Gary W. Longsine - Slashdot User

Intel extends Moore's Law with new transistor-> 0

Submitted by

Gary W. Longsine

on Wednesday May 04 2011, @01:41PM

Gary W. Longsine writes "Taking a queue from 1950s era cars, Intel will add fins to otherwise flat transistors. Using the new process, Intel will build cooler running chips with a smaller process size, shipping next year (2012). Moore's Law will be granted a temporary stay of execution. Will they use it to build the next generation Apple A5 processor? Next up: sharks with laser beams."
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Microsoft's new F# programming language-> 3

Submitted by Gary W. Longsine on Monday April 19 2010, @12:28AM

Gary W. Longsine writes "The Register has a fascinating (or nearly incomprehensible, depending on your tolerance for multiple simultaneous sweeping generalizations and caffeine level) article about F#, Microsoft's new programming language, apparently inspired by Objective Caml. Is there room for F# in the crowded field of programming languages?"
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NASA picks 5 firms for private launch to LEO-> 1

Submitted by Gary W. Longsine on Tuesday February 02 2010, @08:05PM

Gary W. Longsine writes "Five contracts have been awarded by NASA today, to firms exploring different aspects of the effort to develop a private launch industry for people to low earth orbit. Today's winners include:

Sierra Nevada Corp (aka "SpaceDev") for the Dream Chaser
Boeing in cooperation with Bigelow on a capsule design
United Launch Alliance (Boeing and Lockheed Martin) to explore safety issues related to upgrading Atlas and Delta rockets to human flight safety standards
Blue Origin to build a launch escape system.
Paragon Space Development Corp for "air vitalization" (aka life support).

Will the forecast $6 Billion allocation over five years be enough to inspire private industry to develop not one, but two human rated launch systems (a capsule, and the lifting body Dream Chaser)? NASA clearly wants competition in the private market, so they seek more than one vendor. Will the losers in this competition be able to survive today's announcement, which makes them "distant third" candidates to provide these services?"
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Giant gun proposed for space launches->

Submitted by

Gary W. Longsine

on Monday June 11 2007, @03:53AM

Gary W. Longsine writes "New Scientist reports in Aim for the stars on a recent study which proposes launching durable supplies like water into space using a giant gun. It turns out that a regular gun won't be efficient enough, but a multi-stage gun based on a series of tubes might do the trick."
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Palm back from the Zombie undead?->

Submitted by

Gary W. Longsine

on Monday June 04 2007, @11:15AM

Gary W. Longsine writes "Various blogs and press release sites are reporting a hot Palm story this morning: Palm to sell 25% stake, overhaul board. Palm today anounced that they have sold a 25% stake in the company to Elevation Partners to raise $325 million in venture capital, hired former Apple design guru Jon Rubenstein, and former Apple CFO Fred Anderson. It looks like the nearly comic Palm Foleo was just a clever smokescreen. Can former Apple employees bring Palm back from the Zombie undead?"
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iPhone developer kit coming at WWDC?->

Submitted by

Gary W. Longsine

on Monday June 04 2007, @10:40AM

Gary W. Longsine writes "In their story Fever Builds for iPhone (Anxiety Too) the New York Times is reporting that an iPhone developer kit will be announced and delivered at WWDC 2007. 'Nuff said."
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eMail is bankrupt

Submitted by

Gary W. Longsine

on Friday May 25 2007, @08:45AM

Gary W. Longsine writes "The Washington Post writes about a Venture Capitalist and blogger, Fred Wilson, who recently declared e-mail bankruptcy, wiping out his inbox and starting over because he couldn't keep up. Spam is cited as one reason. It seems that too much spam is not the only problem that Mr. Wilson has with email. Another curious tidbit mentioned in the article is that Donald E. Knuth gave up email on January 1, 1990 after using it since 1975. Is eMail dead?"

cheap drug may fight cancers, lacks backer

Submitted by

Gary W. Longsine

on Wednesday January 17 2007, @01:41PM

Gary W. Longsine writes "Researchers have discovered that a cheap, safe drug dichloroacetate (DCA) fights cancer cells of many types in the test tube, leaving healthy cells untouched. The drug is not patented and lacks funding for additional research and clinical trials that would be needed to bring it to market as an anti-cancer treatment. Although the article describes the drug as safe, you probably won't see this appear as as a natural supplement in your local herbal (unregulated medications) store as this by-product of water chlorination is also apparently a carcinogen (see A Model for Tumor Promotion by Dichloroacetate and Dichloroacetate Stimulates Glycogen Accumulation in Primary Hepatocytes through an Insulin-Independent Mechanism [PDF])."

Giant crater discovered in Antarctica

Submitted by on Wednesday August 23 2006, @11:23PM

Gary W. Longsine writes "Scientists have found evidence of a giant meteor strike in Antarctica which may have triggered the Permian-Triassic extinction and wiped out about 95% of the life on the planet at the time. (The Wikipedia entry has other interesting ideas about what may have caused this extinction, including a nearby nova.)"