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Power

Mimicking Electric Eel Cells 71

Posted by kdawson from the positively-shocking dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A team of US researchers has asked the following question in the new field of systems biology: 'Do we understand how a cell produces electricity well enough to design one, and to optimize that design?' They believe it should be possible to build artificial cells replicating the electrical behavior of electric eel cells. In fact, such artificial cells could deliver better performance — as much as 40% more energy than real eel cells, a computer model suggests. They could be used to power medical implants and other small devices."

Comment Re:I blame the American Dream (tm) (Score 1) 1104

by bangenge (#25068329) Attached to: Who do you blame for the US Financial Situation
Thirty years ago, cable TV, microwaves and air conditioning units were luxury items that had high manufacturing/maintenance costs for their time. The maturation of the technology has brought down those prices. The masses can afford these items now not because of better economic well-being, but because the service providers/manufacturers have been driven by competition to lower those prices. A 4BR house and an SUV would have cost the same (sans inflation) 30 years ago, and most probably the same 30 years from now (if SUVs aren't banned/replaced by then).
Earth

2008 Is the Coldest Year of the 21st Century 1039

Posted by timothy from the problem-with-complexity-is-all-the-complexity dept.
dtjohnson writes "Data from the United Kingdom Meteorological Office suggests that 2008 will be an unusually cold year due to the La Nina effect in the western Pacific ocean. Not to worry, though, as the La Nina effect has faded recently so its effect on next year's temperatures will be reduced. However, another natural cycle, the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, is predicted to hold global temperatures steady for the next decade before global warming takes our planet into new warmth. If these predictions are correct, there must be a lot of planetary heat being stored away somewhere ... unless the heat output from the sun is decreasing rather than increasing or the heat being absorbed by the earth is decreasing due to changes in the earth's albedo."
Earth

China to Build a Zero-Carbon Green City 620

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the tired-of-getting-whined-at-for-beijing dept.
gormanw writes "Just outside Shanghai, there is an island about the size of Manhattan. China is going to build its first-ever 'green city', complete with no gasoline/diesel powered vehicles, 100% renewable energy, green roofs, and recycling everything. The city is called Dongtan and it should house about 5,000 people by the end of 2010, with estimates of 500,000 by 2050. The goal is to build a livable city that is energy efficient, non-polluting, and protects the wildlife in the area."
Graphics

NVidia Reportedly Will Exit Chipset Business 173

Posted by kdawson from the and-then-there-were-two dept.
xav_jones sends along a story from X bit Laboratories claiming that NVidia is ready to quit making chipsets. That story links one from DigiTimes, which reports that NVidia has denied that it's getting out of the business. "[NVidia] is about to quit chipset business, which automatically means that the company's much-hyped multi-GPU SLI technology is either in danger or re-considered. Moreover, several mainboard makers have already ceased making high-end NVidia-based mainboards. [NVidia has]... reportedly decided to quit core-logic business to concentrate on development of graphics processors and following failure to secure license to build and sell chipsets compatible with Intel Corp.'s microprocessors that use Quick-Path Interconnect bus."
Security

Submission + - My PC is talking to thepiratebay.org, why ? 1

Submitted by
FraKtus
FraKtus writes: "My latest scan of my brave home PC suddenly start showing that I have a few parasites in my machine. One of those is ZenoSearch and I was curious to see what kind of activities over the wire is performed by this bot. So I fired Wireshark and started logging my traffic. I was surprised to see that my machine send regular request to the thepiratebay.org, login with a funky user name badfood / qweqweqweasdasdasd ... So what is the deal for a torrent web site such as thepirateay.org of having zombies sending useless request to their web site ? Just increasing their bandwidth bill ?

Another url visited is url.adtrgt.com that is connected to MyGeek.com..."
The Military

Boeing 12,000lb Chemical Laser Set to Fry Targets 625

Posted by samzenpus from the houseful-of-popcorn dept.
coondoggie writes "Boeing this week completed work on and installed a 12,000-pound chemical laser in a C-130H aircraft. Boeing's Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) which is being developed for the Department of Defense, will destroy, damage or disable targets with little to no collateral damage, supporting missions on the battlefield and in urban operations."
The Internet

Web Creators Call Internet Outdated 243

Posted by Zonk from the we-need-better-tubes dept.
ElvaWSJ writes "Several networking pioneers are dissatisfied with the Internet's underpinnings, and some are offering remedies to ease the strain that bandwidth-hungry services put on technology networks. Along with other projects here in the US and around the world, numerous companies and organizations are looking to rewrite the underpinnings of the internet. This piece looks at new concerns from old hands at networking, with comments from folks like Larry Roberts and Len Bosack. 'Mr. Roberts's concern over the Internet's infrastructure stretches back years. Even while at ARPAnet, he says he was unsure how long the technology could work, especially since the system didn't ensure that information packets would arrive at their destination. His fears crystallized in the late 1990s when he saw companies begin to use the Internet to make phone calls and consumers begin to dabble in online video.'"
Microsoft

Microsoft Should Abandon Vista? 1119

Posted by Zonk from the seems-a-bit-harsh dept.
mr_mischief writes "An editorial written by Don Reisinger over at CNet's News.com takes Microsoft to task for the outright failure of Vista. He suggests that Vista may be the downfall of the company as, despite years in development, Vista was delivered to market too early. His suggestion? Support those who are running it, but otherwise ditch Vista and move on. 'Never before have I seen such an abysmal start to an operating system release. For almost a year, people have been adopting Vista and becoming incensed by how poorly it operates. Not only does it cost too much, it requires more to run than XP, there is still poor driver support ... With Mac OS X hot on its tail, Vista is simply not capable of competing at an OS level with some of the best software around. If Microsoft continues down this path, it will be Vista that will bring the software giant to its knees--not Bill Gates' departure.'"
Data Storage

Submission + - Converting old e-mail archives to a common format?

Submitted by enormouse
enormouse writes: I have decades of email stored in various formats: various unix, VAX mail, Lotus Notes/Domino, PROFS, one-off formats, and several PC mail programs, etc. Some I want to keep, some I need to keep. Nothing new, right? Keeping the original applications around isn't a practicable option at this time, and neither is clearing a forest to print it all out. I want to be able to search them, preserve most of the ( html/rich-text) formatting, and obviously attachments. I can cook up converters, but I don't really want to write and maintain an archive system. I am thinking along the lines of an OSS mail or doc management system that I can run in a VM for 5-8 years before I have to move it again. Experiences and suggestions from folks who have gone through this?
Businesses

Submission + - Do private companies have to keep their email?

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: So I'm an IT intern at a medium-sized manufacturing business. In short, my superiors have asked me to research if privately-held corporations have to archive all of their email.

Have any laws pertaining to archiving/backing up emails been recently passed or proposed in light of any headline corporate scandals?

Or, more simply put, is it legally ok for employees and administrators at private companies to permanently delete their emails?
Games

Does Zelda Need an Overhaul? 286

Posted by Zonk from the tooling-up-the-mean-green-machine dept.
CVG has up a piece noting the fact that not much about Zelda games have changed since the move to 3D. Chalk that up to the greatness of Ocarina of Time if you will, but the same mirror moving, fire-arrow switch activating puzzles have been in the last several titles. Is it time for some kind of radical change to the equation? "People generally don't like to accept change. But change doesn't always spell disaster. Final Fantasy introduces a totally new cast, setting and theme with each sequel and continues to please fans. Resident Evil 4 completely revolutionised Capcom's horror series and is now viewed as one of the best games ever made ... We still totally adore Zelda but eventually the appeal will tire and the series risks bombing. Nintendo needs to take the bold step and inject something totally new into Zelda. We're not talking about a couple of new items, or a new location - that's been done. We mean a significant change that affects the whole structure and gameplay."
Wireless Networking

The Future of Wireless Broadband? 48

Posted by Cliff from the fortelling-where-we-go-from-here dept.
Adroit Ape asks: "The FCC is scheduled to begin auctioning the radio spectrum salvaged from analog television by February 28, 2008. Public interest groups are calling for auction rules that give new entrants a fair shot at the spectrum, which includes 60Mhz in the 700Mhz band. Are we likely to see groundbreaking innovation in wireless broadband? Who do you foresee to be the major players in the auction and subsequent technologies?"
Software

Submission + - Any creative uses for an extra hard drive?

Submitted by
GM_Kombucha
GM_Kombucha writes: "I just moved my music collection off of two internal hard drives, a 20 gig and a 60 gig, onto my much larger external drive. And now I have two utterly empty internals just itching for some action, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to get their motor spinning, if you know what I mean. My first thought was to dual-boot a Linux distro or two (with my current XP setup) but I've had some rather negative experiences on that end, what with my Wacom tablet and my ZyXEL card and my Radeon 9000. So I think I want to go a different route this time, but really, I don't know where to turn. Anyone have any creative, nerdy, semi-pointless uses for these babies? I can't run OS X... but I'm up for just about anything. Thanks!"
The Media

Submission + - Reiser's wife's ex-boyfriend is mass murderer

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Wired.com has an interesting scoop in the Hans Reiser case. Reiser's disappeared wife, the one Hans is charged with murdering, had a boyfriend after she split with Hans. This boyfriend, Sean Sturgeon, has admitted to killing eight people. But he denies killing Nina. The case keeps getting weirder and weirder. But this is good news for Hans. The story is at http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2007/05/rei ser

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