yy1 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Carnegie Mellon to build Lunar X-Prize robot

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Thursday September 20, 2007 @10:58PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "Google's Lunar X-Prize already has a prominent entry, William Whittaker, a researcher from Carnegie Mellon University said that he will be assembling a team to development a robot that will be be competing for the $20 million grand prize. According to this story, Whittaker has some unfair advantage, as he has developed a pretty cool lunar rover for NASA that "can find concentrations of hydrogen, possibly water and other volatile chemicals on the moon that could be mined to produce fuel, water and air that are essential for supporting lunar outposts." The Lunar X-Prize runs until the end of 2012 and Carnegie Mellon's announcement could be a first indication that reserachers are taking this challenge very seriously."

Submission + - Portable Operating Environments (POEs) (faunos.com)

Submitted by 1 a bee on Thursday September 20, 2007 @09:35PM

1 a bee writes: An increasing number of Linux-based, live distros have been recently created. An interesting article argues that such distros, especially USB-based live distros, could become the common computing norm in the future. From the introduction:

Just as the web heralded the widespread use of thin client computing devices and services (mobile phones and Google are respective examples that come to mind), we argue here that portable OSs herald a complimentary tug in the opposite direction, towards safe, low-cost, easy-to-manage, personalized, portable operating environments (or POEs, for short).
No need for chip implants. All you need is a USB port behind your ear!

Submission + - Cooler silicon lasers thanks to energy harvesting

Submitted by Light Licker on Friday May 04, 2007 @09:14AM

Light Licker writes: UCLA researchers have developed a way to cut power use and heat output from a silicon laser used for optoelectronics. Both have been problems because silicon absorbs too much light — producing high-energy free electrons that make heat. One of Intel's best silicon lasers produced 125 times more heat than usable light. The UCLA team added a diode to their laser which can harvest free electrons and use them to help power the circuit — simultaneously cutting heat output and power use.

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