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Keyword: techindex

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  • IBM confirms Altivecked POWER4-lite [Specs disclosed]

    10/15/2002 7:59:59 PM PDT · by HAL9000 · 10 replies · 158+ views
    The Register (UK) ^ | October 15, 2002 | Andrew Orlowski
    Microprocessor Forum IBM's Peter Sandon disclosed technical details for IBM's PowerPC 970 processor in San Jose this morning and confirmed that the processor supports the AltiVec instruction set. In addition to providing a competitive workstation and edge server chip for IBM - which deploys POWER3 in these space and power sensitive designs, the processor is tailor made for high end Apple machines. It's expected to sample in the first half of next year, and appear in production volumes in the second half. 970 is a single 64bit core - as opposed to today's POWER4 - with IBM predicting 937...
  • The keyboard that isn't there

    10/15/2002 8:28:32 AM PDT · by aculeus · 50 replies · 338+ views
    BBC News On Line ^ | Tuesday, 15 October, 2002 | Maggie Shiels
    Work on the move? Forget laptops and fiddly data entry devices; soon an uncluttered tabletop will be all you need to set up a mobile office. The problem with pocket technology, such as PDAs and mobile phones, is that they are too small to incorporate a full keyboard. This leads to alternative, and often clumsy, forms of data input such as hand-writing recognition or typing text messages on a numeric keypad. Now there's a solution - a light-projected keyboard. Suddenly, an uncluttered desk, kitchen table, or pull-down tray on a train or plane can be converted into a keyboard. Canesta,...
  • Toyota develops ultra efficient Fuel Cell/Turbine power system

    10/14/2002 12:54:39 PM PDT · by zx2dragon · 19 replies · 374+ views
    NAGYOA, Oct 11, 2002 (Kyodo via COMTEX) -- Toyota Motor Corp. said Friday it has developed the world's most efficient dispersive power generation system by combining a fuel-cell battery and a micro gas turbine. For its power source, the hybrid cogeneration system uses the same natural gas that is employed in households. It produces much less environmentally harmful chemicals such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide in the process of power generation, Toyota said. Its power generation efficiency, a ratio of electricity generated from a certain amount of gas, is 55%, the highest for any dispersive-type power system in the...
  • IBM Unveils New 64-Bit PowerPC Microprocessor : IBM Official Press Release:

    10/14/2002 10:18:54 AM PDT · by Ernest_at_the_Beach · 18 replies · 285+ views
    Lycos Financial news ^ | Oct 14, 2002 | IBM Press Release - Scott Sykes
    IBM today announced a newly-developed, high-performance PowerPC microprocessor for use in a variety of applications, including desktops, workstations, servers and communications products. The new chip, called the IBM PowerPC 970, is derived from IBM's award-winning POWER4 server processor to provide high performance and additional function for users. As the first in a new family of high-end PowerPC processors, the chip is designed for initial speeds of up to 1.8 gigahertz, manipulating data in larger, 64-bit chunks and accelerating compute-intensive workloads like multimedia and graphics through specialized circuitry known as a single instruction multiple data (SIMD) unit. IBM plans to build...
  • How mobile phones let spies see our every move.

    10/14/2002 7:33:47 AM PDT · by John Jorsett · 8 replies · 1+ views
    The Guardian ^ | October 14, 2002
    Government's secret Celldar project will allow surveillance of anyone, at any time and anywhere there is a phone signal Jason Burke and Peter WarrenSunday October 13, 2002The Observer Secret radar technology research that will allow the biggest-ever extension of 'Big Brother'-style surveillance in the UK is being funded by the Government. The radical new system, which has outraged civil liberties groups, uses mobile phone masts to allow security authorities to watch vehicles and individuals 'in real time' almost anywhere in Britain. The technology 'sees' the shapes made when radio waves emitted by mobile phone masts meet an obstruction. Signals bounced...
  • IBM server chip seen slimmed down for Apple Macs

    10/13/2002 11:44:28 PM PDT · by Ernest_at_the_Beach · 22 replies · 279+ views
    Bigcharts Marketwatch ^ | OCTOBER 13, 2002 11:59 PM | Reuters U.S. Company News
    ARMONK, N.Y., Oct 14 (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) on Monday announced a microchip for personal computers that will crunch data in chunks twice as big as the current standard and is expected by industry watchers to be used by Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) Apple was not available to comment, and IBM declined to comment on which PC makers would use the chip, but its plans would mark a change for the industry, which has emphasized the importance of the speed of a chip rather than its ability to handle heavy workloads.IBM said its new PowerPC chip...
  • Dockworkers, technology again on a collision course

    10/13/2002 10:33:19 PM PDT · by Vidalia · 9 replies · 205+ views
    Honolulu Advertiser ^ | Sunday, October 13, 2002 | Andrew Gomes
    <p>Changing technology has long been one of the most contentious yet unavoidable realities in the evolution of industrial businesses such as shipping.</p> <p>But today's pressure for innovation, which often pulls companies and their employees in opposite directions, has risen to a point that could threaten the stability of shipping on the West Coast and Hawai'i.</p>
  • Computer Programming for Kids: Help Needed

    10/13/2002 6:18:31 AM PDT · by MoralSense · 40 replies · 1,178+ views
    Free Republic ^ | 10/13/02 | self
    My eight-year-old son is interested in computer programming. We went to Barnes & Noble yesterday, looking for some book (perhaps including CD or disk) written at his level, maybe a Basic book and compiler, something like that. And there really was nothing. We came home with a large book that shows how to create Lego robots with Mindstorm, but it really doesn't fill the bill. What he needs is just some introduction to writing code, seeing how it works, line by line, getting some quick results. Any ideas or resources? Thanks.
  • Microsoft Outlook Express Patch Flawed

    10/11/2002 9:45:53 PM PDT · by Ernest_at_the_Beach · 8 replies · 328+ views
    EXTREMETECH .com ^ | October 11, 2002 | Dennis Fisher, eWEEK
    <p>Microsoft Corp. on Friday said that a patch it released Thursday for an Outlook Express vulnerability erroneously tells users they need a different version of Internet Explorer in order to install the fix. In fact, the patch requires IE 6, but users who have installed Service Pack 1 for the browser are already protected against the new flaw. Thus when these users try to install the new patch, they receive an error message.</p>
  • Outlook Express flaw speeds hacking

    10/11/2002 11:31:02 AM PDT · by Bush2000 · 3 replies · 242+ views
    CNET News.com ^ | October 11, 2002, 10:40 AM PT | Robert Lemos
    Outlook Express flaw speeds hacking By Robert Lemos Staff Writer, CNET News.com October 11, 2002, 10:40 AM PT Microsoft warned Outlook Express users late Thursday that a software flaw could allow an online vandal to control their computers. A critical vulnerability in the e-mail reader could allow an attacker to send a specially formatted message that would crash the software and potentially take control of the recipient's computer. The flaw occurs in how the software handles messages that include components using secure MIME (multipurpose Internet mail extensions), a standard that allows e-mail messages to contain encrypted data and digital signatures....
  • INSIDE TRACK: Cutting internet waiting time :

    10/11/2002 2:04:32 PM PDT · by Ernest_at_the_Beach · 5 replies · 104+ views
    Financial Times ^ | Friday Oct 11 2002. | Fiona Harvey
    Internet users who are familiar with the frustrations of the "world wide wait" may find this hard to believe. Researchers in Europe have succeeded in setting a new world record for internet speeds, sending data at a rate of 483 megabits per second - nearly 500 times faster than even a well equipped home or business user can normally expect to achieve.The record was set over an ordinary internet connection running for 2,518km between Slovenia and Spain, using the new Ipv6 protocol. While the technique has been available for some years, most parts of the internet do not use the...
  • Magnetic islands boost memory : Imprinted patterns boost hard drive capacity 200 times.

    10/11/2002 1:50:47 PM PDT · by Ernest_at_the_Beach · 1 replies · 238+ views
    nature ^ | 11 October 2002 | PHILIP BALL
    The storage capacity of computer hard drives could skyrocket if a prototype device for magnetic data storage developed by IBM can be commercialized.The new system, unveiled by Manfred Albrecht and colleagues at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California, could offer 200 times the data storage capacity of current state-of-the-art systems, such as IBM's Microdrive. The Microdrive, announced in 2000, is a magnetic disk the size of a small coin. It can store a billion bytes of data - a gigabyte - on two square centimetres of surface. It can hold a up to 1,000 books 200...
  • Thinking Beyond the Box at Apple

    10/11/2002 12:49:31 PM PDT · by Ernest_at_the_Beach · 10 replies · 183+ views
    Business Week ^ | OCTOBER 9, 2002 | Charles Haddad
    <p>To the PC industry, such thinking is lethal. It represents not just the bottoming out of a business cycle, but a seismic shift. It's the death of the business model that drove the industry for the past 20 years. Now, even as computers have raced ahead in speed, sales have slowed -- down 5% last year alone, according to Gartner Group. Declines were unheard of in the 1990s, when double-digit annual growth was the norm, some years even approaching 30%.</p>
  • Quantum Leaps May Solve Impossible Problems

    10/10/2002 11:58:04 AM PDT · by sourcery · 43 replies · 1,057+ views
    NewsFactor Network ^ | October 7, 2002 | Mike Martin
    "It is widely accepted now that, without a doubt, information is physical and quantum physics provides the rules of that physical behavior," George Mason University computer science professor Richard Gomez told NewsFactor. Alan Turing might be considered the "John Forbes Nash of computer science" -- a troubled young Princeton genius who achieved prominence in the 1950s. Turing published one of the top 10 papers in all of 20th-century science -- "On the Computability of Numbers." He killed himself over a conviction for homosexuality at the height of his genius, but since his death, his definition of "computability" has stood untouched...
  • Why Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS)? Look at the Numbers!

    10/10/2002 5:01:44 AM PDT · by ShadowAce · 42 replies · 285+ views
    David Wheeler ^ | 8 October 2002 | David A. Wheeler
    This paper provides quantitative data that, in many cases, using open source software / free software is a reasonable or even superior approach to using their proprietary competition according to various measures. This paper examines market share, reliability, performance, scalability, security, and total cost of ownership. It also has sections on non-quantitative issues, unnecessary fears, usage reports, other sites providing related information, and ends with some conclusions. You can view this paper at http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html (HTML format). Palm PDA users can view it in Plucker format(you will also need Plucker to read it). Old archived copies are also available. 1. Introduction...
  • New Technique Transmits Data At 2.8 Gigabits Per Second

    10/09/2002 10:54:26 AM PDT · by sourcery · 15 replies · 1+ views
    Science Daily ^ | 10/09/2002
    EVANSTON, Ill. -- A test conducted by two Chicago computer scientists to push trans-Atlantic high-speed data transmission has resulted in a new top speed of 2.8 gigabits (billion bits) per second. Researchers Joel Mambretti, director of the International Center for Advanced Internet Research at Northwestern University, and Robert Grossman, director of the Laboratory for Advanced Computing and National Center for Data Mining at the University of Illinois at Chicago, set the speed mark Sept. 24 during a presentation in Amsterdam at iGRID 2002, a biennial conference held to showcase new applications over high-performance networks. Mambretti and Grossman developed a novel...
  • Storage Barns in a Thimble ( Computer storage that is )

    10/08/2002 10:42:24 PM PDT · by Ernest_at_the_Beach · 5 replies · 202+ views
    Business Week ^ | Oct 1, 2002 | Alex Salkever,
    <p>In June, 1956, IBM shipped the world's first commercial magnetic hard-disk drive. As big as a garden shed, the unit used 50 magnetic disks spinning at 1,200 revolutions per minute. Together, the disks could hold five megabytes of data. IBM rented out the contraption for tens of thousands of dollars per year.</p>
  • Researchers Produce Hydrogen from Peanut Shells

    10/08/2002 2:23:22 PM PDT · by zx2dragon · 33 replies · 1,024+ views
    BLAKELY, GA, September 3, 2002 - Researchers using biomass from peanut shells have ended a successful 100-hour experiment to demonstrate hydrogen production from this source. They announced a sustainable method to sequester vast amounts of carbon while making fertilizer. This is one of the largest biomass to hydrogen projects in the US. The hydrogen research team broke through the 100-hour mark and ended their demonstration of producing hydrogen from 100-lb per hour of biomass on August 30, 2002. The team, comprised of researchers from Clark Atlanta University, Georgia Institute of Technology, DOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Scientific Carbons, Inc....
  • Feds to Decide on Digital Radio

    10/08/2002 4:49:18 PM PDT · by Willie Green · 14 replies · 1+ views
    The Associated Press ^ | OCTOBER 08, 2002 | DAVID HO
    For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. WASHINGTON (AP) — Generations of radio listeners have contended with static and flat-sounding music. But now a new technology holds the promise of CD-quality sound for FM broadcasts and an end to AM's hiss, crackle and pop. The Federal Communications Commission is to decide Thursday whether to allow radio stations to broadcast digital signals and how they should do it. Digital radio's rollout could begin in a few months in some major cities, and consumers would start seeing digital receivers in car stereos and high-end audio systems next year. Digital radio...
  • Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Approved for Carriage on Aeroplanes

    10/08/2002 1:27:41 PM PDT · by zx2dragon · 15 replies · 188+ views
    Fuel Cell Today ^ | 07 October 2002 | Mark Cropper
    According to reports in BusinessWeek, the US Department of Transportation has ruled that a new fuel cell developed by US company Polyfuel can be taken on airplanes. The announcement clears the way for the commercialisation of fuel cells as an alternative to batteries in notebook computers. The use of direct methanol fuel cells on aeroplanes has been questioned as they contain methanol, which is flammable. Accordign to Jim Balcom, Polyfuel's CEO, the US DOT said that a fuel cell designed by his company could be taken into aircraft cabins when it goes on sale because it contains a relatively low...