Tuesday, July 15, 2003

Crew of Columbia Survived a Minute After Last Signal. Investigators have found that the Columbia astronauts were alive long after they knew the craft was in serious trouble. By John Schwartz and Matthew L. Wald. [New York Times: NYT HomePage] All one can say is that as more info comes to light, this becomes a more chilling, and horrific story. The astronauts lived for a full minute after radio contact was lost. They even know that the autopilot was temporarily disabled, but they don't know if it's because someone touch the stick or someone tried to step in and take the controls intentionally. Can you imagine that? The ride gets rougher and rougher you start pitching and yawing, and the pilot steps in and says, I've had about enough of that, time to start steering this thing. Then, the cabin rips open and everything spills out 18 miles up and around 12,000 mph. 'Nuf said. 11:55:50 PM    comment []

Notes and Tips: LiIon Battery Tips. Here's a great reference on caring for LiIon batteries. [MacInTouch] Note that deep discharges are unnecessary, and actually cut down on the useful life of a Lithium ION battery. Everyone still operates under the misapprehension that you HAVE to occasionally fully discharge your batteries. Don't do it, it's unnecessary and doesn't apply to the chemistry of a Lithium ION battery. 6:09:43 PM    comment []

Game Makers Aren't Chasing Women. A recent study showed the college-age gaming audience is equally divided between men and women. So why aren't developers going after the female market? By Suneel Ratan. [Wired News] Interesting look at the numbers of women playing games compared to men. It appears it is much closer to a 50-50 split than anyone ever realized. But, because software companies are dominated by men, they continue making products geared towards men, while missing out on the big pay day of having a 50% larger market for their product. 7:37:11 AM    comment []

It's curtains for voice recognition, says survey. No, really... [The Register] The largest market for Voice Recognition appears to be, the household. People want to control their curtains and blinds remotely, without having to get up from the chair or couch. Now, I know the end of human civilization cannot be far behind,...right? 7:25:03 AM    comment []

Samsung ramps up 1Gb DDR chip output. Good news for notebook users [The Register] Density keeps going up and up. Feature sizes go down and down. Mate this part up with your favorite Intel 875P motherboard and you are smokin'! 7:22:34 AM    comment []

Student hackers: we didn't defeat campus debit card system. Wiping the Blackboard clean [The Register] This was a very serious story when it first appeared back in March was it? It had serious implications for Blackboard who are trying to expand their market in Education and become an rival of SCT. 7:21:19 AM    comment []