Sunday, May 29, 2005
IBM will unlock door to Cell
EETimes: “The three developers of the Cell processor are preparing to release full chip specifications and software libraries in an effort to rally the open-source community around the device that powers the Sony Playstation 3.”
Posted by Oleg Ivrii, 04:23 PM / Comments (0)
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Star's erratic conduct hides predictable nature
Maggie McKee reports for NewScientist: “A massive star known for violent and erratic behaviour shows a surprisingly predictable and regular pattern in brightness, reveals the most detailed study ever done on the star. But the clockwork signal has stumped astronomers, who hope to unravel how other such stars sow the universe with heavy elements.”
Posted by Oleg Ivrii, 06:15 PM / Comments (0)
Are blogs more propaganda than press-worthy?
Ars Technica: An interesting read, and in case of the Big Party, its very true. From the article: “We can say that if people still have that idea that the bloggers are the new fifth estate, that the bloggers are the new kingmakers, that’s not the case.”
Posted by Oleg Ivrii, 06:10 PM / Comments (0)
Monday, May 16, 2005
Densest materials known made to float on air
Maggie McKee reports for NewScientist: “The densest materials known have been made to levitate on a pool of liquid air, reveals a new study. The trick may one day be used to separate precious minerals, metal and gems from rock and soil.”
Posted by Oleg Ivrii, 10:18 PM / Comments (0)
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Xbox specs revealed
C|net: Well Microsoft has revealed its new box, and the tech specs are pretty incredible, including having “three symmetrical cores running at 3.2Ghz each, a 500MHz ATI graphics processor, 500 million triangles per second and 48 billion shader operations per second.”
Posted by Oleg Ivrii, 11:01 PM / Comments (0)
Sunday, May 8, 2005
Computers Grade Students' Writing
Wired News: “Students in Brent’s Introduction to Sociology course at the University of Missouri-Columbia now submit drafts through the SAGrader software he designed. It counts the number of points he wanted his students to include and analyzes how well concepts are explained… And within seconds, students have a score.”
Posted by Oleg Ivrii, 08:05 PM / Comments (0)
Saturday, May 7, 2005
Nanotechnology + Superconductivity = Spintronics?
PhysOrg: “As the ever-increasing power of computer chips brings us closer and closer to the limits of silicon technology, many researchers are betting that the future will belong to ‘spintronics’: a nanoscale technology in which information is carried not by the electron’s charge, as it is in conventional microchips, but by the electron’s intrinsic spin.”
Posted by Oleg Ivrii, 11:43 PM / Comments (0)
Google Releases Web Accelerator
Antone Gonsalves reports for InternetWeek: “Google Inc. has launched in beta software that the company says will speed up the time it takes to search the Internet and to load web content. Web Accelerator, which is available at no charge, runs alongside a browser and directs all searches and page requests through Google’s servers.”
Posted by Oleg Ivrii, 11:41 PM / Comments (0)
Saturn's Odd Moon Out
Wired News: “Scientists this week got two steps closer to proving that Saturn adopted one of its 34 known moons, thanks to two new studies of data captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. The studies, which explore the density and chemistry of the moon Phoebe, show how the moon is closer in composition to the mysterious balls of ice and rock at the outer edges of the solar system than it is to Saturn’s other moons.”
Posted by Oleg Ivrii, 11:44 AM / Comments (0)
Sea birds might pay for green electricity
NewScientist: “Available evidence suggests that wind farms reduce the abundance of many bird species at the wind farm site… [a]mong the worst affected are waders and ducks in shallow coastal waters. The findings could be especially significant for the UK, which has the biggest offshore wind energy programme in the world.”
Posted by Oleg Ivrii, 11:36 AM / Comments (0)
Wednesday, May 4, 2005
IBM to fix bad quarter by axing 13,000 jobs
The Register: “The actual layoff range provided by IBM stretches between 10,000 and 13,000 workers, who will be axed via both voluntary and involuntary means. These actions will lead to IBM taking between a $1.3bn and $1.7bn charge in its second quarter.”
Posted by Oleg Ivrii, 08:12 PM / Comments (0)
Monday, May 2, 2005
Scientists: Life on Mars Likely
Wired News: “Tantalizing evidence is accumulating that suggests the red planet is alive, but incontrovertible proof is still lacking. And while the European Space Agency is keen to send a lander to find it, a history of failed life-finding missions at NASA makes Americans more cautious.”
Posted by Oleg Ivrii, 06:23 PM / Comments (0)
Sunday, May 1, 2005
Firefox passes 50 million download mark
C|net: “The Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox Web browser passed a significant milestone in adoption on Friday, with more than 50 million copies of the program downloaded, according to its distributors. To commemorate the moment, the foundation said on its Web site that it would create 50 limited-edition coins, to be distributed to people with stories of spreading the browser online.”
Posted by Oleg Ivrii, 04:18 PM / Comments (0)