Microsoft Axes MSN for Mac OS X
Posted by James (11 Comments)	Sat Mar 12th '05 10:20:09 PM
Microsoft announced yesterday that they are planning to kill access to the MSN Service via MSN for Mac OS X software from May 31st onwards. In a statement to customers and press, Microsoft is advising customers to "access MSN services and features with their preferred browser and by setting up a My MSN page as a portal to their favorite online destinations." Customers will still be able to use the MSN Messenger service but will be unable to use MSN Explorer for Mac OS X. It's not clear what prompted this action but it's widely thought that the MSN Service isn't that popular on the Mac platform. For months users have been protesting against MSN for their lack of support for MSN software on Mac OS X. This latest move will likely be a knock to MSN software and support for the Mac and may lead to further announcements.
News Source: microsoft.com	Genre: Microsoft

Millions prepare for Red Nose Day
Posted by joe (2 Comments)	Fri Mar 11th '05 01:22:20 PM
Millions of people around the country are expected to join in Red Nose Day, the climax to this year's fund-raising activity by Comic Relief. Hundreds of fundraising events are taking place across the UK, and BBC TV and radio will broadcast special shows. Comic Relief, held every two years, was launched 20 years ago with a live BBC broadcast from a refugee camp in Sudan. Since then, it has raised well over £300m for some of the poorest and most vulnerable in Africa and the UK. The Red Nose Day fun starts on BBC One at 1900 GMT.
News Source: BBC News	Genre: General News

Egypt Unveils Plans to Move Ramses Statue
Posted by play_boy_2000 (1 Comment)	Tue Mar 8th '05 05:31:51 AM
The Egyptian government Monday unveiled plans for the delicate task of moving a granite statue of the Pharaoh Ramses II, 3,200 years old and weighing 83 tons, from central Cairo to a new site near the Pyramids. The statue has stood in a square outside Cairo's main railway station for 50 years but with the growth of the city the square has become increasingly noisy and polluted. Raised pedestrian walkways make it hard to see the 11-meter (35-foot) statue from some angles. Culture Minister Farouk Hosni told a news conference that after lengthy studies and debate the government had decided to saw through the plinth and move the statue upright and in one piece to the site of a new museum southwest of the city center. This picture looks like it could be it, but its just a guess The Egyptian construction company Arab Contractors will build a special vehicle to carry the statue, which will be slung in a gyroscopically mounted cage and wrapped in foam rubber. Moving through the streets of Cairo from the early hours of a Friday, when the city is quietest, the vehicle will take the best part of a day to make the 30-km (18-mile) journey.
News Source: Yahoo!	Genre: General News

Age of physics processing units dawns
Posted by play_boy_2000 (4 Comments)	Tue Mar 8th '05 12:53:28 AM
After decades of listening about Central Processing Units, years of listening about Graphic Processing Units and millimoments of listening about audio processing units, it is time to learn the new term. It's time to start talking about physics processing units (PPUs). I have a feeling that we will be talking much more about such PPUs in the near future as these are going to change the way computer games look like. The company behind this marchitecture is called AGEIA and is a "Fabless Company" with lots of investors around, including mighty Taiwanese giant TSMC and the almost almighty Bank'o'America. Here in San Francisco's Games Developer Conference the firm revealed its chip called symbolically PhysX. It’s the world first Physics Processing Unit (PPU), they reckon. These guys have taped out the chip and made a final product and reference card design ready as we write. The answer is actually an add in card with either PCI Express or a PCI interface with up to 128MB of dedicated GDDR 3 memory that will take over all physics in the games. We saw some cool demos done in software on a laptop of what this card can do. It can operate with 32000 particles/rigid bodies or should I say bones? [You should, Fudo, you should. Ed.] When we talk about fluids, such cards can handle up to 50000 rigid bones. A CPU can do a couple hundred at the most Wow, another card to shove into my computer to aquire those extra 5 fps + eyecandy. I actully think this is a good idea, and i wouldn't be suprised if this really catches on. EDIT: Moar @ the inq, includeing a pic http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21681
News Source: The Inquirer	Genre: PC Gaming

Scientists develop cloaking device
Posted by play_boy_2000 (14 Comments)	Sat Mar 5th '05 09:54:43 PM
Electronic engineers at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia are researching a device they say could make objects "nearly invisible to an observer." The contrivance works by preventing light from bouncing off the surface of an object, causing the object to appear so small it all but disappears. The concept was reported today by the science news Web site news@nature.com. It says the proposed cloaking device would not require any peripheral attachments (such as antennas or computer networks) and would reduce visibility no matter what angle an object is viewed at. Sir John Pendry, a physicist at Imperial College, London, said the concept potentially holds several important applications "in stealth technology and camouflage." While types of invisibility shielding have been developed before, the phenomenon described by Andrea Alú and Nader Engheta sounds like something that might have been witnessed from the bridge of science fiction's starship Enterprise. The concept is based on a "plasmonic cover," which is a means to prevent light from scattering. (It is light bouncing off an object that makes it visible to an observer). The cover would stop light from scattering by resonating at the same frequency as the light striking it. If such a device could cope with different wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation (including visible light), in theory, the object would vanish into thin air. More @ National Geographic http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/02/0228_050228_invisibility.html
News Source: The Inquirer	Genre: Science

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