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Friday, November 10, 2006 |
Intel Experimenting With Nanotubes. illeism writes "C|Net is reporting on Intel's experimentation with nanotubes in processors. From the article: 'The chip giant has managed to create prototype interconnects [~] microscopic metallic wires inside of chips that link transistors ... Carbon nanotubes ... conduct electricity far better than metals. In fact, nanotubes exhibit what's called ballistic conductivity, which means that electrons are not scattered or impeded by obstacles.'"[Slashdot]
10:11:55 PM  Google It!.
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VMware Reveals New Offerings At VMWorld 2006. Nirav Mehta writes to mention a Techworld article about this past week's virtualization announcements at VMWorld 2006. VMWare had several new offerings in the event's third year. From the article: "VMware has released details of ACE 2.0, which is due for release towards the middle of 2007. The product, which was demonstrated in alpha at VMworld this week, allows administrators to distribute pre-packaged virtual machines to users in a secure manner. This means, for instance, that contractors can be allowed to attach to the enterprise network using their own laptops but only via the ACE VM. The new version was created, according to VMware, because users asked for greater control over the VMs, especially when, for instance, large numbers of remote users need to attach to the enterprise network. Other areas due for improvement include security and integration with enterprise management tools. "[Slashdot]
4:59:05 PM Google It!.
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Solar Power Becoming More Affordable. prostoalex writes "With both startups and large companies such as Boeing working on solar power, the technology is becoming more affordable, MIT Technology Review says. Solar power concentrators are all in rage now: 'The thinking behind concentrated solar power is simple. Because energy from the sun, although abundant, is diffuse, generating one gigawatt of power (the size of a typical utility-scale plant) using traditional photovoltaics requires a four-square-mile area of silicon, says Jerry Olson, a research scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, in Golden, CO. A concentrator system, he says, would replace most of the silicon with plastic or glass lenses or metal reflectors, requiring only as much semiconductor material as it would take to cover an area the size of a typical backyard. And because decreasing the amount of semiconductor needed makes it affordable to use much more efficient types of solar cells, the total footprint of the plant, including the reflectors or lenses, would be only two to two-and-a-half square miles.'"
 [Slashdot]
12:40:54 PM Google It!.
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Advertising: Brands Produce Their Own Shows. More marketers are creating their own TV shows in the hopes of endearing viewers to the brands behind them. By LOUISE STORY. [NYT > Technology] -- this is an interesting adventure in eliminating the middleman and is a natural extension of more available video production technology with sponsor "props" being built in to the storyline rather than added as product placement in subtle ad-like spots. The Europeans have been using "entertaining commercials" for some time so this is more of evolution than reveolution.
But there is some interesting synergy potential for new free video tools with google style ad placement that would empower authors and speed the video production process and support authors with clicks directly. The impact on educational materials development would be another benefactor of low-threshold video production tools. -- BL
9:10:01 AM Google It!.
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A Concrete Solution to Pollution. PreacherTom writes "With concerns over global warming and pollution control reaching an all-time high, an Italian company has developed an interesting solution. It is called TX Active: a concrete that literally breaks down pollutants in the air. The effects are significant: 'In large cities with persistent pollution problems caused by car emissions, smoke from heating systems, and industrial activities, both the company and outside experts estimate that covering 15% of all visible urban surfaces (painting the walls, repaving the roads) with products containing TX Active could abate pollution by up to 50%.' Even more significant is that the cost is only 30% over that of normal concrete. Remarkable."[Slashdot]
8:58:55 AM Google It!.
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Implications of the Mozilla/Adobe Partnership. Fraggle writes "Recently the Mozilla Foundation and Adobe announced a partnership, working together on the next generation JavaScript/ActionScript JIT Virtual Machine. The Browser Den looks at what this means for the future of scripting in Mozilla, and how this partnership with Adobe may affect Mozilla's support for other technologies such as SVG." From the article: "On the Mozilla side the plan is to integrate to code with SpiderMonkey which is Mozilla's current JavaScript implementation that is written in C. This is needed because Tamarin is not a drop-in replacement for SpiderMonkey as it provides necessary features that are not available in Tamarin. The combined SpiderMonkey with integrated Tamarin should not have any problems with old JavaScript and should show a performance boost for most. However, skilled scripters are sure to find ways of optimising performance to get even more gains." [Slashdot] - one script engine that rules all? -- this has great potential but without the elegance of python in preventing bugs. I would prefer to see Firefox support for Python so PythonACT-R models would run in the browser. -- BL
8:56:35 AM Google It!.
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© Copyright 2006 Bruce Landon.
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