• Entertainment & Gaming

    Desktop Linux – Will It Ever Stick?

    By Abby Seiff Posted on 11.7.2008 33 Comments

    About seven years ago, I tried to free myself from the oppression and misery of running Windows ME by installing Linux on my PC. Ever installed the Linux operating system? It’s not for the faint of heart. So, when it was recently reported that Linux-based netbooks are being returned at a rate four-times higher than their Windows-based brethren, I can’t say I was surprised.

  • Technology

    Wing Men

    By Abby Seiff Posted on 4.17.2008 12 Comments

    If a sodden rice paddy feels soft and forgiving underfoot, it is not a merciful place to set down an airplane at 200 mph. And thats only one of Mike Selbys reasons to look nervous as he watches his A-10 Warthog—a 10-foot-wide, 65-pound, hand-built model—begin its maiden takeoff roll down a rough asphalt runway near Bangkok, Thailand. Selby, who spent over $12,000 and the better part of a year fabricating and building this radio-controlled jet, stands runwayside with his thumbs hooked into the belt loops of his jeans, trying to look relaxed as he draws on a Cuban cigar.

  • The Environment

    Biofuel Diversity at the University of North Dakota

    By Michael Belfiore Posted on 4.15.2008 6 Comments

    Today's New York Times has a front-page story about how biofuels are driving up food prices around the world and how they therefore may not be a such a great idea after all. That could be true if the only feedstocks available for producing biofuels were food crops, as the article implies, but that's far from the truth.

  • The Environment

    Factory Farming and its Dire Consequences

    By Matt Ransford Posted on 3.25.2008 7 Comments

    One of the dire consequences of factory farming is that it encourages the spread of disease due to the close quarters in which the animals live. Thats why theyre fed antibiotics and other medicines when they arent sick. This overuse of antibiotics, while beneficial to the flocks and herds in the short term, leads to stronger and more drug-resistant bacteria in the long term. The effect has been widely reported by popular authors like Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser. What we havent heard much about are how viruses can thrive in this environment.

  • Science

    How It Works: The Endoscope Camera in a Pill

    By John Mahoney Posted on 3.13.2008 8 Comments

    Pop this pill, and eight hours later, doctors can examine a high-resolution video of your intestines for tumors and other problems, thanks to a new spinning camera that captures images in 360 degrees. Developed by the Japanese RF System Lab, the Sayaka endoscope capsule enters clinical trials in the U.S. this month.

  • Entertainment & Gaming

    How It Works: The Toy That Thinks

    By John Mahoney Posted on 3.13.2008 5 Comments

    Four years in the making, Pleo, from California start-up Ugobe, is a baby dinosaur robot that acts and learns like a real animal, remembering traumatic experiences and friendly owners. We peeled off its skin to reveal more than a dozen motors, six processors and 38 sensors behind its personality.

  • Gadgets

    Wal-Mart Gives Up on Linux

    By Abby Seiff Posted on 3.11.2008 4 Comments

    A spokeswoman for Wal-Mart announced yesterday that the chain will no longer sell Linux-based computers in its stores—apparently its customers far prefer the more familiar Windows operating system. In October, Wal-Mart stocked an inexpensive Everex machine, the gPC, in several hundred stores, but even with the low price tag of $199, the computer failed to keep pace.

  • Science

    Computers That Read Your Mind

    By Matt Ransford Posted on 3.6.2008 0 Comments

    Get out your tin foil hats, paranoids. Your fears are one step closer to reality. Berkeley scientists are reporting in Nature that they have developed software, which, in conjunction with an fMRI scanner, can read your mind. And 80 to 90% of the time, the machine was right. Okay, settle down. These are early reports and there are more than a few caveats.

  • Technology

    Darpa's New Goal: A Plane That Flies for Five Years

    By Seth Fletcher Posted on 3.6.2008 10 Comments

    The highest-endurance aircraft currently flying is Northrop Grummans Global Hawk UAV, which can stay aloft for up to 40 hours. Now Darpa—which, to its credit, is never short on outlandish ideas—wants to beat that endurance record more than 1,000 times. The goal of Darpa's recently launched Vulture Program is to build a kind of atmospheric satellite that can stay aloft for five years at a time with little or no maintenance.



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