Emergency Broadcast System Coming To Cell Phones

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday November 17, @02:23PM
from the set-your-emergency-to-vibrate dept.

cellphones

communications

government

wireless

gambit3 writes"The Emergency Broadcast System that interrupts TV programming in times of crisis is jumping to a new format where it might be able to reach you better — on your cell phone. The communications company Alcatel-Lucent announced Tuesday that it's creating a Broadcast Message Center that will allow government agencies to send cell phone users specific information in the event of a local, state or national emergency. It will be similar to the TV alerts in that the text messages will be geographically targeted for areas where a tornado alert or major road closure, for example, is in effect."

How Video Games Stretch the Limits of Our Visual Attention

ScienceDaily (Nov. 17, 2010) — They are often accused of being distracting, but recent research has found that action packed video games like Halo and Call of Duty can enhance visual attention, the ability that allows us to focus on relevant visual information. This growing body of research, reviewed in WIREs Cognitive Science, suggests that action based games could be used to improve military training, educational approaches, and certain visual deficits.

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Steve Wozniak: Android will be the dominant smartphone platform

By Thomas Ricker  posted Nov 18th 2010 6:04AM

Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, has never been one to mince words. Today's no different as demonstrated in an interview with the Dutch-language De Telegraaf newspaper in The Netherlands. The first revelation is an admission that Apple had collaborated with a well-known Japanese consumer electronics company in 2004 to develop a phone that was ahead of its time. Woz is quoted as saying that while Apple was content with the quality, it "wanted something that could amaze the world." Obviously, the phone was shelved until Apple announced the iPhone in January 2007.

Woz then moved on to the topic of Android saying that Android smartphones, not the iPhone, would become dominant, noting that the Google OS is likely to win the race similarly to the way that Windows ultimately dominated the PC world. Woz stressed that the iPhone, "Has very few weak points. There aren't any real complaints and problems. In terms of quality, the iPhone is leading." However, he then conceded that, "Android phones have more features," and offer more choice for more people. Eventually, he thinks that Android quality, consistency, and user satisfaction will match iOS.

Steve closed the interview with a jab at Nokia calling it, "the brand from a previous generation" suggesting that the boys from Finland should introduce a new brand for a young consumer. Hmm, so we guess he'll be in line for the launch of the MeeGo-based N9 then?

Graphene Can Be Made With Table Sugar

Posted by timothy on Wednesday November 17, @02:52AM
from the let's-grid-it-on dept.

science

technology

Zothecula writes with this snippet from Gizmag:"There's no doubt that the discovery of graphene is one sweet breakthrough. The remarkable material offers everything from faster, cooler electronics and cheaper lithium-ion batteries to faster DNA sequencing and single-atom transistors. Researchers at Rice University have made graphene even sweeter by developing a way to make pristine sheets of the one-atom-thick form of carbon from plain table sugar and other carbon-based substances. In another plus, the one-step process takes place at temperatures low enough to make the wonder material easy to manufacture."

For 18 Minutes, 15% of the Internet Routed Through China

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday November 16, @02:24PM
from the i-bet-it's-nice-to-visit dept.

encryption

internet

networking

security

it

olsmeister writes"For 18 minutes this past April, 15% of the world's internet traffic was routed through servers in China. This includes traffic from both .gov and .mil US TLDs."The crazy thing is that this happened months ago, and nobody noticed. Hope you're encrypting your super-secret stuff.

Artificial Black Holes Made With Metamaterials: Design for Manmade Light Trapping Device Could Help Harvest Light for Solar Cells

ScienceDaily (Nov. 16, 2010) — While our direct knowledge of black holes in the universe is limited to what we can observe from thousands or millions of light years away, a team of Chinese physicists has proposed a simple way to design an artificial electromagnetic (EM) black hole in the laboratory.

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Saving Our Data from Digital Decay

ScienceDaily (Nov. 16, 2010) — An old-school alternative to digital storage has a modern spin that could save us from future information loss as technology changes and today's state of the art devices become tomorrow's museum pieces.

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Size of Hippocampus May Indicate Early Dementia

ScienceDaily (Nov. 16, 2010) — The size of the part of the brain known as the hippocampus may be linked to future dementia, reveals a thesis from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

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The World's Smallest Legible Font

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday November 16, @03:25PM
from the because-he-can dept.

hasanabbas1987 writes"From the article: 'Well 'technically' they aren't the smallest fonts in the world as if they were you wouldn't be able to read even a single letter, but, you should be able to read the entire paragraph in the picture given above... we did. A Computer science professor called Ken Perlin designed these tiny fonts and you can fit 500 reasonable words in a resolution of 320 x 240 space. There are at the moment the smallest legible fonts in the world.'"

  idle perlin font fonts legible story

New Species of Carnivorous Plant Discovered in Cambodia

ScienceDaily (Nov. 16, 2010) — A new species of carnivorous pitcher plant has been found by Fauna & Flora International (FFI) in Cambodia's remote Cardamom Mountains. The discovery of Nepenthes holdenii is an indicator of both the stunning diversity and lack of research in the forests of the Cardamom Mountains.

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Space-Time Cloak' to Conceal Events

ScienceDaily (Nov. 15, 2010) — The study, by researchers from Imperial College London, involves a new class of materials called metamaterials, which can be artificially engineered to distort light or sound waves. With conventional materials, light typically travels along a straight line, but with metamaterials, scientists can exploit a wealth of additional flexibility to create undetectable blind spots. By deflecting certain parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, an image can be altered or made to look like it has disappeared.

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