Jul 01
A few dozen members of Cuba’s small but growing Twitter community have met in real space for the first time. They got to put unfamiliar faces with familiar user names, and they commiserated about the woeful Internet access on an island that has the second-worst Web connectivity rate in the world.
Gathering at a downtown Havana pavilion Friday, Cuba’s Twitterati wrote their online handles on name tags emblazoned with the Cuban flag and the hash tag used to organize the event, TwittHab. One by one they introduced themselves, told of their history with social media and compared numbers of followers.
“Many of us didn’t know each other.
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Tags: Community, Community Twitterati
Jul 01
Buying products that reinforce your geek credentials usually involves a trip over to ThinkGeek, but for once they dont have the geekiest item out there in a specific category. In the area of footstools, that award has to go to Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.
The 555 Footstool is a typically functioning footstool, but it looks like a 555 timer chip. The chip dates back to 1970 when it was first thought up by Hans Camenzind and Jim Ball. It contained around 20 transistors, 2 diodes, and 15 resistors, but we dont expect the footstool version to have the same configuration inside.
As for what the chip was used for, the Apple II used one to allow up to four joystick to be connected, as did the IBM PC.
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Tags: Geek, Geek Footstool
Jul 01
Japanese scientists have discovered mammoth deposits of rare earth minerals—essential in the manufacture of many high-tech devices—at the depths of the Pacific Ocean, reports Reuters The find could transform the international market for these vital materials Discovered as deep as 20,000 feet at 78 locations, particularly around Hawaii and Tahiti, the researchers estimate the size of these deposits could be as much as 100 billion tons Currently, just 110 million tons of rare earth minerals are known to exist, mostly in China, but soaring prices have countries like Japan desperate for alternatives
“The deposits have a heavy concentration of rare earth” minerals, said one of the researchers Just 04 square mile of deposits “would be able to provide one-fifth of the current global annual consumption,” he noted These Pacific deposits are said to contain only small amounts of dangerous elements, like uranium, but are rich in important minerals like gadolinium, lutetium, terbium and dysprosium, essential for such high-tech products as hybrid cars, flat-screen TVs, and LED valves Access to these deep-water muds is actually simple, researchers said, although they did not estimate when mining might begin
Tags: Find, Find Transform
Jul 01
A U.S. International Trade Commission judge determined on Friday that Apple is infringing on two out of the four S3 Graphics patents the company is accused of violating, granting the graphics chipmaker an initial partial win.
ITC judge James Gildea found Apple guilty of infringing on three claims from two patents regarding “Fixed-rate block-based image compression with inferred pixel values,” CNet reports. The initial decision will be reviewed by a six-member commission, with a final decision expected in November.
“S3 Graphics is pleased to win this portion of the ITC investigation,” S3 Graphics CEO Dr. Read more…
Tags: Apple, S3 Graphics
Jul 01
The National Fire Protection Association released the Third Needs Assessment of the U.S. Fire Service on June 16, a 216-page document that spells out a better preparedness posture for the U.S. fire service overall because of FEMA’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant programs. Significant unmet needs remain, however.
While 51 percent of all fire departments can’t equip all of their firefighters on a shift with self-contained breathing apparatus, this percentage is down from 70 percent in 2001 and 60 percent in 2005, for example.
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Tags: Fire Service, Service