Wednesday, June 12, 2002

Thinking in C#. Bruce Eckel is translating his seminal book, Thinking in Java, for C# users. The new book, Thinking in C# is available in an early form online. One nice thing about the book is that it is written for people using command line C# tools, not Microsoft's IDE. [rc3.org] 9:52:47 AM    comment []

Meerkats and mongooses hit by TB. The first clear case of a primarily human pathogen infecting wildlife is revealed - ecotourism may be to blame [New Scientist] 9:52:15 AM    comment []

Laser peashooter fires tiny particles. It has a much longer range than previous technologies and might one day result in minute biomedical devices [New Scientist] 9:52:01 AM    comment []

Warming speeds ice sheet flow in weeks. It was thought rising temperatures would not affect the base of massive ice sheets for centuries - GPS data shows otherwise [New Scientist] 9:51:29 AM    comment []

Sperm whales' heads perfect for smashing ships. Two massive sacs of oil in the whales' forehead are ideal for ramming rivals - or ships - according to a new study [New Scientist] 9:51:14 AM    comment []

Surplus skin used for bioweapons research. Patients undergoing reductive surgery in the west of England are being asked to donate surplus tissue to Porton Down [New Scientist] 9:50:54 AM    comment []

Look in the eye reveals internal bleeding. A new device could uncover hidden injuries by using lasers to detect the level of oxygen in blood leaving the eye [New Scientist] 9:50:23 AM    comment []

Wireless switches rely on finger power. Light switches that need no power supply or wiring are unveiled by a German company [New Scientist] 9:50:17 AM    comment []

Fossils point to asteroid causing dinosaurs' demise. Analysis of ancient leaves boosts claims that a massive asteroid strike obliterated 70 per cent of life 65 million years ago [New Scientist] 9:50:11 AM    comment []

UN hunts lost Georgian radiation sources. The search is on for abandoned equipment that could be used to construct a "dirty bomb" [New Scientist] 9:50:06 AM    comment []

Smog crop damage costs billions. Toxic ozone smogs are costing Europe's farmers more than six billion euros each year - France suffers most [New Scientist] 9:50:00 AM    comment []

World's longest suspension bridge gets go-ahead. The Italian government pledges to build a 3.7 km-long link between Sicily and the mainland [New Scientist] 9:49:49 AM    comment []

UK plans to extend snooping powers. A wide range of officials could soon have access to individuals' email and phone records [New Scientist] 9:49:40 AM    comment []

"Punch card" could store one terabit of data. Nanoscopic indentations will allow a chip no bigger than a postage stamp to store one trillion bits of data [New Scientist] 9:48:01 AM    comment []

In today's super-moron category, a 16 year old carjacker arrested after leaving his gun in mall bathroom, returns to ask security if they've seen it. [FARK] [Sam Gentile's Radio Weblog] 9:47:33 AM    comment []

Parents trying to patent their son. "Only one specific pattern of spouse selection, intercourse and parenting could have resulted in the creation of a son so unique and talented". (Some Guy) [FARK] [Sam Gentile's Radio Weblog] 9:47:09 AM    comment []

Two New Microsoft Languages - AsmL and Pan. AsmL is the Abstract State Machine Language. It is an executable specification language based on the theory of Abstract State Machines. AsmL allows you to test incomplete code due to it being executable on the fly. ... Pan is an experimental embedded language and compiler for image synthesis and manipulation, based on principles from functional programming. Looks like some more interesting stuff coming out of Microsoft Research. [Lambda the Ultimate] [Sam Gentile's Radio Weblog] 9:46:40 AM    comment []

Blogging and homeland security: connecting the dots. Sunday's New York Times featured a disturbing story on the IT culture clash between Google and the FBI: ... [Jon's Radio] 9:46:01 AM    comment []

Watch for It to Appear on Your Phone Bill. Consumers Face Wiretapping Fees "Phone and Internet consumers could be cheated out of next-generation services and hit with higher rates as telephone companies scramble to make their lines wiretap-friendly for the FBI by the end of the month. Under a 1994 law, the Federal Communications Commission requires carriers--including wireless services--to bring their voice-surveillance capabilities up to scratch with FBI rules. The clock is ticking for the telcos, which have until June 30 to upgrade their switches to give the FBI access to extract dialed numbers and conversations. Despite the half billion dollars Congress set aside to offset costs, many telecom companies say obeying the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act--CALEA--is still an expensive endeavor, one that might harm consumer confidence and cause rate hikes.... Carriers aren't the only ones antsy about CALEA. Since Congress passed the law in 1994, the fight between privacy advocates and FCC rule makers on easy-access digit extraction and wiretapping has been a bitter one." [PC World] [The Shifted Librarian] 9:45:40 AM    comment []

Other Tools for Tracking Web Sites. John Garside is making me late for work today because he sent me a message saying that rather than using any of the well-known news aggregators, he's using "an app which will track ANY site (including DHTML, SSL ...) every second, with eminently searchable aarchives, new content highlighted/on my harddrive (100 sites downloaded per minute)." Naturally, I couldn't ignore that comment, so I visited the page he sent (http://www.japanacea.com/page1013.html), and while I recognize a couple of the programs listed (like InfoMinder), I had never heard of their choice pick (and the one John uses), WebSite-Watcher. Here's a list of features from the WW site: monitors websites with a minimum of time and online cost saves changed websites to your hard disk highlights changes in pages that have been modified highlights specified words in a website archives store websites for future reference works with all main web browsers - IE, Netscape & Opera Many more features to be up to date! It certainly sounds intriguing, so I'm going to download since it has a 30-day trial period (it costs $40). Although it's being sold as a way to track your competition, its ability to archive contents is appealing. Another plus is that it integrates into Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, and Opera, although it is a Windows-only product. Anybody else know anything about this software? [The Shifted Librarian] 9:45:17 AM    comment []

That would be cool if you could go to a library and rent a GPS, I think a lot of people would be very interested in that.  GPS-based Library Services. GPS for Sport "It's funny Jenny mentions this. I had a similar thought when I saw a feature on geochaching on the Home & Liesure Channel (name?). I was thinking more in terms of tying the 'sport' into local history possibly myself. You could easily do this with a spare PC and some creative thinking in terms of peripherals. Like IR ports for beaming info to and from customer handhelds, a printer for output and why'll were at it - why not loan a few GPS units to as well. After more coinsidertation, the idea seemed geared more toward visitors to our community as opposed to local library customers, but I suppose that there is plenty of room for overlap here." [LibTech Weblog] Eric riffs on yesterday's post about geocaching. Some great ideas there, especially the local history angle.... [The Shifted Librarian] 9:42:48 AM    comment []

Paolo explains how Radio can be viewed as decentralized Intranet portal software. [Scripting News] 9:38:48 AM    comment []

Yahoo groups in your news aggregator. Somehow I had totally missed this feature of Yahoo Groups. In the case that somebody else might have missed it too, if you submit: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Group_name/messages?rss=1 to your aggregator, you will get all posts submitted to that group in your favourite news reader. Just subscribed to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/klogs/messages?rss=1 and it works perfectly. Getting rid of more mail! [Paolo Valdemarin: Paolo's Weblog] 9:36:48 AM    comment []