olof_the_viking - Slashdot User

Submission + - Solid light discovery excites scientists

Submitted by

Francisco Ardisson

on Tuesday May 15, 2007 @08:12AM

Francisco Ardisson writes: "Researchers from the Universities of Melbourne and Cambridge have unveiled a new theory that shows light can behave like a solid. Dr Greentree and colleagues Jared Cole and Professor Lloyd Hollenberg of the University of Melbourne with Dr Charles Tahan of the University of Cambridge made their 'solid light' breakthrough using tools more commonly used to study matter. "Solid light will help us build the technology of this century," says Dr Andrew Greentree of the School of Physics at the University of Melbourne. — Read More: http://uninews.unimelb.edu.au/articleid_4188.html ps.: Will we be seing Jedi Light Sabers anytime soon? :)"

Feed Pioneer announces 8th-gen plasmas with 20,000:1 contrast (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed on Tuesday May 08, 2007 @03:52PM

Filed under: Displays, HDTV

Pioneer has announced its 8th generation of plasmas in Europe, with six 720p sets available in June in 42- and 50-inch sizes, and four 1080p sets in 50- and 60-inch flavors coming in September. All models have integrated DVB-T tuners and detachable speakers, with the 720p sets sporting a 16,000:1 contrast ratio, and the 1080p sets stepping it up to a whopping 20,000:1. Pioneer claims that it redesigned the sets from the ground up with improved color reproduction and contrast in mind, and have improved over older plasmas by up to 80%, including Intelligent Brightness Control, which promises to display the best picture regardless of lighting conditions. Prices and exact release dates have not been set, but Tech.co.uk is reporting potential model numbers of PDP508 for the 50-inch 1080p set and PDP4280XD / PDP5080XD for the 42- / 50-inch 720p units.

[Thanks, Martin B]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Feed Canon SED fraud case dismissed (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed on Monday May 07, 2007 @04:32PM

Filed under: Displays, HDTV

Nano-Proprietary's fraud lawsuit against Canon in a Texas court has been dismissed, with a jury saying no damages had been sustained, since no products have actually shipped. Nano-Proprietary holds patents to some of the technology behind SED, and licensed it to Canon in 1999. Canon then brought Toshiba in as a manufacturing partner, and Nano filed suit. Now that all claims against Canon USA have been dropped, Canon doesn't have to pay any additional damages to Nano beyond the price of the original license -- but because the original SED patent licensing agreements with Canon have also been scrapped, rights to build the next-generation television have to be negotiated all over again.

[Via TG Daily]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Journal Journal: SEDs coming closer

Journal by olof_the_viking on Monday May 07, 2007 @04:38AM

Things are looking up for the SED: http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20070507PR202.html The fraud claims against Canon by Nano-Proprietary were dismissed in Austin, Texas on May 3rd. Hooray! One step closer to the light.

Submission + - Supreme Court to Hear 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' Monday

Submitted by

theodp

on Sunday March 18, 2007 @05:52AM

theodp writes: "In 2002, 18-year-old Joseph Frederick held up a 14-foot banner saying 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' as the Olympic torch passed by his Juneau high school, sparking a feud with the principal that heads to the Supreme Court on Monday. Legal experts say Morse v. Frederick could be the most significant case on student free speech since the days of Vietnam War protests."

Submission + - Controversial New Idea: Nerves Transmit Sound, Not

Submitted by worldsound73 on Sunday March 18, 2007 @05:10AM

worldsound73 writes: Interesting article about how some researchers are attempting to show that nerves transmit sound as opposed to electricity. A quote from the article, "The physical laws of thermodynamics tell us that electrical impulses must produce heat as they travel along the nerve, but experiments find that no such heat is produced." The article continues to show why this view is controversial and that this research has a long road ahead to gain support.

http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/070312_ner ves_work.html

Submission + - Nostalgia : Running Windows 3.11 On Ubuntu/Linux

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Sunday March 18, 2007 @04:39AM

Anonymous Coward writes: "Do you remember Windows 3.1 , one of the most popular version of Windows OS that could run applications flawlessly on 4 MB Ram Computer occupying little over 20 Mega Bytes of Hard Disk Space and needed a processor above few Mhz to run well if you dont read this Article which describes how author managed to install Windows 3.11 Under Ubuntu/Linux using dosbox and has a lots of screenshots , relive old days of running windows 3.11 . With ScreenCast showing installation of Windows 3.11 under dosbox."

Submission + - 5'8" Robot Lets You Roam Around Office From Ho

Submitted by

olyarew

on Saturday March 17, 2007 @11:52PM

olyarew writes: "Technovelgy has an article about a new robot that telecommuters can use to have a physical presence at their office without leaving their home. The robot can be remotely moved around, can be made to sit and stand, and has a screen that can be tilted. The open source robot is made by HeadThere, Inc and will retail for between $1800 and $3000."

Submission + - Largest Beer Site In The World Reaches 100K Users

Submitted by

foodogfoo

on Saturday March 17, 2007 @11:13PM

foodogfoo writes: "Beeradvocate.com announced this past week that they have reached 100,000 users and have become the largest beer community in the world. Very few products have an outlet for consumers to voices their opinions, Beeradvocate.com seems to have found that niche market with most of their devotion on "Craft Beer", a segment within the beer industry that is focused on smaller brewers. Last year craft brewers sales were up by 11.7% by volume with a three year growth rate of 29.5%."

Submission + - The Pirate Bay launches 'Oscartorrents'

Submitted by gloom on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @05:50AM

gloom writes: After turning legal threats into entertainment and trying to create a new pirate state, what do you do next? You go for the gold of course. The Pirate Bay has launched oscartorrents.com — an easy-to-use torrent-site for finding good versions of this years Oscar nominees.

In their own words: "You haven't beaten us, so why not join us? Think of a new business model that doesn't involve overpriced pieces of plastic and skanky cinemas hawking cheap carbohydrates while relying on $6/hr projectionists who can't keep a film in focus — not to mention insulting your audiences by (to pick a few examples) surveilling us with nightvision glasses, searching bags, 30 minutes of commercials and bombarding us with ridiculous anti-piracy propaganda. Take a look at yourselves. Is it really any wonder we're winning?"

No lack of cohones in Sweden, that's for sure.

Submission + - Young Earth Creationist Gets Paleontology Ph.D.

Submitted by

dnarepair

on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @03:04AM

dnarepair writes: "The New York Times is reporting that a Young Earth Creationsist named Marcus Ross has just gotten his Ph.D. in paleontology from the University of Rhode Island. Ross is apparently a supporter of Intelligent Design (as well as Young Earth Creationism) and is on the faculty now at Liberty University) his home page is here ). Apparently his Ph.D work is on the up and up and did not raise any concerns. The key question raised by the Times article seems to be — if you were an evolutionary biologist and someone like Ross wanted to do a PhD with you — what would you do? On the one hand, he is likely to use his credentials as a formally trained paleontologist to promote Intelligent Design as a scientific theory. On the other hand, he did the work, and apparently did it well. Should someones long term goals and their motivation play a role in determining whether they are admitted to a PhD program or whether, once admitted they get their PhD?"

Journal Journal: Captain Copyright Expires 114

Journal by Xenographic on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @02:10AM

The Canadian superhero Captain Copyright has finally expired, not due to pirates, but because "the current climate around copyright issues will not allow a project like this one to be successful." The cartoon was intended to provide an education in copyright law for children, but it became a focus for criticism when even the Canadian Library Association condemned it for lacking of balance in how it ignored issues like Fair Dealing (Canada's v

Submission + - Mac's don't have shoelaces?

Submitted by sparr0w on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @01:01AM

sparr0w writes: Has anyone else noticed that in the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads, PC's have shoelaces and Mac's don't? It appears that Mac's wear slip-ons, similar to those worn by prisoners in maximum security facilities, whilst the PC wears black dress shoes, complete with laces. Anyone know why that is (or care to postulate theories)?

Submission + - When malware attacks malware

Submitted by

PetManimal

on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @12:14AM

PetManimal writes: "Researchers say that the Storm Trojan/Peacomm worm has been tweaked to spread via IM programs and attack rival malware. Symantec sounded the alarm, and says that the exploit launches in AOL, Google Talk, and Yahoo Messenger windows that are already open, making it appear to be a legitimate message from a known user, according to the article. The worm has modified the code from last year's Nuwar worm, and when activated, enables a distributed denial of service attack against any site, including antispam services and servers supporting rival malware:

Systems hijacked by Peacomm have also conducted DDoS attacks against at least five domains used by the creators of the noted Warezov (or Stration) worm. After a busy September and October, Warezov was credited by some analysts as the genesis of 2006's massive fourth-quarter spike in spam volume.
"

Submission + - Matt Stone replies to Richard Dawkins

Submitted by

Chris Gray

on Wednesday January 17, 2007 @05:59PM

Chris Gray writes: "After Richard Dawkin's lukewarm response to his appearance on the South Park episode, Go God Go, creator Matt Stone has fired off a reply, imaginatively entitled "Richard Fucking Dawkins", accusing (among other things) Dawkins having a cult of followers. From the article:

"Wich are you more mad about, the fact that we made you sound stupid, or the fact that you're a complete fucking idiot dude! Look, Trey and I may not be Christians, but we also don't push our ways on people, and from the looks of things, you have a fucking cult going, not a belief, or a scientific fact, A fucking CULT."

Stone has also been accused of deleting comments to his blog post that don't support his view, justifying it as, "No, It's just that people with no display images, deserve no spot on my blog comment, nerd."

A cache of the blog post is available in case of its removal."

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