Friday, January 30, 2009

India Will Show Its $10 Laptop Prototype

Posted by timothy on Friday January 30, @08:09AM

from the better-than-a-chicken-in-every-pot dept.

Tech Ticker writes"The Indian Government last year announced the development of a cheap $10 laptop, but was later rectified as $100 laptop. Now the government has announced that HRD minister Arjun Singh will unveil the prototype of a Rs. 500 ($10) computer. The computer is developed by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai. No specifications were revealed but DNA, a daily newspaper, has mentioned that it will be small and portable, will feature Wi-Fi, LAN, and expandable memory, and will operate on 2 watts of power."

Maker's Mark Bourbon Goes Green

by LAURA MALESICH
Jan 30th 2009 @ 9:29AM

Filed under: Food, Gadgets and Tech

On the occasion you find yourself needing something smooth and strong to wash away the day's stress your enjoyment shouldn't be precluded by environmental guilt. In the case of Maker's Mark bourbonyou can have a splash over ice and feel good in every way because they are leading the way in eco-friendly distilleries!

This nationally distributed spirit not only sources the majority of it's grain locally, including corn and wheat within a thirty-mile radius of the distillery, but their production facility recycles the byproducts of processing to generate renewable energy. The latter innovation means that Maker's Mark uses 15-30% less natural gas than it would without the renewable energy. Plus they currently recycle 95% of their waste with plans to have 0% waste in just three years! I'd give them three cheers!

[via Inhabitat]

Alaskans Prepare For Volcanic Eruption

Posted by kdawson on Friday January 30, @08:55AM

from the anchorage-is-downwind dept.

An anonymous reader writes"Mount Redoubt, or Redoubt Volcano, is an active stratovolcano in the largely volcanic Aleutian Range of Alaska. The once quiet volcano has begun to roar once again. It's last eruption was in 1989 and geologists suggest that the next one is upon us. Alaskans who lived through the earlier eruption are stocking up on breathing masks and goggles. Starting on Friday, January 23 2009, the level of seismic activity increased markedly, and on Sunday AVO raised the Aviation Color Code to ORANGE and the Volcano Alert Level to WATCH. On the basis of all available monitoring data AVO regards that an eruption similar to or smaller than the one that occurred in 1989-90 is the most probable outcome. We expect such an eruption to occur within days to weeks."From the AP article:"Alaska's volcanoes are not like Hawaii's. 'Most of them don't put out the red river of lava,' said the observatory's John Power. Instead, they typically explode and shoot ash 30,000 to 50,000 feet high — more than nine miles — into the jet stream. 'It's a very abrasive kind of rock fragment,' Power said. The particulate has jagged edges and has been used as an industrial abrasive. 'They use this to polish all kinds of metals,' he said."The server for the Alaska Volcano Observatory appears to be overloaded and is unresponsive.

Women Have More Nightmares Than Men, Study Shows

ScienceDaily (Jan. 30, 2009) — A researcher from the University of the West of England was inspired by her own nightmares and a chance encounter at a lecture to examine more closely the stuff that dreams are made of. Her PhD study has focused on an astounding discovery that women suffer more nightmares then men.

Power In Scotland From Tides and Whiskey

Posted by timothy on Friday January 30, @06:17AM

from the plus-the-spinning-corpse-of-william-wallace dept.

tsamsoniw writes"Singapore-based Atlantis Resources Corporation, which brings to the table tidal-turbine technology, is partnering with Scotland-based datacenter developer Internet Villages International) to construct a tidal-powered 150MW 'Blue Datacenter,' InfoWorld reports. If all goes to plan, the facility will eventually be powered entirely by clean energy produced by tidal-current turbines in the Pentland Firth, the stretch of water between the far north Scottish mainland and Orkney. The firth's currents could generate 700 megawatts of electricity by 2020."And reader Mike writes"Here's something to raise a glass to: recently the Rothes consortium of whiskey and scotch distillers announced that they have partnered with Helius Energy to install a power plant fueled entirely by whiskey by-products. The completed plant will use biomass cogeneration to convert draff and pot ale from the distillery into 7.2 MW of electricity — enough to power 9,000 homes."

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Photog Rob Galbraith Rates MacBook Pro Display "Not Acceptable"

Posted by timothy on Wednesday January 28, @09:29PM
from the pulling-no-punches dept.
An anonymous reader writes"Professional digital photographer and website publisher Rob Galbraith has performed both objective and subjective tests on laptop displays, finding that the late-2008 Macbook Pro glossy displays are 'deep into the not acceptable category' when used in ambient light environments. The Apple notebook came in dead last for color accuracy, and second to last in viewing angles (besting only the Dell Mini 9). He concludes: 'Macs are no longer at the top of the laptop display heap in our minds.'"

Teachers Need an Open Source Education

Posted by timothy on Thursday January 29, @06:20AM

from the yer-darn-tootin' dept.

palegray.net writes"Teachers are sorely in need of an education in what open source software is, what it isn't, and how it can benefit their students. A recent news story at the Reg discussed the case of a Texas teacher who accused those distributing Linux to students of committing criminal acts. A HeliOS blog entry exposes a "higher education" culture of apathy, lies, and fear of open source software. Things have got to improve, and that improvement needs to start with misguided teachers getting their facts straight."

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Veteran Pillsbury spokesman Pop N. Fresh died yesterday of a severe yeast infection. He was 71.

Known to friends as Brown-n-Serve, Fresh was an avid gardener and tennis player. Fresh was buried in one of the largest funeral ceremonies in recent years. Dozens of celebrities turned out including Mrs. Butterworth, the California Raisins, Hungry Jack, Aunt Jemima, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Skippy. The graveside was piled high with flours as longtime friend Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy, describing Fresh as a man who "never knew how much he was kneaded."

Fresh rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with many turnovers. He was not considered a very smart cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes -- conned by those who buttered him up.

Still, even as a crusty old man, he was a roll model for millions. Fresh is survived by his second wife. They have two children and another bun in the oven. The funeral was held at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Soundbulb serves two great purposes, at least in theory

by Darren Murph, posted Jan 23rd 2009 at 10:29AM

If we had to name two essentials to any geek home, well, we couldn't. But if we were jacked upside the wall and forced to, we'd likely pick soundand lighting. It goes without saying that designers Hoang M Nguyen, Poom Puttorngul and Anh Nguyen would agree, as they've dreamed up the conceptual Soundbulb that you see above. Essentially, what you're looking at is a light bulb that includes a small driver along with an embedded wireless module that would enable it to receive streaming audio from a transmitter. Oh sure, you wouldn't get any of that soul shaking bass from these guys, but just think of the convenience factor.

Bugs In Microsoft Technical Documentation Rising

Posted by kdawson on Friday January 23, @10:18AM

from the costs-of-monopoly dept.

snydeq writes"The number of bugs in technical documentation for Microsoft communication protocols continues to grow, according to court documents filed for ongoing antitrust oversight of the company in the US. Problems with the technical documentation — which includes 1,660 identified bugs as of Dec. 31, up from 1,196 bugs on Nov. 30 — remain the major complaint from lawyers representing the group of 19 states that joined the US Department of Justice's antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft. Lawyers for the states have complained repeatedly that technical documentation issues are opening faster than Microsoft can close them. Nearly 800 Microsoft employees are working on the more than 20,000 pages of technical documentation, according to the court documents filed Wednesday."

Black Holes From the LHC Could Last For Minutes

Posted by kdawson on Friday January 23, @11:05AM

from the becoming-greyer dept.

KentuckyFC writes"There is absolutely, positively, definitely no chance of the LHC destroying the planet (or this way either) when it eventually switches on some time later this year. And yet a few niggling doubts are persuading some scientists to run through their figures again. One potential method of destruction is that the LHC will create tiny black holes that could swallow everything in their path, including the planet. Various scientists have said this will not happen because the black holes would decay before they could do any damage. But physicists who have re-run the calculations now say that the mini black holes produced by the LHC could last for seconds, possibly minutes. Of course, the real question is whether they decay faster than they can grow. The new calculations suggest that the decay mechanism should win over and that the catastrophic growth of a black hole from the LHC 'does not seem possible' (abstract). But shouldn't we require better assurance than that?"

Popular Songs Can Cue Specific Memories, Psychology Research Shows

ScienceDaily (Jan. 23, 2009) — Whether the soundtrack of your youth was doo-wop or disco, new wave or Nirvana, psychology research at Kansas State University shows that even just thinking about a particular song can evoke vivid memories of the past.

Treeline Advances In Canada’s Arctic

ScienceDaily (Jan. 23, 2009) — In a widely recognized painting by Tom Thomson, a bent and lonely tree hunches on a rocky ledge overlooking a windswept lake and distant snowy peaks. The misshapen tree remains so emblematic of the beauty and harshness of Canada’s climate that it is part of the permanent collection at the National Art Gallery in Ottawa.

Mr. Plow Replaced by Solar Powered Robo Snow Shovel

by JOSH LOPOSER
Jan 27th 2009 @ 3:30PM

Filed under: Gadgets and Tech, Home

Won't it be awesome when there are robots to do all the boring junk we don't want to do? We've already got robots vacuuming our houses and trimming the lawn, so it's only natural that in the future we'll enlist our robo-servants to do something else we don't want to do: shovel our driveways. That day may come sooner than you think. The iShovelis a solar powered robo-snow plow that allows you to sleep in all cozy and warm as it does the grunt work.

The iShovel being called 'the world's first robotic solar snow plow,' and without doing any real fact checking, I'm just going to assume that the iShovel is a legitimate first in the world of enabling robots for lazy people. One fully charged iShovel can clear up to 4,000 square feet on a single charge. While the manufacturing process and materials may be a different story, at least the zero-emissions iShovel runs on solar power, making it at least somewhat eco-friendly. It also replaces those carbon spewing snow blowers.

[via Treehugger]

Mercury - Another Reason to Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup

by PATRICIA MAYVILLE-COX
Jan 27th 2009 @ 6:29PM

Filed under: Health

Here's another reason to skip that high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). In a recent study, almost half of the high-fructose corn syrup tested contained mercury. Also, a third of commercial food products that contained HFCS as an ingredient also contained mercury.

The study was reported in Environmental Health. The researchers found detectable levels of mercury in nine out of 20 HFCS samples. They also tested 55 commercial foods. The most common foods with HFCS that contained mercury were dairy products, dressings and condiments.

High-fructose corn syrup is produced using chemicals and it is thought that the chemicals caused the contamination. According to Dr. David Wallinga, the lead author, "Mercury is toxic in all its forms," and considering the amount of HFCS that children consume, "It could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered."

Toward Autonomous Unmanned Aircraft Technology

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday January 27, @07:28PM

from the fly-by-wire-only-there-is-no-wire dept.

coondoggie writes with a NetworkWorld piece that begins,"Researchers at Purdue will soon experiment with an unmanned aircraft that pretty much flies itself with little human intervention. The aircraft will use a combination of global-positioning system technology and a guidance system called AttoPilot ... to guide the aerial vehicle to predetermined points. Researchers can be stationed off-site to monitor the aircraft and control its movements remotely. AttoPilot was installed in the aircraft early this year, and testing will begin in the spring, researchers said."

Windows 7 To Come In Multiple Versions

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday January 27, @09:38PM
from the win-7-ready dept.
Crazy Taco writes"Tom's Hardware reports on newly discovered screenshots that reveal Microsoft is planning to release their newest version of Windows in multiple confusing versions ... again. The information comes from the latest version of the Windows 7 beta, build 7025 (the public beta is build 7000), and shows a screen during installation that asks the user which version of the OS he or she would like to install. Who's up for guessing what the difference is between Windows 7 'Starter' and Windows 7 'Home Basic?'"

NES Controller Varsity Jacket would be more awesome with awesome models

by Darren Murph, posted Jan 28th 2009 at 4:37AM

At first glance, we actually gagged upon seeing the jacket pictured above. Immediately after regaining our composure, we wondered how on Earth such a magnificent piece of retro kit could have such a negative impact on our lives -- then, it hit us. It's the dude. Seriously. Strap this $200, limited run jacket on anyone even remotely beautiful and we'd bet you too would see things differently. Or maybe it is just obscenely tacky, but it'd be much less so on anyone other than this fellow.

Getting Diabetes Before 65 More Than Doubles Risk For Alzheimer's Disease

ScienceDaily (Jan. 28, 2009) — Diabetics have a significantly greater risk of dementia, both Alzheimer's disease — the most common form of dementia — and other dementia, reveals important new data from an ongoing study of twins. The risk of dementia is especially strong if the onset of diabetes occurs in middle age, according to the study.

Daily School Recess Improves Classroom Behavior

ScienceDaily (Jan. 28, 2009) — School children who receive more recess behave better and are likely to learn more, according to a large study of third-graders conducted by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.