Flash of the day

Hubble discoveres oxygen and water on the moon

2005-10-20T08:34:00.000-07:00

The Hubble Space Telescope has detected oxygen-rich minerals on the moon that might someday help astronauts become more self-sufficient in space. The first high-resolution ultraviolet (UV) images ever taken of the moon have identified several promising deposits of ilmenite. The mineral could provide a crucial oxygen source for future manned lunar missions.

Tracking Code Discovered in Color Printers

2005-10-19T06:25:00.000-07:00

It sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it isn't. The pages coming out of your color printer may contain hidden information that could be used to track you down if you ever cross the U.S. governmentLast year, an article in PC World magazine pointed out that printouts from many color laser printers contained yellow dots scattered across the page, viewable only with a special kind of flashlight.

Professor Testifies Of Doubts About Darwin

2005-10-18T09:26:00.000-07:00

Charles Darwin's theory of evolution came under sustained attack in federal court here Monday as biochemistry professor Michael J. Behe argued that the theory fails to account for the complex biological machinery that scientists find in the corners of the human cell. Behe, who teaches at Lehigh University, is one of the intellectual founding fathers of "intelligent design," which holds that

PSP Gets TV Streaming Capability

2005-10-17T06:38:00.000-07:00

Sony Computer Entertainment released its latest firmware update for the PSP the third such patch in two months in Japan, bringing the portable to version 2.50. While the upgrade to version 2.00 brought with it significant features such as an official web browser, wireless photo sharing, wallpaper support and more, 2.50 includes a few interesting upgrades as well, the most noteworthy being support

Review of the iPod video

2005-10-16T03:29:00.000-07:00

Apple unveiled the widely expected video iPod but surprised investors and analysts with a deal with Walt Disney Co., which owns the ABC network, to sell television shows that can be watched on the new iPod."It cooks, it cleans, it gets you dates, it doubles as a Ginsu knife. OK, maybe not. But it plays music and shows pictures. And now, yes, ladies and gentlemen, it plays video!"

HP recalls 135,000 laptops not to harm its customers

2005-10-15T11:45:00.000-07:00

HP recalls 135,000 laptops over fire alarmAn overheating problem in batteries used in some HP laptops can cause their casings to melt and even catch fire. The problem lies in the battery packs, which can overheat and melt their plastic casings and, in a few cases, even catch fire.It clearly reminds me about the recent talk with the leadership course trainer. He gave us couple of examples, when

Black hole helps spawn stars

2005-10-14T05:27:00.000-07:00

This artist's depiction, provided by NASA, demonstrates what scientists believe is happening very close to the Sagittarius A* black hole in the Milky Way. The supermassive black hole is surrounded by a disk of gas (yellow and red). Massive stars, shown in blue, have formed in this disk, while small disks represent where stars are still forming. Results from the Chandra X-ray Observatory show that

New Nokia Eseries for the business market

2005-10-13T07:14:00.000-07:00

Nokia is making a major push for the business market with three new phones forming a new generation of hardware for corporate accounts.The Nokia E60, Nokia E61 and Nokia E70 support today’s most popular and newly announced corporate mobile email solutions like BlackBerry Connect, GoodLink from Good Technology, Inc., Nokia Business Center, Seven Mobile Mail, Seven Always-On Mail and Visto

Microsoft and Yahoo to tie the Knot in Instant Messaging world

2005-10-12T06:38:00.000-07:00

Microsoft and Yahoo are preparing to link together their free instant messaging services as they take on entrenched messaging leader AOL and market newcomer Google

Satellite Spots China’s Manned Rocket

2005-10-11T10:24:00.000-07:00

A commercial remote sensing spacecraft has caught Chinese space workers readying their second piloted space mission.The mission, which reportedly could last up to five days, is more ambitious and riskier than China's first manned space flight two years ago, which lasted just 21 1/2 hours.The crew will enter into the craft’s orbital module—a segment attached to the reentry portion of the vehicle.

Intel steps up multi-core development

2005-10-10T21:46:00.000-07:00

Intel launched its first dual-core server processor Monday, a Xeon that makes up some ground lost to rival AMD but that's due to be superseded by a more powerful model in just a few months.The company said the dual core architecture can provide a 50 per cent performance boost, but only when running software optimised for the chip.Intel took an unusual step to catch up to AMD, which released its

Yahoo enters the podcast game

2005-10-10T09:51:00.000-07:00

From now on you can search for podcasts on Yahoo. Besides the iPod Yahoo's tool supports iRiver player, Dell's DJ and Creative Technology's Zen.

Steve makes music cheaper for you

2005-10-09T23:06:00.000-07:00

Have a look at the interesting material, explaining why Steve Jobs is your best friend, that keeps music as cheap as it never was. Could you imagine, that Apple will be a good partner in fighting against RIAA?

Europe ice mission failure makes global warming effect unstudied

2005-10-09T11:41:00.000-07:00

The European Space Agency's Cryosat spacecraft was lost minutes after lift-off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia on Saturday evening.The rocket, which in the Cold War would have been armed with nuclear weapons, had been modified so that it could carry satellites to the Earth orbit. Apparently new Russian civial space technologies are far not as good as old Soviet war stuff. Whatever

More about the Stanford team that won in robot car race

2005-10-09T06:26:00.000-07:00

San Francisco Chronicle published a nice coverage of the yesterday robot car race in Nevada.Stanford engineers steered the world toward a new era of driverless vehicles Saturday when their robotic Volkswagen SUV was the first to cross the finish line after a 132-mile race across the Nevada desert.The Stanford car, nicknamed Stanley, unofficially edged out two robotic Hummers from Carnegie Mellon

Watch Brin talking to Berkley students

2005-10-09T02:28:00.000-07:00

Last week Sergey Brin's went to Berkley to speak to the students of SIMS 141: Search Engines: Technology, Society, and Business.Brin talked about the difference that global audience brings to the product.Take the case of the Wikipedia, the free online multilingual encyclopedia, written collaboratively by volunteers. Anyone can add a new entry to the Wikipedia, and anyone can edit it. This is a

Stanford wins $2 million on the robots race!

2005-10-08T16:47:00.000-07:00

A customized Volkswagen SUV entered by Stanford University became the first autonomous vehicle to cross the finish line of a $2 million Pentagon-sponsored race across the rugged Mojave Desert on Saturday without help from a human driver or remote control.Stanford's Stanley started in second, but passed the pole position vehicle, a converted red Hummer named H1ghlander, at the 102-mile mark of the

SkyNet gets its muscles - DARPA offers $2 Million to the best unmanned ground vehicle

2005-10-08T12:21:00.000-07:00

Twenty-three unmanned ground vehicles have qualified for the Defense Advanced Research Agency's Grand Challenge this weekend. The robots will race across 150 miles They tried once already. That time they failed. In 2004 no robot came close to winning the event, which required the cars to complete a 142-mile course from near Los Angeles to near Las Vegas across the Mojave Desert. The farthest

Microsoft wants to protect your PC. Will you trust Bill?

2005-10-08T02:47:00.000-07:00

Microsoft plans to release by year's end an initial test version of a new product to protect business desktops, laptops and file servers against malicious code attacks.The new Microsoft Client Protection product will guard against threats such as spyware, viruses and rootkits, Microsoft said Thursday. The software will offer IT administrators central management capabilities and work with

Trojan software trashes PlayStation Portable

2005-10-07T12:21:00.000-07:00

PlayStation Portable users looking to modify their gaming system so it can run software that has not been approved by Sony Corp. may find themselves running nothing at all. Ever.According to researchers at security vendor Symantec Corp. a new Trojan program, called, Trojan.PSPBrick, has begun circulating on online gaming sites. Once installed, the software will delete important system files in