Weixiao Haung and new GAN transistor.

Even before Weixiao Huang received his doctorate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, his new transistor captured the attention of some of the biggest American and Japanese automobile companies. The 2008 graduate's invention could replace one of the most common pieces of technology in the world--the silicon transistor for high-power and high-temperature electronics.

The water cooling technology was built into IBM's 3D chips Enlarge Image A network of tiny pipes of water could be used to cool next-generation PC chips, researchers at IBM have said. Scientists at the firm have shown off a prototype device layered with thousands of "hair-width" cooling arteries. They believe it could be a solution to the increasing amount of heat pumped out by chips as they become smaller and more densely packed with components. The technology was demonstrated in IBM's 3D chips, where circuits are stacked one on top of the other. Laying chips vertically, instead of side by side, reduces the distance data has to travel , enhancing performance and saving critical space. "As we package chips on top of each other....we have found that conventional coolers attached to the back of a chip don't scale," explained Thomas Brunschwiler at IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory. "In order to exploit the potential of high-performance 3D chip stacking, we need interlayer cooling." Cool running Heat is seen as one of the major hurdles of producing ever smaller and quicker chips. 3D chip It took IBM a decade to work out how to build 3D chips It is the by-product of the movement of electrons through the tiny wires connecting the millions of components on a modern processor. As more and more components are packed on to chips - Intel recently launched a processor with two billion transistors, for example - the problems become worse. As a result, researchers around the world are engaged in a search for the most efficient way to take the heat off the chip industry. For example, in 2007, US researchers built tiny wind engines that created a "breeze" made up of charged particles, or ions, to cool computer chips. But the problems are exacerbated in the multi-storey chips which IBM, as well as others, believe offer "one of the most promising approaches" for building future processors. Each 4cm sq sandwich is just 1mm thick but pumps out close to 1kilowatt - 10 times that generated by a hotplate. Conventional cooling techniques such as fans and heat sinks do not work as well with the 3D technology, particularly as heat has to be drawn away from between the individual chips. To get around this, researchers piped water through sealed tubes just 50 microns (millionths of a metre) in diameter, between individual layers. Water is much more efficient than air at absorbing heat and so even with tiny amounts of liquid flowing through the system the researchers saw a significant effect. The idea of pumping liquids around computers is not entirely new. Early mainframe computers had water pumped around them. High end computers have been "modded" for a number of years with water coolers and various researchers and companies have put forward proposals for directly cooling chips with fluids. In 2003, Stanford University spin-out company Cooligy showed off its Active Micro-Channel Cooling (AMC) technology which allowed fluids to circulate through hundreds of tiny channels on the upper surface of a chip. The technology was used in some versions of Apple's Power Mac G5 desktop computer, released in 2004. IBM has said its water-cooling technology could be in products within five years.

TEST RIVE AUDI R8 HD QUALITY

AUDI R8 TEST DRIVE (MANUALGEAR.COM)
by ManualGear

CHEVY A E EERYTIME

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100 th bithday to cell phone

History has forgotten Nathan Stubblefield, but thanks to the arrival of the 100th anniversary of his then-pioneering invention, the man's finally receiving his due. In 1908 Stubblefield had the idea to use a complicated rig of wire and large poles set up around a train track, road, or river. When a train, vehicle, or boat traveled past the wires, a transmitting device on the vehicle would send an audio signal to a receiving device in the distance using magnetic waves. A patent was granted for the device on May 9 of that year, which some are now crediting as the first wireless communications device ever. To wit, Virgin Mobile is honoring Stubblefield on the centennial of the patent with a set of web pages about the man. (Click through the photo gallery to get a better idea of how such a device worked. It's really pretty fascinating.) Unfortunately, Stubblefield's invention wasn't entirely practical. The transmitter and receiver were enormous and far from portable (see picture), and they required so much wire that it would have been considerably more efficient to simply run the wire between the two transmitters instead of using wireless communications. Still, it's nice to remember Stubblefield as a pioneer in a field that, at the time, few felt would have much of a future. History has of course shown of course that Stubblefield was on to something bigger than he knew: Harris Interactive's latest poll shows that 14 percent of adults use a cell phone exclusively at home now, sans land line. Post

FLASH ON MOBILE- ADOBE WAY

Watching TV on a mobile can be a frustrating experience

Adobe has announced a plan to try to get its Flash player installed on more mobile devices and set-top boxes.

Dubbed Open Screen the initiative lifts restrictions on how its multimedia handling software can be used.

Adobe will stop charging licencing fees for mobile versions of Flash and plans to publish information about the inner workings of the code.

In taking this step Adobe hopes to repeat on mobiles the success its Flash technology has enjoyed on the web.

Video deal

Adobe estimates that its Flash player is installed on more than 98% of net-connected desktop computers.

The Open Screen plan will build on Flash Lite - Adobe's version of its multimedia player designed for mobile gadgets - that is already on millions of handhelds.

The ultimate aim of Open Screen is to make it much easier for TV and film makers to send their content to mobiles and on other devices such as set-top boxes.

It aims to do this by creating one flexible player technology that can run on any small-form device but only demands that developers write code once for it.

At the moment trying to get games or video on to different devices can be frustrating because of the plethora of hardware and software quirks on each gadget.

Adobe's four-step plan involves ending license fees; removing restrictions on the use of files in SWF and FLV format; publishing detailed information about the program interfaces for its Flash player and opening up information about its Flash streaming technology.

The move is the latest in a series that are aiming to open up Flash and get more devleopers working with it.

It is also part of the larger plan for Adobe Air - an overarching code development system that aims to bridge the gap between web and desktop applications.

Adobe said it was working with Arm, SonyEricsson, Nokia, LG and other gadget makers on the Open Screen initiative as well as content partners such as the BBC, MTV and NBC.

Adobe faces competition from Microsoft which is trying to get Silverlight - its answer to Air - on to mobiles too.

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MICROSOFT ON SOFT SIDE TO YAHOO. AWAY FROM BID

Yahoo's shares are expected to fall when markets open on Monday

Software giant Microsoft has dropped its three-month-old bid to buy internet firm Yahoo because the two sides cannot agree on an acceptable sale price.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer formally withdrew the offer in a letter to Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang.

Mr Ballmer said Microsoft had raised its original offer from $44.6bn to $47.5bn (£24.1bn) - $33 per share.

But he added that Yahoo had insisted on at least $53bn, or $37 a share - more than Microsoft was prepared to pay.

The software giant had wanted to do a deal to be able to compete with Google, which dominates the lucrative market for internet advertising.

Microsoft's new leadership will have to prove it can deliver a web offering that can ultimately substitute the profits generated by cash cows Windows and Office Tim Weber, Business editor, BBC News website Analysis: Microsoft with Yahoo dot.life blog Q&A: End of Microsoft's bid

This market was worth $40bn in 2007 and is predicted to double to $80bn by 2010.

'Distraction'

In his letter to Mr Yang, which has been posted on the Microsoft website, Mr Ballmer said: "We continue to believe that our proposed acquisition made sense for Microsoft, Yahoo and the market as a whole.

"Despite our best efforts, including raising our bid by roughly $5bn, Yahoo has not moved toward accepting our offer.

"After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal."

Mr Ballmer also told Yahoo's boss that he would not pursue his original plan B of launching a hostile takeover battle, because Mr Yang would "take steps that would make Yahoo undesirable as an acquisition for Microsoft".

Mr Ballmer told his own employees that Microsoft could achieve its goals without Yahoo, albeit at a slower pace.

Yahoo maintained that Microsoft had offered too little to buy the company.

In a statement issued after Microsoft's withdrawal, Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock dismissed the unsolicited bid as a "distraction".

Microsoft's shares closed on Friday virtually unchanged at $29.24. Yahoo's shares were $1.85 higher at $28.67 amid expectations of a higher Microsoft offer.

The BBC's Peter Bowes says analysts believe the breakdown in talks may have an adverse affect on Yahoo shares and generate uncertainty among investors about the company's management.

Disappointment

Sir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of advertising group WPP, said his clients would be disappointed that Microsoft had abandoned its bid for Yahoo.

"A combination of Microsoft and Yahoo would have provided balance to the online advertising market place," he told the BBC News website.

However, he said that Microsoft was a "resourceful and innovative company" and might still be able to provide a challenge to Google's market dominance.

RED CAR TO RED CARPET. A QUICK PIT START FROM MS

"Retirement" is a relative term when you're the fastest driver in the world. Since stepping back from his Formula One career, seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher has remained a high-profile celebrity, often despite his best attempts to stay out of the limelight. When he's not under investigation for commandeering a taxi or dedicating buildings, he's competing ad-hoc in motorcycle races and coaching his son on a developing racing career of his own. Reports now suggest that Hollywood is offering Schumi a film on his life and career. According to reports, Schumacher himself could star in the film, while Bruce Willis has also been attached to the project to play race commentator Murray Walker. It wouldn't be Schumacher's first foray into film, following his cameos in kids' movies like Asterix and Pixar's Cars. Although Schumacher has yet to accept the offer, his longtime manager Willi Weber has confirmed that it's under consideration. If the project gets the green light, it could turn out to be the biggest racing film since Steve McQueen's Le Mans.

MENU MAKING IS LOT EASY FROM NOW.

Create more advanced, complex and exciting DHTML Menus with the press of a button by using the NEW “Multiple Rows and Columns” feature. added in the Group Style Editor’s <Type> property in AllWebMenus!

Examples:

Multiple Rows:

Multiple Columns:

Note: In this demonstration AllWebMenus DHTML Menu Maker version 5.1 build #734 was used.

The choice of AllWebMenus as your DHTML menu / JavaScript menu maker offers you the highest possible standards and qualifications:

• Powerful customization (hundreds of combinations) View examples of menus
• Cross-browser support
• Addins/extensions for popular html editors (view entire list)
• All UNICODE languages/symbols fully supported (international menus) new!
• Floating Images - Use this feature as extra decoration for a special occasion (anniversary, holiday etc) or as a part of a theme
• Multiple Column/Row menus
• Use HTML code on selected menu items to achieve enhanced formatting or advanced functionality
• Database-driven or programmatically generated menus on server-side environments, such as PHP, JSP, ColdFusion, ASP, ASP.NET, etc. (Server-Side Menus API)
• Web menu Theme Packs and Templates
• SEO (search engine optimized) menu implementations
• Innovative User Interface - Simplicity and ease of use
• Continuous upgrades and company commitment, accurate customer support

View complete features list as well as examples of menus you can create with our DHTML menu generator.

Floating Images can now be added to any of the items of your DHTML menu, allowing for even more creative menu implementations.

- The fact that a “floating image” appears above the item’s layer gives it the opportunity to exceed the item’s area!

- Have a look at the following examples, where we have decorated one menu for Christmas and another for the Basketball’s finals by just adding a “floating image” on the items you want and for any of the three states of the menu (Normal, Mouse Over or Mouse Click):

AND

GTA IV gets masterpiece as well as Mature rating . youth speacial from youthsprouts

Grand Theft Auto IVThe queues for Grand Theft Auto IV, which went on sale at midnight, seem justified judging by the rave reviews for the latest game from developer Rockstar Games and its publisher Take-Two. “Rockstar’s magnum opus is a modern-day masterpiece that could change the way the world views videogames,” said Gamespy. Its New York-based location “Liberty City is nothing less than one of the greatest videogame worlds yet conceived,” said IGN. “I now know how film critics felt after screening The Godfather …Grand Theft Auto IV doesn’t just raise the bar for the storied franchise; it completely changes the landscape of gaming,” said Game Informer. Metacritic, which provides a weighted average score for games based on a wide range of reviews, has rated the PlayStation 3 version of the game as a perfect 100 and the Xbox 360 version as a 99. The industry average for video games is around 68, with Nintendo games scoring highest at an average of 75, Sony following on 74, then Take-Two on 73 and Electronic Arts on 72. Metacritic is widely quoted by the industry and the Mature-rated Grand Theft Auto franchise’s excellence has to be one big reason why EA has bid $2bn for Take-Two. At its analyst day in February, John Riccitiello, EA chief executive, expressed his disappointment that EA’s Metacritic average had dropped 5 points in five years from 77 to 72. He set a target for its fiscal 2011 year of reaching an average Metacritic score of 80. EA is this year building better games than it has ever done, he believes, but just imagine the boost to those averages the addition of Rockstar would give.

google, yahoo, micrsoft and game is all done

The bidding for Yahoo!’s future took another twist today when it emerged that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp was trying to work with Microsoft to find a way they both could get their hands on Yahoo!. Yahoo!’s rejection of Microsoft’s $31-a-share-offer earlier this week did not please a number of Yahoo!’s investors. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster asked 20 of Yahoo’s Institutional investors their opinion and the majority said they would prefer to deal with Microsoft on that offer, than do no deal at all. The growing feeling among Silicon Valley investors is that a deal will be completed in the next 3-4 weeks. What that deal will be and what good it will be to whom, remains to be seen. Google is remaining omimously quiet although, Yahoo! is about to turn over three per cent of its US search queries advertising inventory to Google in a two week trial - clearly a little detail that - if you were cynical - might say is being done to annoy Microsoft during its pursuit. Difficult as it is to keep up with all the twists and turns - Jemima Kiss over at the Guardian has summarised key events here in a neat timeline.

Does Google have the key to monetising online video?

Google CEO Eric Schmidt came out earlier this week saying that he hasn’t yet figured out the perfect solution for making money from online video. His comments come after Google’s earnings report revealed that the $1.65bn acquisition of YouTube is yet to reap the kind of financial rewards that were hoped for.

But across the board, advertising in online video is something that still hasn’t been addressed properly, and the PCTV market is going through an interesting phase. Lack of content has already forced the once heralded Joost to retreat to the US and niche content areas. Hulu is doing well with content, but finding many of the same issues with advertising as the rest of the market. Meanwhile others such as Vuze are hoping that a technology advantage in delivering high-def content will help them gain cut-through.

But while different online video providers are fighting to carve out their own niche, none has yet addressed the major issue for driving advertising revenue - and that is finding a genuine format and solution that works for advertisers - and educating them about it.

Schmidt was typically cryptic about what answers Google has planned saying only that top secret new products would be launched this year and that the advertising format - whatever it is - will be valuable to consumers as well as advertisers themselves. He insisted they will go far beyond the in-line text ads, overlays and top and tail ads that are already common with online video.

Until then, plenty of others are just playing catch-up and trying to squeeze more value out of a model that is far from perfect. Warner Bros has just announced that it will offer its DVD film titles online, on-demand on the same day they release the DVDs, which is progress, but a long time coming… Will Google come to the rescue?

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Social Networking in Plain English (Licensed Version)

Post your comments

Podcasting in Plain English (Licensed Version)

Ellen discovers the Hula Chair

she discovered it for all ha ha ha ha ha ha amazing

WHAT'S RSS AND HOW TO SUBSCRIBE IT?

We’re often asked for a definition of RSS feeds. Instead of listing lines of definitions and examples, we thought this didactic 3.5 minutes video from CommonCraft provides with a good answer. Nice Job!

Click To Play

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Bollywood steals cricket Premier show

A light and laser show helped kick start the Indian Premier League

In the end, Bollywood and a spectacular opening ceremony won over cricket in the opening match of the world's first private million-dollar cricket competition.

The cricket in the Indian Premier League opener on a balmy summer evening at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Friday night was one-sided - the Calcutta team whipped the hosts Bangalore by an embarrassing 140 runs.

There were star players aplenty on the field - two stellar Indian captains, Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly, Australia's Ricky Ponting, India's new fast bowling sensation Ishant Sharma, South African star Jacques Kallis, and Indian pace bowler Zaheer Khan.

But the presence of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, also the owner of the Calcutta team, overshadowed the cricket.

King Khan

Fans gaped at their superhero as he blew kisses, cheered and danced precariously on the ledge of an upper tier stand.

There were a few serious cricket fans in the packed stadium

Men and women, young and old, whipped out their mobile phones to take fuzzy pictures of Khan as he opened champagne to celebrate his team's win.

When local spectators were asked by a television reporter who was the hero of the opening match, they screamed "Shah Rukh Khan".

As this worship of King Khan, as he his known by his legions of fans, continued, 26-year-old New Zealander Brendon McCullum decimated the opposition's bowling.

He scored 158 of Calcutta's 222 runs and single-handedly took the match away from Bangalore, owned by airline and brewery baron Vijay Mallya.

The game did not match the dazzling opening ceremony.

The 55,000-seater stadium was almost at capacity and was afire with cheerleaders from America and stilt-walkers from Holland.

A violinist performed in a blinding fog of laser and light show, in what looked like a cross between a corny musical and a Pink Floyd concert.

Building a skyscraper after 9/11

Freedom Tower is to form the centrepiece of the World Trade Center site in New York, which was devastated by the al-Qaeda attacks five years ago.

Due for completion by 2011, the tower will soar 1,776ft (541m) into the sky and incorporate a number of features intended to ensure maximum safety and security.

THE FREEDOM TOWER 1 High-level air intakes to minimise pollution, and chemical and biological filtering system 2 Central vertical core housing key safety features, including water-resistant lifts, pressurised fire-escape stairs and separate staircase for emergency workers 3 Extra-strong 3ft (1m) concrete casing protecting central core, sprinklers, emergency risers 4 Multi-layered glass curtain wall to protect building from explosions A parapet at 1,368ft marks the height of the destroyed twin towers

Safety features include:

click here

NY tower plans found in rubbish

The Freedom Tower will be the tallest building in the US

A homeless man has found confidential blueprints for New York's new Freedom Tower dumped in a city rubbish bin.

Mike Fleming handed the documents - marked "Secure Document - Confidential" in to the New York Post newspaper.

The Freedom Tower is being built at Ground Zero, to replace the World Trade Centre towers destroyed on 9/11.

A spokeswoman apologised for the security breach and said that anyone found responsible would be liable for "serious disciplinary action".

'Game plan'

Mr Fleming said he was concerned that the documents might fall into the wrong hands.

"I was outraged, because this is priceless," he told the New York Post.

"This could have ended up on eBay or gotten to al-Qaeda."

The blueprints reveal details of the new building's floor plans, along with the specifications of its concrete walls and its heating and ventilation systems.

Steve Yang, an architect who spoke to the New York Post, said that the plans would have been helpful for a terrorist planning an attack.

"An expert in explosives, demolition or biological weapons certainly could glean enough here to develop a game plan," he said.

However, Candace McAdams, a spokeswoman for the Port Authority of New York which owns the site, said that the plans were "not very detailed" and available to anyone bidding on contracts.

The Port Authority will now conduct an inquiry to find out how the breach occurred.

Websites gamble on their future

Good gambling strategies can pay off for websites

Running an online shop can be a brutal business because the net is the ultimate level playing field.

The sheer number of competitors selling any and every product or service means shop sites can struggle to make themselves stand out in the crowd.

In a bid to keep up with the pace an increasing number of websites are turning to insights that have emerged from studies of how to gamble on fruit machines.

Running an online store and gambling on a one-armed bandit may seem to have little in common - beyond the near certainty that you are going to lose money - but there is an affinity that might not at first be apparent.

Research into the so called "bandit problem" has produced techniques that ensure theoretical gamblers get the best possible return.

These techniques funnel most cash into the machine giving the current best payout. But they hedge this bet by pumping some coins into other machines to see if they produce a higher return.

How Twitter makes it real

Bill Thompson is impressed by the sense of being there offered by Twitter

Unlike many of my friends and colleagues I wasn't able to make it to Austin, Texas for this year's SXSW interactive, the four-day technology conference and festival that is currently firing the imagination of the technology world.

So I wasn't in the ballroom when the keynote address by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg went awry under the less-than-forensic questioning of technology journalist Sarah Lacy.

I didn't see the crowd start to get restless and heckle Zuckerberg about the deeply-unpopular Beacon advertising system, or get a chance to grab the microphone and ask questions when Lacy threw the conversation open to the floor.

And yet I was there in another way, listening to and even interacting with some of my friends in the audience, picking up on the vibe in the room and even tuning in later as Sarah Lacy loudly defended herself.

I was there because I was plugged into Twitter, the instant messaging service that lets users send short text messages to anyone who cares to tune in, online or on their mobile phone.

As I sat at my desk a constant stream of 'tweets', as they are called, was being supplied by many of the people in the room and I was able to reply directly and feel that I too was participating.

Nano switch hints at future chips

Dr Leonid Ponomarenko shows off a device with the transistor embedded

Researchers have built the world's smallest transistor - one atom thick and 10 atoms wide - out of a material that could one day replace silicon.

The transistor, essentially an on/off switch, has been made using graphene, a two-dimensional material first discovered only four years ago.

Graphene is a single layer of graphite, which is found in the humble pencil.

The transistor is the key building block of microchips and the basis for almost all electronics.

Dr Kostya Novoselov and Professor Andre Geim from The School of Physics and Astronomy at The University of Manchester have been leading research into the potential application of graphene in electronics and were the first to separate a sheet of the material from graphite

Super material

Graphene has been hailed as a super material because it has many potential applications. It is a flat molecule, with only the thickness of an atom, and both very stable and robust.

The researchers are also looking at its use in display technology - because it is transparent.

The Manchester-based scientists have shown that graphene can be carved into tiny electronic circuits with individual transistors not much larger than a molecule.

Dr Novoselov told BBC News that graphene had many advantages over silicon because it could conduct electricity faster and further.