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Stefanie Olsen Year:August 11, 2006 4:19 PM PDT Source Site:newsblog
The nose of a worm may one day determine the nose of a fine wine.
A group of Australian scientists are collaborating to build a so-called cybernose, or an electronic sensing device that they hope will be used by winemakers to pick the best grapes.
Scientists from Australias National and Monash Universities, among other institutions, announced the $4 million research partnership on Friday.
The researchers are modeling their work on the olfactory senses of microscopic insects like the worm and the fruit fly. For example, theyre studying the tiny nematode worm because of its highly sensitive molecular recognition system, which helps it pick up the scent and flavor of grapes. The scientists plan to replicate the sensor proteins of this insect to create a more discerning class of sensor th...
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Elinor Mills Year:August 11, 2006 2:11 PM PDT Source Site:newsblog
AOL has launched a beta test of a new photo site that lets users tag their photos, create galleries and comment on other peoples photos, features popularized by the Yahoo-owned Flickr. AOL unveiled the new AOL Pictures beta site on Thursday.
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Ina Fried Year:August 11, 2006 1:36 PM PDT Source Site:newsblog
Apple Computer said on Friday that Nasdaq has notified the company that it believes the company is not in compliance with the exchanges rules, following Apples decision to delay a quarterly filing.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company said last week it would not make the deadline for its quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as it continues an inquiry into stock option grant irregularities. Apple said it has requested a hearing and will remain listed on the exchange pending that hearing.
Read this story for more details.
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Martin LaMonica Year:August 11, 2006 1:27 PM PDT Source Site:newsblog
IBMs planned $1.6 billion acquisition of content management software company FileNet sparked more talk of software industry consolidation, and speculation of what might happen next.
AMR Research analyst Jim Murphy noted that OpenText is the largest stand-alone content management company remaining, now that Documentum is part of EMC and IBM intends to buy FileNet, as the companies announced on Thursday.
Oracle, he noted, has big ambitions in content management, which could lead the acquisitive Oracle to buy OpenText. Or, has as a New York Times news story pointed out, Oracle could bid for FileNet as well. IBM offered only a slight, one percent premium over FileNets Wednesday stock price.
IBMs check book is likely still open and ready for more deals as it seeks revenue growth and a wide...
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Rafe Needleman Year:August 11, 2006 12:59 PM PDT Source Site:newsblog
There are some interesting online karaoke sites live right now: kSolo and SingShot in particular. Recently a more general-purpose online talent site went live: Bix. Its a somewhat different beast, a talent-finding service that downplays the social network and instead has a laser focus on contests.
Unlike the other sites, youre not barraged with a million different song links when you enter it. Instead, youre directed to view entries in various contests, vote on them, and enter them yourself if you want.
What I like about Bix are two things: First, that the contests arent all karaoke based. There are dance, photography, and even writing contests. And second, users can easily create their own contests. American Idol-like talent show producers could obviously use a tool like this (America...
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Nicole Girard Year:August 11, 2006 12:48 PM PDT Source Site:newsblog
A fast-paced, action-packed street game being played at the Zero One San Jose art festival from Aug. 7-12 bridges the gap between cultures and centuries.
The multiplayer game, titled "99 Red Balloons," combines elements of Shakespeares "A Midsummer Nights Dream" and the dance floor hit "99 Luftballoons" by 80s German recording artist Nena.
Video: Painting the sky red
Artists integrate wireless technology in street game that doubles as an aerial art exhibit.
Players broken up into nine teams use their imaginations to create the most transgressive version of classic street games--from massive multiplayer to spy and hide n seek in the sky games--and then convince as many people as possible to come and play. Thirty feet above the ground are 18 red weather balloons, nine of which...
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Stephen Shankland Year:August 11, 2006 12:18 PM PDT Source Site:newsblog
A proposal has prevailed to make the open-source DejaVu font project the default used in Red Hats upcoming Fedora Core 6 version of Linux. The font replaces Vera, a previous font released by Bistream, on which DejaVu is based. Fedora Core 6 is due Oct. 9.
The font is set to be included in the new version, which is designed for enthusiasts and those who want a preview of technology later released in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, according to a mailing list posting Monday from release engineer Jesse Keating announcing the new "Test2" version of Fedora.
That version also includes gcjwebplugin, a plug-in that lets Mozilla and Firefox Web browsers run Java applets. However, that decision may not be permanent, Red Hat programmer Tom Fitzsimmons said in a mailing list posting when gcjwebplugin wa...
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Mike Yamamoto Year:August 11, 2006 12:06 PM PDT Source Site:newsblog
This weeks foiled terrorist plot has prompted calls for a technology that was widely discussed immediately after the 9/11 attacks and presumably long before: a non-hijackable plane.
The proposals around this concept usually involve some sort of remote-control system that would allow authorities on the ground to take control of an aircraft commandeered by terrorists. The idea is hardly novel, as proposals have been made to develop similar emergency systems using black-box technologies for trucks that carry hazardous materials.
But reaction among the public has been predictably mixed, with many objecting to such guidance systems as technically unfeasible or philosophically wrong-headed. The most common alternative raised is simply to wall off all airliner cockpits and give pilots...
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Stephen Shankland Year:August 11, 2006 9:38 AM PDT Source Site:newsblog
Intel released open-source drivers for its graphics cards on Wednesday, a bid to win Linux allies and give the operating better support, but graphics rival ATI Technologies has indicated it wont follow suit when it comes to the software that lets operating systems communicate with its workstation and PC graphics cards.
"Proprietary, patented optimizations are part of the value we provide to our customers and we have no plans to release these drivers to open source," the company said in a statement. "In addition, multimedia elements such as content protection must not, by their very nature, be allowed to go open source."
Its possible that position could change if Advanced Micro Devices acquisition of ATI goes through, but so far AMD hasnt committed one way or the other.
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Stephen Shankland Year:August 11, 2006 9:37 AM PDT Source Site:newsblog
Zmanda, a company that commercializes the open-source Amanda backup software, has expanded its support from just Linux to Microsoft Windows and Sun Microsystems Solaris. The company announced the expansion Thursday, shortly before a spate of open-source activity at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo.
Amanda began as a project at the University of Maryland in 1991 and now is included with all major versions of Linux, the company said. It competes with proprietary software such as those from EMCs Legato and Symantecs Veritas.
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based start-up helps test and develop the open-source project and provides resources to project developers. It was founded in September 2005 and introduced its Zmanda Enterprise Edition software and Zmanda Network support service in April.
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Michael Kanellos Year:August 11, 2006 9:24 AM PDT Source Site:newsblog
Some, such as Micron Technology CEO Steve Appleton, have predicted that notebooks containing flash memory, rather than hard drives, to store data and applications will come out in a few years
Actually, it will happen next year, according to Noam Kedem, vice president of marketing at MSystems, a flash company that recently got bought by SanDisk.
"Next year you will see some of these in enterprise verticals," he said. Substituting flash for a hard drive cuts weight and power consumption. However, flash costs more, so the overall market is a bit circumscribed, he conceded. It will be a bit before consumers start buying these.
Intel, meanwhile, has designed a flash notebook for developing nations, but the market parameters are different here too. The main concern is that a hard drive has ...
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