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When you're surfing the Web, editing photos, listening to MP3s and tweeting, it's easy to run out of real estate on your computer display. If only you had a little extra screen -- like a digital kid brother -- that could show an auxiliary program like a Twitter application. Now you do. All hail the mini monitor. These diminutive displays are quite helpful with everyday computing tasks but take up less desk space than a full-sized monitor you might use as a second screen. You don't need a special slot in your PC to connect the miniature displays. A basic USB connection handles it.

Supercomputer maker has introduced the CX1, a small and low-cost supercomputer running Microsoft's new HPC Server 2008. The system is scheduled for official release Sept. 22. Aimed at users across a range of markets, including financial services, aerospace, automotive, petroleum, life sciences, government, academia and digital media, the systems are priced from $25,000 to more than $60,000. They boast an assortment of user-friendly features. In addition, the comparatively compact size of the CX1 means that the system can be housed in most office environments.

In an announcement that could pique the interest of hard-charging road warriors, HP on Monday claimed that its new HP EliteBook 6930p notebook computer is capable of up to 24 hours of continuous operation on a single battery charge. By way of perspective, HP offered this scenario: A full day's worth of battery life means business users can continuously compute on the world's longest scheduled commercial airline flight -- taking off from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and arriving at Singapore Changi Airport some 19 hours later.

Portable electronics like smartphones and laptops aren't generally known for their ability to withstand drops, splashes and harsh conditions. Yet the portable nature of these devices means they're often in the line of fire -- swimming pools and toilets for cell phones, dusty places like construction sites for laptops, or even dairy farms with kicking cow hooves, milk and, well, greenish-brown pies. Some companies specialize in "ruggedizing" electronics to make them ready for harsh elements and the occasional accident.

Intel has announced revised details for next-generation USB 3.0 technology, dubbed "SuperSpeed." The updated draft specifications for USB 3.0 software and hardware interface provide a standardized method for USB 3.0 controllers to communicate with SuperSpeed USB software. The specifications give manufacturers and software developers something to work with as they prep for the transition. The specs also aid in establishing interoperability between devices from multiple manufacturers, an important step in terms of consumer adoption of USB 3.0.

Despite the declining cost of supercomputing, the technology still remains out of reach for many businesses and universities, some of which have found alternative solutions. Bringing supercomputing to industry is just what the Blue Collar Computing program at the Ohio Supercomputer Center was designed to do. Launched in 2004 with the support of the Ohio Board of Regents, the collaborative program seeks to provide easy and affordable access to advanced computing technology.

Since the first supercomputers came online in the 1960s and '70s, they have earned a reputation as high-powered workhorses helping researchers conduct complex calculations. Typically found at major universities and research facilities, the massive machines -- which at one time could occupy more than an acre of space in a data center -- were often used in science: quantum mechanical physics, molecular modeling or mapping the human genome. Some jobs were less esoteric: IBM's Deep Blue earned fame in the chess world as an opponent of grand master Garry Kasparov.

Computer forensics gave Michael Fiola his life back. Fiola is the former investigator with the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents who found himself summarily dismissed after an IT check uncovered pornographic images of children on his laptop's hard drive. Criminal charges followed. It was only after a defense-sponsored forensic investigation that it became clear Fiola had been given a sloppily configured laptop and that malware was the probable source of the images.

IBM claimed bragging rights Wednesday as its Roadrunner supercomputer earned the title of the world's most powerful supercomputer. The ranking, bestowed during the International Supercomputing Conference in Dresden, Germany, is a biannual event that ranks the 500 most powerful computers around the world. The Roadrunner, located at the U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory, achieved a peak performance of 1.026 petaFLOPS to take the top spot.

So old-school uncool, the mainframe computer -- the workhorse of the IT world running the majority of today's global business transactions, the mission-critical platform of choice for virtually every member of the Global 2000 as well as local, state and federal governments -- is said to be going the way of other '60s artifacts like the vinyl LP. Distributed client/server computing looks to be replacing the mainframe as the core of business. Companies are migrating workloads off their mainframes because mainframe technologies have percolated down to distributed systems.