funfail writes "It's a Wii without the $250 console. It's virtual Pong and so much more. Any object is now an input device, even your fingers. Camspace is a pure software solution that allows nearly any ordinary PC webcam (95% are supported) to track up to four objects — even as small as 5mm — in real-time and with very high accuracy and reliability (Windows only). Techcrunch has an in-depth article and a video." Very neat idea, but it appears that it is in a limited beta only, and source doesn't appear likely.
If you are curious about Earth's periodic mass extinction events such as the sudden demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, you might consider crashing asteroids and sky-darkening super volcanoes as culprits.But a new study, published online yesterday (June 15, 2008) in the journal Nature, suggests that it is the ocean, and in particular the epic ebbs and flows of sea level and sediment over the course of geologic time, that is the primary cause of the world's periodic mass extinctions during the past 500[sc1] million years."The expansions and contractions of those environments have pretty profound effects on life on Earth," says Shanan Peters, a University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professor of geology and geophysics and the author of the new Nature report.In short, according to Peters, changes in ocean environments related to sea level exert a driving influence on rates of extinction, which animals and plants survive or vanish, and generally determine the composition of life in the oceans.Since the advent of life on Earth 3.5 billion years ago, scientists think there may have been as many as 23 mass extinction events, many involving simple forms of life such as single-celled microorganisms. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 16 Jun 2008 | 2:05 pm
michaelrash writes "The Google Trends project provides some visibility into how popular search terms like "Myspace" or "2008 Election" change over time and points out relevant news articles that create jumps in search volume. This is a handy tool, but there are many search terms that Google Trends does not display any results for. Such terms (such as "Linux Firewalls" — with the quotes) have insufficient search volumes to display graphs according to the error message that Google Trends generates. Fair enough. Google sets an internal threshold on search volume, and this threshold could be set for reasons that range anywhere from Google Trends is still experimental to Google not wanting to provide data on how it builds its massive search index for emerging search terms. Either way, I would like a way to see search term trends that Google doesn't currently make available to me. So, I've released an open source project called "Gootrude" to do just this. For the past year Gootrude has collected a set of low-volume search terms and interfaced with Gnuplot to visualize them."
Industrial Nanotech, Inc. (Pink Sheets:INTK), an emerging global leader in nanotechnology, announced today that a fourth NASCAR race team has purchased the Company's patented nanotechnology based coating, NanoBoost(TM), for use on race cars to control heat transfer and improve performance. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 16 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
By Deseret News editorial It's bad enough that the Department of Defense and the Veterans Affairs Administration oppose legislation intended to guarantee health care and benefits for veterans exposed to Cold War-era chemical and germ tests. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 16 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
Finland-based Neste Oil has announced plans to build a E670 million, 800,000 ton-per-annum plant to produce its proprietary NExBTL renewable diesel in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. Construction will start immediately and the facility is scheduled to be completed in 2011. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 16 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/3f7a54/china_solid_waste) has announced the addition of the "China Solid Waste Treatment Industry Report, 2007-2008" report to their offering. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 16 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
WASHINGTON, June 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- DATE: Tuesday, June 17 through Friday, June 20, 2008 EVENT: National Association of Attorneys General 2008 Annual Summer Meeting Forty (40) Attorneys General, their staffs, federal and foreign officials, private industry chief executive officers and executives, trade groups and academics will convene to discuss a number of issues, including technology and crimefighting, rising energy and fuel costs and the environment, law enforcement challenges to protecting children, international cross-border issues, the digital television transition, constitutional law, tobacco, federal legislation and other legal issues. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 16 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
SAN JOSE, Calif. _ For days, fire had scorched the giant redwood tree, so that its blackened bark looked like a charcoal candle. But it wasn't the flames or the falling embers that worried Steve Liebenberg as he dug his spurs into the flesh of the 240-foot tree and hurtled up its side. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 16 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
BEST BEACH RESORTS FOR FAMILIES From a ranking by Parents Magazine. 1. Sheraton Grand Bahama Island Our Lucaya, Bahamas 2. Club Med Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. 3. South Seas Island Resort, Captiva Island, Fla. 4. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 16 Jun 2008 | 2:00 pm
European Union telecoms chief Viviane Reding has angered consumers after suggesting mobile phone users should pay to receive calls as well as make them, writes the Daily Mail. "Despite previous moves... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 1:40 pm
Reuters - EBay Inc on Monday unveiled plans to
let outside software programs work inside the world's largest
e-commerce site, joining a trend toward openness that fueled
the popularity of the social network website Facebook.
By Andrew Liszewski Apparently there are different types of radar guns for different types of speed measuring activities. The ones used by law enforcement looking for speeders are not necessarily the same... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 1:28 pm
Socialmedia.com to Sponsor Lunch and Learn Seminar NEW YORK, June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Socialmedia.com announced today that co-founder and CEO Seth Goldstein will speak Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 1:21 pm
DANBURY, Conn., June 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Solomon Technologies, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: SOLM) today announced the addition of Patrick D. Coady to its corporate... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 1:21 pm
Reuters - The world's top cellphone maker Nokia
(NOK1V.HE) unveiled two new phone models aimed at corporate
clients on Monday, revamping its somewhat aging offering to
business customers.
SEOUL, South Korea, June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- MagnaChip Semiconductor Ltd., a leading provider of analog and mixed signal semiconductor products for high volume consumer... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 1:20 pm
theodp writes "On June 2nd, almost two-and-half years after the USPTO initiated a reexamination of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' 1-Click Patent, Amazon dumped another load of documents on the USPTO Examiner assigned to the case, asking for consideration of the 185 or so listed references and 'favorable action.' Peter Calveley, the LOTR actor whose do-it-yourself legal effort prompted the reexam, notes that he was cc'ed on 20 kg of documents that Amazon sent earlier to the USPTO as it tried to stave off last October's nonfinal rejection of all but 5 of Amazon's 26 1-Click patent claims. So much for Bezos' 2000 pledge of 'less work for the overworked Patent and Trademark Office'."
Best essay wins $500 from sponsor Deep Web Technologies SANTA FE, N.M., June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- The Federated Search Blog, sponsored by leading federated search... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 1:09 pm
QADIMA, Israel, June 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Elbit Vision Systems (OTCBB: EVSNF) today announced that during the second quarter it has received a number of orders... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 1:08 pm
By Andrew Liszewski Sony Ericsson is planning to drop 3 new Bluetooth headsets on June 17. While the HBH-PV-715, the HBH-PV-720 and the HBH-PV-740 all vary in style and certain features, they do have some... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 1:06 pm
Eighty-Three Percent of Study Participants Say They are Likely to Use ScanLife Technology NEW YORK, June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Scanbuy, a global leader in mobile ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 1:05 pm
Telcos turn to Emergency Stand Alone systems to ensure reliability of their networks LAS VEGAS, June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- NXTComm, Booth #SU5223 -- Aztek Networks ( Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 1:03 pm
Two realities, two Heidis That's a question under serious consideration by Heidi Hansen, a Danish woman who dubbed her Second Life avatar "Heidi Ballinger" last year. And though she reluctantly chose "Ballinger"... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 1:00 pm
Microsoft highlights its platforms and services for the telecommunications industry, announces new partners and shows momentum for its services initiatives. LAS VEGAS,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 1:00 pm
Awards recognize partners' innovative use of Microsoft technology to exceed customer expectations and solve business problems. REDMOND, Wash., June 16... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 1:00 pm
SUSE Linux Enterprise kernel now available with support for the VMware Virtual Machine Interface (VMI) WALTHAM, Mass., June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Novell(R) announced today Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 1:00 pm
By Andrew Liszewski If you’re still finding reasons why you can’t or won’t install a set of solar panels on your roof, these Power-Ply 380 modules should eliminate a few more excuses... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 12:46 pm
If startup CEOs want to anonymously rate, review, and criticize venture capitalists, they can still do that on TheFunded. But the site added a feature today called TheFunded Connect that lets members... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 12:46 pm
By Andrew Liszewski We all remember how cool it was when Chief Brody literally blew up Bruce the shark at the end of Jaws. (Oops, that should probably have had a spoiler alert.) But what if you happen... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 12:34 pm
Macworld.com - Nolobe on Monday announced the release of Iris, a new image editor for Mac OS X. Iris costs $79. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 16 Jun 2008 | 12:30 pm
JCWDenton writes "The senior vice-president of engineering for computer-database company Ingres-and one of Silicon Valley's highest-ranking female programmers-insists that men and women write code differently. Women are more touchy-feely and considerate of those who will use the code later, she says. They'll intersperse their code-those strings of instructions that result in nifty applications and programs-with helpful comments and directions, explaining why they wrote the lines the way they did and exactly how they did it. The code becomes a type of "roadmap" for others who might want to alter it or add to it later, says McGrattan, a native of Ireland who has been with Ingres since 1992. Men, on the other hand, have no such pretenses. Often, "they try to show how clever they are by writing very cryptic code," she tells the Business Technology Blog. "They try to obfuscate things in the code," and don't leave clear directions for people using it later. "
US news agency Associated Press has found itself at the centre of a furious debate over the fair use of material by bloggers after its lawyers issued a takedown notice to a small, independent news site... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 12:29 pm
Joel sez, "Education Queensland in Australia is creating a database of children including photos, 'ambitions,' addresses and other personal information as part of a state-wide intranet. The Education Minister is saying that if parents refuse to allow their children's details to be included in the database, they'll be refused an education - subverting the legal requirement that the govt provide children with an education, AND the kids' privacy in a very disturbing way.
As someone who watched a fifteen year old get inside an Education Queensland 'secure' intranet within ten minutes a couple of years back, there's no way it'd be difficult for a determined individual to get inside."
Link
(Thanks, Joel!)
Joel sez, "Education Queensland in Australia is creating a database of children including photos, 'ambitions,' addresses and other personal information as part of a state-wide intranet. The Education Minister... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 12:16 pm
You must know about penguins falling over onto their backs while trying to watch planes fly over, and that you can boil a frog without it trying to escape if you do it gently. You've probably heard that... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 11:41 am
FCC Chairman Keven Martin decides to support the Sirius/XM Radio merger with conditions that include a three-year price freeze. This development could bring the matter up for a vote before the commission, where the outcome remains uncertain.
OWINGS MILLS, Md., June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Chesapeake Interlink, Ltd., d.b.a. Needles Case Management Software, released version 4.7 featuring interfaces with both QuickBooks and Microsoft Outlook software programs. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 16 Jun 2008 | 11:00 am
T-Systems, Nokia, and Venyon have collaborated with the public transport authority of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main region (RMV) to offer mobile tickets based on near-field communications. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 16 Jun 2008 | 11:00 am
LOS ANGELES, June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- "Diamond Dog Caper," which premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, has secured a domestic distribution deal with Screen Media Films via an output deal with Universal Studios Home Video. The film's release is scheduled for September. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 16 Jun 2008 | 11:00 am
Advanced Micro Devices has upgaded its Radeon series graphics processors for Mac and PC platforms. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 16 Jun 2008 | 11:00 am
By Matt Richtel The onslaught of cellphone calls, e-mail and instant messages is fracturing attention spans and hurting productivity. It is a common complaint. But now the very companies that helped create the flood are trying to mop it up. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 16 Jun 2008 | 11:00 am
Liquid Computing has partnered with network storage company NetApp to combine their networking, computing, and storage offerings to create an integrated data center IT infrastructure. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 16 Jun 2008 | 11:00 am
Itisaluna Releases New Offers to Its Clients Itisaluna Abr Iraq, the latest National Wireless Fixed Voice and Data Telecommunications Company in Iraq, has released new special offers to all its clients and subscribers in Baghdad and Basra. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 16 Jun 2008 | 11:00 am
Players Network (OTCBB: PNTV), a Digital Media Television Network dedicated to Las Vegas Entertainment and Gaming Lifestyle, announces today that it has launched its video-on-demand (VOD) content on Verizon FiOS TV. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 16 Jun 2008 | 11:00 am
polymath69 writes "According to The Times Online, genetically modified microbes have been developed capable of turning surplus material such as wood chips, sugarcane, or others, not into ethanol, but into a substance which could substitute directly for crude oil. They claim it could be sold for about $50/bbl, and the production process would be carbon negative."
OK, so this nanoscale floorwax isn't just a dessert-topping: it's also a nanomolecular printer, a power source, and a digital storage medium:
Similarly, when electrons move through the nanotube turbine, they tend to bounce off its spiral arrangement of carbon rings in a particular direction. This redirects the electrons into a spiral flow, and causes the tube to rotate in the opposite direction...
The Lancaster researchers say their motor could be used to pump atoms and molecules through the spinning middle tube. Multiple pumps could precisely control a chemical reaction, driving atoms in a pattern to engineer new molecules. "It's like a nanoscale inkjet printer," says Lambert.
Atoms pumped through the motor could also be used to represent digital data, with an array of motors shuttling atoms between the 1 and 0 ends of the middle tube to store or process information. This method could store data in a space about 10 times smaller than today's state-of-the-art commercial systems, says Lambert.
MMORPG Tycoon sounds like a delightfully recursive video game -- you're in charge of tweaking the rules for a multiplayer online game like World of Warcraft, and you win or lose based on how many simulated players hang around and pay you virtual subscription fees.
The game involves setting zones with level ranges, trying to keep them distributed so your servers don't overload ("due to the coding practices of ShadiSoft"), making sure there are enough towns and respawn points, and trying to keep monster and class stats on keel. Your primary metric for success is your forum buzz, you want more positive posts than negative, and the main factor for this is how hard or easy the game is. Here's where the punchline starts getting set-up: no matter how well you do a portion of players will complain the game is too easy, and a portion will complain the game is too hard. However, as long as you've got some content in, and you've got a half-competent balance, people will play, get addicted, and you'll grow, even though your churn rate might only be slightly lower than your growth rate. And you'll make money. You only have to get the basics down and then just let the game run. The implication is that you don't need a good game, you just need an addictive game. It smacks you in the face with a procedural resonance, the derivative names of the rival MMOs are just icing on the cake.
Cheshire Noir writes, "Our government in Australia used to round up anyone who tried to seek asylum here and send them to appalling 'Detention Camps'. When they became too much of an embarrassment on the mainland we set one up on a Pacific island at tremendous cost.
This poor guy kept appealing being sent back to China because he was convinced he'd get tortured. They shipped him back anyway. He was so horribly tortured that he committed suicide rather than face it again."
Link
(Thanks, Cheshire!)
See an ad for Nike's PhotoiD service, which allows mobile users to create their own trainers based on pictures they take with their camera phones Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 6:35 am
See an ad for Nike's PhotoiD service, which allows mobile users to create their own trainers based on pictures they take with their camera phones Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 6:35 am
Nike fans will be able to create their own trainers based on colourful pictures they take on a camera phone in an innovative pan-European mobile marketing campaign by the sportswear giant. The new service,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 16 Jun 2008 | 6:33 am
imrehg links to a story at the Guardian which begins "Blueprints for a sophisticated and compact nuclear warhead have been found in the computers of the world's most notorious nuclear-smuggling racket, according to a leading US researcher. The digital designs, found in heavily encrypted computer files in Switzerland, are believed to be in the possession of the US authorities and of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in Vienna, but investigators fear they could have been extensively copied and sold to 'rogue' states via the nuclear black market." Reader this great guy links to the New York Times article on the discovery, and asks "Given that Khan's revelations were made in early 2004, does that mean it took the IAEA 1-2 years to brute-force the encryption?"
In today's episode, BB co-founder and Make editor in chief Mark Frauenfelder heads out to Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea for an exclusive tour. Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea is based out of Chicago, Illinois and has recently opened up a new store in Silver Lake, CA. Kyle Glanville, head of research and development at Intelligentsia and winner of the 2008 US Barista Championship shows Mark how they acquire and roast some of the finest coffee in the world.
The word intelligentsia derives from the Latin word intellintia, meaning a group of people engaged in complex mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture. Kyle Glanville has been laboring to promulgate a new coffee culture with Intelligentsia to combat the "get up and go" mentality, and Mark is along for the ride to learn the careful art of roasting coffee.
Intelligentsia is located at 3922 West Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90029 and is open 7 days a week
PC World - Microsoft is now a sponsor of the Open Source Census, an effort to track open-source installations worldwide. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 16 Jun 2008 | 5:30 am
Reuters - IBM has joined forces with
semiconductor process company Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (TOK) (4186.T)
to develop more efficient solar power technologies to cut the
cost of the clean energy source, the companies said on Monday.
InfoWorld - Replay Solutions is set to ship Monday a version of its software recording and replay technology for Java applications, helping users to find execution errors. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 16 Jun 2008 | 4:01 am
1884: The first gravity roller coaster designed and built specifically as an amusement ride opens at Coney Island, New York. It is a commercial success and leads to the building of roller coasters all over the world.
LaMarcus Adna Thompson's Coney Island coaster, which, for a nickel ($1.10 in today's money), hurtled passengers down an undulating 600-foot-long track at speeds of up to a blistering 6 mph, would hardly be recognizable to riders of modern-day roller coasters.
Passengers faced sideways, for one thing, and the track was not laid out in a continuous loop. Like the switchback gravity railway used by Pennsylvania coal miners that inspired it, the Coney Island coaster ran point-to-point, with nothing but gravity to provide the propulsion.
The ride began atop a 50-foot-high platform, and when it reached the other end, passengers had to disembark so the cars could be switched over to the return track for the ride back to the starting point.
From Thompson's Coney Island coaster, the technology quickly evolved. Within a year, the original tracks were replaced by an oval course that allowed riders to remain seated from start to finish. The seats on this new coaster, which was known as the Serpentine Railway, faced forward in what became the standard configuration for roller coaster cars the world over.
Thompson reportedly developed his idea from the Mauch Chunk switchback gravity railroad in Pennsylvania, a coal-hauling device that, in 1827, was used to provide thrill rides to the locals when not in use to deliver coal to the town of Mauch Chunk (since renamed Jim Thorpe).
But the origins of the roller coaster go back much further, to 17th-century Russia. The earliest coasters were actually slides, carved from specially constructed ice hills outside St. Petersburg. The first man-made coaster using structural support is believed to have been built on the orders of Catherine the Great in that city's Gardens of Oreinbaum.
Roller coasters were built in other European countries as well, before catching on in the United States.
What we think of as the modern roller coaster appeared soon after Thompson's success at Coney Island. Because entrepreneurs were scrambling to make money, there was a lot of experimentation. and a lot of these rides were just flat-out dangerous.
The classic coaster was built on a wooden frame (and was referred to as a "woodie" in the business). Since all coasters rely on gravity to gain and maintain speed, track layout became all-important. The cars themselves make the initial ascent using a pulley-operated chain.
The world-famous Matterhorn bobsleds at Disneyland, which opened in 1959 almost 75 years to the day after Thompson's coaster, became the first roller coaster to use tubular steel track. This innovation allows designers to incorporate maneuvers like loops and corkscrews into the course.
Film director Alfred Hitchcock often said people go to scary movies for the same reason we ride on roller coasters. We enjoy being scared … more or less safely. And we enjoy anticipating the fright and how we'll respond to it.
So, on the anniversary of the opening of the first gravity-driven amusement-park roller coaster, we offer a small selection of some of the world's finest -- and scariest -- rides. (Be sure to let us know about your own favorite roller coasters in the comments.)
Left: Riders seen on the new Kingda Ka roller coaster, the tallest and fastest coaster on Earth. The ride launches riders from 0 to 128 mph in 3.5 seconds before catapulting them 456 feet into the sky. Kingda Ka opened in 2005 at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey.
Photo: Noah K. Murray
:
The Scenic Railway in Melbourne, Australia's Luna Park, opened in 1912 and is the oldest continually operating roller coaster in the world. It's also one of only two coasters in existence requiring a brakeman to stand in the middle of the train. For these reasons, the American Coaster Enthusiasts club has dubbed it an ACE Coaster Classic.
:
The Cyclone roller coaster hovers over the beach at Coney Island, New York, in 1978.
Photo: William Coupon/Corbis
:
The Dragon Khan coaster at the Port Aventura park in Salou, Spain, offers plenty of spins and loops.
Photo: Carlos Lorenzo
:
Enjoying the bobsled ride at Disneyland are the shah of Iran and Empress Farah (front) and their host Walt Disney with a Disneyland hostess, Donna Jackson. The shah and his wife toured the park as part of a Southern California visit in 1962.
Photo: Bettmann/CORBIS
:
Vild-Svinet (Wild Boar), at BonBon Land in Holme-Olstrup, Denmark, has an initial 97-degree (beyond vertical) angle of descent.
The world's oldest wooden roller coaster, Leap the Dips, can be found at Lakemont Park in Altoona, Pennsylvania. It opened in 1902, but was out of operation from 1986 to 1998.
Photo: Bhakta Dano
:
The view is pretty good from the Dragon coaster in Hong Kong's Ocean Park.
Ian Lamont writes "Nvidia and other chip designers are accusing Intel of 'illegally restraining trade' in a dispute over the USB 3.0 specification. The dispute has prompted Nvidia, AMD, Via, and SiS to establish a rival standard for the USB 3.0 host controller. An Intel spokesman denies the company is making the USB specification, or that USB 3.0 'borrows technology heavily' from the PCI Special Interests group. He does, however, say that Intel won't release an unfinished Intel host controller spec until it's ready, as it would lead to incompatible hardware."
A newly-released survey from the non-partisan Pew Internet & American Life Project finds that a record percentage of Americans use the internet, e-mail or cell-phone text messaging to participate in the political process.
An anonymous reader writes "At the Research@Intel Day 2008, Intel showed a ray-traced version of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. Compared to the original game, a water with reflections and refractions and a physically correct glass shader were added. Also, a camera portal with up to 200 recursions to itself has been demonstrated. To show off this ongoing research in the topic of real-time ray tracing, a four-socket system with quad cores has been used that allowed rendering the enhanced visual effects in 1280x720 at 14-29 fps. Just two years before, early versions of Quake 4: Ray Traced ran only at 256x256 with 17 fps. Even though Intel's upcoming Larrabee will be primarily a rasterizer, the capabilities for also doing ray tracing on it should deliver interesting opportunities."
Bulging eyes and flaring nostrils help us see threats and increase breathing as part of fight-or-flight reflex, scientists conclude Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Jun 2008 | 11:24 pm
The South China Mall is the largest mall in the world, and it's a ghost town, with only a handful of shops in its peeling, spooky, sprawling guts.
The employees of this giant mall could, if they wanted, spend their breaks driving bumper cars, browsing for house-wares, strolling along a Venetian canal, petting fake herons in an indoor rain forest, or gazing at an eighty-five-foot replica of the Arc de Triomphe – all, of course, without leaving the premises. They could also picnic next to the bell tower of St Mark’s Square in Venice, soak up the ambience of San Francisco, or take a ride on the mall’s indoor-outdoor roller coaster, a 553-meter flying railway known as Kuayue Shi Kong, or “Moving Through Time and Space”.
As it happens, it’s just those things – time and space – that give so much trouble to the workers here. They have too much of both. On a recent Friday afternoon, an amusement-park employee, slouched in a forsaken ticket booth, tried to kill time by making origami. Another worker slept, with perfect impunity, on a table. In front of the haunted house attraction, one attendant was doing hand-stands while two others looked blankly on.
There was nothing else to do, because the South China Mall, which opened with great fanfare in 2005, is not just the world’s largest. With fewer than a dozen stores scattered through a space designed to house 1,500, it is also the world’s emptiest – a dusty, decrepit complex of buildings marked by peeling paint, dead light bulbs, and dismembered mannequins.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Fred von Lohmann sez, "The LA Times' Jon Healey does a brilliant job explaining why the MPAA's petition at the FCC to enable SOC ('selectable output control,' i.e. turning off your cable box analog video connections, leaving you with only DRM-restricted digital connections) is really a trojan horse aimed at DRMing the future of all next-gen video."
So if Hollywood restricts high-def releases of movies to the new early-release window, Blu-ray discs and downloadable files, it could make SOC the rule, not the exception -- at least until the films reach HBO and broadcast TV.
Britain's video games industry received a tribute with the award of CBEs to David and Richard Darling in the Queen's birthday honours list. The two brothers built Codemasters - responsible for such hits... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Jun 2008 | 11:04 pm
A recent study by the comparison website broadband-expert.co.uk suggests that actual speeds are often only half the advertised rate. This has lead to the introduction this month of a voluntary code for... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Jun 2008 | 11:02 pm
The California Department of Food and Agriculture is attempting to chemically eradicate light brown apple moths from 12 counties in the San Francisco Bay Area. Wired Science considers aerial spraying of unfamiliar chemicals over residential areas.
shervinafshar writes with an International Herald Tribune story explaining just why it is failed emails don't always result in a helpful error message for the sender, which also gives some insight into ways that email can be used to spy on recipients. "In last lines of the article, two companies are introduced which provide services that can 'spy' on your email reading habits. They also can 'call home' too: 'Some entrepreneurs have seen that uncertainty and offered senders the ability to obtain receipts that a given message has been read — without the recipient knowing that a confirmation has been sent back to the sender. ReadNotify, based in Queensland, Australia, started in 2000 and promised to report not only on whether a message was read, but also on how long it was opened for reading on the recipient's PC. It can also send the message in "self-destructing" form, preventing forwarding, printing, copying and saving.' IHT also is asking its readers to comment about these kind of services being against user privacy."
Roland Piquepaille writes "University of Michigan (U-M) researchers have developed an ultra low power microchip which 'uses 30,000 times less power in sleep mode and 10 times less in active mode than comparable chips now on the market.' It only consumes 30 picowatts in sleep mode, which means that a simple watch battery could power the chip for more than 200 years. Of course, this is not a processor for your next computer. It is designed for sensor-based devices such as medical implants, environment monitors or surveillance equipment. However, the design is very clever." Roland's blog has some more information, including a die picture of the chip, known as the Phoenix.
Bluetooth device suppliers are looking at a potential bonanza in California when the handheld-phone ban for drivers goes into effect on July 1. That explains why Motorola plans to roll out a new car-specific Bluetooth headset in the next month or so.
Bluetooth device suppliers are looking at a potential bonanza in California when the handheld-phone ban for drivers goes into effect on July 1. That explains why Motorola plans to roll out a new car-specific Bluetooth headset in the next month or so.
Listening Post catches up with The Dandy Warhols' Courtney Taylor-Taylor to rap about Earth, download-only releases and why the major labels slept on the digital music revolution and missed their chance at becoming overlords of the future.
Captain America fans may have some doubts if current rumors about Marvel's first choice for the lead in a movie version are true. ComicBookMovie.com is reporting that Leonardo DiCaprio is in line to play America's supersoldier.
The Dark Knight is coming soon, but the straight-to-DVD anime Batman, Gotham Knight, is thankfully coming sooner. New pics and news confirm that comics nerds and late adopters alike are probably going to be impressed.
Will McGree got a letter form Virgin Media (his cable provider) and the British Phonographic Institute (the UK version of the RIAA (of which Virgin -- also a record label -- is a member turns out they're not affiliated with the record label any longer) telling him that he could be sued and disconnected from the Internet because someone used his open WiFi to download music. It wasn't Will -- the program used for file-sharing is a Windows app, and he runs Linux. It was one of his neighbours.
Virgin and BPI take the position that being a copyright holder means you get to specify the router configuration of every computer connected to the Internet. That just because open WiFi makes it harder for the BPI to hunt downloaders, no one should be allowed to offer it, no matter how convenient useful open WiFi might be. I've run open WiFi networks for close to a decade now -- I rely on open networks when I'm out and about, so it only seems fair to return the favour. Plus, closed WiFi networks are a pain in the ass if you have houseguests, exotic wireless devices, or older consoles and the like that can't handle passwords gracefully.
If I play my music with my window open, my neighbour might decide to open his window and listen in, instead of buying his own music. Does that mean that the record industry gets to order me to bolt my window shut?
Just one more reason not to pay for Virgin Broadband -- they're just not on their customers' side.
Virgin Media are the only ISP sending out BPI notices. They don’t have to - there’s no law or industry regulation that says so. They just leapt into bed with the BPI and the BPI couldn’t be happier that they’ve got someone doing their “policing” for them.
In September, we’re building a home server in our flat. It’ll be a Tor node so that finally Virgin Media don’t need to worry themselves with what’s flowing through their routers. It’s just data. Like I paid for.
Reuters - EBay Inc on Monday unveiled plans to
let outside software programs work inside the world's largest
e-commerce site, joining a trend toward openness that fueled
the popularity of the social network website Facebook.
Reuters - The world's top cellphone maker Nokia
(NOK1V.HE) unveiled two new phone models aimed at corporate
clients on Monday, revamping its somewhat aging offering to
business customers.
Reuters - IBM has joined forces with
semiconductor process company Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (TOK) (4186.T)
to develop more efficient solar power technologies to cut the
cost of the clean energy source, the companies said on Monday.
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AP - Americans dissatisfied with political sound bites are turning to the Internet for a more complete picture, a new study finds.