home
> tech-news > tech-news
archive: Jul-Aug 2006
Tech-news archive: July-August 2006
They know all about you
(Aug 28, 2006)
Every time you use an internet search engine, your inquiry is stored
in a huge database. Would you like such personal information to become
public knowledge? Yet for thousands of AOL customers, that nightmare
has just become a reality. Andrew Brown reports on an incident that
has exposed how much we divulge to Google & co.
Read
more. Source: Guardian |
JCB car beats diesel speed record
(Aug 23, 2006)
A car built by JCB has broken the diesel engine land speed record
after reaching 328.767mph (529km/h). A JCB Dieselmax spokesman said
the vehicle attained the average speed during two runs in Utah, USA.
Confirmation was given on Tuesday by the Federation Internationale
de l'Automobile. An attempt to better the record will be made on Wednesday.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Artificial muscles light up TVs
(Aug 21, 2006)
Arrays of thousands of tiny "super prisms" controlled by robotic muscles
could bring real colour to TV screens for the first time, scientists
say. The devices, known as electrically tunable diffraction gratings,
have been built by researchers in Switzerland. They manipulate light
to reproduce the full spectrum of colours on screen, impossible using
existing technology.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Game tools put players in charge
(Aug 10, 2006)
Gamers are getting the chance to take over and run a portion of an
online role-playing world. French game maker Nevrax is releasing tools
that let players craft and run their own sophisticated scenarios set
in the Ryzom game world. The scenario creation kit can be used to
create quests for other players to complete and, once written, edited
and uploaded, will become part of the larger game that anyone can
play.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Green pigment spins chip promise
(Aug 10, 2006)
An unpopular pigment used by artists in the 18th Century could lead
to more energy efficient, faster computers. Cobalt green, as the dye
is known, has been tested by a US team who believe it could be used
in "spintronic" devices. Spintronics involves manipulating the magnetic
properties of electrons to do useful computational work.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Google warns on 'unsafe' websites
(Aug 6, 2006)
Google has started warning users if they are about to visit a webpage
that could harm their computer. The warning will pop up if users click
on a link to a page known to host spyware or other malicious programs.
The initiative comes out of a larger project cataloguing programs
that plague people with unwanted ads, spy on web habits or steal personal
data.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Digital home 'still 10 years off'
(Jul 28, 2006)
The vision of a digital home in which music and video is streamed
between devices is still 10 years away, says a leading music technology
businessman. John MacFarlane, chief executive of Sonos, said neither
consumers nor the technology itself were ready. Sonos makes wireless
(wi-fi) music streaming systems, aimed at customers who want to listen
to their digital music around the house.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Wi-fi music player gets serious
(Jul 26, 2006)
A wi-fi music device developed for audiophiles will offer better audio
output than CD players, says its maker. Transporter is being billed
as the world's first network music player for lovers of pure sound.
The $1,999 (£1,079) player is aimed at people who encode music using
so-called lossless formats, such as Flac or Wav.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Tiny wireless memory chip debuts
(Jul 18, 2006)
A chip the size of a grain of rice that can store 100 pages of text
and swaps data via wireless has been developed by Hewlett-Packard.
The tiny chip was small enough to embed in almost any object, said
HP. The chip could be used to ensure drugs have not been counterfeited,
on patient wristbands in hospitals or to add sounds or video to postcards,
said HP.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Brain-implant enables mind over matter
(Jul 13, 2006)
A man paralysed from the neck down by knife injuries sustained five
years ago can now check his email, control a robot arm and even play
computer games using the power of thought alone. Matt Nagle's extraordinary
abilities were first reported in March 2005. Now details of the technology
that lets him perform these tasks are published in the journal Nature.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
'Magnetic memory' chip unveiled
(Jul 10, 2006)
A microchip which can store information like a hard drive has been
unveiled by US company Freescale. The chip, called magnetoresistive
random-access memory (Mram), maintains data by relying on magnetic
properties rather than an electrical charge. One analyst told the
Associated Press news agency that the chip was the most significant
development in computer memory for a decade.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Flat 'ion trap' holds quantum computing promise
(Jul 8, 2006)
Quantum computers could be more easily mass produced thanks to the
development of a two-dimensional ion trap - one of their key components.
A quantum computer could be much faster than a conventional computer.
While electronic bits can exist in one of two states – "0" or
"1" – a quantum bit, or qubit, can be in both states simultaneously.
Connecting lots of qubits together would allow many more calculations
to be carried out simultaneously.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Top computer hangs on to its title
(Jul 4, 2006)
IBM's BlueGene/L computer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
(LLNL) in California, has once again been crowned world champion by
the TOP500 list of the fastest supercomputers used for scientific
applications. This giant among giants has 131,072 processors and a
computing speed of 280.6 terraflops per second (1 teraflop equals
1 trillion calculations or 'floating point operations').
Read
more. Source: Nature |
BACK TO TOP
|
You
are here:
Home
> Tech news
> Tech news archive
Jul-Aug 2006
Other news sections
Latest science news
Archeo news
Eco news
Health news
Living world news
Paleo news
Robot diaries
Strange news
Also on this site:
Encyclopedia of Science
Encyclopedia of Alternative Energy
and Sustainable Living
News archive
Bookshop
Contact
|
