Scientists ‘teleport’ atomic particles

June 18, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Sci-Tech

US researchers have sent atoms through space without movement, which could mean faster data transfer in the computers of the future
Teleportation -- "sending" atoms, or at least their properties, through space without any physical movement -- is possible, according to scientists at the National Institute for Standards and Technologies.
In a paper published in the journal Nature, NIST scientists say they were able to transfer the quantum state, or list of active properties, of one beryllium atom to another. The quantum state describes such physical characteristics as energy, motion and magnetic field.

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Selling Wi-Fi presents serious challenges

June 17, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Sci-Tech

Alas, wireless Internet may not be the technology sector's salvation after all.
Small companies, some publicly traded, are burning cash trying to turn Wi-Fi into viable business. Some have already shut down.
Faster than you can say "industry bubble," skeptics are asking whether wireless Internet connections will become similar to the wired Internet of the late 1990s -- hot but rarely profitable.

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New Intel chip to boost PC graphics

June 17, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Intel Corp., the world's largest chip maker, is set to launch Thursday a highly-anticipated new chip designed to sharply improve and expand the power of personal computers.
Intel is expected Thursday to officially mark the launch of its Grantsdale chip set, which will work in tandem with Pentium processors to give PCs more powerful sound and graphics, a speedier link for peripherals and memory, and give desktop PCs the ability to run a wireless data network.
Having those features built into the core components of a computer could be essential to Intel's strategy as it tries to turn the PC into the heart of home entertainment.

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Windows sidelined by Fedora bug

June 10, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Red Hat's latest hobbyist version of Linux stops some users' systems from booting Windows
Red Hat's newest hobbyist and developer version of Linux, Fedora Core 2, caused trouble for some who found they couldn't start Windows after installing the Linux upgrade side by side with it.
The bug had cropped up in testing, but after Red Hat released Fedora Core 2 in May, many more users reported their systems no longer would boot Windows.
No data on the Windows side was destroyed, and some manual hard drive reconfiguration fixed the problem.

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Website Analysis Isn’t a Game

June 9, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Sci-Tech

A few games of Roller Coaster Tycoon don't usually translate into productive work, but for one developer the diversion planted the seed for making website analysis more intuitive.
Several years after playing those inspirational games, Robert Savage came up with VisitorVille, a website-traffic analysis package that essentially crosses the DNA of SimCity with that of the traditional chart- and graph-centric tools businesses have long been using.
VisitorVille employs a graphical, urban metaphor to present information about customers' real-time Web-traffic flow. A company's entire Web presence is seen as an urban or suburban neighborhood, with each individual Web page presented as a building. The more visitors on a site, the taller the buildings, and the brighter the lights on each floor.
[visitorville.jpg]

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Smart glasses detect eye contact

May 20, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Sci-Tech

A pair of sunglasses that can detect when someone is making eye contact with the wearer has been developed by Canadian researchers.
Besides being useful in singles bars, its inventors say the system could play a key role in video blogging, a hi-tech form of diary keeping

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Nightclub ‘chips’ punters

May 19, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Sci-Tech

A Spanish nightclub is giving guests the chance to pay for drinks and admission using a tiny microchip implanted under the skin.
By waving the part of the body containing the chip over a scanner, money is automatically deducted from their bank accounts.

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Barbie’ drug could make people slim, tanned and sexy

May 19, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Sci-Tech

Scientists in the US are working on a 'Barbie drug' that gives people a tan, makes them lose weight and increases their sex drive.
Scientists at the University of Arizona told Eyewitness News 5 they came across the drug while looking for ways to help people avoid skin cancer.
They tested a hormone, melanotan 2, on a group of men hoping it would stimulate a natural tan without the aid of sunlight.
But, to their surprise, they found it also seemed to work as a sexual stimulant and they say it should also help people lose weight.

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Cisco Source Code Reportedly Stolen

May 19, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Cisco is investigating the possible theft of source code for its main networking device operating system, the company confirmed on Monday.
According to a Russian security Web site, criminal hackers broke into Cisco Systems' corporate network last week and stole 800MB of source code for IOS 12.3 and 12.3t (an early deployment version of the operating system containing features not found in the vanilla 12.3 version). In addition, a 2.5MB sample of what is supposedly IOS code was released on an Internet Relay Chat channel as proof of the alleged theft.

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U.S. moves to build top supercomputer

May 13, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Sci-Tech

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States is launching a new push to regain the lead in the competition over who has the most powerful computer.
The Energy Department is announcing plans Wednesday to build the world's fastest civilian computer at a research laboratory in Tennessee with the help of three private computer companies.

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