August 2008
1 post
2 tags
Our updates are now available on Twitter!
We’ve moved our updates away from the blog on onto Twitter, so feel free to follow us @ http://twitter.com/geeknik. Thanks!
July 2008
2 posts
Garmin Nuvi GPS devices run Linux!
I bet you’re as surprised as me that the Garmin Nuvi series of GPS devices run Linux. But they do, and Garmin has released the source code for its Nuvi 8xx and Nuvi 5xxx-series GPS navigation devices.
A quick look at the Nuvi 8xx source code indicates that the devices run a 2.6.17.7 Linux kernel on a Marvell “Monahans” processor, likely either the Marvell PXA-300 or -310. The...
Cars that run on compressed air.
Taken from the website:
Compressed air is an energy vector that can be used, in a viable way, to transport both people and goods.The main goal of Air Car Factories is to develop and manufacture a vehicle driven by a compressed air engine with a level of performance that will respond to the actual needs of today’s market. With this aim we have drawn up a full agenda and an R&D plan of action...
June 2008
23 posts
Scientists say that it once rained on Mars.
Rain once fell on Martian soil, according to a new geochemical analysis by Berkeley scientists, though it probably stopped raining several billion years ago. Though they can’t say for sure whether the precipitation on Mars fell as snow, sleet or rain, the evidence of reacting with rocks suggests that the water was liquid on the ground.
Source: Wired
Want to learn a new language?
Here are 6 free online resources for learning a new language:
MIT OpenCourseWare
BBC Languages
Internet Polyglot
The Open University LearningSpace
Madinah Arabic Language Course
Livemocha
Enjoy your new languages!
Did you know there was a LEGO secret vault?
I had no idea that something like this existed. I’d love to see this in person. Lego bricks have put smiles on kids’ faces since the 1950s, so imagine the delight of one lucky Gizmodo contributor when he had the chance to visit the toy company’s secret vault. The vault contains every Lego set ever produced, all 4,720 of them. From Lego Space to Lego Technic to Lego Town to Lego Castle,...
NASA plans to visit the sun in 2015.
Sometime in 2015, NASA plans on sending a solar probe to study the atmosphere and magnetic fields of our sun. It will be the first time in history that anyone has explored a star.
The name of the mission is Solar Probe+. It’s a heat-resistant spacecraft designed to plunge deep into the sun’s atmosphere where it can sample ...
Bill Gates made it cool to be a geek.
He’s really leaving Microsoft this week. He’s not going to stick around and consult or advise, he’s officially retiring on June 27th, 2008.
He is going to spend most of his energy on another endeavor that fuels the public’s fascination with him: the world’s biggest philanthropy, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, funded largely by his own fortune.
Source: MSNBC
Researchers make breakthrough in renewable energy...
University of Queensland researchers have made a ground-breaking discovery that produces highly efficient miniature crystals which could revolutionise the way we harvest and use solar energy.
“We have grown the world’s first titanium oxide single crystals with large amounts of reactive surfaces, something that was predicted as almost impossible,” Professor Lu said.
He said the breakthrough...
Google launches new space race to the moon!
Google has officially launched the Google Lunar X Prize, which will put $20 million into the hands of the first privately funded team that can land a rover on the moon; have it travel on the surface for 500 meters or more; send back data, photos and video; and do it all by December 31, 2012.The prize drops to $15 million after that date and goes away altogether after 2014. One of the main...
The Phoenix Mars Lander has found ice!
Scientists are pretty sure that the Phoenix Mars Lander has uncovered ice while digging on the surface of Mars. When they looked away and came back to it, the ice had disappeared, which leaves two possible causes:
Someone moved the ice out of the view of the lander, or
The ice turned to water which then evaporated almost instantly.
The lander continued digging another trench and appeared...
IBM's new supercomptuer mimics brain function.
It’s called the Roadrunner and it might be faster then a human brain. IBM and the Los Alamos National Laboratory turn the new supercomputer on only a week ago and scientists are working hard to push the computer to its limits.
The primary goal of the supercomputer is to model the safety of the United States’ aging nuclear weapons stockpile. At over a certified petaflop, the machine...
No more newspapers or magazines?
Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer has predicted by 2018 there will not be any newspapers or magazines and that “dead tree journalism” will itself be dead, because everything will be delivered by the Internet.
I don’t know, a lot of people in the last decade have predicted the demise of the newspaper, but none of them have been right. What makes Steve think that everyone in...
Five things you didn't know about Google.
Here’s a list of 5 things you didn’t know about Google:
Google spends $72 million a year on employee meals
Google was originally called BackRub
Google loses $110 million a year through the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button
Google has a sense of humor
Google scans your e-mails
Source: AskMen.com
Build your own star.
SEED has put some really neat software online where you can build your very own star.
You determine the fate of your star by setting initial characteristics. Then watch as its life story unfolds before your eyes. Here’s your guide to the Build Your Own Star controls and displays. Click on the above picture to create your very own star.
The Large Hedron Collider goes live in just under...
That’s right. Less then 2 months until the LHC goes live. According to some folks, the Large Hedron Collider will create a miniature black hole that will destroy the planet and everything in the solar system.
Of course, scientists in charge of the project say that while chances are small that a black hole will be created, but if it does happen, it will be for the briefest of moments and...
Blacklight Power might be the next big thing for...
Blacklight Power, a company with $60 million in funding from respected funding sources, claims to have built a 50 kw prototype power generation device. They claim that the device will generate power at ten times less cost than the cheapest coal, wind and nuclear power now.
They are expecting to have built a factory for mass producing power generation devices in 2009 and to scale the system up...
NVIDIA shows off their GeForce GTX 200 GPUs
Just when I thought that I had one of the best video cards on the market, the 8800GT, Nvidia goes and makes it obsolete.
NVIDIA’s new family of GeForce GTX 200 graphics processors - which includes the GeForce GTX 280 and GeForce GTX 260 GPUs - include NVIDIA’s CUDA technology and the new CUDA runtime for Windows Vista, which allows programmers to offload the most intensive processing...
Mind boggling crop circle discovered.
The most complex, “mind-boggling” crop circle ever to be seen in Britain has been discovered in a barley field in near Barbury Castle.
The formation, measuring 150ft in diameter, is apparently a coded image representing the first 10 digits, 3.141592654, of pi. Michael Reed, an astrophysicist, said: “The tenth digit has even been correctly rounded up. The little dot near...
A trio of 'Super Earths' has been found.
According to this press release issued by the ESO, astronomers announced a remarkable breakthrough in the field of extra-solar planets.
Using the HARPS instrument at the ESO La Silla Observatory, they have found a triple system of super-Earths around the star HD 40307. Moreover, looking at their entire sample studied with HARPS, the astronomers count a total of 45 candidate planets with a mass...
Today is the day that Firefox 3 is officially...
Starting at 10am PST, you will be able to download Firefox 3. Some notable changes in this release are:
More Secure
Easier to Use
More Personal
Improved Platform for Developers
Improved Performance
You can read more in the release notes over @ www.getfirefox.com.
Genetic material found on meteorite.
PopSci is reporting that a meteorite in Australia has been found to contain component molecules of DNA.
While no one has established the connection between the development of life on Earth and the molecules’ presence on meteorites, the discovery does shed light on the possibility of life elsewhere in the galaxy. If the basic ingredients are zipping around throughout the cosmos, the...
The Emperor is the ultimate geek workstation!
It’s name is The Emperor and you can see from this picture why it’s being touted as the ultimate geek workstation.
The first thing I noticed when I first saw it was the uncanny resemblance to a scorpion. Anyways, The Emperor features three widescreen monitors, THX Dolby surround sound, air filtering, light therapy, a Web cam, battery backup and many other things. NovelQuest, the...
Turn off AVG Antivirus' Link Scanner.
I’m sure some of you are scratching your head and wondering why I would tell you to turn off the Link Scanner in AVG Antivirus, and I’m going to give you that reason. Two reasons actually:
It visits sites w/o your permission. Evidently, when you visit a website, AVG’s Link Scanner visits *EVERY* link on that page, to make sure it’s safe.
It slows down your internet...
Invent your own computer games with Python.
Are you the kind of geek that doesn’t like playing other people’s video games? Think you can make a better video game? Then this ebook is for you. 12 chapters ranging from making your own Hello World! in Chapter 1, all the way to AI Simulation in Chapter 12, anyone can pick up this book and start programming, even if you have zero experience!
4 tags
Welcome back!
I know I haven’t updated this site in like 4 months, so I decided to come back with a new look. I’m going to dedicate myself to posting at least 5 days a week so that I can give you the best in geek news.