“eBay driving world’s tomb raiders out of business, says prof”
It seems that the way the Internet drives down prices by eliminating the middlemen is actually doing some good for someone other than the buyer, for a change.
Archive of posts filed under the Science and Technology category.
Topics pertaining to science and technology, current or future.
BTRFS
As you might remember, I wrote an entry on using the ZFS file system for my older network backup drive a while back, and how nice it was to have the protection of block checksums, ensuring that files can’t get silently corrupted. But for various reasons, I was forced to abandon ZFS on my new …
“New non-volatile memory promises ‘instant-on’ computing”
I’ve heard this kind of claim before. Several times. I’ll believe it when I see it.
Taming the Wild Rodent: Unintended Double-Clicks
You’d think that with three cats in the house, we’d have no problem with mice, but for some reason they completely ignore the kind that plug into the computer. I should fire the lot of them. 🙂 I have a really nice wireless Logitech mouse. Just a simple one, but it gets the job done, …
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Newspapers in the Internet Age
I recently fielded a nuisance telemarketing call from one of our local newspapers, trying to convince me to buy a subscription. This is a fairly regular occurrence; “no” seems to translate to “try again later” to them, and the calls seem to be getting more frequent… probably because newspapers are in dire financial straits. I …
“Echo vision: The man who sees with sound”
A fascinating article. I didn’t realize that humans could do this sort of thing.
“GNOME vs. KDE: The Final Smackdown”
A very amusing look at the two major Linux desktop environments. It’s so well-written that I could actually hear it in my head, as if it were live commentary on a real boxing match. (I don’t have a favorite in this fight. I’ve used GNOME for the past few years, but that’s solely because it’s …
“Are you ready for a wrist-mounted computer?”
I don’t know whether this kind of thing will ever catch on. It’s neat and useful, and I’d buy it in a heartbeat — but so are dome houses, and most people look at them and say “that’s weird, Martha.” They might be a stepping-stone between today’s separate devices and neural-interface computers, but there would …
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Ubuntu 9.04 Even Better
I was all braced for a Herculean effort to get Ubuntu 9.04 working on my system, earlier this week, but as mentioned, I was disappointed: the upgrade worked almost flawlessly. But I did have one remaining problem with it (other than the encrypted home directory problem), and I was concerned by all the “cruft” that …
“Boffins: Atlantic temperature ruled by dust, not CO2”
“Warm ocean, hurricane increases down to clean skies,” according to the subtitle. Hm, I wonder what NASA’s climate experts would say about that?