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The Internet

Senate Discusses Third Pipe Using 700MHz Spectrum 78

Posted by Zonk from the stevens-confused-between-pipes-and-tubes dept.
Freebird writes "The US Senate Commerce Committee held hearings on the upcoming 700MHz spectrum auction today, and much of the discussion centered around Frontline Wireless' proposal to create a commercial wireless broadband network that would also be used for public safety. 'Under Frontline's proposal, the FCC would auction off 10 MHz from the commercially available spectrum and offer that to the highest bidder. The winner would also be given (free) 12 MHz out of the 24 MHz currently allotted to public safety.' Some senators were skeptical, especially Ted Stevens of Alaska who had a 'long and testy interchange' with Frontline CEO James Barksdale. 'He seemed to be zeroing on criticisms that the Frontline proposal was simply a way for a new company to get a huge discount on a prime chunk of spectrum by playing the "public safety" card.'"
IBM

Submission + - POWER6 Goes Thud: A Look at POWER6's Architecture (sun.com)

Submitted by
AustinJ
AustinJ writes: "POWER6 is clearly in the microprocessor category of diminishing performance returns described by the Berkeley whitepaper because it has pinned its hopes on old, unimaginative, and out of date techniques that the rest of the industry has largely abandoned"
Intel

Submission + - Intel V8 Octa-Core System, Full Performance Tests

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: In the April time frame, details of Intel's dual-socket 8-core system dubbed "V8" became available but only preliminary performance numbers were shown. The platform consists of quad-core Xeon processors in an Intel 5000X chipset-based motherboard, along with FBDIMM (Fully Buffered DIMM) serial memory. This follow-on article goes into significantly more detail on the platform and showcases many more performance metrics on a Windows Vista 64-bit installation. The POV-Ray and Cinebench 95 benchmark numbers alone are something to smile about.
Television

Submission + - 10 MORE Reasons Why HD-DVD Formats Have Failed (audioholics.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Almost exactly a year ago Audioholics wrote an eye-opening piece on the demise of both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc high definition DVD formats. On the anniversary of that article Clint DeBoer has penned a follow-up article called "10 MORE Reasons Why HD-DVD Formats Have Already Failed" that discusses each point in light of a year's worth of released hardware and software and whether his predictions were on the mark or just a bunch of hot air. The bottom lines are interesting and it does seem to indicate that his initial assumptions are still on track.
NASA

Submission + - Space station oxygen, water computers fail

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: HOUSTON, Texas (AP) — Russian computers that control the international space station's orientation and supply of oxygen and water have failed, potentially extending the space shuttle's mission — or cutting it short.

Russian engineers aren't sure why the computers stopped working. A failure of this type has never occurred before on the space station.

The station is operated primarily by the Russian and U.S. space agencies, with contributions from the Canadian, European and Japanese space agencies.

"We have plenty of resources, so we have plenty of time to sort this out," said Mike Suffredini, NASA manager of the space station program.

http://64.236.16.20/2007/TECH/space/06/14/space.sh uttle.ap/index.html
Data Storage

Submission + - The future of data storage?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Are solid state disks really the next step for data storage? Here's a review of a Samsung SSD compared to desktop and notebook hard disks. If massive capacity isn't paramount and you have deep pockets, the switch to solid state could well be a good move. http://www.trustedreviews.com/storage/review/2007/ 06/14/Samsung-32GB-Solid-State-Drive/p1
Space

Submission + - New spy satellite can see bottles on floor

Submitted by morpheus83
morpheus83 writes: Israel successfully launched its new spy satellite on June 11, 2007. The Ofeq-7 is an advanced satellite comprised of newer surveillance equipment than its larger predecessor, Ofeq-5, which recently completed five years in orbit. Its camera is as good as anything available, and that includes the United States claim Israeli officials. The 300 kg satellite could identify and send high-resolution images of items as small as 40 centimeters.
Power

Submission + - PC's are only 50% energy efficient

Submitted by
Matt
Matt writes: "An awful 50 percent of the power delivered from a wall socket to a PC simply gets wasted says Urs Hölzle, Google fellow and senior vice president of operations. Half the energy gets converted to heat or is dissipated in some other manner in the AC-to-DC conversion. Around 30 percent of the power delivered to the average server gets lost, he added. The power in both cases is lost before any work is accomplished by a computer: later, even more energy is lost by PCs sitting idle, or as heat dissipated by other components."
IBM

Submission + - [Yet another] patent with a prior art gallery

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: IBM has filed a patent for external memory

IBM is pitching the invention as a technology that could provide a cheaper and more flexible way to temporarily upgrade the available memory in computing systems ranging from PDAs to servers. According to the description of the patent, the technology includes three separate parts — a connector, a container to hold RAM as well as a cable that couples the connector to the container.
I'm not sure if the cable, and the fact that the memory is exchangeable make this "unique" enough to patent, but it reminds me a lot of the memory expansions you could get for the N64, or the fast load cartridges for the Commodore 64.
Linux Business

Submission + - Venezuela launches Linux 'Bolivarian Computers' (venezuelanalysis.com)

Submitted by Voline
Voline writes: In the pursuit of technological independence Venezuela has begun shipping the first 'Bolivarian Computers'. Named after the hero of the South American independence struggle against Spain, they are made by VIT (Venezuela de Industria Tecnológica), which is a joint venture of the Chinese company Lang Chao and the Venezuelan government. The four desktop and single laptop models all run Gnu/Linux. VIT hopes to eventually begin distributing the inexpensive computers throughout Latin America.
Technology

Liquid Lens Can Magnify at the Flick of a Switch 108

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the zap-zoom dept.
An anonymous reader writes "German engineers have designed the first liquid camera lens with no moving parts that provides two levels of zoom. 'Liquid lenses bend light using the curved boundary between watery and oily liquids. When the two liquids are held in the right container, the boundary between them can be made to curve in a way that focuses light simply by applying a voltage. Liquid lenses have attracted much attention because they are potentially smaller than conventional optics and cheaper to build. Samsung has already built them into some cellphones.'"
Google

Submission + - Gmail Paper

Submitted by
irabinovitch
irabinovitch writes: "Google is offering a new service, Gmail Paper". As part of this service they will print and mail you copies of any e-mail you have received / sent at no cost. The postage / printing costs will be offset by selling ads on the back of the paper."
Google

Submission + - Google Unveils TiSP

Submitted by
martinelli
martinelli writes: "Google has finally unveiled TiSP, a "a fully functional, end-to-end system that provides in-home wireless access by connecting your commode-based TiSP wireless router to one of thousands of TiSP Access Nodes via fiber-optic cable strung through your local municipal sewage lines." Hopefully, this is not another Google Labs project that gets flushed down the drain. http://www.google.com/tisp/install.html"
Linux Business

Submission + - First Sighting of Pirated Linux

Submitted by mpapet
mpapet writes: A Linux distribution called Pioneer Linux distributed by TechAlign Inc. may be the first ever to claim that Linux can be pirated. The Pioneer Linux distro boldly declares As a business, you should purchase a copy of Pioneer and not pirate it.

Their announcement of a new re-branded Ubuntu distro on distrowatch.org states, " commercial establishments will be required to purchase a copy...". See the distrowatch.org announcement.
Microsoft

Submission + - Vista buyers beware: it is a one way ticket

Submitted by
SirSpammenot
SirSpammenot writes: "HP Customer Service reports there is no retention policy for users of Vista that find the OS "not yet there". You buy it, you are stuck with it. I work for a mid size Real Estate office supporting corporate plus 50 agents. The agents are contractors and provide their own equipment... so the first of the Vista laptops from Best Buy are tricking in. Problem is our *expensive* workgroup level Panasonic printer/fax solutions do not have Vista drivers (and there is no scheduled release date either!). So aside from the usual apps that won't install, our Vista enabled agents cannot print to our existing infrastructure. HP Customer Service (mumbai branch) told me the only recourse is to return the laptop for full refund (and buy another one with XP). Maybe you can still find one with XP and an upgrade coupon? Vista buyers beware!"

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