Here's an interesting website that I found during a random search: Have you ever wondered how far the information you've generated has travelled in the universe? Now you can find out - this website will calculate all of the known starts within your light cone, which ones have been reached, and which ones that information has yet to reach, and displays it in the form of an RSS feed that you can import into a reader or aggregator. Nifty.
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Prosthetic retinas are leaving the experimental stage and now are in live animal testing to shake the bugs out. A number of housecats with a condition similiar to retinitis pigmentosa, which causes blindness by killing the rod and cone cells that make up the retinas have been implanted with silicon chips 2mm on a side that replicate some of the functions of organic retinas. The chips are covered with microscopic photodiodes that register light levels, produce miniscule electrical impulses, and feed directly into the optic nerve. Similiar implants have been used in a small number of humans with this disorder …
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Dell Computers is now selling N-series computers without operating systems, advertised specifically for Linux. It's anyone's guess how long it'll take Microsoft to strongarm them into stopping again.
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First HD DVDs were cracked; now Muslix64 has gone for an encore and cracked the protection on Blu-Ray DVD's so that they can be ripped in unencrypted form. It seems that he didn't even need a Blu-Ray player to figure out how to do it, he found an attack that sidesteps the AACS (Advanced Access Content System, which does anything but let you access content) by finding the key used to encrypt the media data hidden inside the cyphertext. To prove that he was successful, he posted a ripped copy of Lord of War to the Net, which was subsequently …
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Intel has released an implementation of the draft 802.11n wireless networking protocol for laptops and other portable devices. 802.11n has five times the maximum data throughput of 802.11g, topping out at 270 megabits per second. On top of that, their 802.11n chipset uses less power than the other wi-fi implementations out there, which can give laptops an extra hour of runtime on battery, which is a huge selling point.
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E. Howard Hunt, the legendary spook who planned the Watergate burglary that took down Richard Nixon in the 1970's, founder of the Operation of Strategic Services (which later became the CIA), and masterminded the execution of Che Guevara in 1967 died of complications of pneumonia yesterday at the age of 88. Hunt was instrumental in planning and executing operations against the Soviets, Cuba, and Guatamala during his career of almost threed decades, and gods only know what else he was involved in that hasn't been declassified yet. After he got out of prison for his role in the Watergate break-in …
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As more evidence in the Valerie Plame incident comes to light, it's looking more and more like Scooter Libby was set up to cover the ass of Karl Rove. No real surprise, there, given who was giving him orders.
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The Robert Anton Wilson memorial service will be held at the Cocoanut Grove on the boardwalk in Santa Cruz, California on Sunday, 18 February 2007 between 1300 and 1800 PST/PDT. It sounds like they've got a real shindig planned, too: They're going to cast his ashes into the Pacific Ocean at the Cove, show video footage, get together to geek out, eat, drink, make full use of the open mic, and generally give one of the most interesting, if not awesome people of the 20th century a fine send-off.
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Jeffrey Skilling, former president of Enron, was sentenced to 24 years in Club Fed for his role in the Enron scandal.
Famous sci-fi authors tell stories in six words or less.
The Supreme Court of the state of New Jersey has voted to recognise same-sex marriages. This is entirely too awesome: Robotic Dalek pumpkins, complete with propulsion motors and a remote control so you can chase the trick-or-treaters down the sidewalk.
They have no problems with forgetting about a certain movie, but when the fans start producing the swag that the production company didn't want, they sic the lawyers on …
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