Well, that's a lie. Actually, no it's not. *brandishing crowbar* At least not if I have something say about it! Anyway, the LHC, which was thought to only be down until the spring, may not kill us all until late 2009, or even 2010. We're saved (but still be weary of terrorists)! According to spokesperson James Gillies, the complicated repairs can be simplified into modest Plan A and Plan B approach. Plan A is a quick and dirty fix, getting the particle accelerator online as quickly as possible (late summer 2009) at the cost of operating at lower power....
When the LHC first went down, it was believed that repairs could get the system up and running by April 2009. Then we saw repairs pushing the timeline back to summer 2009. But now, CERN has arrived at a fork in the road regarding LHC repairs. According to spokesperson James Gillies, the complicated repairs can be simplified into modest Plan A and Plan B approach. Plan A is a quick and dirty fix, getting the particle accelerator online as quickly as possible (late summer 2009) at the cost of operating at lower power. In this scenario, 3 of 8 pressure...
Adding to the already impressive pile of Vista-deflating features we're expecting to see in Windows 7 is WARP, a tech which will allow your PC's CPU to act as a graphics accelerator, possibly doing away with the need for integrated graphics hardware to render user interfaces and low-end games. Not-so-seductively described as a ‘fully conformant software rasterizer’, WARP requires nothing more than an 800MHz processor for complete—if comically slow—DX10 compliance. At this stage WARP won't be intended as a gameworthy replacement for dedicated graphics cards, but it could help avoid another "Vista Capable" type debacle by standardizing essential graphics capabilities...
The world's most powerful particle accelerator now looks likely to be operational again in late summer 2009, rather than June...
The Tesla Roadster is simple to drive, but very fast, with smoothly delivered torque.(Credit: CBS Interactive) Every automotive journalist that drives a Tesla comes away impressed with the car's power, and I can say the same after taking the car out on a quick drive near the company's Menlo Park Tesla store (they don't call it a showroom or dealership). In Performance mode, the car exhibits powerful and smooth torque, even at speed. I had this little open top roadster at 65 mph on the freeway, then mashed the accelerator (don't call it a gas pedal) and got another...
Fujitsu’s U2010, the ultra-portable convertible tablet PC, can now add integrated 3.5G to its long list of features - having just made its debut by way of Fujitsu Singapore, Fujitsu Hong Kong and Fujitsu Philippines. According to the specs, the integrated 3.5G will support tri-band UMTS (HSDPA): 850, 1900, and 2100 MHz and Quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz. The UMPC itself boasts the following specs: Intel Centrino Atom processor Z530 (1.6GHz, 512 L2 Cache, 533Mhz) Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista® Business 5.6-inch SuperFine WXGA TFT10, 1280 x 800 pixels, Passive Touch Panel Intel Graphics...
“This is not the time for tech companies to be cutting back,” leading Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel tells BusinessWeek in an article examining Facebook’s future growth plans. “This is the time to be hitting the accelerator.” Thiel’s statement, of course, is in direct contradiction to the Sequoia Capital “RIP: Good Times” presentation we obtained last month, which outlinined the need for startups to immediately make drastic budget cuts in order to survive a prolonged recession. The article adds some interesting new details to what we’ve already been hearing from people close to the company, which is that Facebook...
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's biggest physics experiment, was all set to start up a few months ago - its miles of underground tunnels would provide answers to deep physics questions about the nature of everything from atoms to black holes. And then it broke. Big time. Six tons of ultra-cold liquid helium spilled into one of the tunnels after an electrical failure. Now Nature reports that repairs will cost $21 million, and the vast facility hasn't even gone online yet. Can a shrinking global economy support the LHC? With some of the world's richest companies slashing...
A sucker that periodically pushes and pulls on a wound using air pressure can speed up the healing process, says a new patent application...
Particle physics isn't just about the colliders. While the news has been full of the trials and tribulations of the Large Hadron Collider, the computing systems required to interpret the data resulting from the collisions are every bit as massive as the huge collider itself. This is because we can't observe the collisions directly. Scientists have to work out what happened by reassembling all the bits that fly out - it's like a jigsaw where all the pieces are made of equations and quantum. Only by fitting the fragments together can researchers learn about the standard model - until the...
Motorola may not be able to compete with Navigon’s latest PND. The 8100T has a very impressive Panorama View 3D. The system is created out of NASA terrain data with digital elevations. The GPS device has a 4.8-inch touchscreen, a built-in graphics accelerator, r/t traffic, voice address entry, Bluetooth and text-to-speech. The high end 8100T also features Zagat ratings and reviews for some locations and has a MSRP of $599.00. Look for it later this month. Tags: bluetooth (T), gps (T), graphics accelerator (T), nasa (T), navigon 8100t (T), panorama view 3d (T), pnd (T), zagat (T) Read More...
With an initiative called BizSpark, software giant Microsoft is making a new pitch for startups to run their business on Microsoft’s tools. It’s an enticing package, bundling together software, support and promotion for no upfront cost, and just a $100 payment when you leave the program. Dan’l Lewin, vice president of strategic and emerging business development, says that Microsoft has already put a number of startups through a trial of the program, and the company plans to enroll thousands of startups in 83 countries in the next six months or so. The participants are nominated by BizSpark’s hundreds of “network...
An unexplained event at the Tevatron particle accelerator at Fermilab just be the signature of a new type of long-lived particle...
ML Smith of some weird blogs commented on our pithy commentary between Audrina and Audrina’s co-worker on The Hills describing the Large Hadron Collider. Instead of a reasoned debate about the relative merits of Audrina vs. Heidi we were privy to long-winded commentary on Nagasaki and the potential for a second “Big Bang.” A short snippet: CLIC ML Smith Perhaps I have become obsessed with the subject, but ever since I learned of the Hadron Particle Accelerator, a 16.8 mile underground proton racetrack that will collide these particles at near light speed, I have worried. The scientists say the...
