Richard Leis

Month: August 2004

  • Reporting from the Fount of Knowledge

    The Frontier Channel returns today from a remarkable new setting for observing the frontiers of science and technology: the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. In addition to being one of the premier centers for planetary science research in the United States and home to the upcoming Phoenix mission to Mars, UA is home to…

  • Whatever You Want – 300 DPI

    In our recent “Future Wants” column regarding a future eBook reader that will eventually replace ink and paper, one of the minimum requirements was a screen with a resolution of 300 dots per inch. Samsung Electronics just announced the December 2004 availability of a LCD screen with just that resolution. At 2.6-inches it will end…

  • Introducing “Future Wants”

    Frontier Channel announces today the launch of a new feature: Future Wants. This occasionally column will take a look at futuristic products that we would REALLY like to own, along with the features this product MUST have to warrant our purchase. Then we will make our best guess as to if and when such a…

  • Future Wants: eBook Reader

    Long predicted to replaced conventional books and other physical media like magazines and newspapers, eBook readers have been around for a couple of decades but have never enjoyed much success. The latest devices (released around the year 2000) were hyped as the models to finally usher in a new paper-free future. Alas, four years later…

  • MESSENGER Begins Fall Toward Sun

    NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft was successfully launched this morning at 11:15:56 a.m. PST. The spacecraft will be the first mission to the planet Mercury in 30 years and will be the first spacecraft to ever orbit the innermost planet of our solar system. When falling toward the Sun, like falling…

  • Broadband Out of the WildBlue

    While cable and DSL broadband technology battle for supremacy in homes, new competition from satellites could remake the market just like they did television programming in the 1990s. WildBlue Communications’ first satellite was successfully launched on July 17, 2004 and the company plans to offer two-way broadband over a satellite dish in early 2005. At…

  • Broadband Out of the Stratosphere

    As mentioned above, the distance to satellites introduces a delay with the receiving dish on the ground. After clicking a link on a webpage, users of satellite broadband notice a split second pause followed by the sudden and rapid download of the new page. For general browsing of the Internet, listening to audio, and watching…

  • Rolling Out Flexible Displays

    Current flat panel displays depends on rigid silicon-on-glass backplanes to drive pixel components. Rolltronics Corporation has introduced a new technology they trademarked under the name “FASwitch” that promises wallscreen televisions and flexible displays in the near future. The company “prints out” flexible backplanes like a printing press prints out a newspaper. The materials are cheaper,…