Treating Cabin Fever in Microgravity Written on October 27, 2008, by admin.
Your work is dangerous and your coworkers rely on you to stay alive. But you can never get far from those colleagues. You can’t see your family for months, even years. The food isn’t great. And forget stepping out for some fresh air. No wonder the adventure of space flight can also be stressful, isolating [...]
Social Networks to Rein In Spendy Habits Written on October 27, 2008, by admin.
Dan Hassenplug’s monthly expenses used to include around $300 for lunch and three or four books bought from Amazon.com. Now he’s plugged into a new breed of social network that helps him manage his finances. “When you see a graph that says you averaged $10 a day for lunch — about $300 for the month [...]
The Great 3G Letdown Written on October 27, 2008, by admin.
On Friday morning, I gave 3G wireless another chance. Maybe it was looking a gift horse in the mouth. Faster is better, and we should be grateful companies are continuing to invest in the networks we all rely upon. But after all the hype and anticipation, third-generation wireless infrastructure has been underwhelming, in my experience. [...]
Mystical Macworld Musings Written on October 27, 2008, by admin.
I’ve recently returned from a trip to Japan. Compared to my home state of California, Japan is 16 hours ahead. This means, for example, when it is Wednesday morning in Tokyo, it is still Tuesday afternoon or early evening in San Francisco. As I explained to my friends, Japan lives in the future. While in [...]
Buckyballs, Nanotechnology and Paper Planes Written on October 27, 2008, by admin.
It’s called “buckypaper” and looks a lot like ordinary carbon paper, but don’t be fooled by the cute name or flimsy appearance. It could revolutionize the way everything from airplanes to TVs are made. Buckypaper is 10 times lighter but potentially 500 times stronger than steel when sheets of it are stacked and pressed together [...]
The Shift to SOA: Repurposing Priceless Business Logic Written on October 27, 2008, by admin.
“SOA transition” is buzz term growing in popularity among IT managers, especially when they meet with corporate boardroom residents. Businesses are transitioning into service oriented architecture by tapping into the increasing number of SOA products software makers are creating to meet this new interest. However, for the uninitiated, SOA can be just another entry in [...]
Jilted Lover Jailed for Rubbing Out Ex’s Avatar Written on October 27, 2008, by admin.
A 43-year-old Japanese piano teacher’s sudden divorce from her online husband in a virtual game world made her so angry that she logged on and killed his digital persona, police said Thursday. The woman, who has been jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his identification and password to [...]
Me, Myself and iPhone Written on October 27, 2008, by admin.
The verdict has been in on Apple’s iPhone. Since arriving last May, the touchscreen phone with the most advanced graphics and Internet interface has dazzled buyers. And buyers have had time to get over the honeymoon feeling. Three residents of Paducah, Ky., who splurged on one of the biggest advancements ever in the cell phone [...]
Amazon’s Cloud Services Move Out of Beta’s Shadow Written on October 27, 2008, by admin.
Amazon announced Thursday general availability of its Elastic Compute Cloud, part of the Internet retailer’s Web service offerings. Launched in beta 26 months ago, the service provides a resizable compute capacity to businesses with varying server needs. “The appealing thing about EC2 is that instead of buying a server, you pay for it by the [...]
Samsung Sinks on Slumping Profits Written on October 27, 2008, by admin.
Samsung reported a steep drop in Q3 profits with the release of its quarterly earnings report. Profits fell 44.4 percent compared with a year earlier — a number that, not surprisingly, sent the company’s share price tumbling by 14 percent. Although some product lines performed respectably — mobile handsets, for instance — the company could [...]