Comment I don't really care about this release, (Score 1) 320
but I assume this news foretells the imminent release of Android 2.2, which does excite me.
Invisibility Cloak Created In 3-D 113
An anonymous reader writes "Scientists have created the first device to render an object invisible in three dimensions. The 'cloak,' described in the journal Science (abstract; full text requires login), hid an object from detection using light of wavelengths close to those that are visible to humans. Previous devices have been able to hide objects from light travelling in only one direction; viewed from any other angle, the object would remain visible. This is a very early but significant step towards a true invisibility cloak." The "object" hidden in this work was a bump one micrometer high. The light used was just longer than the wavelengths our eyes detect. To get a visible-light cloak, the features of the cloaking metamaterial would need to be reduced in size from 300 nm to 10 nm.
Comment How To Prevent An Abysmal Sequal (Score 1) 298
Don't see the abysmal original. Honestly, does The Hobbit need new characters? If it did, I'm sure Tolkien would have put them in - it's not like the guy was hurting for original characters.
Comment Re:Noise Level (Score 1) 250
I like the noise my old 74GB Raptor makes - kind of like an animal growling low. And, really, I only ever notice the sound during the loading of my OS at startup. They're good drives, though clearly they're being outclassed by newer drives.
Bookmark Aide: U.S. attorneys fired over politics (forumpolitics.com)
Submission + - Musicians Ask to Keep the Internet Neutral
eldavojohn writes: "124 bands and 24 music labels are sending a clear message to keep the net a neutral place regarding traffic. The want to keep all traffic equal instead of allowing providers to charge a fee for certain pages to load faster than others. These musicians are the latest to join the Save the Internet campaign for internet freedom. They have friends in high places on this matter, however: "Rep. Edward Markey, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, said if Internet providers are allowed to start charging fees for preferential treatment then it will stifle innovation across many industries, not just music." I think it's obvious that musicians (especially independent & small labels) will find themselves with the short end of the stick if they are asked to pay a fee to have their music streamed as fast as larger bands or even corporations."
Virtualizing Cuts Web App Performance 43% 223
czei writes "This just-released research report, Load Testing a Virtual Web Application, looks at the effects of virtualization on a typical ASP Web application, using VMWare on Linux to host a Windows OS and IIS web server. While virtualizing the server made it easier to manage, the number of users the virtualized Web app could handle dropped by 43%. The article also shows interesting graphs of how hyper-threading affected the performance of IIS." The report urges readers to take this research as a data point. No optimization was done on host or guest OS parameters.
Submission + - Terahertz spectrum for wireless communication
holy_calamity writes: A first step to allowing wireless data transfer over a currently unused part of the electromagnetic spectrum are reported in New Scientist. Terahertz radiation exists between radio and infrared. A new filter created at the University of Utah can filter out particular frequencies, a prerequisite for using it for data. The abstract of the paper in the journal Nature is freely available.
Cisco Develops Mobile Robots for Wireless Nets 51
coondoggie writes "Cisco has developed a set of small smart robots, which can act as wireless communications relays, that sense when a mobile user is moving out of service range, and can follow the user to maintain connectivity. According to Dave Buster, product marketing manager for the Cisco Global Government Solutions Group, the robots can follow a user almost anywhere to maintain connectivity. Published reports said the robots were part of Cisco's "Information on the move" initiative — a wide ranging plan to secure all things wireless. Whether or not the systems has an enterprise application, it is of interest to the military and initiatives such as the Army's Future Combat Systems which uses a variety of advanced systems to achieve battleground superiority."
Submission + - KDE 4.0 the holy grail of Desktops ?
An anonymous reader writes: With KDE 4.0 being expected some time this year, expectation runs high in the linux/unix users camp and the media read a lot between the lines of what the KDE developers say and do. In some ways KDE will provide a standard as to how a desktop should look and behave. This interesting article wonders whether KDE 4.0 will become the complete desktop which will meet the needs of a wide cross section of computer users. One of the common complaints that some Linux users have over KDE is that it is too cluttered. And by addressing this need without putting off the power users, the KDE developers could make it an all in one Desktop. Keep in mind that KDE 4.0 is based on Qt 4.0 and so can be easily ported to Windows and other OSes too which makes this thought doubly relevant.
Feed Porsche CO2 Ready, but Not Happy (wired.com)
Journal Journal: ClearChannel doesn't own my state just yet
After hearing that ClearChannel had "taken over" FM radio. I decided to check and see what stations in my area were owned by ClearChannel. Turns out, my favourite station is NOT owned by them and is an independent station! Imagine that!
Journal Journal: 40 million extra chinese men 42
According to the National Geographic: China's Lost Girls special I saw last night, because of China's strict 1 child per couple policy, by the year 2020 there will be 40 million men who won't be able to find a wife. Just consider the social ramifications of that for a moment: 40 million pissed of men is quite a large force to reckon with. And don't forget the impact of all the baby girls being abandoned and raised in orphanages (I can't even imagine the stress and pressure for the mot
Feed Drones to Thwart Missiles (wired.com)
Feed Nightline NSA Spy Exclusive: Dud (wired.com)
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How many Bavarian Illuminati does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Three: one to screw it in, and one to confuse the issue.
