Changes are a-coming to chkdsk and NTFS health in Windows 8, and unlike the controversial Metro interface, these tweaks should make everyone happy. As hard drives get bigger, the Windows 7 chkdsk times get longer (and longer, and longer…) when hard disk errors occur, as infrequent as they are. In a worse-case scenario, attempting to boot a corrupt drive can take hours. The new system changes all that.

The Windows 8 improvements will let NTFS try to identify corruptions on-the-fly and make an instant fix in the background, no usage interruptions required. If that doesn’t work, Windows 8 will conduct a “spot verification scan” to determine if the corruption is genuine or just a brief memory glitch.

Genuine errors will be reported to the user and the OS will start scan the system during idle CPU/storage times and log the location of the problems. When the scan is done, Windows 8 will prompt the user to reboot the PC at his convenience. Chkdsk will then use the information NTFS logged about the errors to fix the corruptions quickly.

“The restart is quick (adding just a few additional seconds) and the PC is returned to a healthy state,” core manager Kim Bangalore writes on the Building Windows 8 blog. Hopefully it really is that quick and simple! For all the nitty gritty details and a helpful FAQ, hit the link.

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Microsoft is dipping its search brush into its paint bucket and getting ready to swipe it across Bing, the world’s second most popular search engine behind Google. The new-look Bing will take on a three column design that Microsoft says is “the most significant update” to the search engine since it launched three years ago. Microsoft is looking beyond simple keyword searches and putting a big part of its focus on sharing search results by incorporating a Facebook column on the right-hand side.

“Now it’s possible to do more than find pages with search. You are able to share nearly everything you do, including where you are and who you are, in real-time,” Microsoft explains. “From rich multimedia content to real-time streams to social conversations to applications that let you take action in the real world, digital connections are created that present the opportunity to do something. This presents an unprecedented opportunity to rethink how search should work. Suddenly an index of documents that does not embrace these changes is insufficient.”

The social sidebar is always present and supposedly “never intrusive.” It will appear as part of every search query, though it’s whisked to the right side of the browser. Most of the social content that used to appear in the main search pane will be shuttled to the side. You’ll be able to share links and comment directly to Facebook using the sidebar.

It isn’t all about social networking, however. The other two columns will consist of core web results, which will take up the largest third of the screen, and a ‘Snapshot’ center column with relevant information and services related to your search, such as maps, restaurant reviews and reservations, and more.

You can read more about Bing’s redesign here.

Microsoft have Google’s search engine in their sights as they prepare to change BING to offer new search terms, including Facebook and Twitter information.

Microsoft are betting that people will like the new search options and they are planning to continue expanding their connections with social networking. If you are logged into your Facebook page for instance when searching via Bing you will often get related search information from contacts on Facebook. This could be shared interests, hotels they might have stayed in before, and other related terms.

Qi Lu, the president of Microsoft’s online services division said “This is a fundamentally different way to look at search.” Marking the changes, which are the biggest in their history over the last three years.

Bing has been failing badly against Google, generating a loss every year for Microsoft. The online services division lost $2.6 billion in the last fiscal year. Both Microsoft and Facebook are trying to compete against Google, so it made sense for the companies to try and connect their services together.

Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation and all around controversial guy, often gives speeches around the world on the subjects of free software and the evils of proprietary code and calling GNU/Linux Linux. Earlier today, RMS was forced to cancel an appearance to be rushed to the hospital.

Reports state that Stallman was admitted to the hospital, but has since been discharged. Reports from Spain say Stallman was most likely suffering from symptoms of high blood pressure. The short note on www.fsf.org states that "he did not have a heart attack, as has been reported in some places."

Stallman had begun a talk at the Polytechnic University of Cataluna when he began to feel ill and suspended the conference. Paramedic were called, but no other information has been given by the the Free Software Foundation at this time.

With all the attention focused on the pixel-pumping prowess of the brand-spankin’ new video cards being released by AMD and Nvidia these days, an important part of the equation may be getting glossed over: keeping the hardware running cool. Deep down in our inbox, barely visible through the flood of GTX 670-related press releases, we noticed a nugget of information that may be able to help hardcore system builders with their heating problems. Today, Fractal Design announced a new six-fan controller, the Adjust 108.

The Adjust 108 sports a brushed aluminum design with six sliders that use LED lights to convey fan speed information at a glance; low speed fans glow white while high RPMs turn the light blue. Each of the six channels can handle up to 36W of power, and the SATA-powered hardware consumes a single 5.25-inch drive bay. Unfortunately, Fractal Design didn’t share any pricing or availability info, but the Adjust 108 is already up on the company’s website.

Show of hands: who’s interested in manually (literally) controlling fan speed?

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