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Submission + - A Truly Inconvenient Truth

Submitted by
mattatwork
mattatwork writes: "I received an interesting email from my mother-in-law, and then had it forwarded again by my wife. According to WorldNetDaily, Compact Flourescent lamps (or CFL's) contain a significant amount of Mercury. While you're saving the world from global warming, you're also putting yourself and other carbon based life forms at risk to mercury poisoning. One of the victims of a CFL's mercury found out the hard and high priced way that removing the mercury couldn't be done with a simple vacuum, but by a specialized enviremental cleanup firm for around $2000. You would think someone like Al Gore, father of the Internet, would think twice before pushing a technology like CFL, still in its infancy, on consumers who don't or didn't know the risks. I know that when I get home tonight, I'm taking out my CFL's and replacing them with good ol' incandescents."
Microsoft

Submission + - Future Zunes: Going Where Apple Hasn't Gone Before

Submitted by
narramissic
narramissic writes: "To hit on a winning product or service, Microsoft is going to have to 'find ways of being where Apple isn't and find ways of growing the overall market,' says Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with Jupiter Research. But what Microsoft really has planned for future Zunes may be something much less remarkable. In the next month or so, as Microsoft reveals more about its vision, we'll likely see offerings in the three main categories in the sector: higher-end video players, mid-range music-centric devices such as the iPod Nano, and low-end USB devices such as the iPod Shuffle."

Feed How To Look At Dinosaur Tracks (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
A new study provides fascinating insight into the factors geologists must account for when examining dinosaur tracks. The authors studied a range of larger tracks from the family of dinosaurs that includes the T. Rex and the tridactyl, and provide a guide for interpreting the effects of many different types of erosion on these invaluable impressions.
Businesses

Submission + - The Future of AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: HardOCP predicts Intel heavy into workstation video cards, AMD heavy into integrated mobile CPU/GPU combos, and the demise of NVIDIA as an industry leader. "One of the underlying business models that have propelled NVIDIA to its immense success has been "bigger, stronger, faster." With that have come bigger wafers and much more power. While the 8800 series GPU is an engineering marvel, I do not know if it is a testament to NVIDIA's future. At this time I do not think that NVIDIA has the needed elegance in engineering to compete with the AMD and Intel of the future unless they make sweeping changes."
Robotics

Submission + - From Dream to Marketplace: Flying Robot's Inventor

Submitted by
egadfly
egadfly writes: "Sean Frawley was still in high school when the vision hit him: he would create a robot that flies by flapping its wings. In this interview, the now 22 year old Frawley traces his invention of the Dragonfly — from brainstorm to mass production. He describes creating a practical fly weight by painstakingly shaving plastic from the gears of his prototype , experimenting with carbon fiber for durability, and finding a Pacific Rim manufacturer to produce a low-cost version of the toy. He has walked where many of us dream of going."
Communications

Submission + - Wikipedia entry sparks war of words

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "The City of Cornwall Ontario has come out swinging over postings in its Wikipedia entry saying a person or persons is out to make the city and its citizens look bad. The stink started last week when some one posted this: "Cornwall has not enjoyed a good environmental reputation due in large part to decades of heavily polluting industries. Although most of these industries have shut down or moved away, their legacy is a riverfront contaminated by mercury, soil contaminated by coal tar and byproducts, and most evidently, 'Big Ben'." Cornwall officials noticed that in the demographics section had this statement: "Many from the city's work force prefer to live in these communities over Cornwall; ironically including the mayor and a number of 'Team Cornwall' members (a group drawn from the business community, pledged to promote Cornwall)." http://www.networkworld.com/community3/?q=node/146 67"
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Part three of 1979 Douglas Adams interview

Submitted by
Ben Coppin
Ben Coppin writes: "Darker Matter issue three has just gone live with the third and final part of the exclusive interview with Douglas Adams from 1979. In this part we find out that Douglas Adams only really liked two of the original episodes of the radio series of the Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and why he thought he was totally washed up at the age of 24.

http://www.darkermatter.com/issue3/douglas_adams.p hp"
Software

Submission + - any software for a multi-core CPU

Submitted by
wayned206
wayned206 writes: "It seems that AMD & Intel are now building multi-core CPU's (chips with essentially multiple processing units on the chip die) — is that correct? Are there any applications that can actually make productive use of both CPU's? I know that I can a spreadsheet on one and an internet session on another, but how hard would it be for to take a CPU bound application and modify it to use both of the cores to speed up the application? In the past, multiple CPU systems were expensive and not easy to find, now they are becoming easier to find, almost hard to avoid in some cases."

Feed Autonomous glider robot safeguards whale pods (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Robots

We've all heard the diehards claiming that the whales are the ones we should save, and thanks to an autonomous glider crafted by Webb Research, they're finally getting their wish. Recently, a trial was pursued in which a radio / satellite phone-equipped Slocum Glider was sent up to 200-meters beneath the depths in order to survey, pinpoint, and record location data for various whale pods swimming about. The device then surfaces and "phones home" the recently gathered information, which can then be disseminated out to ensure nearby vessels don't enter whale-packed territories. Jim Theriault of Defense Research and Development Canada, Dartmouth ran the experiment, and noted that this iteration of whale sensing and reporting improved on previous attempts by being uber-stealthy, featuring a remote data reporting system, and boasting a signal processor capable of tracking even the baleen whale's "lower-frequency call." Currently, the torpedo runs on batteries which last a month or so without needing a recharge, but future renditions are planned to scour the waters for "between five months and a year" by utilizing a special recharging gel. Look for these to hit your nearest ocean later this summer, and try not to be too alarmed when it surfaces beside your craft.

[Via The Raw Feed]

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