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Saturday, April 19, 2008
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!
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Bollywood steals cricket Premier show
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 |
NY tower plans found in rubbish
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
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
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
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.
Labels: circuits, computers, DESIGNERS, electronics, future, gadgets, internet, news, Technology, world