The Higgs boson is a particle which has been theorized, but yet to be observed in the   lab.  This particle is thought to give all other particles their mass and is often referred to as the "God Particle".  Scientists have been searching for it via the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) in Switzerland since 2008.  Future attempts to observe the particle using the LHC have will have to wait until 2012, as they have wrapped up their work for 2011 in relation to Higgs.

Google's new "Google Location Server" is to map out locations of wireless networks as part of their data collection. 

The trick to not showing up in their service is to add the "_nomap" to the end of your wireless network name (SSID).  So, as an example, if you are one of the many Netgear users who have the name as the default, "netgear" you would need to use the admin interface on your router or access point and rename it to "netgear_nomap" (without the quotes).  Now your access point will not show up in Google's Wi-Fi network mapping.

This task of renaming an access point may not be a big deal for the experienced user, but for the common user, who often doesn't even have security set on their access point, may prove a challenge.

Microsoft is stating that Windows 8 will have fewer annoying restarts after windows updates occur via their new update feature.  It will consolidate all restarts for the month to coordinate with the usual Patch Tuesday, meaning any updates that need a restart will simply wait until the second Tuesday of the the month, prompting you to restart once a month, with the exception of critical updates.

They will have an update notification system letting you know of any upcoming restarts, visible via a Windows 8 log-in screen and remain there for 3 days, instead of nagging you like the default ones currently do.  After the three day period, it will display a reminder but only if the PC is locked or there are no running applications/open files or if you are in the middle of a game or similar activity, these notifications will be hidden and less intrusive.

So for those of us hoping they would re-tool the under-workings of how locked files and processes are handled by Windows 8, making restarts obsolete, we will have to wait a bit longer (yet again).  However, these changes in Windows 8 should make the process less of a burden, though Windows 7 users already know of the hacks available to make things less intrusive with the existing operating system.

Source: Microsoft

While Apple has their iPads at anywhere from $499 to $699, Kindle Fire is set to be $199.  Not to mention there is also the $249 Nook tablet.  Apple is unlikely to drop their prices for some time, given past history which such things as the MacBook Air, which began at $1800 to $3000 and stayed there for several years.  If you are just want the web, videos, books and apps, then the Fire will likely do all this, which I think the majority of users do.

Cnet has their own review on the Kindle Fire here.  From a tech perspective it has a 7” screen.  It integrates with Amazon's lineup of music, video, magazine and book services.  It has a web browser and an Android app store with big titles like Netflix, Pandora and Hulu.  The "bad" on the device is there is no 3G, camera, microphone, gps etc.  Only 8GB of storage with no expansion slot, no Bluetooth and minimal parental controls.  App selection as of now is not as good as Google's.  You need an Amazon Prime subscription for full advantage on unique features.

But even though it lacks some of the things found in pricier Apple and Android devices at $199 it still packs a lot of value for $199, now that they are going to be making their way to consumers, time will tell how well they truely stack up to the competion such as the Nook or even an iPad.
How does the Kindle Fire compare to the Nook on paper?

SQL Server 2012 is due to be released in the first quarter of 2012.  It will feature three main editions. 

NOTE:  Bookmark this thread, as we will update it to include future information as it becomes available.

The three main editions

Enterprise, BI (Business Intelligence) and Standard.  In addition there will still be Web Developer and Express versions of SQL Server 2012.

Microsoft will be eliminating Datacenter (features now part of Enterprise), Workgroup (Standard replaces it) and Standard for Small Business (Standard replaces it).

(click to enlarge)

We discussed the forthcoming iTunes Match in our previous Tech-Stew Podcast, and now Apple has finally rolled out the iTunes Match service to all with the 10.5.1 update.  They were originally supposed to have iTunes Match ready for action in late October, but better late than never.

So what does iTunes Match do?  For $24.99 per year, you can sync your music that was not purchased from iTunes to the cloud, via iCloud.  This would include music ripped from your own CDs as well.  Once done, you can then listen to them on an any device that is compatible, such as Apple or a Windows PC with iTunes.  If the song that is uploaded, matches one that already exists in the iTunes Store/Library, they will update it to the usual DRM-free 256kbps AAC (m4a) format.

For $24.99 a year, you can upload up to 25,000 songs.  This is a fairly good amount of songs, say an average person having roughly 3000 songs as an example, which may translate into 15 GB of space depending on the bit rate involved.

Shown in this vimeo video are time lapse photographs taken by Ron Garan and the crew of expedition 28 and 29 on the International Space Station from August to October 2011.  The vimeo info goes on to say that the images were most likely at an altitude of 350 km using a high ISO HD Camera.

 Source: Vimeo

While not the closest encounter with an asteroid (See a previous article on this subject), Earth has still dodged another proverbial astronomical bullet when it comes to larger asteroid collision courses.  This was the closest encounter with an asteroid this large in 35 years, another close encounter with an object this size (that we know of at this time) will not occur again until 2028.  Scientist have said that if this particular object had struck the Earth it would have created a crater 4 miles wide and around 1700 feet deep.  The size of a crater created by such an impact depend on many factors such as angle of trajectory, density and composition and where they strike on the Earth.

Asteroid 2005 YU55 ended up coming within 201,700 miles (324,600 kilometers) of Earth, closer than originally predicted.  This occurred at 6:28pm EST (2328 GMT) Tuesday evening, then continued on its way at 29,000 mph (46,700 kph).  As noted in our previous article, this rock was about 1300 feet (400 meters) wide.   Check out the video clip after the break...