Intel demonstrates wireless electricity
August 22, 2008
Thanks to Will Rigney, of AT&T, who told me about this one: Intel yesterday used a magnetic field to transmit electricity 3 feet to power a 60-watt light bulb using a “wireless energy resonant link.”
Wordcamp 2008
August 16, 2008
Wordcamp 2008 Saturday at CSU Mission Bay in San Franicisco. Full day conference on future of Wordpress, the leading blogging platform employed by Halfway To Concord.
Invisibility cloak on the horizon
August 11, 2008
The big tech news today is a claim that metamaterials have been invented that help wrap light around an object to render it virtually invisible. According to Scientific American, “Scientists have created two new types of materials that can bend light the wrong way, creating the first step toward an invisibility cloaking device. One approach uses a type of fishnet of metal layers to reverse the direction of light, while another uses tiny silver wires, both at the nanoscale level.Both are so-called metamaterials — artificially engineered structures that have properties not seen in nature, such as negative refractive index. The two teams were working separately under the direction of Xiang Zhang of the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center at the University of California, Berkeley with U.S. government funding. One team reported its findings in the journal Science and the other in the journal Nature.”
Maybe wrap one around Concord’s Park ‘n Shop on Willow Pass? What would you render invisible?
President briefed on something more provocative than discovery of water on Mars
August 2, 2008
Slashdot and the Internet are abuzz today with rumors swirling around reports that the White House has been briefed about the discovery of something more “provocative” than the seemingly 12th discovery of water existing on the Martian surface. Whether this is the discovery of oil, a Snickers wrapper, organic artifacts of previous life, or mineral and organic compounds that could support human life, we’re sure the President is feverishly working up a pre-emptive strike.
Virgin Galactic unveils next generation of commercial space flight
July 30, 2008
Virgin Galactic unveiled the next generation of commercial space flight with its White Knight Two. The mothership is designed to tuck SpaceShipTwo, yet to be completed or tested, under the center of its wing and release it at 50,000 feet. After separation, SpaceShipTwo will fire its hybrid rocket and climb some 62 miles above Earth, the internationally recognized boundary of space. Virgin says 250 wannabe astronauts have already signed up to pay $200,000 a head for the 2 1/2 hour flight including about 5 minutes of weightlessness. Seems to me the torque and sheer between the two fuselage booms would land a flight in the ocean before near space.
Testing mobile blogging from iPhone
July 28, 2008
I am in Walnut Creek waiting in line and decided to test the new Wordpress client for iPhone 2.0. Let’s see how it works. I can see already that I may not be able to do some of the formatting required by the Revolution theme, but let’s see. Add photo first!
Terrorism funds let Air Force brass fly in style
July 23, 2008
The Washington Post reports that, “Air Force leaders sought for three years to spend counterterrorism funds on “comfort capsules” to be installed on military planes that ferry senior officers and civilian leaders around the world … The capsules were designed to be “aesthetically pleasing and furnished to reflect the rank of the senior leaders using the capsule,” with beds, a couch, a table, a 37-inch flat-screen monitor with stereo speakers, and a full-length mirror.” Congress twice told Air Force officials “no-way” (wink-wink), but the Air Force did it anyway.
NASA needs urine
July 17, 2008
Slashdot reports that NASA is asking employees at Johnson Space Center to help the Space Agency meet its need of 30 liters per day for testing the Orion space capsule, which is NASA’s new manned exploration vehicle. Read more
LiveTime releases new ITIL Service Desk virtual appliance for Sun xVM and VMware
July 7, 2008
WORLDVIEW PR TECH WIRE
LiveTime Software, a leading provider of ITIL certified Service Management and Help Desk Software, today released version 2.0 of its highly integrated virtual appliance consisting of its Java™ technology based JeOS (Just Enough Operating System) and ITIL Service Management software. With support for both Sun xVM™ and VMware, LiveTime leverages the power of both virtualization architectures at both the desktop and server levels. Read more
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