Just picked up a refurbished gateway for half a g.
It’s been a while since I’ve gotten a new laptop, and this is the least I’ve ever spend on a new PC.
Should have some updates for performance and whatnot coming. The processor and memory are nice, but I’m afraid the graphics card is going to be a bit lacking. I’m loading up some special software to test that right now.
“Company of Herois: Offosing Fronts”
SOS: the signal that has saved thousands turns 100 – Times Online
“Send SOS,” one of the Titanic’s radio operators supposedly said to another after the famous ship struck that infamous iceberg. “It’s the new call and besides this may be your last chance to send it.”
That “new call” is 100 years old [last week], and people around the world who owe their lives to that piece of Morse code may reflect this morning on its importance.
In the past century, “SOS” has become a firm part of popular culture used in everything from DIY programme titles to Abba hits. But it began life in a far more serious setting after being adopted by the international community on July 1, 1908, as the globally recognised distress signal for ships at sea.
I’m pretty sure S.0.S. marked a significant point in the Industrial Age. Much as GPS has done for us now.
Speedo’s suit divides swimming world | U.S. | Reuters
CHICAGO (Reuters) – A revolutionary bodysuit has divided the world of swimming into the haves and the have nots just weeks before the Beijing Olympics, testing relationships between federations, athletes and rival suppliers.
Australian and U.S. swimmers and others wearing the Speedo LZR Racer suit have set 38 world records since its introduction in February. Australian Libby Lenton said it made her feel she was swimming downhill.
As the buzz has grown — an LZR is even on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in an exhibit on superheroes — swimmers using other equipment are weighing the merits of breaking existing contracts and switching to Speedo.
Nice bit of reading here on the wonders of modern technology and their interaction with the world of sport. Looks like there are now things one can both put into and onto the body to gain that final edge in competition.
Plus, the fact that this suit makes the swimmers look more like ninjas is just icing on the cake.
Technology Review: Weather Engineering in China
To prevent rain over the roofless 91,000-seat Olympic stadium that Beijing natives have nicknamed the Bird’s Nest, the city’s branch of the national Weather Modification Office–itself a department of the larger China Meteorological Administration–has prepared a three-stage program for the 2008 Olympics this August.First, Beijing’s Weather Modification Office will track the region’s weather via satellites, planes, radar, and an IBM p575 supercomputer, purchased from Big Blue last year, that executes 9.8 trillion floating point operations per second. It models an area of 44,000 square kilometers (17,000 square miles) accurately enough to generate hourly forecasts for each kilometer.
These cats are really looking to show off their tech this summer. I’m curious if it’s going to go as well as their occupation of Tibet. (snap!)
TheStar.com | World | Now Taliban regrets cellphone disruptions
Mar 26, 2008 04:40 PM
THE ASSOCIATED PRESSKABUL–Taliban attacks on telecom towers have prompted cellphone companies to shut down service across southern Afghanistan, angering a quarter million customers who have no other telephones.Even some Taliban fighters now regret the disruptions and are demanding that service be restored by the companies.
The communication blackout follows a campaign by the Taliban, which said the United States and NATO were using the fighters’ cellphone signals to track them at night and launch pinpoint attacks.
About 10 towers have been attacked since the warning late last month – seven of them seriously – causing almost $2 million in damage, the telecom ministry said. Afghanistan’s four major mobile phone companies began cutting service across the south soon after.
I could have sworn we defeated these terrorists a while back. I guess the modern tech is inspiring new thugs.
/headline blatantly lifted from fark.com discussion
Robot Pirate Ninja 