BBC NEWS | Magazine | How your face could open doo… 11/28/2004
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BBC NEWS | Magazine | How your face could open doors:
“As companies become more security conscious, the process of having our faces scanned is set to become more commonplace. And new technology which can produce this in a more accurate 3D form could accelerate this trend.”
Researchers and space enthusiasts see helium-3 as a perfect fuel source 11/27/2004
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Researchers and space enthusiasts see helium-3 as the perfect fuel source:
“Fusion research began in 1951 in the United States under military auspices. After its declassification in 1957 scientists began looking for a candidate fuel source that wouldn’t produce neutrons. Although Louie Alvarez and Robert Cornog discovered helium 3 in 1939, only a few hundred pounds (kilograms) were known to exist on Earth, most the by-product of nuclear-weapon production.
Apollo astronauts found helium 3 on the moon in 1969, but the link between the isotope and lunar resources was not made until 1986. ‘It took 15 years for us [lunar geologists and fusion pioneers] to stumble across each other,’ said Schmitt, the last astronaut to leave footprints on the moon. “
Economist.com | IT complexity 11/27/2004
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Economist.com | IT complexity: “Tony Picardi, a boffin at IDC, yet another big research firm, comes up with perhaps the most frightening number. When he polled a sample of firms 15 years ago, they were spending 75% of their IT budget on new hardware and software and 25% on fixing the systems that they already had; now that ratio has been reversed�70-80% of IT spending goes on fixing things rather than buying new systems. According to Mr Picardi, this suggests that this year alone IT complexity will cost firms worldwide some $750 billion. Even this, however, does not account for the burden on consumers, whether measured in the cost of call-centres and help desks, in the amount of gadgets and features never used because they are so byzantine, or in sheer frustration.”
The New York Times | Technology | Pentagon Envisioning a Costly Internet for War 11/14/2004
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The New York Times > Technology > Pentagon Envisioning a Costly Internet for War:
“The military is filled with ‘tribal representatives behind tribal workstations interpreting tribal hieroglyphics,’ in the words of Gen. John Jumper, the Air Force chief of staff. ‘What if the machines talked to each other?’ he asked.
That is the vision of the new web: war machines with a common language for all military forces, instantly emitting encyclopedias of lethal information against all enemies.”
This is a fascinating view of the world’s premiere videogame company… 11/14/2004
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This is a fascinating view of the world’s premiere video-game company, from the perpective of a college professor.
Economist.com | Outsourcing: The big picture 11/12/2004
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Economist.com | Outsourcing: The big picture:
“A forthcoming study by McKinsey looks at possible shifts in global employment patterns in various service industries, including software engineering, banking and IT services. Between them, these three industries employ more than 20m workers worldwide. The supply of IT services is the most global. Already, 16% of all the work done by the world’s IT-services industry is carried out remotely, away from where these services are consumed, says McKinsey. In the software industry the proportion is 6%. The supply of banking services is the least global, with less than 1% delivered remotely.”
The History of Kaaba As A Place Of Worship 11/12/2004
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The History of Kaaba As A Place Of Worship-Hajj-Pilgrimage:
“Kaaba, also known as, Ka’bah, Kabah and Caaba is the center of the holiest place of worship in Islam (Submission in English), i.e. the Sacred Mosque of Mecca, Al Masjid Al-Haram. Its name means the cube in Arabic as it is a cube shaped stone structure built in the middle of the Sacred Mosque. The Kaaba was built by prophet Abraham as a landmark for the House of God ,for the sole purpose of worshipping of God alone.”
GameDAILY BIZ, the source for game industry profes… 11/02/2004
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GameDAILY BIZ, the source for game industry professionals.:
“McKool Smith contends that these 12 companies infringed on their patent, ‘Method and Apparatus for Spherical Planning,’ or patent 4,734,690. The patent was originally filed in March 1988 for a specific method of displaying 3-D images on a”
