Archive for February, 2008...
Filed under Slashdot
Cornell’s Duffield Hall has acquired a new electron microscope that is enabling scientists to see individual atoms in color for the very first time. While old electron microscopes can be compared to black and white cameras, this new scanning transmission electron microscope uses a new aberration-correction technology that is both more intense and allows for faster imaging speed. “The method also can show how atoms are bonded to one another in a crystal, because the bonding creates small shifts in the energy signatures. In earlier STEMs, many electrons from the beam, including those with changed energies, were scattered at wide angles by simple collisions with atoms. The new STEM includes magnetic lenses that collect emerging electrons over a wider angle. Previously, Silcox said, about 8 percent of the emerging electrons were collected, but the new detector collects about 80 percent, allowing more accurate readings of the small changes in energy levels that reveal bonding between atoms.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Filed under Tech News World, Technology
Jon Lech Johansen was born to kill digital rights management technology. He started as a teen, adopting the handle DVD Jon. In addition to cracking open the technology used to encrypt DVDs, he’s taken his hammer to Apple’s FairPlay DRM. Recently, DVD Jon and partner Monique Farantzos founded DoubleTwist, a company that offers products like the DoubleTwist Desktop and the Facebook widget Twist Me, designed to simplify the flow of media across devices and social networks.
Filed under Mac News World, NerdCentral
As they prepare for their daily patrols around Baghdad, soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division sync up their iPods, not with songs and movies, but with a laundry list of missions and audio files containing pre-recorded phrases in Iraqi Arabic or Kurdish. Loaded with special software, the music players help them communicate with the populace and learn the local culture, and they occasionally serve as handy tools in their tactical missions, such as searching for persons of interest. The gadgets have been so useful that troops are now finding new ways to employ the technology.
Filed under Gadgets
Filed under: Robots
We wouldn’t have believed it, either, but the WowWee Dragonfly is attracting some unusual attention — owners are reporting their bots are being attacked by hawks. WowWee says 45 people have reported hawk attacks in the past two months, and there’s even a few pictures of the birds with their robotic prey out there — like this one taken by fifth-grader Danny McGorry. We always knew the Dragonfly was fun, but this takes it to another level — all we need now is a remote squirt gun mounted on the thing and we’ll be ready to go. Check the whole article below.
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Filed under Slashdot
An anonymous reader writes “Two months ago I donated my old PC to my little sister, who is 7 — I had promised she would get her own computer as soon as she can read and write properly. I then proceeded to answer her questions about how it works, as far as she inquired, and tried to let her make some choices when installing Debian (she can already use GNOME). As I explained password protection and encryption to her, I was pleasantly surprised when she insisted on protection measures being as strong as possible, so that no one else can screw with her computer. She knows that my younger brother has to endure strict parental control software that was installed on his machine without his consent. The significant problem is that she cannot permanently memorize abstract passwords, even if they are her own creation. I talked with a teacher who assured me that this is common at her age. My parents would probably be able to guess non-abstract passwords. What mechanism of identifying herself does the Slashdot crowd suggest?”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
