25518604
submission
ZeroExistenZ writes:
The white house officially answered the question "Do we know ET?" following a petition. Phil Larson kindly points out what we already, dissapointedly, suspected.
The petition was motivated out of a white house committment, "We the people", to answer any petition within 30 days counting 5,000 signatures
7999774
submission
ZeroExistenZ writes:
I I've been going along with the "Facebook"-hype and "twittering". Even played a role in popularizing it in media in the companies I've worked for as I was enthousiastic about it; it helped me to connect to my international "buddies" which have been standing string since my first contacts in the 90s, when the internet was something "we created".
With websites going the "Web 2.0 / social media" path, and the massive general public flow towards these places showing off their dogs, cats, babies and what have you to "connect to people online."
It struck me lately, that the web has for many reduced to "facebook", "twitter", "gmail", "google" and "youtube"; while I used to wonder where the people are online, I now wonder where the people are offline. It often feels the cosy place the "geek" has built for him or herself has evolved to a market and media place, a modern "interactive Tele-vision channel" if you will.
After being "in the loop" for a year, also professionally in online media, it started all to be very close to a "myspace"-experience. If I wanted to be popular offline before, or the new offline, online, and play the "look at me"-game, I would have pursuited a different carreer and values.
In my perception, that seems a very limited experience, compared to the internet I used to know, where people saw potential (even if it were adding more glitter to their gifs) and actively persuided to go out of their way to discover how it works and actively do something with it.
How is the experience of the recent geek, who dreams up an utopian web or technology and is working through the night feeling he has discovered something unseen before? (like I felt as a teen sacrificing sleep on the internet, but not for porn, watching status-updates or videos.)
My question to slashdot: how has your experience and perception of the internet altered? And how are new geeks using it in a mind-expanding way? Is there the same sense of discovery, still?
Personally, I've closed down my "popular social media tools" and try to see potential and become a creator or discoverer again instead of a user.
7750
submission
ZeroExistenZ writes:
Researchers from Intel Corporation and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) have built the world's first electrically powered Hybrid Silicon Laser using standard silicon manufacturing processes. This breakthrough addresses one of the last major barriers to producing low-cost, high-bandwidth silicon photonics devices for use inside and around future computers and data centers.
There's a small clip available where they explain how the raman effect is used to generate the laser. A whitepaper on the continious silicon laser is available here, the paper on the modulation can be found here
