Tiny refrigerators close in on absolute zero
Posted by play_boy_2000 (4 Comments)	Sun May 1st '05 06:27:40 PM
Tiny refrigerators have been made that reach temperatures as low as 0.1 kelvin. Joel Ullom at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, and his colleagues at NIST and the University of Notre Dame in Indiana built the coolers from a sandwich of a metal, an insulator and a semiconductor. As a result of the quantum tunnelling effect, applying a voltage to the sandwich forces energetic electrons to move out of the metal across the insulating layer and into the semiconductor. That cools the metal to extremely low temperatures. The team has managed to mount four coolers on a silicon chip coated in silicon nitride. View: Story at The Inquirer View: Story at New Scientist
News Source: New Scientist	Genre: Science

Shuttle launch delayed?
Posted by play_boy_2000 (3 Comments)	Fri Apr 29th '05 07:15:27 AM
Top NASA officials debated Thursday whether to postpone a May liftoff for the first space shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster, based on the latest launch-debris analyses and the possible need for extra repairs. NASA spokesman Allard Beutel said the space agency would have no comment on the outcome of the meeting until Friday, although there were signs that the launch had been put off. NASA and contractor managers canceled reservations at hotels near Cape Canaveral and rebooked for mid-July. Preparations for the May 22 launch for a 12-day mission had been put on hold for at least a day because of the deliberations. Beutel said shuttle managers wanted to decide whether they can accomplish everything they need to do in time for a liftoff then. If Discovery is not flying by early June, it will have to remain grounded until mid-July because of NASA's desire for a daylight launch. Senior NASA officials convened late in the afternoon and their session lasted hours, until evening. Beutel said the space agency would have no comment on the outcome of the meeting until Friday.
News Source: Yahoo!	Genre: Science

Apple sued over 'Tiger'
Posted by James (2 Comments)	Thu Apr 28th '05 11:03:01 PM
Apple Computer has been slapped with a lawsuit by Tiger Direct Inc. for allegedly infringing its trademark with the new Mac OS X "Tiger'' operating system scheduled for release on Friday. Tiger Direct, which sells computers and related products on the Internet, said Appke's Tiger OS threatens to dilute its trademarked name, according to Bloomberg, which has obtained a copy of the lawsuit. The online retailer also accused Apple of deceptive and unfair trade practices in the lawsuit, filed today in federal court in Miami, Florida, Bloomberg said. "Apple Computer has created and launched a nationwide media blitz led by Steven Jobs, overwhelming the computer world with a sea of Tiger references," Tiger Direct's attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.
News Source: Apple Insider	Genre: Apple

Hard drive gets all flashy
Posted by James (6 Comments)	Tue Apr 26th '05 04:08:37 PM
A hybrid memory system, combining a hard drive and flash memory, has been demonstrated by Samsung and Microsoft. The aim is to combine the fast read/write access times of NAND flash with the storage capacity of a rotating hard drive. By using the 1Gbit flash as a cache for the hard drive, the drive does not need to spin continuously. When the write buffer is full, the drive is spun up and data written to magnetic storage. Boot up times can also be reduced, claimed the firms, by using the flash as a boot buffer during shut-down. Microsoft calls the device a hybrid hard drive (HHD). It is designed to work with Longhorn, the next generation of Windows. "Hybrid drive architecture... is an advancement that will improve the performance and reliability of any computer using the Windows Longhorn operating system," said Tom Phillips, general manager of Microsoft's Windows group.
News Source: ElectronicsWeekly	Genre: Tech

Google UK Mapping Service
Posted by donkey (6 Comments)	Tue Apr 19th '05 07:33:14 PM
It looks like google have released their great mapping site for the UK. Multimap and the rest can't compete with this. Currently there doesn't seem to be an option to view satellite images like you can with the N. American version. In other news, donket is the new pope
News Source: Google UK	Genre: Intrawab

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