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GOOGLE is making prototypes of its futuristic, internet-connected glasses available for people to test out. The company is selling the device, known as Project Glass, for $US1500 to people attending its annual conference in San Francisco for computer programmers. It will ship early next year and won't be available for sale outside the three-day conference, Google I/O, which is underway in the US.
In yet more damaging PR for the global electronics giant, a labour rights group said it had found "deplorable" conditions at Apple suppliers in China, following a probe of several firms that supply the US technology giant. New York-based China Labor Watch said a four-month investigation of suppliers to Apple in southern and eastern China uncovered violations of workers' rights, including excessive overtime and hazardous work conditions.
Futuremark has released a video of the next version of its benchmarking utility due out later this year. The new benchmark, which has not received an official name yet, is expected to be released after the launch of Windows 8, and will be using the DirectX 11 API to evaluate DirectX 9, DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 hardware in parallel. Futuremark said that the software will also be supporting Windows Vista and Windows 7.
Nvidia has released a patch to enable PCIe 3.0 support on the X79 platform for its GeForce GTX 600-series cards. It basically comes down to that originally the X79-based platform was not fully validated for PCIe 3.0. Since the release of the GTX 680, users have found ways to tweak the BIOS to allow support for PCIe 3.0, but now Nvidia has a patch that enables PCIe 3.0 with its GTX 680 and 670 GPUs.
The US Navy’s high-resolution radar can see individual raindrops in a storm. The US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) researchers said recently that a Navy very high-resolution Doppler radar can actually spot individual raindrops in a cloudburst, possibly paving the way for new weather monitoring applications that could better track or monitor weather and severe storms.
The US Army is attempting to create a Directed Lightning Bolt Weapon. Scientists and engineers at Picatinny Arsenal are busy developing a device that will shoot lightning bolts down laser beams to destroy its target. Soldiers and science fiction fans, you're welcome.
Atari Turns 40. Like everyone else who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, I played them all: Pong, Breakout, Asteroids, Centipede, Millipede, Battlezone, Pole Position, Crystal Castles and my eternal favorite, Tempest. The first computer I bought with my own money was an Atari 400. So when I chatted with Bushnell this week to mark Atari’s 40th anniversary, I felt like I was talking with a man who helped invent my childhood.
Nearly two-thirds (65%) of Americans think Barack Obama would be better suited than fellow presidential candidate Mitt Romney to handle an alien invasion. In fact, more than two in three (68%) women say that Obama would be more adept at dealing with an alien invasion than Romney, vs. 61 percent of men. And more younger citizens, ages 18 to 64 years, than those aged 65+ (68% vs. 50%) think Romney would not be as well-suited as Obama to handle an alien invasion.
The Library of Congress Acquires Carl Sagan (1934-1996) papers. A celebrated scientist, educator, television personality and prolific author, Sagan was a consummate communicator who bridged the gap between academe and popular culture. The Sagan collection has come to the Library through the generosity of writer, producer and director Seth MacFarlane, and is officially designated The Seth MacFarlane Collection of the Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan Archive.
Raspberry Pi Computer To Cross The Atlantic Ocean In Autonomous Boat. It’s a credit card-sized computer that costs next to nothing, and it’s about to become the brain of a tiny boat that its developer hopes will cross the Atlantic Ocean unaided. It’s codenamed FishPi, and I’m already hungry. It’s going to consist of a Raspberry Pi computer, strapped to a solar panel and encased in a model boat that will navigate perilous seas all by itself.
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All original content copyright James Rolfe.
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