Comment ObSimpsons (Score 5, Funny) 198
If this pattern holds, GNU Emacs will be in Bazaar for at least thirty-two years
...
Disco Stu: Did you know that disco record sales were up 400% for the year ending 1976? If these trends continue... A-y-y-y!
Sun Plans Security Coprocessor For New Ultrasparc 59
angry tapir writes "At the Hot Chips conference at Stanford University, Sun presented plans for a security accelerator chip that it said would reduce encryption costs for applications such as VoIP calls and online banking Web sites. The coprocessor will be included on the same silicon as Rainbow Falls, the code name for the follow-on to Sun's multi-threaded Ultrasparc T2 processor."
Mexico Decriminalizes Small-Scale Drug Possession 640
Professor_Quail notes an AP story that begins, "Mexico enacted a controversial law Thursday decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs while encouraging free government treatment for drug dependency. The law sets out maximum 'personal use' amounts for drugs, also including LSD and methamphetamine. People detained with those quantities will no longer face criminal prosecution when the law goes into effect Friday." An official in the attorney general's office said, "This is not legalization, this is regulating the issue and giving citizens greater legal certainty... for a practice that was already in place." In 2006, the US criticized a similar bill that had no provisions for mandatory treatment, and the then-president sent it back to Congress for reconsideration.
Comment Physics 2000 (Score 3, Informative) 145
The University of Colorado has something called Physics 2000 that has a bunch of applets. Click on "Applet Thumbnails" in the top-left frame. One of my favorites is "Satellite orbits" (click on "Upcoming Applets"). You can try to find stable orbits around the Earth. You can try to find stable orbits around the Moon (although I don't think there are any). You can try launching some objects clockwise and some counter-clockwise and see if it is easier to get things in a stable orbit one way or the other. You can launch a bunch of objects in random directions with random velocities and watch most of them die an early death and a few stick around much longer. Sometimes you can see Orbital resonance. The simulation extends beyond the visible portion of the screen so you can even get objects in orbits with very long periods that are only visible for a very short portion of their orbit as they dip close to the Earth and then sail away again.
How Technology Changes Classrooms 383
Corrupt writes "Just ask 11-year-old Jemella Chambers. She is one of 650 students who receive an Apple Inc laptop each day at a state-funded school in Boston. From the second row of her classroom, she taps out math assignments on animated education software that she likens to a video game."
Windows 7 in the Next Year? 385
Microsoft's efforts to get businesses to adopt Vista may come to a screeching halt now that Bill Gates has announced "Sometime in the next year or so we will have a new version", referring to Windows 7, the next expected version of the company's flagship desktop operating system.With a new version available soon, many organizations may decide to wait and see if they can avoid the pain of a Vista rollout altogether.
Comment Ob X-Files (Score 1) 362
SCULLY: What exactly did you find?
CARPENTER: A fifth and sixth DNA nucleotide. A new base pair. Agent Scully, what are you looking at... it exists nowhere in nature. IT would have to be, by definition... extraterrestrial.
I guess this means that Romesberg (the researcher) is an alien.
CARPENTER: A fifth and sixth DNA nucleotide. A new base pair. Agent Scully, what are you looking at... it exists nowhere in nature. IT would have to be, by definition... extraterrestrial.
I guess this means that Romesberg (the researcher) is an alien.
Study Warns of Internet Brownouts By 2010 318
Bergkamp10 writes "Consumer and corporate use of the Internet could overload the current capacity and lead to brown-outs in two years unless backbone providers invest billions of dollars in new infrastructure, according to a new study. A flood of new video and other Web content could overwhelm the Net by 2010 unless backbone providers invest up to US $137 billion in new capacity, more than double what service providers plan to invest, according to the study by Nemertes Research Group. In North America alone, backbone investments of $42 billion to $55 billion will be needed in the next three to five years to keep up with demand, Nemertes said. Quoting from the study: 'Our findings indicate that although core fiber and switching/routing resources will scale nicely to support virtually any conceivable user demand, Internet access infrastructure, specifically in North America, will likely cease to be adequate for supporting demand within the next three to five years.' Internet users will create 161 exabytes of new data this year."
MIT Wirelessly Powers a Lightbulb 394
kcurtis writes "According to the Boston Globe, MIT Researchers have powered a light bulb remotely. The successful experiment lit a 60-watt light bulb from a power source two meters away, with no physical connection between the power source and the light bulb. Details about WiTricity, or wireless electricity, are scheduled to be reported today in Science Express, the advance online publication of the journal Science, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said. 'The team from MIT is not the first group to suggest wireless energy transfer. Nineteenth-century physicist and engineer Nikola Tesla experimented with long-range wireless energy transfer, but his most ambitious attempt - the 29m high aerial known as Wardenclyffe Tower, in New York - failed when he ran out of money. Others have worked on highly directional mechanisms of energy transfer such as lasers. However, unlike the MIT work, these require an uninterrupted line of sight, and are therefore not good for powering objects around the home.'"
Wireless Power Now A Reality 197
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Wireless Power Gets A Boost 102
srizah writes "At CES, Las Vegas, two companies — Arizona-based WildCharge and Michigan-based Fulton have demonstrated what are very different ways to charge gadgets sans wires. "
