Interesting Reading #302
June 17, 2009
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Supermarket generates piezoelectric power in parking lot – “Remember that piezoelectric road prototype we saw late last year? Looks like someone (besides us) thought it was a good idea…”
Open Source Hydrogen Car Has a Porsche Pedigree
– “it delivers a 50-mph top speed, a 200-mile range and fuel economy equivalent to 300 mpg. The company claims it also emits a paltry 30 grams per kilometer of CO2. The car features a 6-kilowatt fuel cell, which is miniscule compared to the 100-kW unit in the Honda FCX Clarity, but the developers say that’s plenty for a vehicle that weighs just 770 pounds…” See also: Hydrogen car to be ‘open source’
Microsoft steps on a Snapdragon – “ONE OF THE rumors floating around Computex involves a pretty little Asus ‘Smartbook’ based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and it’s mid-show disappearance. The story, as we are told, is that one day it was there, the next it was not, and almost no one would say why…”
Secure your Laptop – “Rohos Logon Key 2.6. This program is like a key to your Desktop Computer or laptops. Just like your car won’t start without a key and removing the key would stop your car’s engine, this software when installed in your USB flash drive acts just like the key…”
Strange ‘Squid-like’ Lightning Spotted over France – “Over the weekend, an atmospheric scientist in Europe photographed something that resembled a giant luminous squid floating over a thundercloud in France. It was a strange form of lightning known as a “sprite”…”
Incredible Animal Prosthetics – Dolphins, storks, kangaroos, etc. with prosthetics…
Eight Top Free Downloads for Palm Pre – “The Pre, Palm’s first device to run the brand new webOS mobile operating system, just hit the U.S. market, but application developers are already working studiously away on Pre apps to populate the company’s equally new app store, the Pre “App Catalog.”"
US lawmakers call for AppleT&T probe – “A quartet of US senators has asked the acting chairman of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to review whether mobile phone manufacturers should be allowed to enter into exclusive contracts with wireless service providers…”
The Four Pillars of an Open Civic System – “Everyone is talking a lot about open government and transparency these days. It’s exhilarating stuff, and it’s even more exciting to see governments get behind it, creating sites like data.gov in the U.S. for the public to access government information via APIs. But every time I hear someone say something like “our organization is really into transparency” (which is often) it sounds odd to me. It’s only talking about a part of the puzzle, not the whole puzzle. What we really want (or what I really want anyway) is not simply government transparency, but an open civic system – a civic system that operates, and flourishes, as a fully open system, for whatever level we happen to be talking about – federal, state, city, neighborhood, whatever. And transparency is a big part of that open civic system, but it is still only one part. In fact there are four parts to a functioning open civic system. These are…”
Environmentalists Criticize Planned Link from Germany to Denmark – “The German parliament is voting this week on plans for a mega bridge that would connect the country with Denmark. There are serious questions about the environmental impact of the Fehmarnbelt Bridge, but Berlin appears on the verge of giving the project its rubber stamp…”
Senators Introduce “Run The Tubes Under The Highway” Bill – “Democratic senators Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota) and Mark Warner (Virginia) introduced the so-called Broadband Conduit Deployment Act of 2009, which would require many of the so-called ’shovel-ready’ projects funded by the stimulus bill earlier this year to also lay conduits capable of carrying fiber optic cables…”
New Exotic Material Could Revolutionize Electronics – “Move over, silicon—it may be time to give the Valley a new name. Physicists at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have confirmed the existence of a type of material that could one day provide dramatically faster, more efficient computer chips…”
Patching a Program Without Source Code: How to be like the Skype Hacker for Newbies – “So here I will try to show you how to become a “leet hacker” that can patch unencrypted programs without the source code like the Skype guy, so commercial software companies can benefit from without paying you, and your screen name forever sung in ballads by traveling troubadours…”
Ruling on NightJack author Richard Horton kills blogger anonymity – “Thousands of bloggers who operate behind the cloak of anonymity have no right to keep their identities secret, the High Court ruled today…”
More Than A Toy Story: Disney, Asus Debut ‘Netpal’ Netbook – “Walt Disney Company and Asus are teaming up to bring a netbook to children. The collaboration is aimed at bringing the ultraportable and inexpensive functionality of a netbook to children who don’t need a fully functional machine…”
U.S. Study Projects How ‘Unequivocal Warming’ Will Change Americans’ Lives – “Climate change is already reshaping the United States, according to a new federal report that predicts global warming could have serious consequences for how Americans live and work….”
Make No Mistake: RIM’s BlackBerry Is The One To Beat – “BlackBerry and RIM are currently the leaders of the pack — enjoying as much as a 55.3 percent smartphone market share in North America, according to one researcher…”
How MySpace fell off the pace – “Some say it clung too long to a ‘portal strategy’ while Facebook kept its focus on social networking and surpassed MySpace in U.S. users…”
15 Common Drinking Myths Debunked – “When it comes to alcohol, everyone’s an expert, aren’t they? They start as soon as the first drink is poured: spouting dubious statistics, recalling horror stories, and moralizing about what you should and should not do while drinking. There are more myths, fables, and tall tales surrounding alcohol than almost any other subject – and hearing them recited everywhere drinks are served is pretty irritating. So today, we’ll debunk 15 booze myths you can safely ignore whenever and wherever they are told…”
What Is AJAX? How Does It Work? – “AJAX has gotten more and more popular over the years, and has allowed web applications to act more and more like desktop applications. AJAX can provide a lot of additional functionality that could not be accomplished any other way…”
60 years after Orwell wrote 1984 and was destroyed by the book, a chilling reminder that his sinister vision is almost reality – “Nineteen Eighty-Four was published in London on Wednesday, June 8, 1949, and in New York five days later. The world was eager for it. Within 12 months, it had sold around 50,000 hardbacks in the UK; in the U.S. sales were more than one-third of a million. It became a phenomenon…”
The O’Reilly Procedure – “Bill O’Reilly has been brought low by the same process that afflicted Jerry Springer. Once respected journalists, they sold their souls for higher ratings, and follow their siren song. Springer is honest about it: “I’m going to Hell for what I do, and I know it,” he’s likes to say. O’Reilly insists he is dealing only with the truth. When his guests disagree with him, he shouts at them, calls them liars, talks over them, and behaves like a schoolyard bully…”
Useful Tutorials on Linux and UNIX for Beginners and Experts Alike – “Looking for high-quality Linux and UNIX tutorials? This article tells you where to find more than 30 must-see Linux and UNIX tutorials online…”
IGN’s Overall Best of E3 2009 Awards – “After one of the best shows in years, we pick the greatest games of the bunch…”
Digital Cameras Designed to Survive an Action-Packed Summer – “Some of the best memories are made during summer and you’ll want to capture those memories with the right camera…”
Revealed: how Alzheimer’s infects the brain – “A scientific breakthrough in the understanding of how Alzheimer’s disease may spread across the brain of elderly patients might lead to novel ways of treating senile dementia, scientists have announced…”
Can Gene Mutations Generate Immortality? Harvard Research Team Says “Yes” – “Scientists are working on mutations to generate immortality. This is not a comic book. Early experiments have greatly extended the lifespan of bioengineered worms, enhancing their genetic integrity and giving them resistance to many things that would normally kill them. Again, this is not a comic book. Or a horror movie…”
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