http://www.osnews.com/ Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2008, David Adams OSNews version 4 donotreply@osnews.com (Adam Scheinberg) donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Fri, 16 May 2008 17:17:57 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com/ 120 http://www.osnews.com/story/19596/OSNews_Asks:_What_Star_Trek_Race_Would_You_Want_to_Be_/ http://www.osnews.com/story/19596/OSNews_Asks:_What_Star_Trek_Race_Would_You_Want_to_Be_/ Due to the success of the previous incarnation, I'd figure we do another 'OSNews Asks' item; it's a nice way to get to know each other a little more on matters that are in itself fairly irrelevant. We'll continue down the path of irrelevance by asking: What Star Trek race would you want to be, given the choice? And, of course, why? I'll start: definitely Betazoid. Reading minds, telepathy, maybe even empathic abilities, no weird ridges or other facial deformations, black eyes - what's not to like? Post your choice in the comments! Tue, 08 Apr 2008 12:52:37 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Geek stuff, sci-fi... 85 http://www.osnews.com/topics/54 Feature http://www.osnews.com/story/19489/Arthur_C._Clarke_Passes_Away/ http://www.osnews.com/story/19489/Arthur_C._Clarke_Passes_Away/ Arthur C. Clarke, who peered into the heavens with a homemade telescope as a boy and grew up to become a visionary titan of science-fiction writing and collaborated with director Stanley Kubrick on the landmark film "2001: A Space Odyssey", has died. He was 90. The knighted British-born writer died early Wednesday in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had made his home for decades, after experiencing a cardio-respiratory attack, his secretary, Rohan De Silva, told Reuters. May he rest in peace, and I'd like to extend my sincere condolences to his family and friends. The pod-bay doors will open for the last time. Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:37:04 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Geek stuff, sci-fi... 36 http://www.osnews.com/topics/54 News Oliver http://www.osnews.com/story/19188/The_Secret_Military_History_of_Silicon_Valley/ http://www.osnews.com/story/19188/The_Secret_Military_History_of_Silicon_Valley/ "When you think about Silicon Valley you think about modern tech giants like Google, Yahoo and others, but did you know that this high-tech center of the Universe owes its existence to secret government cooperation dating back four decades? It certainly seems outlandish, but in a seminar given back on December 18th on the Google campus, entrepreneur and lecturer Steve Blank explained how the valley was born from billions of dollars worth of signals intelligence contracts from World War II and into the 1960s." Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:13:31 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Geek stuff, sci-fi... 17 http://www.osnews.com/topics/54 News irbis http://www.osnews.com/story/18978/Futurama:_Benders_Big_Score!_Released/ http://www.osnews.com/story/18978/Futurama:_Benders_Big_Score!_Released/ Geeks of the world rejoice: Futurama is back. After a long wait, today is the official release date of "Bender's Big Score!", a 90 minute direct-to-DVD film, that will later be chopped up into the first four episodes of the new season. Filled with geek and nerd references, Futurama is a popular American cartoon series, by Simpsons' creater Matt Groening, that sadly got cancelled way before its time by the Fox Network. Now, it's back, and the opening sequence, a big slap in the face of the Fox Network executives, is already a classic. I have already seen the new film, and as a big, big Futurama fan, I can tell you it will not let you down. Three more direct-to-DVD movies are already planned, so go out, buy the DVD, and just like Family Guy, let's get it back on a regular schedule! My personal favourites: Zapp (s03e02): "That young man fills me with hope and some other emotions that are weird and deeply confusing to me." And of course the classic sign over Amy Wong's parents' house (s04e06): "You came to the Wong place." Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:16:13 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Geek stuff, sci-fi... 59 http://www.osnews.com/topics/54 News http://www.osnews.com/story/18590/The_Future_of_Intelligent_Machines/ http://www.osnews.com/story/18590/The_Future_of_Intelligent_Machines/ Technologists and investors gather at the two-day Singularity Summit in San Francisco to discuss the benefits and risks of advancing artificial intelligence--and what to do in the event that machines one day out-think humans. Sun, 09 Sep 2007 21:06:47 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia Loli-Queru) Geek stuff, sci-fi... 46 http://www.osnews.com/topics/54 News http://www.osnews.com/story/18065/Wireless_Power_Has_Techies_Beaming/ http://www.osnews.com/story/18065/Wireless_Power_Has_Techies_Beaming/ A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology lit a 60 watt light bulb from a power source two meters away and with no physical connections between the source and the appliance. The 'WiTricity' device - the term coined by the MIT team to describe the wireless power phenomenon - uses magnetic fields to deliver power to the gadgets remotely." Mon, 11 Jun 2007 14:09:37 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Geek stuff, sci-fi... 27 http://www.osnews.com/topics/54 News Radarz http://www.osnews.com/story/17913/Zenith_Space_Command:_Unboxing_a_Mystery/ http://www.osnews.com/story/17913/Zenith_Space_Command:_Unboxing_a_Mystery/ "Ever since the remote control's co-inventor Robert Adler passed away [in March], I've wanted to own one of the first remote controls. After trolling through eBay every now and then, I finally have in my hands a piece of the history of the button. But there's a mystery: which piece?" Entertainingly written piece on the world's first remote controls. I totally enjoy the simplicity of the ultrasonic remote: "All these early remotes are purely mechanical. No batteries at all. When you push the button, a small hammer strikes an aluminum rod, triggering a sound above our hearing range that's picked up by the TV. Each rod is a different length, thus a different frequency, thus distinguishable by the TV." Brilliant. Tue, 15 May 2007 17:37:49 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Geek stuff, sci-fi... 17 http://www.osnews.com/topics/54 News http://www.osnews.com/story/17861/AI_Will_Surpass_Human_Intelligence_After_2020/ http://www.osnews.com/story/17861/AI_Will_Surpass_Human_Intelligence_After_2020/ Vernor Vinge, 62, is a pioneer in artificial intelligence, who in a recent interview warned about the risks and opportunities that an electronic super-intelligence would offer to mankind. Vinge is a retired San Diego State University professor of mathematics, computer scientist, and science fiction author. He is well-known for his 1993 manifesto, "The Coming Technological Singularity", in which he argues that exponential growth in technology means a point will be reached where the consequences are unknown. Vinge still believes in this future, which he thinks would come anytime after 2020. Mon, 07 May 2007 03:14:30 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia Loli-Queru) Geek stuff, sci-fi... 95 http://www.osnews.com/topics/54 News http://www.osnews.com/story/17853/Wave_Your_Hands_Like_Tom_Cruise/ http://www.osnews.com/story/17853/Wave_Your_Hands_Like_Tom_Cruise/ Remember the 'Minority Report' scenes in which Tom Cruise and others used their hands to manipulate data on giant computer screens? One man is on a mission to make that gestural interface technology commonplace on every desktop. Sat, 05 May 2007 18:53:22 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia Loli-Queru) Geek stuff, sci-fi... 30 http://www.osnews.com/topics/54 News http://www.osnews.com/story/17446/Has_A.R._Finally_Become_a_Reality_/ http://www.osnews.com/story/17446/Has_A.R._Finally_Become_a_Reality_/ Augmented Reality is the overlapping of digital information and physical environment. Sci-Fi has often portrayed A.R. as interactive floating transparent computer screens projected into the air, or perhaps the most absolute example: standing inside an entirely computer generated world. Wed, 07 Mar 2007 18:20:20 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (OSNews Staff) Geek stuff, sci-fi... 33 http://www.osnews.com/topics/54 Feature Kroc http://www.osnews.com/story/17046/Looking_Ahead:_Where_Computers_and_Emotion_Meet/ http://www.osnews.com/story/17046/Looking_Ahead:_Where_Computers_and_Emotion_Meet/ New computer software applications--in the labs and in the market--are using emotion as data input and responding to it. This CIO.com feature looks at current applications that focus on human emotion, and looks ahead to work being done on that subject, in computer labs around the world. Wed, 24 Jan 2007 18:35:33 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia Loli-Queru) Geek stuff, sci-fi... 3 http://www.osnews.com/topics/54 News Esther Schindler http://www.osnews.com/story/16843/Poll:_Whats_your_Favorite_SciFi_TV_Series/ http://www.osnews.com/story/16843/Poll:_Whats_your_Favorite_SciFi_TV_Series/ Half of our readers are away in this holiday season, so traffic and news items are considerably down comparatively to normal weekdays. Why don't we have some Holiday Fun (TM) with a poll? Our friends at Slashdot put a poll up asking about your favorite sci-fi TV series, but they forgot two very important entries as their readers mentioned quickly afterwards: the most famous TV series of the '90s "The X-Files", and the already cult classic "Firefly". So we thought we recreate the same poll, but with these options in play, just so we see what our (mostly geek) readership likes the most. Even if we only have ~1/10 of Slashdot's traffic we can still have some fun with it! Fri, 29 Dec 2006 21:45:53 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia Loli-Queru) Geek stuff, sci-fi... 95 http://www.osnews.com/topics/54 Feature http://www.osnews.com/story/16369/Build_a_Space_Odyssey_HAL_9000_with_Autonomic_Computing/ http://www.osnews.com/story/16369/Build_a_Space_Odyssey_HAL_9000_with_Autonomic_Computing/ "In this article, see how HAL 9000, the computer in the 2001: A Space Odyssey movie [ed. note: for you cultural barbarians: that's from (one of) the best director(s) ever], the smartest believable artificial intelligence so far in fiction, could predict equipment failure, answer personal questions, learn to sing 'Bicycle built for Two', and go insane, based on IBM Build to Manage Toolkit components. By the end of this article, you'll see how autonomic computing can be implemented today; determine if there is such a thing as a Hofstadter-Moebius loop in programming; and discover if HAL stands for Heuristic ALgorithmic computer, Heuristic Autonomic Learner, or is simply the first three letters of a prankster holiday that occurs about this time of the year." Thu, 02 Nov 2006 10:00:09 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Geek stuff, sci-fi... 16 http://www.osnews.com/topics/54 News IdaAshley http://www.osnews.com/story/15959/Experts_Believe_the_Future_will_be_Like_Sci-Fi_Movies/ http://www.osnews.com/story/15959/Experts_Believe_the_Future_will_be_Like_Sci-Fi_Movies/ In the latest study conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, over 700 technology experts were asked to evaluate an assortment of scenarios in an attempt to determine potential trends for the year 2020. With responses from representatives of the World Wide Web Consortium, ICANN, the Association of Internet Researchers, and major corporations like Google and IBM, the report reflects the perceptions of "Internet pioneers," more than half of whom "were online before 1993." Mon, 25 Sep 2006 05:31:34 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia Loli-Queru) Geek stuff, sci-fi... 37 http://www.osnews.com/topics/54 News http://www.osnews.com/story/15768/Theory_on_Particle_Spin_Brings_Quantum_Computing_Closer/ http://www.osnews.com/story/15768/Theory_on_Particle_Spin_Brings_Quantum_Computing_Closer/ Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have devised a potentially groundbreaking theory demonstrating how to control the spin of particles without using superconducting magnets - a development that could advance the field of spintronics and bring scientists a step closer to quantum computing. Fri, 08 Sep 2006 04:09:20 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia Loli-Queru) Geek stuff, sci-fi... 4 http://www.osnews.com/topics/54 News