Links, Links, Links
September 15th, 2008 | by emontero |Another week flew by and I didn’t have the chance to share anything with you about the tech and science worlds! Gosh, there are lots of phenomenal news right now (LHC, anyone?). However, I can’t seem to get some peaceful time for me to sit and produce some cool writing. I really need to get hold of my new schedule! Oh, well. While I’m trying to switch gears and set the graduate student wheels in motion once more, you can delight in the following links:
- The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was the biggest piece of tech news this week. The awesome guys at ARS have a nice article on the subject. Oh, make sure you also watch the humorous, Large Hadron Rap video. Jay-Z has nothing on these geeks.
- The Future of Money is a set of very interesting readings about the presence, role and power of money in years to come. For instance, check out this extract from one of the site’s short articles (Electric Money):
“2032 heralded a new era for our currency, as more than half of the world’s countries converted to electronic money systems. Although the new systems were cheap and efficient, problems began to occur…people outside the systems began to suffer. Attempts were made to include the minorities, but unfortunately this led to the system being hacked. Hyperinflation swept the globe and money needed to be made tangible once again. Nanotechnology allowed the redox flow battery to dramatically reduce in size…allowing people to carry a few kilowatt hours of electricity with them; exchanging charged electrolyte for goods is now a widespread reality and because energy cannot be created or destroyed only converted…the risk from hackers is negligible.”
- “The circus around Seinfeld’s ads won’t shoo Vista away”. Descriptive enough I’d say.
- Microsoft’s woes are basically young people? I positively agree.
- “Leaving Computers On Helps Them Last Longer”. Right on the money:
“When it comes to judging whether sleep or standby causes more wear and tear on your computer, pick your poison. Whereas disk hard drives are most likely to crash during the process of turning off the computer, leaving the PC on causes the microprocessor to generate heat—more heat than if the system is shut down—that will wear down the electronics over time. “Some components will last longer if you shut down your computer, others won’t,” Bosley says.
As a general rule of thumb, he says, most electronics have some failure rate linked to the amount of hours they’re in use. A few hundred dollars will buy you either a blazing-fast new microprocessor or a spacious, terabyte-size hard drive, so the replacement cost differences are negligible.”
You can also check out my newest Reporter article (“Safeguarding Your Reputation“). Did I mention I would be doing this on a weekly basis? No? OK, now you know it. Make sure you read yours truly every Friday at Reporter’s web site. I believe I still have 8 more columns due this quarter.
That’s all for now. Adieu!
