Wired

In the movie The Core, Hilary Swank saved humanity by drilling to Earth’s center. In reality, of course, that’s impossible – and not just because Swank isn’t the geologist type. Try as they might, actual scientists have yet to get through even the crust, the thinnest, outermost skin of the planet. It’s just too deep.

Enter the Chikyu – a 689-foot-long, 57,550-ton ocean vessel. Chikyu means “Earth” in Japanese, and the ship’s sole mission is to drill deeper than anyone has before: 6.2 miles down. After tests off the Japanese coast, researchers in June will head for deep Pacific waters, weigh anchor, and probe all the way to the mantle, that molten layer between the crust and the core.

And why are scientific feats like this not publicized mor- ohh, the game is on!
Thanks, Matt.

FinanceGates.com

AMD presents dual-core version of its Athlon 64 desktop processor as the finishing point in long-lasting chip wars.

The dual-core Athlon 64 is working at a clock-speed of 2.4 GHz and has maximum power dissipation of 100 W.

This is the latest development in the long-lasting chip war between AMD and Intel. Both companies pledged processing of dual-core versions of their processors since 2003.

AMD also added the dual-core technology will %u201Cenable advanced multimedia and multitasking capabilities.%u201D
AMD was the first company that developed 32/64-bit x86 processors. Its main rival Intel answered with its EM64T 64-bit extensions for its Xeon product line.

AMD rules. Go green!

CNET News.com

IBM is putting its corporate heft behind a popular open-source Web development technology called PHP, in a move meant to reach out to a broader set of developers.

On Friday, the tech giant is expected to announce a partnership with Zend Technologies to create a bundle called ZendCore, which includes IBM’s Cloudscape-embedded database and Zend’s PHP development tools. Zend sells tools built on the open-source edition of PHP and offers related services.

IBM also plans to establish an area dedicated to PHP on its developer Web site, which will include technical resources such as white papers.

Slashdot

D. Reed Freeman, the “Chief Privacy Officer” of Claria Networks (formerly Gator), the creators of the pervasive spyware package GAIN, has been appointed to the Department of Homeland Security’s “Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee”.”

I apologize for shamelessly pulling this topic from slashdot, but this is simply apalling. Perhaps we could find someone better to head the whole department? Someone, who is closer to the enemy perhaps? Someone… in the know? Perhaps… in the lead?…

Einstein@Home

Einstein@home is a program that uses your computer’s idle time to search for spinning neutron stars (also called pulsars) using data from the LIGO and GEO gravitational wave detectors. Einstein@home is a World Year of Physics 2005 project supported by the American Physical Society (APS) and by a number of international organizations.

After several months of testing, we are now ‘throwing open the doors’ for general participation. If you would like to take part, please use the Create account link to create an account, and follow the instructions. Einstein@home is available for Windows, Linux and MacOS X computers.

Bitrock :: Solutions :: LAMPStack

LAMPStack, cross platform gui or text installers, stuff that “just works” — oh my.

Improv Everywhere

Improv Everywhere causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Created in August of 2001 by Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere has excecuted over 40 missions involving over 100 undercover agents. The group is based in New York City.

ABC News

A deadly series of storms across California spawned everything from tornadoes to avalanches, flooding freeways with steady rain and sending rivers of mud crashing through homes.

At least six deaths have been blamed on the storm, including a woman buried by an avalanche north of Lake Tahoe and others who were victims of landslides, traffic accidents, falling trees and flooding.

I had no idea that tornados were even possible in California. To date, I have lived most of my life in Northern California (although I now currently reside in St. Paul, MN) and I have never heard of such a thing.

Yahoo

YOKOSUKA, Japan – A car that swerves back into lanes on its own and a video system that makes parking a breeze were part of technological features on display by the Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co. The technology that reporters tried out in test drives Monday at a research center outside Tokyo is part of Nissan’s efforts to make driving safer. Similar smart-car features are in the works at most of the world’s top automakers, including Japanese rivals Toyota Motor Corp. (news – web sites) and Honda Motor Co. (news – web sites), as well as General Motors Corp. of the United States and others.

One of the features shown was a more sophisticated version of an existing warning system — already available in Nissan luxury cars in the United States and Japan — that buzzes when the car veers out of the lane.

Ah, so we’ve given up on smart drivers.

eWeek

According to the patent application filed in mid-November by Paul Vick, lead architect for Visual Basic .Net at Microsoft; Amanda Silver, a program manager on the Visual Basic team; and an individual in Bellevue, Wash., named Costica Barsan the IsNot operator is described as a single operator that allows a comparison of two variables to determine if the two point to the same location in memory.

Old news, sure, but I didn’t comment on it being that at the time as I was on a blogging sabbatical. There is only one thing to say about this asinine story: “Where’s my patent cube, bitch!!”. I sure hope that these software engineers at MS are embarrassed by their willingness to listen to the law-monkey who suggested such a ridiculous patent.

For years now I have been ‘on the fence’ with respect to software patents. Now, I am firmly in the no software patents camp primarily because nobody has been able to offer any compelling reason for the existence of such a beast and I have only found fault in the practice.