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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. |
| Linus Torvalds speaks |
| 2:08:05 am mst / 30 January 2001 found by paul / filed in operating systems / source CRN 113 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| In this interview, Linus Torvalds discusses "the release of Linux 2.4, the operating system's future and his role as guru-in-charge of Linux". |
| Sounds like he's doing pretty well despite the pressures being put upon him by various large software and hardware vendors, as described in this related article. |
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| Looking For ETs? Then Look For Jupiter-Like Planets |
| 8:11:03 am mst / 30 January 2001 found by paul / filed in science / source UniSci 36 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| Arizona astronomer Jonathon Lunine argues that if we wish to find Earth-like planets in other solar systems, we should look for stars with large gas giants like Jupiter. Based on deuterium-to-hydrogen ratios in seawater, he argues that Jupiter was responsible for creating Earth's oceans by flinging vast quantities of water from the asteroid system into the inner solar system, and a similar mechanism could create Earth-like planets elsewhere. |
| I'm not sure I like the idea of Mars-sized water balloons coming down on my head... |
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| Another unsuccessful expedition into the minds of women |
| 9:30:20 am mst / 30 January 2001 found by paul / filed in humor / source Ironminds 330 hits / 0 comments / 1 e-mail |
| After a year of field research, the author lists his four major discoveries. |
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| Blow up a real buiding |
| 9:59:39 am mst / 30 January 2001 found by paul / filed in games / source GameSpot 36 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| Geeknews.net pointed us towards this contest for fans of the MechWarrior game series, where the winner of the random drawing gets to destroy a real building: "Just like the Mechs in the game, which are able to demolish tall buildings with a single stomp, it could be your hand that pushes the actual plunger that sends hundreds of tons of concrete and steel hurtling to the ground. Plus, you'll win a copy of MechWarrior 4." |
| As long as it gets "blowed up REAL GOOD"... |
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| Robo-servant operates by mobile phone |
| 11:07:44 am mst / 30 January 2001 found by paul / filed in robotics / source Ananova 47 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| Japanese toymaker Takara (better known for their Transformers) will offer a home robot servant that can take commands from a mobile telephone. According to the manufacturer, the "Dream Force 01 can perform simple tasks around the house while its owners are away". When the owners are ready to return home they merely have to "phone the robot and tell it to pour them a glass of wine". |
| As long as the robot isn't also set to kill trespassers... |
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| A Net Uncertain |
| 4:00:06 pm mst / 30 January 2001 found by diana / filed in future / source ABC News 71 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| Michael Malone ponders the abysmal record of predictions for the internet and peers cautiously into the future. |
| The lesson, of course, is: "No matter what you predict about the Net, it is probably wrong." |
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| US gets cyberbutt kicked in spacewar simulation |
| 5:48:06 pm mst / 30 January 2001 found by paul / filed in space / source Register 67 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| The US Air Force recently held a simulated space war game between two hypothetical countries named Red and Blue (unofficially standing for China and the US) set in the year 2017, with both sides armed with all sorts of high tech space weaponry. Unfortunately, the US lost -- because the Red team craftily used the free marketplace to buy more satellites than the Blue team. |
| Those inscrutable dot-communists!... |
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| Funny Commercials |
| 6:28:45 pm mst / 30 January 2001 found by diana / filed in humor / source Misc 173 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| BBspot pointed us to this rather funny collection of commercials and other video tidbits. |
| My favorite was the Jack in the Box qua Cops commercial. |
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| What's Wrong With Copy Protection |
| 11:14:40 pm mst / 30 January 2001 found by MysteriousStranger / filed in digital media / source Toad Hall Web Site 114 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| John Gilmore of the Electronic Frontier Foundation catalogs the evils of copy protection. The content producers and the computer companies are together scheming to control what you do with your own content on your own hardware. |
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