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Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Electromagnetic Pulses Cut Through Steel in Milliseconds [Emp]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/i71Q445nTCU/electromagnetic-pulses-cut-through-steel-in-milliseconds

You need to cut up some chunks of steel. Mechanical tools are prone to wearing out and lasers are just too expensive, so what do you use? Fast-cutting electromagnetic pulses, what else.

Researchers have figured out that they can modify existing electromagnetic pulse technology and use it to cut hard steels about seven times faster than with a laser and at only a fraction of the cost of other methods. That's not even the crazy part though:

The impact pressure [of the pulse] on the steel is approximately 3,500 bar, which equates to the weight of three small cars on a single fingernail.

Three cars on a single fingernail. Three cars. One fingernail. Forget cool buzzing sounds from mechanical tools and the pewpewpew of lasers. That description alone makes this the coolest cutting method I've heard of today. [Phys Org]

Photo by Current

Number One Contributor to Alien Search Program Fired From His Day Job [Aliens]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/sU5B7qkYbAk/number-one-contributor-to-alien-search-program-fired-from-his-day-job

Brad Niesluchowski used to be the network systems administrator at Higley Unified School District. Until he got fired for searching for aliens using the SETI program, in which he's the #1 contributor. Well, for that, and a lot more things.

Niesluchowski was known as NEZ at the SETI volunteer program. He scored 575 million hours of data mining during a nine years period, which pushed him to "god" status among the SETI@home users, who in 2007 were writing things like this:

What is NEZ? Who is NEZ? Is he a god?

According to the Higley Unified School District investigation, Niesluchowski went from installing SETI—a software program that analyzes data from radiotelescopes in search of intelligent signals—in every computer in the district to purchasing more powerful computers specifically for that task. And downloading porn. And left all the machines running 24/7. And adopting 18 school computers at home. In total, the school says that his Earthling antics got the bill up to $1.6 million. [Arizona Republic via Techdirt]

Micron RealSSD Drives Claim Title of World's Fastest (by a Lot) [Ssds]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/f-LeKnAB0Bw/micron-realssd-drives-claim-title-of-worlds-fastest-by-a-lot

Micron's new C300 2.5-inch SSDs are incredibly fast. We're talking 50% faster than the current market leaders, and fast enough to downright shame any hard drive. Yeah, there's a new SSD speed champ every week, but these are damned impressive.

The C300 SSDs, available in 128GB and 256GB capacities when they're released sometime early next year, whups the current top dogs in read/write speeds. It's also the first to take advantage of the new SATA 3.0, which allows 6Gb/s throughput, twice that of SATA 2.0—but regardless of whether it's using 2.0 or 3.0, it's still blazingly fast. It's rated at 355MB/s read and 215MB/s write—for comparison, the champ, OCZ's Agility EX, gets 255MB/s and 195MB/s read and write speeds, respectively. You can see it compared with "a market leader" (probably either the OCZ or maybe Intel's X25-M) here:

By using the new ONFI 2.1 specification, it's also got nearly five times the data speed per transfer, which is basically means you'll be seeing improved performance while multitasking.

The C300 series is expensive, obviously, at about $350 for the 128GB and $715 for the 256GB (and then only when bought in bulk), but it's a pretty incredible performer—hopefully we'll be seeing it in some equally impressive laptops when it's released next year. [Micron]

Intel SSD firmware 02HD brings back Trim support, sans bugs

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/intel-ssd-firmware-02hd-brings-back-trim-support-sans-bugs/

Intel's 34nm X25-M G2 drives might not've had the most peaceful of existences so far, but you can't fault the company's efforts to fix whatever maladies have popped up. The latest firmware update from Santa Clara brings back the lauded Trim support, but this time leaves the drive-killing antics behind. User experiences so far have been positive, though unsurprisingly a couple of people have questioned whether Trim is in fact enabled on their drives -- clearly, the difference between fast and really, really fast is not as distinguishable as we like to think. The source link will provide you with the latest firmware update tool and the precious new code -- if you dare risk it.

[Thanks, Alex]

Intel SSD firmware 02HD brings back Trim support, sans bugs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 08:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ViewSonic outs 23-inch VP2365wb and 26-inch VP2655wb IPS LCD monitors

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/viewsonic-outs-23-inch-vp2365wb-and-26-inch-vp2655wb-ips-lcd-mon/

ViewSonic's last round of LCDs were nothing short of unforgettable, but these two might actually grab (and retain) your attention if you consider yourself a "professional." The 23-inch VP2365wb and 26-inch VP2655wb both fall into the firm's VP series of 1080p pro LCDs, and the both of 'em are blessed with IPS panels and 4-port USB hubs. You'll also find pivoting stands on the pair, and while the 23-incher gets a 1,920 x 1,080 native resolution, the big boy steps it up to 1,920 x 1,200 and offers a 118 percent NTSC wide color gamut for those discerning retinas of yours. Interested? The duo is available now if you look in the right places, and while the VP2365wb will cost you just $399, the larger sibling will ding you for $1,299.

Continue reading ViewSonic outs 23-inch VP2365wb and 26-inch VP2655wb IPS LCD monitors

ViewSonic outs 23-inch VP2365wb and 26-inch VP2655wb IPS LCD monitors originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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