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 Science: World's First Practical Plastic Magnet |
Posted by
timothy
on Wednesday September 01, @04:09AM
from the demagnetize-your-own-credit-card dept.
Stopmotioncleaverman writes "New Scientist is reporting that scientists at the University of Durham in the UK have created the world's first plastic magnet to work at room temperature from two compounds, emeraldine base polyaniline (PANi) and tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ). In 2001, scientists in Nebraska created a plastic magnet, but it only worked at 10 Kelvin.
Most notably from the article - "One of the most likely applications is in the magnetic coating of computer hard discs, which could lead to a new generation of high-capacity discs".
This story is also being reported in lots of other places."
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43 of 63 comments
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science.slashdot.org
) | Science: The Last Atlas 2 Rocket Launch |
Posted by
timothy
on Wednesday September 01, @01:32AM
from the it's-all-x-prize-from-here-on-out dept.
Fiz Ocelot writes "Reuters reports that the last Atlas 2 rocket was launched on Tuesday. The rocket was the last to launch the old-fashioned way. For this launch, the 120-member team was inside a blockhouse 1,400 feet from the launch pad. It was also the end of an era dating back to the 1950s, when most rockets, including early manned flights, were launched from concrete blockhouses adjacent to the pads."
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56 of 84 comments
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science.slashdot.org
) | "Scotty" Gets Walk of Fame Star |
Posted by
timothy
on Tuesday August 31, @10:22PM
from the goodwill-towards-all dept.
linuxwrangler writes "Actor James Doohan, aka Scotty on the original Star Trek series received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today. This is expected to be Doohan's last public appearance as he suffers from Parkinson's disease, diabetes and lung fibrosis as well as recently diagnosed Alzheimer's disease."
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209 of 311 comments
) | Games: Nintendo DS To Allow Free VoIP Calls |
Posted by
timothy
on Tuesday August 31, @08:49PM
from the biz-oriented-version-would-sell-well dept.
sm4kxd writes "Gamespot is reporting that the Nintendo DS will use "built-in wireless 802.11b networking capabilities to offer voice-over-IP chat--in effect, allowing gamers to use the DS to make free phone calls at wireless network hotspots." There's also mention of a headset, so you won't look ridiculous while doing so." The article doesn't have much more information, but the "in effect" seems important; this may only allow unit-to-unit conversations, not VoIP calls to the regular telephone network.
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107 of 146 comments
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games.slashdot.org
) | HagakiPC - "Postcard" PC |
Posted by
timothy
on Tuesday August 31, @07:54PM
from the smallness dept.
captainJam writes "The HagakiPC, Hagaki meaning postcard in Japanese, is a tiny PC with dimensions of 135 x 109 x 18mm and weighing in at 340g making it by far the lightest and 2nd slimmest handtop. Only 128MB RAM and a 640x480 VGA screen, plus there's no hard drive -- it's meant to run OS's from CF cards (great for D.S.L. and the like). Still only a prototype, so not much info is available, but what we do know (and a few photos) are here."
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62 of 98 comments
) | IT: Is Tableau The Next Google? |
Posted by
timothy
on Tuesday August 31, @07:03PM
from the tabuleau-rasa dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "At least, the founders of Tableau Software, a small company established in 2003 and based in Seattle, come from Stanford University, where they worked down the hall with Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin back in 1997. In 'Tableau making name for itself,' the Seattle Post-Intelligencer writes that Tableau intends to make structured databases easy to use the way Google did with unstructured data. So the company is turning databases into easy-to-generate graphics. Tableau doesn't say who are its customers, but claims that it has more than 100 installations and that it's already profitable. This graphical data mining tool runs on desktops and costs $1,000 per user for a standard edition and $1,600 per user for a professional version. Will this company be successful and become another Google? Read more and decide after looking at an example of database drilling."
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171 of 231 comments
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it.slashdot.org
) | Science: The Monetary Economics of Thurston Howell III |
Posted by
michael
on Tuesday August 31, @06:15PM
from the she-sells-seashells dept.
DLWormwood writes "In what has to be the Strangest... Essay... Ever... The libertarian Ludwig von Mises Institute website has posted an essay which goes way too in-depth over the topic of why the castaways of Gilligan's Island used Thurston Howell III's 'worthless paper' instead of gold or seashells."
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240 of 328 comments
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science.slashdot.org
)
Posted by
michael
on Tuesday August 31, @05:27PM
from the ruckus-in-nyc dept.
sunbird writes "The Justice Department has issued a subpoena seeking IP logs from Calyx, the ISP for nyc.indymedia.org, after individuals posted [1 | 2 | 3] the names, addresses, and phone numbers of some of the RNC delegates. The subpoena was issued as part of an ongoing investigation of voter intimidation. As reported earlier in this Slashdot article, the Justice Department tried this before. Calyx, represented by the ACLU, responded, claiming that '[t]he only intimidation taking place here is the Secret Service intimidating people who speak out against the government.' [Full text of the letter available here] Read more: Indymedia.org | NYT"
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484 of 642 comments
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yro.slashdot.org
)
Posted by
michael
on Tuesday August 31, @04:35PM
from the women-and-children-first dept.
geomon writes "This afternoon, SCO will host a conference call where they will present '04 third quarter financial data. The news isn't expected to be comforting to SCO investors as they are coming up a bit short; earnings and dividends will take a substantial hit. The only bright spot for the company is the settlement with BayStar, a deal that will leave most of the cash they received from the investment house in the hands of SCO management, if only for a short time." Reader ak_hepcat writes "Groklaw has posted the text for the latest IBM memorandum in its case against SCO. In a nutshell, IBM accuses SCO of not only wrangling the legal process to keep delaying the eventual resolution of this case, but they go so far as to pull the curtain away and show that this table never had any legs to begin with. I'm no marksman, but I can tell when something is full of holes."
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231 of 291 comments
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yro.slashdot.org
) | IT: Ericsson Pulls Bluetooth Division |
Posted by
michael
on Tuesday August 31, @03:47PM
from the wi-fi-all-the-way dept.
rookie1 writes "According to this article and this, Ericsson has shut down its Bluetooth division. Ericsson has not made any formal announcement. Considering SonyEricsson is a major supporter of Bluetooth technology, will this have a huge impact on its adoption?"
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189 of 255 comments
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| Book Reviews |
Don't choose your books in a mental vacuum -- take advantage of reader-submitted
book reviews (and linked discussions)
of science fiction, science, programming and other books. For instance:
- Blaine Hilton's review of Hardware
Hacking: "walks anyone through the process of modifying common
electronic hardware."
- Joshua Malone's review of Samba 3 by
Example: offers practical examples of Samba 3 use in a small or
large office.
- Tony Williams' review of Running
OS X Panther: well-balanced instruction (graphical and command-line) for
intermediate-or-better Mac OS X users.
- John Miles' review of Twisty
Little Passages: "the definitive survey of interactive fiction for
the literati... and the rest of us."
Submitting your own review for consideration is easy. Read Slashdot's book review
guidelines carefully, and then use the web submission form.
Updated: 200404127 17:00 by timothy
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