Sunday, June 01, 2008

MIT Nanomesh Paper Towel is the Last Quicker Picker Upper You'll Ever Need [Nano Towels]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/302504450/mit-nanomesh-paper-towel-is-the-last-quicker-picker-upper-youll-ever-need

Sorry, Brawny man. Your paper towels were always handy in a pinch for the occasional Coke-on-keyboard spill, but they fall apart when held up against this incredible nanomesh towel from the folks at MIT. Designed with the environmentally unfriendly act of oil spills in mind, this recyclable towel's potassium manganese oxide fibers absorb up to 20 times their weight in oil (which can then be recovered, for future oil spills).

Even more amazing is the fact that this mish-mash of nanowires has the look and feel of paper, but sucks up only oil, leaving every ounce of water behind. Based on that, you know what comes next, right? Water filtration, said Jing Kong, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.And unlike most nanotechnology, the mesh is inexpensive to produce, since the nanowires can be fabricated in larger quantities than other nanomaterials. Great. Let's get huge sheets of this stuff manufactured and distributed to every oil rig, developing nation and tanker like, yesterday. [MIT News]


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Posted by Augustine at 8:09 PM

projectiondesign to launch F10 AS3D active 3D stereoscopic projector

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/301873980/

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Look out, naysayers -- projectiondesign is giving this whole "3D revolution" thing some serious street cred with the F10 AS3D. Slated to debut at InfoComm 2008 in Las Vegas, the unit marks the company's first active 3D stereoscopic projector. Notably, this isn't the firm's first foray into the third-dimension, as eight of its F20 sx+ PJs are currently being used in a 3D visualization system at Munich University. Moving on, we'll also find its brand new three-chip DLP F80, which features a WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200) resolution, ACOP (Advanced Color Optical Processing) technology and a stratospheric price tag (we're guessing on that last one). We'll be holding out for pricing / release information, but we don't suspect it'll be too long before those critical points get divulged.

[Via AboutProjectors]
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Posted by Augustine at 8:01 PM

Napa Valley winery flips on Flotovoltaic solar array

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/302108065/

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Chalk another one up for Sharp. The company has landed yet another partner willing to utilize its solar panels in order to make news, wow onlookers and give Mother Earth a modicum of a break. Napa Valley winery Far Niente has flipped on its self-coined Floatovoltaic installation, which was developed by Thompson Technology Industries and installed by SPG Solar. Nearly 2,300 Sharp solar panels were secured for the job, and we're told that the array generates 400 kWs at peak output, which "significantly offsets the winery's annual power usage and provides a net-zero energy bill." Don't expect that coveted bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon to be any cheaper as a result, though.

[Via CNET]
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Posted by Augustine at 8:00 PM

ElectraTherm's Green Machine converts waste heat into electricity

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/302460581/

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Converting residual industrial heat into something usable (read: electricity) has proven to be more than a novel concept on more than one occasion, and ElectraTherm's giving the process one more vote of confidence by installing its Green Machine at Southern Methodist University. Just this past week, the firm flipped on its first commercial waste heat generator at the Dallas-based institution, with hopes to generate "fuel-free, emissions-free electricity at three to four cents per kW/hr during payback period and under a penny/kW hour thereafter." The 50kW rig has so far exceeded expectations, and the firm is now forecasting that its units will have a "subsidy-free payback period of three years or less." Of course, we aren't told exactly how many zeros reside on the left of the decimal or anything, but folks in the area can get a tour of the installation later this month.

[Image courtesy of Jetson Green]
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Posted by Augustine at 7:59 PM

Friday, May 30, 2008

Corkboard Mac gives push-pins new purpose

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/300523256/

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Best we can tell, the Corkboard Mac was constructed from critical parts of an older PowerBook and gets held up by a series of colorful push-pins. Legend has it that the actual casing was destroyed in an unfortunate cooking accident, but thankfully, all of the vitals -- LCD included -- were left intact. Peep one more shot in the read link, and pay your respects as you enter.

[Thanks, Steven]
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Posted by Augustine at 8:07 AM

Vigor Gaming latches onto AMD's GAME! brand for new Force Recon SP desktop

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/300567917/

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It wouldn't be a decent pointless chip marketing program if you didn't get minor computer builders supporting the "spec" in an effort to make a name for themselves. AMD GAME! just got its first product announcement from Vigor Gaming, and it's quite the yawner. Vigor is sticking the required AMD components into its Force Recon SP desktops, with a "mainstream" version running an Athlon X2 5600+ processor, ATI Radeon HD 3650 graphics and 2GB of RAM for around $1,845, while an AMD Game! Ultra configuration bumps up to a Phenom X4 9650 chip and Radeon HD 3870 graphics for $2,733. Both systems are naturally based on AMD's 770 chipset and run Vista. Vigor offers free overclocking for the brave and custom painting for the aesthetically challenged.
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Posted by Augustine at 8:07 AM

Intel and Micron produce first sub-40nm NAND device

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/300584819/

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Just a few months back, we all gave SanDisk a round of golf claps for moving towards 43-nanometer NAND production. Fast forward to today, and that "feat" doesn't look so mighty anymore. Intel and Micron have just announced the industry's first sub-40nm NAND flash memory device, the 34nm 32 gigabit multi-level cell chip. The process technology was collaboratively developed by the two firms' joint venture, IM Flash Technologies (IMFT)," and there's nary a hint of shame when they trumpet that this is the "smallest NAND process geometry on the market." Sample shipments are expected to leave the dock in June, while mass production should get going sometime in the second half of this year. Somehow, we get the impression this won't stay on top for long.
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Posted by Augustine at 8:06 AM

Researchers create supercomputer with four GeForce 9800 GX2 cards

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/300792799/

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It's far from the first supercomputer created with the help of some gaming hardware, but this rig built by a group of researchers from the University of Antwerp is certainly impressive enough in its own right, with it employing four of NVIDIA's high-end GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics cards (which combined pack eight GPUs) to help develop new computational methods for tomography. Dubbed the FASTRA, the system also packs an AMD Phenom 9850 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 750GB hard drive, all of which is powered by a 1,500W power supply (and tastefully lit up with some blue LEDs). That apparently lets 'em do calculations that previously took an hour in just a few seconds, not to mention finally get a decent frame rate in Crysis. Be sure to check out the video after the break for a thorough (and more entertaining than it should be) overview of the system.

Continue reading Researchers create supercomputer with four GeForce 9800 GX2 cards

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Posted by Augustine at 8:04 AM

Bacteria computer is good at math, even those pesky story problems

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/300867571/

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Scientists have successfully developed a computer out of E. coli bacteria (again), which has managed to solve the Burnt Pancake Problem -- at least in a limited form. The problem involves creating a golden-side-up stack of pancakes out of all different size pancakes, each of which is burned one one side, with the largest pancake on the bottom tapering up to the smallest on top. You can only use a spatula to flip a top section of pancakes, and the math problem is to sort the stack in as few flips as possible. In addition to making regular human mathematicians very hungry, the problem exponentially spirals out of control -- for six pancakes there are 46,080 permutations, for 12 pancakes there are 1.9 trillion. The E. coli computer differs from a regular computer in that it turn each piece of DNA into a simulated pancake, with sections of DNA being flipped to hide from a killer antibiotic if they get the answer right, and killed if they get the answer wrong. With millions of "computers" able to fit in a drop of water, scaling won't be an issue once they figure things out, but for now E. coli can only figure out how to sort two pancakes.

[Thanks, Hraefn]
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Posted by Augustine at 8:03 AM

Linux cluster stuffed in an Ikea filing cabinet

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/301163704/

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People have been stuffing PCs in all kinds of things they don't belong in for a while now, but this Linux cluster creatively packed into an Ikea Helmer filing cabinet might be the first time we've seen furniture actually modded into a useful case. Sure, it looks like an ordinary filing cabinet, but it's packing six machines with Intel Core 2 Quad processors on Gigabyte S-series mobos with 8GB of RAM each, allowing it pump out 186 Gflops -- enough to complete a render job that takes a 2.66Ghz quad-core Mac Pro nine hours in just 64 minutes. Yeah, that's quite a filing cabinet. Hit the read links for tech specs, instructions, and updates on Helmer II.

[Via Make]
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Posted by Augustine at 7:58 AM

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