RenaissanceBug - Slashdot User

Large Sheets of Carbon Nanotubes Produced 155

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday March 02, 2008 @01:05PM from the series-of-nanotubes dept.

StCredZero brings news that scientists have developed sheets of nanotubes that measure up to three feet by six feet, and they promise "slabs 100 square feet in area as soon as this summer." The developers see uses for the sheets in electromagnetic shields and airplane construction, and according to the Next Big Future blog, the sheets could also impact the development of solar sails. "The sheets, which the company can produce on its single machine at a rate of one per day, are composed of a series of nanotubes each about a millimeter long, overlapping each other randomly to form a thin mat. The tensile strength of the mat ranges from 200 to 500 megapascals--a measure of how tough it is to break. A sheet of aluminum of equivalent thickness, for comparison, has a strength of 500 megapascals. If Nanocomp takes further steps to align the nanotubes, the strength jumps to 1,200 megapascals."

Sneak Peek at Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope 120

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Sunday March 02, 2008 @07:31AM from the eye-on-the-sky dept.

Ted.com has a great sneak peek at Microsoft's new WorldWide Telescope project. In this video, presented by Roy Gould and Curtis Wong, you are able to see a combined view of satellites and telescopes from all over the planet and nearby space. The compiled image is rendered using Microsoft's new high-performance "Visual Experience Engine" that allows users to pan and zoom across the night sky seamlessly.

End Software Patents Project Comes Out Swinging 205

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Saturday March 01, 2008 @10:30PM from the amicus-populorum dept.

Linux.com is reporting that the End Software Patents project is launching several new initiatives to help drive support for their cause. Among the new methods are a web site, a report on the state of patents in the US, and a scholarship contest promising to award $10,000 "for the best paper on the effects of the patentability of software and business methods under US law." "The project is being launched with initial funding of a quarter million dollars, supplied primarily by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). Under the directorship of Ben Klemens, a long-time advocate of software patent abolition best-known for the book Math You Can't Use: Patents, Copyright, and Software, the project is being supported by the FSF, the Public Patent Foundation, and the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC). One of ESP's goals is to enlist support from academics, software developers, legal experts, and business executives. Its initial supporters show that the project is already well on its way to building such a coalition."

Court Finds Spamming Not Protected By Constitution 416

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Saturday March 01, 2008 @07:04PM from the squirming-pretty-hard dept.

eldavojohn writes "In a split (4-3) decision, a Virginia court has upheld the verdict against the spam king making it clear that spam is not protected by the U.S. Constitution's first amendment or even its interstate commerce clause. 'Prosecutors presented evidence of 53,000 illegal e-mails Jaynes sent over three days in July 2003. But authorities believe he was responsible for spewing 10 million e-mails a day in an enterprise that grossed up to $750,000 per month. Jaynes was charged in Virginia because the e-mails went through an AOL server in Loudoun County, where America Online is based. '"

Comment Re:General Comment (Score 1) 20

by RenaissanceBug on Thursday September 02, 1999 @09:07AM (#1714803) Attached to: Review:Programming Web Graphics with Perl & GNU Software

Well, I can sympathize with the problem of not really needing the books, and yes, just about all the ORA books I've bought and read so far are good ones, but there are occasionally a few problems that seem to slip by the staff--what comes to mind right away is Advanced Perl Programming, which (in spite of being a conceptually great, and well-designed, tutorial) has some errors in references to code examples (and errors in code examples) and the like that just shouldn't have made it past a crack editorial staff.

*shrug* Chalk it up to deadlines, I guess...

Slashdot Top Deals