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| Notice: GeekPress is back up and running, thanks to Paul! It's still a not-so-serious tech news blog, but the format is significantly looser. Diana, having given up programming for philosophy, has her own philosophical blog NoodleFood. More of her work can be found at DianaHsieh.com. |
| Astronomers Discover Another Blob in Space |
| 12:26:58 am mst / 18 January 2001 found by diana / filed in humor / source BBspot 94 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| From the article: Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory in northern Chile have discovered what appears to be yet another large blob in deep space, which they have dubbed "Object EMTH-23758402". |
| Although scientists aren't quite sure what it is, they say "it appears that this blob may be made up of tiny blob globules or blob-globs, so what were seeing here is actually a blob cluster and not an actual blob." |
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| Scientists bring light to stop, hold it, then restart it |
| 1:23:59 am mst / 18 January 2001 found by paul / filed in science / source NY Times 278 hits / 0 comments / 1 e-mail |
| Two teams of Harvard scientists have found a way to bring a beam of light to a stop, hold it in a special medium, then restart it on command. Experts think that this could eventually lead to breakthroughs in quantum computing technology. |
| It almost sounds like science fiction! |
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| Java fans fight back |
| 2:40:49 am mst / 18 January 2001 found by paul / filed in software / source Salon 195 hits / 1 comment / 0 e-mails |
| After Simson Garfinkel's recent article criticizing Java as "slow, ugly, and irrelevant", he got a ton of e-mail from Java fans. Here are some of the better ones, along with his responses. |
| read 1 comment |
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| Online dating woes |
| 4:34:56 am mst / 18 January 2001 found by paul / filed in culture / source NY Times 81 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| Psychologists have found that very few online romances end up in long-term relationships. The article discusses some of the reasons why. One of the more important factors is self-deception on the part of correspondents, who see what they want to when reading others' e-mails. |
| One approach to improve the "hit rate" might be sophisticated collaborative filtering, perhaps based on personality traits like sense of humor, etc. Of course, this won't stop any problems that might arise from self-deception/wishful thinking. |
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| Cybersex with online robots |
| 8:49:29 am mst / 18 January 2001 found by paul / filed in inventions / source Reuters News 116 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| An Australian inventor has applied for a patent for a virtual reality sex system in which people in different locations can have cybersex by interacting with matching robots that respond to each other's actions. (Link from NerdPerfect.) Update: Take a look at the patent application. |
| As one odd (but in retrospect predictable) feature, "the online lovers could also program the system so that one partner could resemble the other's favorite celebrity." |
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| Hotmail trashes users' e-mail |
| 3:12:43 pm mst / 18 January 2001 found by diana / filed in internet / source ZDNet 55 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| Hotmail's policy of agressively filtering spam has recently caused a great consternation among users, who are having their regular e-mail trashed. The filters discard mail from sites hosted by controversial ISPs, even if the sites themselves haven't had any problems. |
| Overzealous blocking is certainly not the answer to spam! |
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| Sex vs. Xbox |
| 4:33:05 pm mst / 18 January 2001 found by diana / filed in humor / source Daily Radar 172 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| Think that Microsoft's Xbox is going to the blow all other game consoles out of the water? Well, the folks over at Daily Radar have decided to see how it stacks up against the most basic home entertainment system: sex. |
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| Ten Little Lies |
| 6:11:38 pm mst / 18 January 2001 found by diana / filed in hardware / source Wall Street Journal 255 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| Mossberg takes a look at ten common lies, omissions, and exaggerations that computer buyers encounter, such as overestimated claims to monitor size and printer speeds. |
| An excellent list to remind the experienced buyer and teach the novice! |
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| Switched at Birth? |
| 7:41:50 pm mst / 18 January 2001 found by diana / filed in humor / source Daily Radar 126 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| Daily Radar ponders whether certain celebrities, from Woody Allen to Meat Loaf, are the secret relatives of characters from The Simpsons. (Thanks to Fark for the link.) |
| Wierd Al is definitely my favorite! |
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