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The tech world is rife with conductors, but this one has nothing to do with transmitting heat, electricity or light. In this case, the conductor leads a robotic orchestra, synchronizing a host of plastic and metal percussion instruments that ping, pong, bong and blink blue-hued light each time a nearby paint gun strikes them with a tiny rubber ball.

With 21 motors and a Web camera for an eye, this skateboard-sized robot is fast moving and fully aware of its surroundings. Which gives many people the heebie-jeebies at first sight, according to creator Matt Bunting. Especially for anyone who is afraid of spiders. Aside from arachnophobes, Bunting said the hexapod is a real attention-grabber that often peaks people's curiosity.

In the midst of a steady stream of gloomy economic news, an up and coming Asian economic power has snatched a high-stakes, tech industry crown from the U.S.

China was the world's largest personal computer market in the second quarter of 2011. This marked the first time that more PCs shipped in China than in the U.S., according to research firm IDC. Despite the on-going debate over the presumed death of the PC, an estimated 350 million are expected to be sold this year even amid the growth of tablets and smartphones.

A rapid rebound from the 2008 global economic crisis, distribution of wealth across a growing middle class and more affordable prices are driving Russia to become the biggest PC market in Europe.

Armed with a laptop and a self-built digital camera rig, this amateur astronomer photographs the Milky Way.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center scientist Norman Kuring, who created the images, said that he did his data crunching on a custom-built 64-bit Linux desktop system powered by an Intel Core 2 Quad CPU. "It's just a grey box by my desk," he said.

In the wake of the on-going buzz around Ultrabooks, we went looking for the new category of laptop computers in the Sacramento, Calif. area. Visiting retail stores where computers are sold, we asked sales associates to show what they had to offer.

Infographic on Mobile and smartphone market in China

Call it the heart of Facebook. Take an unusual peek inside one of the world's largest data centers, Facebook's monster server farm that opened last year in the remote desert town of Prineville, Ore., 150 miles east of Portland.

McNeil Studio turns to Amazon Elastic Cloud Computing for the first time to render computer animation, and believes cloud computing could start a Renaissance in the arts.

The idea behind the reference design is to speed development time for phone manufacturers that, in turn, can focus on adding additional features and software. The phone features a high-resolution 4.03-inch LCD screen and is running Android Gingerbread OS on the company's Medfield phone platform. A company representative said versions of the phone are also running Ice Cream Sandwich but none were being shown publicly at CES.

How one man puts the torture test to SSDs to raise awareness for the durable, resistant hard drives.

Breakfast with the first woman to start a tech company in Silicon Valley.

MIT President Warns Silicon Valley that a Lack of Ambition, Investment in Education, Research and Manufacturing Will Cut America's Lead, Stifle Future Job Growth.

See what's inside the Lego box come to life on the screen before your eyes.

Hip nosh spot in the Dog Patch District of San Francisco via Pixelpipe ...

Basil Choco Chip homemade ice cream in the Dog Patch District of San Francisco,CA via Pixelpipe ...

via Pixelpipe ...