System News for Sun Users

Ten Star Trek Technologies That Are Almost Here

2013-05-16T16:00:00+01:00

"The 23rd century may seem a long way off, but you'd be surprised by how much of the future predicted by Star Trek is already here. We've got handheld communicators (smartphones), sassy voice-driven computers (Siri), Geordi La Forge-like vision (Google Glass), and at least 4.5 billion Earth-like planets to choose from. (Whether any of them contain green-skinned alien babes in gold bikinis is still to be determined.) As for warp drives, transporters, phasers, and the rest? It will be here sooner than you think. Join us as we boldly go on a tour of Trek tech..."

Warp drives
Transporters
Phasers
Tractor beams
Replicators
Helpful holograms
Tricorders
Holodecks
Cloaking devices
Friendly androids

Read on for details.

12 APIs Every Programmer Should Know About

2013-05-06T16:00:00+01:00

"Was it just yesterday that the API was going to take over the Internet and turn every site into an endless remix of data from hundreds of freely available data stores? The world is a bit more mature now. The APIs are still proliferating, but they're not wide open and ready for anyone. Most of the better tools are following the lead of Google and imposing a fee on serious usage...

Here's a collection of 12 APIs that caught our attention. They're modern tools for adding a bit of oomph or pizazz to your site.

Geo-Names
Flightstats
Follow the Money
USA.Gov
Stocktwits
Yahoo Content Analysis
Moodstocks
MusixMatch
OpenStreetMap
Panoramio
3D Geo Stats
New York Public Library

Read on for details.

MIT Envisions Future of Talking Cars That Can Plan Driver's Day

2013-05-06T16:00:00+01:00

"You wake up in the morning and your robot starts the coffee maker and then sends the daily calendar to the car. The car then works on a plan that makes sure you keep to that schedule.

It's not a scene out of a sci-fi movie. It's the vision of MIT researchers who are developing systems to help people collaborate with robots and vehicles..."

Remembering the Little Desk Lamp That Could: Pixar's "Luxo, Jr."

2013-05-06T16:00:00+01:00

"People can toss around the phrase 'game-changer' with perhaps a little to much ease these days but the two-minute short animated film 'Luxo Jr' released in 1986 by Pixar could be argued invented the term - at least in the world of computer animation.

If you have never seen it, the movie revolves around two desk lamps: one large and one small..."

When Cars Talk, This Is What They'll Tell Each Other

2013-05-06T16:00:00+01:00

"Researchers are developing machine-to-machine (M2M) communication technology that allows cars to exchange data with each other, meaning vehicles will soon know what the cars all around you are doing on the highway.

Your car, for instance, could "see" the velocity of nearby vehicles and react when they turn or brake suddenly. And with computer algorithms and predictive models, your car will be able to predict where other vehicles are going and measure the other drivers' skills -- ensuring you're safe from their bad moves..."

IBM Video Provides Cute Showcase for Atomic-Scale Engineering

2013-04-29T16:00:00+01:00

"IBM today debuted a whimsical 94-second film to showcase technology that its engineers can use to move atoms. The film, magnified 100 million times to make it visible to humans, uses the same techniques that IBM is employing to build the next generation of miniaturized storage.

The World's Smallest Movie: A Boy and His Atom has been certified as the world's smallest movie by Guiness World Records, according to IBM, which is the exclusive sponsor of Internet Evolution..."

Mind-Controlled Tablets Are Real; No, You Can't Have One Yet

2013-04-29T16:00:00+01:00

"In recent of years, touch control technology has completely changed the way we interact with our electronics. And you can't forget about voice-command systems and motion-based controllers like the Leap Motion and Kinect. Samsung, along with researchers at the University of Texas, are onto what could be the next step forward--controlling a tablet with our minds.

A mind control system isn't just a thought, either--the researchers are already experimenting with an EEG cap that allows patients to select apps on a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1..."

Next-Gen USB SuperSpeed To Eliminate Power Cords

2013-04-29T16:00:00+01:00

"Intel has announced that the Thunderbolt and USB SuperSpeed specifications will soon double data transfer speeds, opening up peripheral pipes to greater throughput.

But what Intel hasn't hyped much is the fact that the upgrade to the USB Super Speed 3.0 spec will also boost power transfer in both directions from 10 watts to 100 watts.

The increase in power means that computer monitors, laptops and even high definition televisions could be powered through the use of a single USB hub, which would also allow for a bidirectional data flow..."

Postcards from Tomorrow's Data Centers

2013-04-29T16:00:00+01:00

"Today's data centers are essentially the same: long rows of metal racks stocked with machines, miles of cable, and elaborate cooling systems. But just because we build data centers this way in 2013 doesn't mean that's how it will be in ten, twenty or fifty years. Here's a few glimpses of what the future might hold, from printable electronics to nanotube processors to nuclear batteries..."

Going Nano
Metamaterials Will Reshape Chips
Two Metamaterials Are Better Than One
New Power Sources - Nuclear Battery
Data Center Cyborgs
The Power of Probability - Quantum Computing
Magnetic Tornados for Massive Storage

Read on for details.

Tiny Chip Provides Precise GPS Navigation without the GPS

2013-04-22T16:00:00+01:00

"..the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency set out to develop a �'timing and inertial measurement unit�' (TIMU) made of microscale components that could deliver precise location and navigation without GPS. DARPA and researchers at the University of Michigan built a prototype chip, about one-third the width of a penny and six human hairs thick, that does the job..."

3D Scanner Scans Objects From Over a Half Mile Away, Watches the Grass Grow

2013-04-22T16:00:00+01:00

"If we're ever going to have autonomous robots, they're going to need to be able to see better than we can. To this end, researchers from the Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, United Kingdom say they have developed a new high-definition scanner that can create 3D virtual models of objects. Using lasers. From a half mile away.

The system works by sweeping a low-power infrared laser beam over an object�'not unlike the Kinect you might have in your home. It then records the round-trip flight time of each of the laser's photons as a pixel map that resolves into a three-dimensional virtual model of an object..."

Can NASA, Air Force, and Private Industry Really Mitigate Asteroid Threat?

2013-04-22T16:00:00+01:00

"There has been much chatter about the threat of an asteroid or significant meteor strike on Earth in the past few weeks - mostly caused by the untracked meteor that blasted its way to international attention when it exploded in the sky above Russia injuring nearly 1,200 people in February.

It was one of those amazing coincidences that on that same day an asteroid NASA had been tracking for months -- asteroid 2012 DA14 - was to harmlessly cross Earth's path..."

Banks Must Ditch Legacy IT

2013-04-22T16:00:00+01:00

"The banking industry is staring at a major challenge: how to drive growth, attract new customers and slice costs while relying on 40-year old technology systems. Even with constrained IT budgets, many banks need to modernize the aging systems that run their core operations -- deposit gathering, lending, mortgages, cards and online banking.

Banks have had their reasons to put off modernization. In the pre-financial crisis years, with profits flush, there wasn't a big incentive to make the big investment and take the risk of a large modernization project. Instead, banks opted for smaller, less costly alternatives such as product or feature enhancements, which often added complexity to their environments..."

Researchers Analyze Brainwaves to Authenticate Users

2013-04-22T16:00:00+01:00

"It sounds like something straight out of science fiction: brainwaves taking the place of passwords in the name of authentication. But a new study by researchers from the U.C. Berkeley School of Information is turning fiction into reality.

The study (PDF) examined the brainwave signals of individuals performing specific actions to see whether they can be consistently matched to the right individual..."

20 People Who Changed Tech: Mauchly And Eckert

2013-04-22T16:00:00+01:00

"The credit for this first digital computer should go first to the U.S. government. The U.S. Census Bureau in 1890 realized that it was taking eight full years to compile the 10-year census and it needed a faster solution, so it turned to Herman Hollerith, an inventor and statistician, to make the first mechanical tabulators. He used punch cards, a technology the textile industry had used for years to program its looms. Hollerith's company eventually turned into International Business Machines..."

20 People Who Changed Tech: Marconi and Tesla

2013-04-22T16:00:00+01:00

"You gotta like Marconi, but you gotta love Tesla.

Guglielmo Marconi is usually credited with inventing the radio and pioneering long distance radio transmission, but Nikola Tesla's work on both was more seminal and farther reaching. For their contributions to wireless telegraphy, Marconi and Karl Ferdinand Braun, another early innovator, won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1909. But because Tesla and Thomas Edison were involved in a pitched battle on the AC/DC front, the Nobel Committee was probably looking for a set of compromise candidates. How pitched was that battle? Edison electrocuted an elephant to demonstrate the "danger" of Tesla's alternating current. An elephant? Weren't there any lawyers around?..."

Baseball Meets Internet of Things: Bye, Bad Umpires?

2013-04-22T16:00:00+01:00

"To baseball aficionados, it's a frustratingly familiar chain of events: the pitcher winds up and hurls his best curveball; the batter holds back as the ball abruptly drifts; the umpire, unaware of the ball's last-second shift, calls a strike; and millions of fans scream at their TVs for the blown call. But the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world's largest technical professional association, plans to make poor baseball officiating a thing of the past..."

New Hybrid Memory Cube Spec to Boost DRAM Bandwidth by 15X

2013-04-22T16:00:00+01:00

"Backed by 100 tech companies, the three largest memory makers announced the final specifications for three-dimensional DRAM, which is aimed at increasing performance for networking and high performance computing markets.

Micron, Samsung and Hynix are leading the technology development efforts backed by the Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium (HMC). The technology, called a Hybrid Memory Cube, will stack multiple volatile memory dies on top of a DRAM controller..."

10 Tech Products to Boost Your Small Business Productivity

2013-03-25T16:00:00+01:00

"From mini storage arrays to IP cameras to print servers, these 10 hardware devices will help you run your small business more efficiently whether you're in the office or hitting the road to close a deal..."

Pogoplug
Drobo Mini
xPrintServer
ioSafe SoloPRO Hard Drive
Dropcam HD
Doxie Go Scanner
Apple Airport Express Base Station
Lenovo ThinkVision LT1421 Travel Monitor
Logitech K810 Bluetooth Illuminated Keyboard
Libratone Zipp

Read on for details.

10 Rugged Gadgets for Surviving Dirty, Dangerous Jobs

2013-03-25T16:00:00+01:00

"Not all work takes place in a cushy, climate-controlled office. A lot of business occurs in less-than-ideal conditions. In the wind and rain. At high altitudes. In extreme temperatures. Sound familiar? You need rugged tech�'gear that can tough it out in a construction zone or survive the demands of a research vessel off the shores of Antarctica.

Read on to discover gear that is, for the most part, tested to military-grade standards..."

LaCie XtremKey USB 3.0
Panasonic Toughpad FZ-A1
Dell Latitude E6420 XFR
Panasonic Toughbook F9
Olympus TG-820 iHS
IoSafe Rugged Portable drive
BlueAnt T1 Rugged Bluetooth Headset
NCS Technologies Bunker XRV-5241 Server
Liquipel waterproofing
AquaPac Waterproof Case for iPad

Read on for details.

20 People Who Changed Tech: Alexander Graham Bell and Theodore Vail

2013-03-25T16:00:00+01:00

Is this one person or two? The real issue is that Alexander Graham Bell was the masterful inventor and Theodore Vail was the organizational genius who made it all work. Wait, was Bell really such a great inventor? He didn't even know what every other inventor playing with electricity already knew: that it was impossible to send a voice call over telegraph wires! So Bell pursued the idea with the help of his father-in-law, who bankrolled his experiments.

IBM Opens a Path Beyond Silicon Chips

2013-03-25T16:00:00+01:00

"Researchers at IBM have applied a positively charged ionic liquid electrolyte to an insulating oxide material -- vanadium dioxide -- and successfully converted the material to a metallic state. The material held its metallic state until a negatively charged ionic liquid electrolyte was applied, to convert it back to its original, insulating state..."

Nanowires Could Boost Solar Power 15X

2013-03-25T16:00:00+01:00

"Building solar voltaic cells from nanowires instead of standard metal conductors can increase the amount of energy that can be captured by a factor of 15, according to a new study by scientists from the Nano-Science Center in Denmark.

The study, published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Photonics, found that nanowires have unique light absorption properties, meaning the limit of how much energy can be harnessed from the sun's rays is vastly higher than previous believed..."

10 Space Technologies That Help On Earth

2013-03-18T16:00:00+01:00

"NASA nurtured many innovations, from a portable communications system to an ultrasound machine for telemedicine, that have made the leap from space to Earth...

Remote Ultrasound
Inflatable Satellite Communication System
Ultrasound Diagnostics
Forest Fire Monitor
Flexible Aerogel
Earth-Imaging Technology
Adult Stem Cell Research
Digital Fly-by-Wire
UVA-Filtering Lenses
Aerodynamic Design
Micro Algae Supplements

Read on for details.

Debunking 10 IT Usability Misconceptions

2013-03-18T16:00:00+01:00

"The usability of health and other information technology systems has long been a challenge... As a first step in that process, Staggers and Chapman at HIMSS13 presented a list of the top 10 usability myths:

Clinicians are uncomfortable with technology
Health care workers want all their information on one screen
The system with the most features will win a purchase decision
If users like a feature or a function on their desktop devices, they�'re going to love it on their mobile devices
If clinicians are allowed to customize their screens, they�'ll be happy with their systems
Usability is subjective
Usability is only about a pretty face
Usability stifles innovation
Usability is the sole responsibility of the vendor
Meaningful Use Stage 2 is a year away

Read on for details...

How 7 Strange Tech Terms Got Their Names

2013-03-18T16:00:00+01:00

"Tech terms can be funny things. Think about it: What does "Bluetooth" actually mean? Why do we call a piece of code that tracks us a "cookie"? And what for the love of GOOG is a "wiki"?

So where did some of the strangest sounding tech terms come from, and how did they get their unusual names? ...

Bluetooth
Wi-Fi
Troll
Ping
Spam
Cookie

Read on for details.

The Latest Fashion - Wearable Computers

2013-03-18T16:00:00+01:00

"One of the next big things, wearable computers, actually has been with us for quite some time. It is only with the coming of Google Glass and the rumored wearable glasses from Apple that this slow revolution has achieved a high profile.

ABI Research predicted that wearable computers will 'explode in popularity' during the next five years, and the expectation is that 485 million devices will be sold annually by 2018..."

Google Glass
Pebble watch
Sony SmartWatch
Neptune Pine
Gesture Control Armband
MOTOACTV
e-textiles
Computer garments
Oculus Rift

Read on for details.

Future Alert: Researchers Create Self-Healing Chips

2013-03-11T16:00:00+01:00

"To create such Lazarus-like properties in chips, a number of on-chip sensors are deployed that track temperature, current, voltage and power, which then feed updates into an application-specific integrated circuit on the chip. If there are any changes in the variables, the ASIC runs through more than 250,000 configurations to find the best workaround..."

10 rugged gadgets for surviving dirty, dangerous jobs

2013-03-11T16:00:00+01:00

Read on to discover gear that is, for the most part, tested to military-grade standards..."

LaCie XtremKey USB 3.0
Panasonic Toughpad FZ-A1
Dell Latitude E6420 XFR
Panasonic Toughbook F9
Olympus TG-820 iHS
IoSafe Rugged Portable drive
Liquipel waterproofing
BlueAnt T1 Rugged Bluetooth Headset
NCS Technologies Bunker XRV-5241 Server
AquaPac Waterproof Case for iPad

Read on for details.

A visual history of Linux

2013-03-11T16:00:00+01:00

"Linux started out life as a Minix clone built as a hobby by some guy over in Europe. (OK, it wasn't exactly a Minix clone. But it was built by a guy. And he was in Europe.) Since then, Linux has had a lot of different looks. Let's take a look over a few of the most interesting..."

The first release of Linux
XFree86
GNOME 1
K Desktop Environment 1
K Desktop Environment 2
K Desktop Environment 3
GNOME 2
K Desktop Environment 4
Unity
GNOME 3/Shell

Read on for details.