Current News: We pick through it, so you don't have to.
Archive for July, 2009
Gone Baby Gone…
Jul 28th
Well, apparently they have developed a method of making aluminum invisible. I’m still curious about the uses of this. I mean, in a sense it seems dangerous. Imagine, a soda can flying at your head…except…there’s no way you can know it…because it’s…it’s…..invisible! Man, that would have been awesome back when we were kids throwing stuff across the room in school. Where’s your proof now Teach? Yea! Thats what I thought!
Invisible Arrows!…so, do we worry about the damage from the arrow, or the probability of this thing being radioactive…haha
Obviously an Invisible Car…but that seems a long ways away.
Invisible Aluminum Foil…useful?
Feel free to discuss other possible uses for this technology in the forum. I’m curious what you guys come up with…
OMG…Anyone seen Antitrust?
Jul 22nd
If you haven’t seen the movie Antitrust with Tim Robins, Rachel Leigh Cook and Ryan Phillipe then you need to watch it. After that, read this article.
Excerpt from Slashdot:
“Physical intimidation of a Foxconn employee, 25 year-old Sun Danyong, and a possibly-illegal search of his house may have led to suicide after an iPhone prototype in his possession was lost. Foxconn is Apple’s long-time manufacturing partner for the iPhone. Entrusted with 16 iPhone prototypes, Danyong discovered that one was missing and searched the factory for it. When it didn’t turn up, he reported the incident to his boss, who ordered his apartment searched. There are reports of physical intimidation by Foxconn security personnel. This ended tragically on Thursday at 3 AM, when Danyong jumped from his apartment building to his death.”
VentureBeat notes that “Apple exerts immense pressure on its business partners [to] help it maintain secrecy.” An Apple spokesperson said this to CNet: “We are saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee, and we are awaiting results of the investigations into his death. We require our suppliers to treat all workers with dignity and respect.”
Spark Plugs Go the Way of the DoDo
Jul 22nd
Researchers at the University of Liverpool have been working on using Lasers to replace spark plugs. They claim it will create a much more eco-friendly combustion engine.
July 20, 2009
Jul 20th
Med Students Get Training in Second Life
“Discover Magazine reports that although medical simulations have been around for a long time, medical schools like Imperial College London are starting to use virtual hospitals in Second Life so students can learn their way around an O.R. before they enter the real thing. The students can also test their knowledge in the Virtual Respiratory Ward by interviewing patient avatars, ordering tests, diagnosing problems, and recommending treatment. ‘The real innovation in SL clinical simulations is that they bring people together in a clinical space — you are standing next to an avatar who is a real patient, and the doctor avatar to your right is a resident at Massachusetts General Hospital and the nurse to your left is at the University of Pennsylvania hospital,’ says John Lester, the Education and Healthcare Market Developer at Linden Labs. The most significant benefit of SL training may be the cost. Real-life training facilities require thousands, and sometimes millions of dollars to build and maintain, while SL simulation rooms can be created for minimal costs, and accessed from anywhere in the world for the price of an internet connection. SL can also expose students to situations that a standard academic program can’t duplicate: ‘You can take risks that aren’t safe in the real world and teach more complex subjects in three dimensions,’ says Colleen Lin. ‘When you’re resuscitating a dummy in real life, it looks like a dummy. But you can program an avatar to look like it’s choking or having a heart attack, and it looks more real to the student responsible for resuscitating it.’”
Open Source Software in the Military(not sure I agree with the concept yet, but it is my Alma Matter….so…)
“With the advent of forge.mil, etc. the military seems to be getting on board with free and open source software. A working group meeting is going to be held at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, August 12-13, 2009. There’s a pretty good lineup of speakers including a Marine from the Iraq-Marine Expeditionary Forces, who was on the ground and saw the agility open source gave to him and his soldiers. A number of OSS projects are going to be meeting there: Delta 3D, OpenCPI, FalconView, OSSIM, Red Hat, etc. Looks like there will be some good discussions.”
Earthquake/Tsunami Inisibility Cloak
“The same folks who brought us the tsunami invisibility cloak last year have now come up with an earthquake invisibility cloak. They show that a platform made of just the right configuration of elastic rings could make a structure invisible to earthquakes by effectively steering a quake around the structure. It doesn’t work well for compression waves, but the researchers claim it could hide buildings from the slower-moving, more destructive shear earthquake waves. The research is due to be published soon in the journal Physical Review Letters.”
Computerized Election Results with No Election (suprising?…umm…no)
“In Honduras, according to breaking Catalan newspaper reports (translations available, USA Today mention), authorities have seized 45 computers containing certified election results for a constitutional election that never happened. The election had been scheduled for June 28, but on that day the president, Manuel Zelaya, was ousted. The ‘certified’ and detailed electronic records of the non-existent election show Zelaya’s side having won overwhelmingly.”
RIAA states DRM is Dead (again, surprising?…me thinks not)
“Jonathan Lamy, chief spokesperson for the RIAA[,] declared DRM dead, when he was asked about the RIAA’s view on DRM for an upcoming SCMagazine article. “DRM is dead, isn’t it?” Lamy said, referring to the DRM-less iTunes store and other online outfits that now offer music without restrictions.”
Articles above taken from SlashDot