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Goodbye Gigahertz
AMD and Intel have recently turned away from advertising the clock speed of their microchips in mega- and gigahertz and are instead assigning model numbers. It has long been suggested by experts that a given microprocessor’s speed is a poor measure of actual performance. For example, AMD Athlon chips have slower speeds than their Intel…
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Open Source Hardware?
IBM is offering partners the design architecture of its Power processors, beginning with the current Power5 chip. In doing so, IBM hopes to create an ecosystem of processors meant for devices ranging from handhelds and consumer electronics to supercomputers. Opening up software or hardware allows others to get in and see the details, and depending…
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Mars in 3-D
There are few things more beautiful to me than rocks and landscapes. I am not sure why. It may have something to do with my appreciation for fractal shapes and reoccurring patterns across multiple scales. To truly appreciate the picture in this story, you must have 3-D glasses. This picture is of the Claritas Fossae…
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Cash Prize for Space
The X Prize is US$10,000,000 for the first privately funded team to launch three people to 100 kilometers (62.5 miles), safely return them to Earth, and do it all over again within two weeks using the same spaceship. The prize is meant to stimulate interest and investment in space tourism and may help advance technologies…
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The Weak-Jawed Mutants
Imagine that you are a new parent. Your baby is a strange-looking creature: obviously human, but with much more delicate features than the norm. At first you worry, but he grows into a healthy and very intelligent child. The mutation that caused his strange looks makes him weaker in some minor ways but he has…
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A New Day, a New Mars
First there was evidence of fossil bacteria in a Martian rock found in Antarctica. Next came confirmation of liquid water on the surface of Mars in the distant past. Now three separate scientific teams have discovered methane in the Martian atmosphere. On Earth, two primary sources produce methane: volcanoes and life. So, what is the…
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Population Future
Most of world will live in cities by 2007, UN says (AFP). – UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Urban areas are growing so quickly that for the first time in history, most of the world will be living in cities by 2007, a new UN study said. – Source: Yahoo! News – Science; Thu Mar 25,…
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Nine Lives are Not Enough
Cute CC is the clone of a calico cat and looks absolutely nothing like the original. This apparently is only a problem with cloning calico cats in particular, and other cats should clone more exactly. Genetics Savings and Clones is now commercializing their cat cloning project. They offered to clone up to six cats per…
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MESSENGER Delayed
The launch of MESSENGER, the first mission to Mercury since 1974, has just been delayed until after June 30, 2004. The planetary gravity-assist flyby schedule has changed because of the delay. MESSENGER will now fly once around the Earth, twice around Venus, and three times around Mercury before entering orbit around Mercury in March 2011…
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Spinning Webs and Microstructures
Betterhumans has a story about a new technology for “printing” 3-D devices as small as one that could fit inside a human hair. The abstract for the paper in the journal Nature is available online as is the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign report. Talk about foundation building.the article mentions such technologies could eventually benefit…
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Mars – Liquid Water on Surface in Distant Past
How beautiful the view is now…how beautiful it must have been then. NASA announced yesterday evidence from its Opportunity Rover of a salty sea in the distant past. The evidence is quite compelling. Even though the current rovers are not best equipped to look for signs of ancient and current life, scientists admitted that if…
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Building a Brand New Home in 24 Hours
[Updated May 17, 2018 to fix article link.] Marshall Brain has suggested that in about 30 years we will be at 50% unemployment because of robotics and automation. He specifically predicted robots building our homes and structures in his “Robotic Nation” essay. Now he brings us word of a home-building robot prototype and he suggests…
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Science, Pseudoscience, and My Love of the End of the World
I have a morbid fascination with Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. He interviews guests regarding topics such as ghosts, UFOS, governmental conspiracies, and end-of-the-world scenarios. Tonight his guests were David Booth and Wayne Green. David Booth claims to have had a psychic dream about a global disaster sometime this coming autumn. Tonight was…
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Sedna in the Sky with Diamonds
Tenth planet? Oort cloud member? Planet-like? Just call it Sedna, the newly discovered furthest object in our solar system, second only to Mars in redness and estimated to be about three-fourths the size of Pluto.
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Robots Everywhere
[Updated May 17, 2018 with new article link.] Chatty robots, cocktail-shaking computers, pen phones wow CeBIT crowds (AFP). AFP – A chatting robot, a BMW that can make dinner reservations and a computer server that can mix a dry martini are among the gadgets drawing crowds at the start of the CeBIT, the world’s biggest…
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The Mice of Outrageous Fortune
Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here. 17 May 2018: Update to fix links and remove direct link to pseudoscientist Richard Hoagland’s website. The Methuselah Foundation is a prize for the first science team to extend the average lifespan of a mouse from three years to five years. The hope is…
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Wall Monitors
Start-ups turn flat-panel TVs into works of art (USATODAY.com). USATODAY.com – An expensive new digital television is big, beautiful, flat and can hang on the wall. Some might even consider the set a piece of art. – Source: Yahoo! News – Technology; 3/16/2004; 9:23:00 AM Change is not always earth-shattering, but sometimes comes in happy…
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Hype Robs Me of Sleep
I have worked the graveyard shift for several months. Twice now I have resisted going right to bed after work so that I could instead watch on television the unveiling of new technology. In December 2001 I watched the unveiling of “It”, otherwise known by the code name Ginger, on ABC’s Good Morning America. In…
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The Frontier Channel Technology Fund
This fund currently consists of stock in two technology companies: 153.162 shares of Constellation 3D, Inc. [defunct link] (Nasdaq: CDDD) 63.953 shares of Electric Fuel Corporation (Nasdaq: EFCX) The total purchase price of these shares has been $1109.97. At the close of the market on Friday, January 18, 2002 the value of this fund was $203.20
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Black Hole
Chandra, the X-Ray Space Observatory, has been sending back some amazing pictures. Space.com has a great one here [defunct link] of a possible black hole discovered in the Andromeda galaxy.
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Europa Rain
More evidence that the Jovian moon Europa might be a haven for life…life needs heat and charged particles raining down on Europa just might be providing it. Here is another great article [defunct link] from Space.com. Look for a feature in the near future about the possibility of life elsewhere in our Solar System.
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XHTML Arrives
The W3C has released the recommendation for the Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML 1.0). It was imperative to rewrite HTML so it can work with future devices and browsers based around XML (Extensible Markup Language). You don’t know what XML is? Do I have some good stuff for you! Check back soon for a feature…
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Mars Polar Lander Phone Home
Only days ago NASA decided to give up on their attempts to contact the Mars Polar Lander, apparently lost during it approach last month. Now comes word that the Mars Polar Lander may have tried to contact Earth on a couple separate occasions. The feeble signal was only just detected during a new analysis. On…
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Welcome Back, Hubble!
After some much needed repairs, the Hubble Space Telescope is back at work and as always the results are breathtaking. To the right is an image of the “Eskimo” Planetary Nebula. The NASA announcement is located here.
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Crusoe Winners and Losers
So Transmeta is definitely the big winner with this technology. They have demonstrated something very promising. But I got to thinking about who else out there will benefit from this technology. And who stands to lose. THE WINNERS: IBM, bar none. With their chip production and technology transfer arrangements with Transmeta, Crusoe’s success would increases…
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Crusoe Arrives!
Transmeta’s Mobile Internet Processors under the family name Crusoe were demonstrated today (I caught the video on ZDNet [defunct link].) Wow. A mobile chip for internet appliances running at 400 mHz. A mobile chip for laptops running at 700 mHz. But get this…both chips consume less than two watts of power. Get all the details…
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Transmeta Announcement Tomorrow
So what is it, alien technology, the fastest microchip ever, nothing at all? We find out tomorrow when Transmeta [defunct company] announces what it is they have been working on all these years. This article at ZDNet [defunct link] has the latest rumours about the technology. It probably won’t be earth-shattering, but the Crusoe chip is likely…
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Technology and Tears
Sometimes you can go for days when it seems abundant new wonders will continue to delight and awe you. All you see is the potential and opportunity around you. The future beckons and you have never been happier. But then you suffer an emotional blow that rattles your soul and you wonder how technology and…
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AOL Time Warner
Let the mega mergers continue…AOL and Time Warner announced the largest merger of all time on Monday, January 10, 2000. The coverage has been extensive. Take a look at all the various news sites for more information. What do I think? Wow. Merge a content provider with a content delivery company and you have incredible…
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Media Fusion Feature Coming Soon!
Media Fusion is a company that claims they can pass data over powerlines at speeds in excess of 2.5 GB/sec. In a few years they hope to pass data at speeds in excess of an exobyte per second.
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Hydrogen Future
Hydrogen is the most plentiful element in the universe, and through the capabilities of fuel cell technology it has the potential to be a potent source of fuel for our cars and energy for our consumer electronics.
Frontier Channel
News and commentary about the Great Frontiers
Image Credit: ISS007-E-10807 (21 July 2003) – Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center
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