Free Republic

Gordon Moore - yes, he of transistor observation fame - came to the Computer History Museum last night. He sat. He chatted. He celebrated 40 years of being the most famous plotter on the planet. We ate cake. The museum sits in Mountain View, California not far from where Moore got his start at the Shockley laboratory and where he and seven others concocted the idea for Fairchild Semiconductor. Such trivia marks just the beginning of the semiconductor history tour Moore and his questioner fellow luminary Carver Mead walked the audience through during a two-hour session. It's hard to expect...

The MIT Media Laboratory expects to launch a prototype of its US$100 laptop in November, according to Nicholas Negroponte, the lab's chairman and co-founder. The facility has been working with industry partners to develop a notebook computer for use by children in primary and secondary education around the world, particularly in developing countries. The laptops should start appearing in volume in late 2006.

Do you know what happened to your data when you disposed of your last PC? With identity theft on the rise, it's important to make sure your information is removed before you get rid of that old hard drive. Thanks to the work of developer Darik Horn, there's an excellent tool to wipe data off of a hard disk: Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN). When DBAN is finished with your hard drives, the master boot record, partition table, and every sector of the drive will have been overwritten in accordance with one of five well-regarded industry guidelines. DBAN is powerful...

U.N. Defends Having Tech Summit in Tunisia By Nick Wadhams Associated Press Writer Published: Sep 28, 2005 9:20 PM EST UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Facing heated protest, the United Nations on Wednesday defended Tunisia's hosting of a U.N. summit about Internet access in the developing world, even though the north African nation has been repeatedly accused of rights abuses that include blocking Web sites it dislikes. Earlier this week, a coalition of human rights groups known as the Tunisia Monitoring Group issued a report that declared Tunisia unfit to hold the World Summit on the Information Society, set for November,...

Apple Computer cried "uncle" Tuesday, and promised it would replace defective iPod nano screens that have cracked. It won't, however, deal with users who claim that the device's case scratches easily. According to reports in the Wall Street Journal, a "vendor quality problem" caused cracking on a small number of iPod nano screens, said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing. The problem affected "less than one-tenth of 1%" of the nanos shipped, Schiller said. Users had posted messages on Apple's own support forums as well as other sites -- including financial services consultant Matthew Peterson's flawedmusicplayer.com...

The term "3G" proclaims the next revolution in wireless technology. It refers to the much-ballyhooed third generation cellular network services, currently available in the United States from Verizon, Sprint and Cingular. But after all the hype, is 3G living up to its broadband promise? Cellular wireless networks were originally created for voice-only communications. As their popularity grew, cellular network providers began to piggyback data on their networks. At first, this was great for simple text messages, but the masses soon clamored for full-blown Internet and e-mail access. Voice communications over cellular wireless networks has remained somewhat constant over the years...

Mozilla Web browsers are potentially more vulnerable to attack than Microsoft's Internet Explorer, according to a Symantec report. But the report, released Monday, also found that hackers are still focusing their efforts on IE. The open-source Mozilla Foundation browsers, such as the popular Firefox, have typically been seen as more secure than IE, which has suffered many security problems in the past. Mitchell Baker, president of the foundation, said earlier this year that its browsers were fundamentally more secure than IE. She also predicted that Mozilla Foundation browsers would not face as many problems as IE, even as their market...

Concerned over the critical shortage of math and science faculty in the United States, global IT major IBM has announced a programme that encourages employees to take up the teaching profession. The world's largest Information Technology company said on Friday that it would reimburse participants in its new transition to teaching programme up to $15,000 for tuition and stipends. Participants will also be able to remain at IBM while they conduct course work and training, the company said. "Many of our experienced employees have math and science backgrounds and have made it clear that when they are ready to leave...

SAN FRANCISCO: Two non-resident Indian scientists have created history by making the world's tiniest transistor entirely from carbon nanotubes. Nanotubes are rolled up sheets of carbon atoms and are more than a thousand times thinner than human hair. The discovery heralds a new era of ultra miniature electronics where standard silicon transistors are replaced with much smaller versions fashioned from carbon nanotubes. The new transistor is a Y-shaped nanotube with two branches that meet a central stem at a junction. The current flowing from one branch to another can be switched on and off by applying a voltage to the...

Malaysia has announced that it hopes to put a man on the moon by the year 2020 as part of its $25m space programme. The Science and Technology Minister, Jamaludin Jarjis, said he would be presenting a plan to the cabinet. Mr Jarjis says the country needs to build up a pool of trained astronauts in preparation. But such dreams were almost immediately called into question when the first batch of would-be space explorers struggled with a simple fitness test. Mission not-impossible Malaysia is a nation of seemingly limitless ambition. Having already built what were the world's tallest buildings, it...

Iran received a military delegation from China, paving the way for cooperation in the defense field, citing Brigadier General Nasser Mohammadi-Far, the commander of the Iranian army's ground forces. The Chinese delegation is in Iran for talks on "developing military relations, deepening bilateral ties and paving the way for military cooperation," the state-run Iranian news agency said. The press office of China's Ministry of Defense in Beijing declined to comment on the delegation's visit. "Our mutual enemies possess advanced military technology, and undoubtedly they would rely on this technology in any possible future wars," said Mohammadi-Far. "Therefore, it seems necessary...

MOSCOW. (Yury Zaitsev, for RIA Novosti). Leading Russian satellite producer TsSKB Progress is putting the finishing touches to the Resurs-DK1, a new-generation earth observation imaging satellite. The first commercial launch is scheduled for the third quarter of this year. High-resolution imagery has always been in great demand both in Russia and abroad. "In strengthening our role on the world market for geographic information systems, we rely on a new project based on the Resurs-DK1," Alexander Kirilin, general director of the Samara-based enterprise, said. "[This project] will upgrade our customers' information technology." The multispectral, spectrozonal satellite photographs the Earth's surface and...

Has anyone read the recent Wired (NOT YET ONLINE)about bloggers in Iraq? Made me wonder about Darknet and p2p among the military in the middle east. Since the folks in the military are resourceful and make do with what they have I wonder about the presence of networks between soldiers. Do any freepers have any info about file sharing (of music, radio shows like Rush or others, movies, or other time occupiers) in Iraq? I personally view this story as military ingenuity not a IP issue... they're in a war zone the fact that a soldier may download a copywritten...

AL ASAD, Iraq, July 14, 2005 — A graduate of Texas Tech University, Cpl. Brian H. Walker enlisted in the Marine Corps in December 2003 to repay a personal obligation to the United States. “We all have a debt to our country,” he said. “We all have to make a sacrifice for the freedoms we have and the lives we live. Some repay that debt by serving their country and others just take it for granted. I didn't want to be one of those. As a Marine I can go on with my life with no regrets.” An intelligence systems...

Blue Star Mothers of America, Inc. has had their home page defaced. Nothing fancy just own3d.

Insurgents and their supporters have created a sophisticated network on the Internet to help them recruit suicide bombers to Iraq, according to interviews with terrorism experts and a review of the online material. - Snip - "The same way the Internet has revolutionized life in the United States, it's also revolutionized the business of terrorism," Kohlmann says. "The same way we've jumped on the Internet, they have, too."

July 11, 2005 (China Knowledge) - Microsoft will buy a 28% stake in Langchao International Ltd., a Hong Kong-listed computer distributor, for US$25 million. The deal is an extension of the global strategic cooperation between Microsoft and Langchao Group established last November. Earlier this month, Microsoft invested US$20 million in Langchao Group. According to Xinhua Financial Network, Langchao International is 67.5% owned by state-run company Langchao Group. Proceeds from the investment will be used for the acquisition, formation of joint ventures for the development and sale of software and/or general working capital.

Check out this weird block of text at the bottom of a SPAM message that came in here a while ago. Is this someones atempt at keyword spamming that accidentally got included in the SPAM email or is it perhaps a draft copy of Kofi Annan's latest speech leaked to the press before proofreading? Weird! Machine other however monday got behalf so for the mailing a correct device well for add smattering dealt guide am bush. Messages . done deprecatory bit an budd fine object parasitic and boost eighty of info curd puissant didn iraq correct long ancestry. General i...

The number of women making up the U.S. IT workforce fell 18% in eight years. Last year, women accounted for 32% of the IT workforce, down from a high of 41% in 1996, according to new research from the Information Technology Association of America, an industry trade group. During the same time, the percentage of women in the overall workforce was virtually unchanged, at roughly 46%. In addition, most racial minorities remain significantly underrepresented in the IT workforce, according to the report, Untapped Talent: Diversity, Competition, And America's High-Tech Future. The lack of diversity isn't good for the United States...

Bangalore isn't the only city getting high-tech attention. In March, Michael Dell journeyed to Mohali to inaugurate a new call center that will employ 1,500 people.