the home PC market. The P200 will be available in 16GB to 128GB sizes in a 2.5-inch form factor, while the C200 will come in a 2.5-inch format up to 256GB. Clearly aiming at the UMPC market, the C200 will also come in a 1.8-inch drive with up to 128GB capacity. The drives peak read speed is that impressive-sounding 250MBps, with a write speed of 100MBps. They'll operate at around 0.3 to 2.5 W, and be SATA compatible.

Micron claims the usual power consumption benefits, and that the drives are "10 times faster at accessing transactional data" compared to HDDs. The drives will ship in the fourth quarter of this year, price to be decided. [PC Watch]

Creator Michael Sturtz started off with a BMW motorbike and a Beemer high-performance car engine only available in Europe (which shut down for four days after its computer thought it had been stolen, so Sturtz had to beg BMW for the security codes.) Its retro look comes from having engine and chassis wrapped in 3/4 aluminum fairing.

Die Bike cost $20,000 and took six months to build. As well as running on biodiesel, it can take both diesel and straight vegetable oil (SVO). Sturtz, who is Founder and Executive Director of The Crucible, is hoping that his creation will break the existing diesel motorcycle world record, as well as establishing new land speed classes for both bio-diesel and straight veggie oil. [Popular Science via CNN]

A breeze of just 12 knots is needed to allow the Hydropt re to fly. Rising 15 feet out of the water, just the carbon fiber ailerons - as strong as the landing gear on an airplane - beneath the trimaran's keels remain in contact with the water, reducing drag to almost zero, and allowing the yacht to hover over the waves. One crewmember steers, while the others bounce around the boat, tightening and loosening sails. And should something go wrong, there is a panic button on the boat, which brings it to a swift halt.

"We're on the border of two worlds, sailing and aeronautics," says Th bault, who has contemplated an attempt on the west-east Transatlantic crossing record. That currently stands at four days and eight hours, and the French vessel would need optimum weather and constant winds over the 3,000 miles.

The Hydropt re currently holds the one-mile and 500-meter records, and has got French knickers in a right old twist. The nation, whose fast train, the 357-mph TGV, became the fastest thing on two rails earlier this year, is counting on the boat to capture the world speed record for sailing, currently held by an Irish windsurfer.

Already the trimaran has hit 47.2 knots in training, just 1.5 knots below the two-year-old record held by Finian Maynard, which Captain Th bault will be attempting to smash in Brittany this winter. "The 50-knot mark in sailing is a bit like the sound barrier in flying," he said. "After that, everything is possible." [Times Online via Luxist]

But why would you want to claim the world's fastest washing machine? I can see why it might be useful for B&Bs or people with 87 children, but it's like boasting about having the world's cleanest car. And as far as my limited experience as a domestic goddess goes (dirty clothes? wear 'em in the shower) I don't think that 35 mins for a wash and 2 hours for a dry is particularly Bugatti-tastic. – Ad Dugdale

Speedster of a Washing Machine [UberGizmo]

•First of all, Mean Time Between Failure rates mean nothing.
•Secondly, SMART hardware monitoring missed 36% of all uh-ohs.
•Third, overworked drives fail similarly to standard drives after the first year.
•Fourth, Hard drive age means less than you think.
•Fifth, failure does not go up when temperatures are higher than usual (unless super high.)

Google even has insight on which brand that had the longest life.

But decided to leave it out because that data "wasn't useful in understanding the effects of disk age on failure rates."

That's the main jist of it. Some of this you probably knew, some of this may be myth-busting, but regardless, this is definitely important information that needed to get out to the general public. It's nice to see an impartial group that has the resources to perform a large-scale study like this shed light on this topic.–Alexander Yoon

Failure Trends Study(pdf) [via StorageMojo]

Could this be an advanced communications prototype only implemented in the famous Midwestern test market? What types of technologies could be in use here? Bluetooth? Infrared? Yellow extension cord? Hit the jump for a bonus picture and the sad identity of the business that made me even fatter this morning.

– Mark Wilson