US, Europe, Global

Latest News for US, Europe & Global

Gaberlunzie was delighted to discover that a cartoon for programmers exists in the US, and in his ignorance wonders why this has never developed in the UK. This was an article in the New York Times, slightly shortened. For a certain subset of Internet users, “Sudo make me a sandwich” may as well be “Take my wife ... please.” Perhaps some explanation is in order. Before giving up the goods, however, we should heed the warning of Randall Munroe, the 23-year-old creator of xkcd, a hugely popular online comic strip (at least among computer programmers) where the sandwich line appeared. Mr. Munroe believes that analysing a joke is like dissecting a frog — it can be done, but the frog dies.

Using an adaptation of a computer program developed to calculate lung densities in people with emphysema, with a medical scanner, researchers have been able to analyse the physical properties of violins without risking damage to instruments worth millions of dollars. Their findings as to why a Stradivarius violin sounds so good is now attributed of the remarkably even density of their wood.

Ardana, the Edinburgh pharmaceutical firm, has placed itself in administration.The company, which focuses on treatments for human reproductive conditions, in February, calling for interested parties to buy it or merge to provide the cash to develop its portfolio. It has been in discussions with a number of parties about licensing tie-ups but had concluded those deals could not be completed before its cash reserves had been exhausted.

Raytheon Company demonstrated the potential to employ a UK adaptation of the US-deployed Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS) to provide a more accurate, timely understanding of an adversary and their actions. The demonstration took place during the 2008 Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration in Portsmouth, U.K. The Raytheon team used key technologies, including DCGS and the DCGS Integration Backbone (DIB), to integrate existing applications, data bases and shared services from diverse intelligence suppliers and users providing UK forces with network-enabled solutions.

A construction surge in transoceanic cable is under way. The new cables will connect the world more closely than ever, add far more bandwidth, and provide enough redundancy for data signals to survive accidents and outages. At present, the transoceanic information system has enough capacity, but that could soon change, and the system has some physical vulnerabilities. In January, an anchor tore two cables linking Europe and Egypt, causing massive outages.

I had no idea what was going on, Murray was reported as saying later. He had slammed the ball down the middle of the court, and started to moved towards the net. Malissehad raised his hand. Malisse wanted to challenge the call with the Hawk-Eye ball-tracking system. Umpire Lars Graff thought that he was indicating that he had not been ready to receive. Graff did not react. Malisse sat on his racket thinking there was a gremlin in the Hawk-Eye computer, and Murray carried on being applauded.

IBM plans to build the world's largest "noise free" nanoelectronic fabrication facilities in Switzerland. By shielding equipment from external electromagnetic, thermal, and seismic noise, the new facilities should help advance research in a wide range of fields, such as spintronics, carbon-based devices, and nanophotonics.

"As part of the [IMF] assessment," German newspaper Der Spiegel said, "the US Federal Reserve Bank, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the major investment banks, mortgage banks and hedge funds will be asked to hand over confidential documents to the IMF team. They will be required to answer the questions they are asked during interviews. Their databases will be subjected to so-called stress tests — worst-case scenarios designed to simulate the broader effects of failures of other major financial institutions or a continuing decline of the dollar."

Gartner Inc has reported that worldwide silicon wafer revenue has expanded from .2bn to .5bn, a 22.5% increase from 2006 to 2007. Takashi Ogawa, research VP for Gartner's Semiconductor Manufacturing Research Group, said that the increase was due to two factors: first, the continued rise in demand for 300mm wafers, which commanded a price premium; second, the general benefit of high wafer prices, partly caused by a shortage of polysilico

Fife teenager Alasdair Campbell who played water polo for the Great Britain youth team in Slovenia, has just completed his first year as a sports scholarship student at Lindenwood University in America. "I seriously considered trying for the 2012 Olympics, and it would have been great," he admitted in an interview with Elspeth Burnside of The Scotsman. "But it would have meant moving to the GB training base in Manchester and living and training there full-time and, to be honest, I had to accept that water polo is never going to provide me with a decent living.

Plexus Systems, provider of Plexus Online on-demand software for the manufacturing enterprise, announces the availability of fully integrated Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) functionality. Manufacturers access comprehensive and integrated PLM capabilities in the Plexus Online Software as a Service (SaaS)

Speedo has unveiled the special Olympic edition Team USA LZR Racer suit, working with legendary design house Comme des Garcons to develop a one-of-kind look for Team USA featuring the red, white and blue of the American flag. The launch of the Team USA Speedo LZR RACER allows the original Comme des Garcons design to be finally revealed as the traditional gray and black silhouette has been updated with the patriotic stars and stripes of the USA flag. The design by visionary founder of Comme des Garcons, Rei Kawakubo, joins the distinctive metallic silver calligraphy that already appears on the suit. The calligraphy, painted by celebrated artist Inoue Yu-ichi, means 'kokoro' representing the heart, spirit and mind.

Automatic Number Plate Reading (ANPR) equipment involves the use of special cameras that scan the number plates of passing vehicles and check them out against 100 separate computerised databases. These include every police force in England and Wales and most of Scotland, the Police National Computer, DVLA records and the MIDAS system, to identify vehicles that are untaxed, have no insurance.

The Kyoto Prize, an international award that honours those who have contributed significantly to the scientific, cultural and spiritual betterment of humankind is awarded annually to recipients working in advanced technology, basic sciences, and arts and philosophy. Life sciences is honoured once every four years.

Microsoft, Google and PayPal, a unit of eBay, are among the founders of an industry organisation The Information Card Foundation, that hopes to solve the problem of password overload among computer users and create a single industrywide approach to managing identity online that promises to reduce drastically use passwords and create a system that is less vulnerable to fraud.

In Scotland, adopting or sponsoring a zoo animal is quite commonplace and elsewhere people are encouraged to adopt vineyards or olive trees, while Laphroaig offers a virtual piece of peat for its malt aficionados. Now in the US, two Maine brothers have found a way to offer consumers the chance to adopt a Maine lobster trap an idea which just might lend itself to the Scottish lobster industry.

Researchers at Intel have unveiled a silicon test chip that can encode 200Gbps on a beam of light. In contrast, the most advanced chips used in today's fastest optical networks operate at speeds of 100Gbps. And these 100-gigabit chips, which are made from nonsilicon materials, have limitations that Intel's chip doesn't as they can't scale to faster speeds as inexpensively as silicon can.

Swiss Debiotech and STMicroelectronics have introduced evaluation prototypes of a unique miniaturised insulin-delivery pump. The tiny device can be mounted on a disposable skin patch to provide continuous insulin infusion, enabling substantial advancements in the availability, treatment efficiency and the quality of life of diabetes patients. The breakthrough Nanopump, which relies on microfluidic MEMS echnology, has successfully passed initial testing stages and is now ready for volume manufacturing.

Advertise on this Site

Designed and maintained by Beachshore Design