Wed Tech News
Poster: Aron Schatz
Posted on June 22, 2005 at 3:13:03 PM
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HP, Acer release new Turion notebooks.
Quantum computers on the horizon.
Solar sail lost in space.
Whale hunting still rejected.
Flying eyeball inspects spacecraft.
And in the dark view of the future...
WMD attack very likely in the next decade.
HP, Acer release new Turion notebooks.
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Acer's Ferrari 4000 has a flashy black carbon-fiber casing accented with sports-car red trim and the classic Ferrari insignia on the lid. The notebook includes an ATI Mobility Radeon X700 graphics chipset for better rendering on the 15-inch display. Inside is a 100GB hard drive for storing lots of digital photos, as well as a DVD Super Multi double-layer drive unit for watching movies. The Ferrari-styled notebook starts at $1,999.
Quantum computers on the horizon.
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The difference between D-Wave's system and other quantum computer designs is the particular properties of quantum mechanics that they exploit. Other systems rely on a property called entanglement, which says that any two particles that have interacted in the past, even if now spatially separated, may still influence each other's states. But that interdependence is easily disrupted by the particles' interactions with their environment. In contrast, D-Wave's design takes advantage of the far more robust property of quantum physics known as quantum tunneling, which allows particles to "magically" hop from one location to another.
Solar sail lost in space.
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The weakness of the signals could indicate that the craft is in the wrong orbit, meaning its antennae are not pointing directly at the ground stations. "The good news is we have reason to believe it's alive and in orbit," Planetary Society co-founder Bruce Murray told reporters. "The bad news is we don't know where it is."
Whale hunting still rejected.
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The ballot, which would have required a three-quarters majority, was voted down by 29 votes to 23 on Tuesday. Five countries abstained. It was the second blow for Japan at the commission’s annual meeting, held this year in Ulsan, South Korea, after its bid to change votes to secret ballots was also rejected.
Flying eyeball inspects spacecraft.
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The current prototype has only a digital camera system, but Frederickson says it could also be fitted with chemical sniffers to detect fuel leaks or a laser-based radar. The latter would give accurate depth measurements of any damage that the shuttle might have received from foam or ice during lift-off. Ground controllers could fly the 19-centimetre-diameter Mini AERCam, astronauts could control it from inside the spacecraft, or the craft could scan a vehicle autonomously. It can work a maximum of six hours before returning to its docking station, where it would recharge its batteries and the tanks that fuel its 12 thrusters.
And in the dark view of the future...
WMD attack very likely in the next decade.
Quote
However, when the risks were combined to determine the probably of an attack with any form of WMD, the survey put the chances as high as 50 percent over the next five years, with the probability increasing to as high as 70 percent over the next decade. Among the experts who participated in the survey were Nunn; retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf; former defense secretaries William Cohen and Frank Carlucci; former CIA Director James Woolsey; former National Security Adviser Richard Allen; former Iraq chief weapons inspector Richard Butler; former Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott; and David Kay, who led the hunt for WMD in Iraq after the fall of Saddam.