Search
(Wired.com)
Search and advertising giant Google plans to build and test super fast fiber-optic broadband networks in a few communities around the U.S., promising up to a one gigabit per second service — a hundred-fold increase over what most Americans currently can subscribe to.
A 1 Gbps could let a user download a HD movie in minutes and is more than 1000 times faster than AT&T’s basic DSL offering.
The company, whose experience running a ISP is limited to a small, free wireless service in its hometown of MountainView, California, called the intiative an “experiment” in keeping with what it urged the FCC to do with its upcoming national broadband plan. The company is asking municipalities to apply to be candidates and said it will offer a competitively priced service to 50,000 to a half a million people.
Our goal is to experiment with new ways to help make Internet access better and faster for everyone. Here are some specific things that we have in mind:
Next generation apps: We want to see what developers and users can do with ultra high-speeds, whether it’s creating new bandwidth-intensive “killer apps” and services, or other uses we can’t yet imagine.
New deployment techniques: We’ll test new ways to build fiber networks, and to help inform and support deployments elsewhere, we’ll share key lessons learned with the world.
Openness and choice: We’ll operate an “open access” network, giving users the choice of multiple service providers. And consistent with our past advocacy, we’ll manage our network in an open, non-discriminatory and transparent way.
- In: Technology
- Tags: broadband, consumer, Google, internet, ultra-fast
Miniature Robots to Swarm the Oceans
10 Nov2009
(livescience.com)
Swarms of soup-can-sized robots will soon plunge into the ocean seeking data on poorly understood phenomena from currents to biology.
With $2.5 million in new funding from the National Science Foundation, researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography will create and deploy fleets of autonomous underwater explorers (AUEs) to explore the depths. Tens or hundreds of pint-sized robots would be deployed along with one the size of a soccer ball, in setups repeated wherever they are needed.
“AUEs will give us information to figure out how small organisms survive, how they move in the ocean, and the physical dynamics they experience as they get around,” said Scripps researcher Peter Franks. “AUEs should improve ocean models and allow us to do a better job of following ‘the weather and climate of the ocean,’ as well as help us understand things like carbon fluxes.”
Researchers have some pretty good data on the ocean as a whole, but many localized phenomena are not well understood.
- In: Science| Technology
- Tags: minature, ocean, robot
Nov. 10, 1983: Computer ‘Virus’ Is Born
10 Nov2009
(Wired.com)
1983: Fred Cohen, a University of Southern California graduate student, gives a prescient peek at the digital future when he demonstrates a computer virus during a security seminar at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. A quarter-century later, computer viruses have become a pandemic for which there’s no inoculation.
Cohen inserted his proof-of-concept code into a Unix command, and within five minutes of launching it onto a mainframe computer, had gained control of the system. In four other demonstrations, the code managed to seize control within half an hour on average, bypassing all of the security mechanisms current at the time. It was Cohen’s academic adviser, Len Adleman (the A in RSA Security), who likened the self-replicating program to a virus, thus coining the term.
But Cohen’s malware wasn’t the first of its kind.
- In: Technology
- Tags: 1983, apple, computer, virus
(inthemix.com )
If a massive chunk of the world’s dance music fanatics go into a state of feverish anticipation everytime a new Renaissance release from South American progressive god Hernan Cattaneo is on the horizon, it’s for good reason – the effort Hernan goes to when crafting one of his compilations usually means the final product is well worth frothing at the mouth over. We’ve been kept waiting nearly two years since his last release, so there’s as much anticipation as ever for this, the latest installment for The Masters Series and also the 50th release for the Renaissance stable. So throw it in your CD player, and prepare to go with the journey.
It’s the first disc of the Masters Series releases that generally showcases the deeper, slower-paced sounds and here this tradition is maintained, with Hernan’s opening mix featuring one of the most beautiful builds we’ve heard in a progressive CD for a long, long time. The first half of the disc is plodding to the point of nearly alienating the listener, slow in tempo and bereft of any melody for the most part. It’s not until around seven tracks in that the solid house grooves gradually snake their way into the mix – and it’s a payoff that’s worth the journey, as the juxtaposition here of groove and deepness is about as perfect that you could ask for. It’s a build that just keeps climbing, with the lushness of the soundscapes and the drive of the basslines scaling upwards with each passing track, given a gradual nudge by Hernan until it peaks somewhere close to peaktime progressive
- In: Music
(ibeats.co.uk)
Pioneering International DJ, producer and label boss Sander Kleinenberg is back with an impressive new mix compilation called ‘This Is Sander Kleinenberg 2’ on Little Mountain Recordings.
This release showcases Sanders’ unique and forward thinking DJ sets, reflecting his legendary club night of the same name which has touched down at major cities all over the world including London, Paris, Miami, LA and his native Amsterdam.
This special two disc affair sees the Dutch legend serve up some of the finest progressive, tech house and electro cuts around including ten unreleased tracks, eight Little Mountain Recordings tracks and one exclusive compilation remix to make the perfect soundtrack to your summer.
The first disc, ‘Left’, kicks things off with a laid back atmospheric slice of electronic bliss called ‘Summer Rain’ from Bpitch control’s starlet Sascha Funke. The mix builds effortlessly; blending a fine selection of different House styles including standout tracks such as David Keno’s ‘Replika’, Rainer Weichhold’s remix of ‘Push Push’ by Rockers Hi-Fi and the previously unreleased Sultan and Ned Shepard remix of ‘Asteroidz’ by DBN featuring Matida. This disc has a very sexy, uplifting and funky feel to it which just leaves you wanting more.
- In: Music
- Tags: dj, house, kleinenberg, sander, this is sander kleinenberg 2
Badass Supercar; C8 Aileron Spyder
8 Sep2009
(Wired.com)
In the rarefied world of supercars, some names stand alone. Ferrari. Bugatti. Lamborghini. But there are all kinds of boutique automakers producing small numbers of outrageously expensive and stunningly quick cars, and Spyker has to be one of the coolest.
The Dutch company has been building sports cars at a rate of about 60 per year since 2000, but its history dates to 1875 when it started making coaches — horse-drawn coaches. It switched to automobiles in 1898 and turned out airplanes during World War I. Spyker folded in 1925 and was little more than an automotive footnote until the late 1990s, when Dutch lawyer Victor Muller resurrected the name.
Spyker unveiled its latest car, the C8 Aileron Spyder, last month at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in Monterey, California.
(Wired.com) Biologists have figured out the most efficient way to destroy an ecosystem — and it’s based on the Google search algorithm.
Scientists have long known that the extinction of key species in a food web can cause collapse of the entire system, but the vast number of interactions between species makes it difficult to guess which animals and plants are the most important. Now, computational biologists have adapted the Google search algorithm, called PageRank, to the problem of predicting ecological collapse, and they’ve created a startlingly accurate model.
“While several previous studies have looked at the robustness of food webs to a variety of sequences of species loss, none of them have come up with a way to identify the most devastating sequence of extinctions,” said food web biologist Jennifer Dunne of the Santa Fe Institute, who was not involved in the research. Using a modified version of PageRank, Dunne said, the researchers were able to identify which species extinctions within a food web would lead to biggest chain-reaction of species death.
Tom Ford Autumn/Winter 2009/2010 Ad Campaign
3 Sep2009
(Fashionising.com) Tom Ford seems to ooze it; sex appeal that is. In fact, he does so to such an extent that the advert for the Tom Ford Grey Vetiver scent features not a model but the designer himself. When it comes to advertising the Tom Ford Autumn (Fall)/Winter 2009/2010 collection, however, it’s a different story. The designer is out, replaced instead with the svelte figure of Anna Jagodzinska and the sculpted derriere of Jon Kortajarena. [via fashionising.com]
Formula One: Fisichella Signs Ferrari
3 Sep2009
(bbcnews.com)
Giancarlo Fisichella will drive for Ferrari for the rest of the 2009 Formula 1 season before taking a new role as their reserve driver in 2010.
The Italian, 36, will replace Luca Badoer as stand-in for the injured Felipe Massa for the final five races.
“It has always been an ambition,” said Fisichella, who has been released from his contract with Force India.
Force India are yet to name a replacement for Fisichella with reserve driver Vitantonio Liuzzi the favourite.
Fisichella, who formerly raced for Minardi, Jordan, Benetton, Renault and Sauber, will begin his Ferrari career on home soil at the Italian Grand Prix on 13 September.
- In: Auto
- Tags: f1, ferrari, fisichella, formula one
(askmen.com)
1- Rats ate $1 billion of Pablo Escobar’s profits each year
The first thing you didn’t know about Pablo Escobar testifies to an uncommon, staggering degree of wealth. According to Roberto Escobar, one of Pablo’s closest brothers, at a time when their estimated profits were circling $20 billion annually “Pablo was earning so much that each year we would write off 10% of the money because the rats would eat it in storage or it would be damaged by water or lost.”
If that weren’t enough to drop your jaw, Roberto adds that the cartel spent as much as $2,500 every month on rubber bands to “hold the money together.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Obama Photo Reminds of Kennedy Moment
3 Sep2009
(bbcnews.com)
The US White House has released a photograph of President Barack Obama’s daughter Sasha sneaking up on her father as he works in the Oval Office.
The image has drawn comparisons with the famous 1963 image of John F Kennedy Jnr playing underneath the Oval Office desk as his father reads documents.
That picture helped create the image of “Camelot” associated with the Kennedys.
Mr Obama has said being able to work and live at home is “one of the huge benefits of being president”.
The photograph, taken in early August and released through the official White House Flickr website, shows eight-year-old Sasha Obama sneaking up on her father from behind a sofa as he reads at the desk.
She and her older sister, Malia, are the youngest children to live in the White House since the 1960s, but Mr Obama and his wife Michelle have always said they want their daughters to have as normal a life as possible.
In an interview with the BBC in June, Mr Obama said his family life works well in the White House and his family were his favourite way to unwind.
“One of the huge benefits of being president is I now have this nice office and I go upstairs and have dinner with my family just about every night,” he said.
“We’ve got a very good deal.”
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31 Aug2009
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- In: Lifestyle