Hasta La Gadget!

Imagine a world where you can download 20 full-length movies in a second. Well, that’s a reality a team of scientists based in Bangor, Wales are fighting for. They are researching ways of cramming more data down fiber-optic cables and negating “dispersion” (the deterioration of data when carried over longer distances at increased rates). Previous attempts to solve the issue have focused on more fibers, more lasers and other signal-boosting techniques. The team in Bangor are focusing their attention on existing Optical Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing technology. By developing a method to convert data into electrical waves, and then into optical data, which can be decoded at the either end with their proprietary system. While the 20Gbps speeds they are working with are far from unheard of, the key is making them practical and accessible to consumers, without expensive new infrastructure. The next steps are to look at ways of commercializing the technique, but the scientists think there’s still potential for improvement, believing speeds of up to 40Gbps being possible, meaning fast connections that can multitask.

Filed under: Science, Internet, Alt

UK scientists developing lower-cost 20Gbps broadband, 40Gbps on the cards originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Nov 2012 11:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The International Space Station just celebrated its 12th anniversary of having a crew continuously onboard, and to mark the occasion, NASA’s unveiled a new service to help folks catch the station in the night sky. Dubbed Spot the Station, the web app texts or emails the time that the ISS will pass over a user’s location to their phone. The calculations are done for more than 4,600 places across the globe by NASA’s Johnson Space Center, which determines when the ISS will be high enough in the sky to be seen above obstacles such as trees and buildings. Since the station is the second brightest object in the night sky after the moon, it’ll appear to the naked eye as if it were a star moving at a steady clip. To get pinged with sighting alerts by NASA, hit the second source link below.

Continue reading NASA releases web app to help you spot ISS, celebrates 12 years of continuous crew occupation

Filed under: Science, Alt

NASA releases web app to help you spot ISS, celebrates 12 years of continuous crew occupation originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Nov 2012 19:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Predicting the future of Twitter‘s trending topics is, as of right now, an impossibility. But two folks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology may have cracked the code with an algorithm they’re saying predicts — with 95 percent accuracy — the topics that will trend in the next hour and a half. The prediction has even been calculated as high as four to five hours ahead of time with the same level of accuracy. Not too bad!

Of course, beyond impressing friends with the predictions, the algorithm has direct implications for the likes of Twitter itself — being able to sell ads against trending topics could benefit the social media company enormously in its ongoing quest to monetize. At any rate, it’s distinctly less dangerous sounding than the last idea we heard involving Twitter and predictions. The algorithm will be presented next week at MIT’s Interdisciplinary Workshop on Information and Decision in Social Networks, should you wish to dig into the nitty gritty of the math behind the madness.

Filed under: Misc, Science, Software, Alt

MIT prof and student discover algorithm for predicting trending Twitter topics originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Nov 2012 10:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Harnessing the awesome power of the Sun isn’t just dependent on the efficiency of solar cells, but also on making them affordable. Current techniques aren’t exactly cheap, but researchers from Stanford University think they’ve made a bit of a breakthrough by producing a relatively inexpensive photovoltaic cell using nothing but carbon. We’re sure other scientists might disagree with the ‘world’s first’ claim, but those at Stanford think it’s a matter of language, and that these other pretenders are “referring to just the active layer in the middle, not the electrodes.” The team selected a trio of carbon types to use in their cell: a mixture of nanotubes and buckyballs make up the light-absorbing layer, while graphene is being utilized for the electrodes.

The carbon amalgam can be applied from solution using simple methods, meaning the flexible cells could be used to coat surfaces, although you won’t be seeing it smeared over anything too soon. The prototype only touts a “laboratory efficiency of less than 1 percent,” so it can’t compete with traditional solar cells just yet. Also, it only absorbs a sliver of the light spectrum, but the researchers are looking to other forms of the wonder element which could increase that range. They are hoping that improving the structure of the cells will help to boost their efficiency, too. They might never generate the most energy, but the all-carbon cells can remain stable under extreme conditions, meaning they could find their calling in harsh environments where brawn is a little more important than status, or looks.

Filed under: Science, Alt

Stanford researchers create ‘world’s first’ all-carbon solar cell, do it on the cheap originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Nov 2012 19:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Most of us who remember Myst are content to relive the halcyon days of click-and-watch puzzle games by loading up the iPhone port. Mike Ando is slightly more… dedicated. He just spent the past six years building a replica of the Cyan game’s signature, Age-traveling link books that includes a full Windows XP PC with a 1.6GHz Atom, a 2-hour battery, a 5-inch touchscreen and every playable game from the Myst series stored on a CF card. And while we’ve seen books hiding devices before, Ando’s attention to detail might just raise the eyebrows of hardcore custom PC and gaming fans alike: he went so far as to gut and emboss a 135-year-old copy of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine to match Cyan’s reference tome as closely as possible. It’s tempting for anyone who cut their teeth on CD-based gameplay through Myst, but perfect devotion to one of the better-known fictional worlds will cost an accordingly steep $15,625. We wouldn’t have minded seeing some real intra-world travel for the cash outlay.

Continue reading Myst linking book replica goes on sale with full PC inside, won’t quite take us to other worlds (video)

Filed under: Gaming, Alt

Myst linking book replica goes on sale with full PC inside, won’t quite take us to other worlds (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Oct 2012 02:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Navneet Alang (Twitter)  |  RIUM+  | Email this | Comments