Cheap as chips – low cost microprocessors? June 30, 2006
Posted by chameeleon in BBC, Tech.add a comment
BBC News is reporting that a new method of creating silicon dioxide, which is prominently used in the manufacture of microchips, has been discovered. This method uses UV light and operates at room temperatures, which contrasts to the current methods which uses temperatures that run at over 1000°C. It is predicted that the savings in energy costs could lead to cheaper chips.
MySpace used for US mugging June 30, 2006
Posted by chameeleon in Tech.add a comment
Just found this incredible story about two girls in the US (only 13 and 14 years old!) using MySpace to lure men to meet up and then mugging them!
Wow! 50x speed Internet cafe – but why? June 28, 2006
Posted by chameeleon in Tech.add a comment
The BBC news website reports that in Cornwall an Internet cafe can offer download speeds up to 50 times faster than a standards internet connection. These are speeds similar to that of a standard network card on a local area network, 100Mbps.
Adrian Hosford of BT said: “It would be possible to use the cafe’s computers to download in less than 15 minutes a file the equivalent size of the DVD version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, with its 19,000 illustrations, 629 audio and video clips and 100,000 articles.
“A standard broadband connection would typically take in excess of five hours.”
Great! But I dont understand the market for these sorts of speeds in an internet cafe. Surely the majority of patrons are there because they dont have an internet connection and computer available. Maybe they’re from out of the area, or just want to check an email while in town, or they simply dont own a computer. These casual browsers are only looking at news website, webmail, possibly social networking site, which generally dont need a great deal of bandwidth – a 1-2Mbps connection would suffice.
The services that would benefit the most from high bandwidth availability are things like high-quality VOIP/video calls, TV/video over the Internet and, as suggested by the article, downloading of large files. Once you download a file you need to move it somewhere (perhaps on a DVD-R or USB memory stick/drive), but this leads to problems with downloading illegal content.
I welcome speed increases for any Internet connection, after all the Internet as a whole is only as fast as its slowest connection, so as the average connection gets faster, the Internet experience should improve for all of us. I just question the reasoning behind putting a very fast connection into a public Internet cafe?
Google to challenge PayPal June 27, 2006
Posted by chameeleon in Google, Tech.add a comment
CNN are reporting that Google are about to launch their own system of making online payments. Purported to be similar to PayPal, gBuy will offer customers rebates for purchases.
Now, I’m not sure if this is going to be a PayPal killer, but its going to be another stream of revenue for Google. No details have been announced on which vendors will support this directly, but I assume payments between two individuals will also be supported (having a Google account is becoming a must nowadays!) It will be interesting to see if they will tie gBuy up with Froogle and even Google Calendar to show when payments are scheduled.
Two Harry Potter characters will die! June 27, 2006
Posted by chameeleon in Books, Harry Potter, Movies.add a comment
J K Rowling has said that two characters will die in her final book, which she is completing at the moment. She did not give any more clues but says she understands why some authors kill main characters off to end a series. Does this mean Harry is going to be killed off? With Dumbledore and Sirius Black already gone, the favourites have got to be Harry, Hermione, Ron, Hagrid and Voldemort. But even Snape or one of the Malfoys could be in the firing line. Any ideas?
Channel 4 puts programmes online June 24, 2006
Posted by chameeleon in TV, Tech.add a comment
From the end of July, Channel 4 will simultaneously stream some shows online as well as broadcast them via more traditional methods. Whilst this isnt video-on-demand, its a step closer, especially seeing as BBC are practically there (with the iMP) and ITV are about to become a VOD player.
Google inadvertently hosts Trojan June 21, 2006
Posted by chameeleon in Google, Tech.1 comment so far
ComputerWeekly.com reports that Google's free webhosting service, www.googlepages.com, is hosting pages that contain malicious code. Now, while this is news (no-one likes Trojans), this can happen to any webhosting service. But, what this suggests is that Google doesn't check the contents of the user-created content that googlepages allows. Surely it would be rather easy to run each page through some sort of anti-virus style scanner before being let loose on the public? Surely it's the responsible thing to do?
Top of the Pops is no more June 21, 2006
Posted by chameeleon in BBC, Music, TV.add a comment
Well, the inevitable finally happened – "Top of the Pops" has finally been axed after 42 years. I can't say I'm surprised. I probably stopped watching about 5 years ago and even then it wasn't very often. I found that the quality had dissapeared, along with the consistency that we'd come to expect from TOTP. BBC, in their wisdom, kept playing with schedules, presenters and formats to the point where it was no longer recognisable. I'm not saying they should have kept it as it was – indeed with MTV and the like it did seem rather outdated, but they couldn't find the right way to show new music on primetime telly, and other programmes like dramas and comedy had more prevalence on the two BBC channels.
Maybe the BBC should look at their own music channel – I used to rather like the now long-gone music and comedy channel, UK Play (from the UKTV family which became UKG2 when they dropped the music). The BBC usually does things so well, and their archive of music clips must be fantastic, so they should be able to find some way of putting it all together to make an up-to-date music package, whether its a single programme or a seperate channel. Live performances always go down well – maybe they could record Radio 1's Live Lounge sessions to be broadcast on TV (there have been some amazing cover versions to come out of them). Apart from Later with Jools Holland I cant think of any other BBC music programme so come on BBC, lets have some more.
3D cinema is back June 20, 2006
Posted by chameeleon in Movies.add a comment
Digital Spy are reporting that parts of Bryan Singer's "Superman Returns" are going to be converted into 3D. This version of the movie will shown in US IMAX cinema's but no news of whether it will be coming to the UK.
Now, 3D in cinemas is a bit of an outdated concept (remember the good old red and blue glasses), but 3D technology is much better now. Take a look at any of the outstanding attractions in the Disney and Universal theme parks that use 3D films and the quality is superb. I can imagine a fast-paced action scene would look amazing if done correctly, and, if popular, could convince other filmmakers to use 3D.
Confused dog June 19, 2006
Posted by chameeleon in Funny.add a comment
Found this funny clip – this dog still tries to walk because he is moving even though he is being carried…
