A clever trick with seawater could supply the world with limitless clean,
green electricity. Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion exploits the
difference in temperature between sea's warm upper layers and its frigid
depths, and with demand for renewable energy climbing rapidly, could free
many economies from their dependence on oil...
The idea of tapping the ocean's different thermal layers to generate electricity was first proposed in 1881 by French physicist Jacques d'Arsonval but didn't receive much attention until the world oil crises of the 1970s. In 1979, a US government-backed partnership that included Lockheed Martin, lowered a cold water pipe from a barge off Hawaii that was part of an OTEC system generating 50 kilowatts of electricity. Two years later, a Japanese group built a pilot plant off the South Pacific island of Nauru capable of generating 120 kilowatts.
In the first flush of success, the US Department of Energy began planning a 40 megawatt test plant off Hawaii. Then in 1981, the funding for ocean thermal technologies began to dwindle. It dried up altogether in 1995 when the price of oil began to drop, eventually falling below $20 a barrel.
More New Scientist
Siren mode
But other than arming crews - a move opposed by ship owners and maritime organisations alike - what measures can be put in place to keep ships, their crew, and cargo safe?
Long-Range Audio Device (L-RAD) and Magnetic Acoustic Device (MAD) are pieces of equipment that many ships are now starting to deploy. Classified as a 'non lethal' weapon they create a beam of sound that can travel far further than sound from a normal loud speaker.
Vahan Simidian CEO of HPV Technologies, who developed MAD, explained how it all worked.
"We create our sound through what we call a plane sound source of information, which means a message can be heard a long way away.
The long throw planar magnetic speaker can be heard miles away
"If the captain had concerns about a vessel, they would activate siren mode on the MAD. That will definitely get their attention. You would then tell them that you know that they are there, and that they do not have the element of surprise.
"Should they keep on closing, the captain would commence evasive actions and switch on 'tone' - this is a piercing sound that will irritate and disorientate them," he said.
Currently they are used to communicate to a potential attacker that the ship knows they are there, but experts say that on full power it could knock someone off their feet.
"For now, the speakers on a merchant vessel aren't capable of hurting a person. Is our technology capable of hurting someone? Absolutely," said Mr Simidian.
Barbed wire
Nick Davis, a former pilot who runs Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions, an organisation set up to help protect merchant vessels, has three-man teams working on vessels in the Gulf of Aden.
He said that ships - and more importantly ship owners - need to take precautions to help themselves.
"There are certain types of ship that are liable to pirate attack. It needs to be slow moving - less than 20 mph - and have a low freeboard (that's the distance between the water and the deck)," he said.
"For vulnerable vessels, the usual measures employed when a ship leaves port is to hang barbed wire all the way round it, flood the ballast tanks, keep the fire hoses on full power and maintain a permanent deck watch.
"If any [small] ship comes within a mile, you sound the general alarm and crank up the Long-Range Audio Device (L-RAD) and get all the crew on deck."
Nick Davis said that having technology such as L-RAD or MAD, along with an alert crew, can make all the difference.
His team recently helped repel an attack on an 8,500 tonne chemical tanker.
"The team identified three boats coming at speed - once they got within a mile, they activated the piracy general alarm. The ship increased speed, and called local coalition forces on VHF.
"The L-RAD was activated and the crew got on deck. The pirates got within 400m brandishing weapons. However, we were sending warning tones via the L-RAD and eventually they withdrew."
more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7735685.stm
Mstation new features (for RSS)
Vote, Vote, Vote! - Mstation isn't going to tell you how to vote. There
are plenty of people doing that already and with something like a week to go you'll
hopefully have made up your mind. Given the areas in which we operate, you might
expect an organisation vote, if there were such a thing, would go a certain way, and
you'd be quite right - it would go to Barack Obama. This is mostly because we
find the pragmatic negativism of the Republicans to be morally bankrupt, unhelpful,
and somewhat frightening. And the kicker is that any candidate who supported the
current President 90 per cent of the time, has a 90 per cent share in disaster and
incompetence.
Music - After a collaboration with CocoRosie's Sierra Casady called
the Metallic Falcons, Brooklyn's Matteah Baim issued her first album. Now she's
just about to issue her second and we chat to her about what she's been doing
and what she has in mind.
Interview
Software - The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project was started by
M.I.T's Nicholas Negroponte to introduce children in developing countries
to both computing and the internet. This project spawned another which
takes care of the GUI and underpinnings and aims to be available for users
on many platforms. Here we talk to Sugar Labs programmer Simon Schampijer.
Interview
Music Fairs - Thunderfinger goes along to Berlin's celebration of Pop music and
trade fair called Popkomm where he spends half his time being bemused and the
other half accidentally attending official parties he didn't know anything about.
Report
Music Podcast - In a couple of weeks Mstation is part of presenting Bleepfest Paris
which, like the others that have been held in London and Berlin, presents a survey of
the use of electronics in music - everything from hard core Electro Punk to the stripped
down beauty of electronically altered voice. Here we have a track from Parisian Perrine
which illustrates the latter.
Podcast
More Music - Monthly Video Picks
This month's pick is ... an extremely well-known track from Depeche Mode
Videos
Games -
What does the Tokyo Games Show mean anyway?
Commentary
Music - Pop/dance Thunderfinger goes to Berlin's Popkomm!
Commentary Music - Classical Baron K has a look at some inventive packaging
for a Bartoli CD.
Commentary
Books - an epic book on Sonic Youth, Website Optimization, and the proof that drugs
are brainless - Mr. Nikki6, or something like that.
Reviews
And Bubbly is good for you too
Sports Video Group Audio (NYC)
The Sports Video Group will hold a special audio event on October 22 in New York City to discuss different sports audio technologies and approaches to loudness control as the industry looks to move forward on the most vexing issue in the DTV transition: solid and consistent audio. The event will focus on new solutions introduced at the AES convention, current workflows, and next-generation approaches as well as a look at the current White Spaces issue. All proceeds from the event will be donated to the Ron Scalise Memorial Foundation.
Here Are the Session Topics: Here's Who's Speaking:
EFF challenges Seer Bogus Patent
Professionals call it elderspeak, the sweetly belittling form of address that has always rankled older people: the doctor who talks to their child rather than to them about their health; the store clerk who assumes that an older person does not know how to work a computer, or needs to be addressed slowly or in a loud voice. Then there are those who address any elderly person as "dear."
"People think they're being nice," said Elvira Nagle, 83, of Dublin, California, "but when I hear it, it raises my hackles."
Now studies are finding that the insults can have health consequences, especially if people mutely accept the attitudes behind them, said Becca Levy, an associate professor of epidemiology and psychology at Yale University, who studies the health effects of such messages on elderly people.
"Those little insults can lead to more negative images of aging," Levy said. "And those who have more negative images of aging have worse functional health over time, including lower rates of survival."
In a long-term survey of 660 people over age 50 in a small Ohio town, published in 2002, Levy and her fellow researchers found that those who had positive perceptions of aging lived an average of 7.5 years longer, a bigger increase than that associated with exercising or not smoking. The findings held up even when the researchers controlled for differences in the participants' health conditions.
Mstation just bumped into a couple hundred kids wearing Mellow Park
t-shirts and carrying their skateboards and placards, and not, we have to
say, looking too happy.
We asked "what gives?" and were told that their skateboard/bmx/etc park
was being closed down by developers and that no replacement park was
being planned ... something they hope to change.
Fresh and timely from Google Labs, In Quotes [labs.google.com]
lets you compare speech and interview quotes from various political and
government figures on various topics. Browse by subject or hit the Spin
button for extra randomness. The U.S. version starts with Obama and
McCain by default, but the appropriate cast of characters shows up on
versions for the U.K., Canada and India. (The U.K. default start page
[labs.google.com], at least at the moment, is pretty amusing. comparing
Prime Minister Gordon Brown with opposition leader David Cameron and
indicating that as far as Google knows, Cameron has never said anything
of note on the subjects of China or Afghanistan.)
There is growing evidence that noise-related stress is a significant public health hazard. According to a report from the World Health Organisation, unwanted noise is causing hearing impairment including tinnitus, disturbing our sleep and triggering stress hormones which could in turn affect the immune system and metabolism.
It also makes us feel helpless and more aggressive and increases the chances of having a heart attack or stroke, accounting for an estimated 3% of ischeamic heart disease (the most common cause of death in the EU) in Europe. "There is increasing evidence that air and road traffic noise might be related to high blood pressure," says Stephen Stansfeld, professor of psychiatry at Barts and the London School of Medicine. "Exposure in school to aircraft noise is also linked to reading impairment in children."
Another study, by Cornell University in New York, found that workers in an open-plan office with constant exposure to hubbub from machinery, telephones and office chatter had higher levels of adrenaline in their urine than workers in a quiet, self-contained work station. The open-plan group were also less effective at puzzle solving than the quiet group, who slept better, had better digestion, and were less irritable.
"When people get annoyed by noise they get stressed," says Stewart, who went on to set up the National Noise Association pressure group. "Constant exposure to even moderate levels of noise can be harmful. One Austrian study showed that children living on a main road had shorter concentration spans than those who didn't."
More at The Guardian including a list of things to do.
More Hitchhiker's Guide - sort of
NUMBER-ONE BESTSELLING AUTHOR EOIN COLFER IS CHOSEN TO WRITE THE SIXTH HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
London, 17 September 2008... Penguin announced today that it is to publish the sixth novel in the ever-more increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy. Eight years after the tragically early death of its creator, Douglas Adams, widow Jane Belson has sanctioned the project to be written by the international number-one bestselling children's writer, Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl novels. The new book is entitled "And Another Thing..." and will be published in hardback by Penguin in October 2009.
Douglas Adams himself said in an interview: 'I suspect at some point in the future I will write a sixth Hitchhiker book ... I would love to finish Hitchhiker on a slightly more upbeat note. Five seems to be a wrong kind of number, six is a better kind of number.' *
Jane Belson, the widow of Douglas Adams said, 'I am delighted that Eoin Colfer has agreed to continue the Hitchhiker series. I love his books and could not think of a better person to transport Arthur, Zaphod and Marvin to pastures new. The project has my full support.'
Eoin Colfer has introduced a new generation of readers to the absurdities of life, the universe and everything through his bestselling Artemis Fowl series, in which a teenage criminal mastermind wreaks havoc in this world, the next and any others that happen to be nearby. The Sunday Times has said, 'Colfer has the ability to make you laugh twice over: first in sheer subversive joy at the inventiveness of the writing, and again at the energy of the humour.'
Colfer has been a fan of Hitchhiker since his schooldays and said, 'Being given the chance to write this book is like suddenly being offered the superpower of your choice. For years I have been finishing this incredible story in my head and now I have the opportunity to do it in the real world. It is a gift from the gods. So, thank you Thor and Odin.'
Penguin Managing Director, Helen Fraser commented, 'In 1992 I was lucky enough to be involved in the publication of Mostly Harmless - Douglas Adams's last brilliant volume of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. He was an extraordinary writer, with an ability to come at the reader from the most unexpected angles, knock them off balance and make them laugh at the same time. Eoin Colfer is an inspired choice as Douglas's successor. Eoin burst on the world in 2001 with his incredibly popular Artemis Fowl series, which is beloved by readers of all ages. He is a huge talent and a fantastically funny writer, and this new book will bring as many new young readers to Douglas Adams's work as it will introduce adults to the brilliance of Eoin Colfer.'
- Ends -
Eoin Colfer
EOIN (pronounced 'Owen') COLFER was a primary school teacher in Wexford, Ireland up until he secured the largest ever advance for a children's novel by an unknown author in October 2000. He cast a spell on the publishing and film industries with his fantastically original novel, Artemis Fowl, and hasn't looked back since. Miramax and Tribeca productions teamed up for a film option before the book had even been auctioned at the Frankfurt Book Fair that year. The film is now slated to go into production next year.
Total UK sales of Artemis Fowl titles now exceed a staggering 4.5 million copies in the UK and Ireland and over 18 million worldwide. His work is published in 44 countries. He has achieved huge international critical acclaim in the media and the book trade and is ranked alongside Philip Pullman, Jacqueline Wilson and Anthony Horowitz as one of the UK's most popular and best-selling children's authors.
Eoin is also an extremely talented performer. Recipient of a Herald Angel Award for Performance at the 2004 Edinburgh Fringe (the first author to win such an award), in April 2006 Eoin took his hilarious one man show, Fairies, Fiends and Flatulence, an adrenaline-fuelled exposé of teenage criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl to theatres nationwide. Following the sell-out success of his regional UK tour, Eoin made his West End debut at the Trafalgar Theatre in October 2006 receiving wide acclaim:
'Brilliantly surreal . . . full of farting, gentle mockery and subversiveness' - The Times
'Like Dave Allen for juniors' - Sunday Times
'The ex-teacher's lesson is the frothy tale of his childhood and his mischievous siblings, illustrated by beautifully evocative photographs . . . our amiable, pixie-like host is never dull' - Evening Standard, Four Stars
Artemis Fowl won the WHSmith 'People's Choice' Children's Book of the Year Award 2002, The Children's Book of the Year at the British Book Awards and was shortlisted for both the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year 2001 and The Blue Peter Book Award 2002. Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident was shortlisted for the Red House Children's Book Award 2002.
Colfer, who is 43, lives in Wexford, a seaside town in the south-east of Ireland, with his wife Jackie and their sons Finn and Sean.
Eoin Colfer on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
I first read the Hitchhiker's Guide in my late teens when Ted Roche, a libertine friend of mine, pressed it into my sweaty palms and hissed at me with fanatical intensity that I must read it or be ridiculed forever by the school literati. Relax, dude, I remember saying with eighties' insouciance. Ridicule is nothing to be scared of.
But I was scared. Petrified in fact. If one was not a sportsman, the only other circle to belong to was the readers' circle. Places were limited and expulsions were swift and ruthless. If one had not read the livre du jour then one would not be offered book swapsies on Friday. If this happened, then a person might be forced to turn to his own siblings for conversation.
So, in this spirit of quasi-persecution I scuttled home after double chemistry and found a quiet bathroom where I could settle down and read what I was certain would be a thinly veiled version of Star Wars. Vogons destroy the Earth and a single hero survives. Please. I could almost write the rest myself.
Never have I been so happy to be proven wrong.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was like nothing I had read before, or since for that matter. If you have read it then you know exactly what I am talking about. If you haven't then read it now, moron. The problem is the hyperbole puts people off. If it's so popular then it must be middle of the road, brimming with clichés and easily digested on the sands of Ibiza.
All false assumptions. The Guide is a slice of satirical genius. A marvel of quantum tomfoolery. A dissection of the absurdities of our human condition. A space odyssey that forces us to face ourselves and collapse in hysterics. Imagine if Messrs. Hawking and Fry were locked in a room with the entire cast of Monty Python and forced to write a book which would subsequently be edited by Pink Floyd, then the result would need a lot of work before it could be cut from Douglas Adams' first draft.
For the next couple of decades I followed the exploits of Arthur Dent and his intergalactic troupe as they stumbled through space and time befuddled and bereft, drinking tea in the face of impossible odds and generally failing to find enlightenment at every turn. It's like a quest for the holy grail where the grail is neither holy nor grail-shaped. I travelled with Arthur Dent as he lost his planet, learned to fly, found love, made sandwiches, got to know his daughter, found his planet again briefly and finally got blown to atoms.
Blown to atoms! Surely not, but no need to panic, Douglas Adams would surely reassemble Arthur somehow in the next book.
But as we all know, the next book never came and the legions of Hitchhiker fans were left with their hearts beating a little too quickly for all eternity.
It became a whimsy of mine to finish the story, just for my own peace of mind. I often wondered how Douglas Adams would have resurrected his beloved characters. And now, almost quarter of a century after first reading Hitchhiker, I have been given the incredible opportunity of writing the next chapter in the saga myself. In an actual book rather than in my head.
My first reaction was semi-outrage that anyone should be allowed to tamper with this incredible series. But on reflection I realised that this is a wonderful opportunity to work with characters I have loved since childhood and give them something of my own voice while holding onto the spirit of Douglas Adams and not laying a single finger on his five books.
Once again I am terrified by a Hitchhiker book and this time it is my own. I feel more pressure to perform now than I ever have with my own books, and that is why I am bloody determined that this will be the best thing I have ever written. And if it isn't then I will make sure that the cover is extremely pretty.
For the first time in decades I feel the uncertainty that I last felt in my teenage years. There are people out there that really want to like this book. Ted Roche is one. I will track him down in eight months time, with a proof copy in my sweaty grip, press it into his hands and tell him with fanatical intensity that he really has to read this book. Then I will sit on the corner of his sofa until he is finished and await the verdict.
©Eoin Colfer
Wexford, September 2008
HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY (H2G2) - a brief chronology
Douglas Adam's creation has been five radio series, a TV series, a comic, a play, a film, a game and, of course, five books.
The origins of the idea apparently came to Douglas in a field outside Innsbruck as far back as 1971 but the first radio series was broadcast by the BBC in 1978, with a play and the first book appearing the following year. The second book (The Rest, at the End of the Universe) and radio series came in 1980, and in 1981 Hitchhiker was adapted for television. In 1982 book three, (Life, The Universe and Everything) was published. Book four (So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish) and a computer game came in 1984 and in 1992 book five, Mostly Harmless.
Douglas Adams died of heart failure in May 2001, aged 49. Since then there have been more radio adaptations and the release of a Hitchhiker film.
Book six, And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer will be published in autumn 2009.
Approximately 16 million copies of Hitchhiker books have been sold worldwide and have been translated into 35 languages.
For more interesting and amusing information on Douglas's life and work, go to h2g2 ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A3790659) the unconventional guide to life, the universe and everything inspired by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy itself.
This email was sent by a company owned by Pearson plc, registered office at 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL.
Registered in England and Wales with company number 53723
Google have issued a new web browser called Chrome. Based on Webkit,
it is fast and has a summary page of pages you've been to.
For info and download
However, in recent years sports scientists have discovered that it is just as risky to drink too much during exercise. Indeed, in many endurance activities, hyponatraemia - or fluid intoxication - is more prevalent than dehydration. Caused by sodium levels and other body salts (or electrolytes) becoming dangerously dilute, hyponatraemia can result in dizziness, vomiting, respiratory problems and fatigue. "During intense or prolonged exercise, the kidneys are unable to excrete fluid as efficiently as normal," Sutton says. "In extreme cases, water is retained, especially in highly absorbent brain cells, and the pressure causes the body to shut down its primary functions, such as breathing and heart rate. Treatment involves a small volume of highly concentrated salt solution. But it can be fatal."
After the 2003 London Marathon, 14 of the runners taken to hospital had hyponatraemia, and a study by Harvard University researchers found that 13% of competitors in the Boston marathon drank enough to cause fluid toxicity. And despite what bottled water and sports drink manufacturers (sports drinks are as likely to cause water toxicity as water) would have us believe, many top athletes drink only small amounts. According to Dr Dan Tunstall-Pedoe, the emeritus medical director of the London marathon, "it's surprising how little elite runners do drink ... they are able to run 26.2 miles at speed with very little fluid on board."
More at The Guardian
Mstation general News
for a scroll down page of all news go here.
Thu, 20 Nov 2008
Wed, 19 Nov 2008
or deafen him
Tue, 28 Oct 2008
f e a t u r e s: November 08
Tue, 14 Oct 2008
new Macbooks
CUPERTINO, California'October 14, 2008'Apple® today unveiled an all
new MacBook® family that redefines notebook design, and at the same
time dramatically lowers the entry price for advanced notebook
features including all-metal enclosures and pro-performance notebook
graphics by £350 to make them far more affordable. The new MacBook and
15-inch MacBook Pro both have a precision unibody enclosure crafted
from a single block of aluminium, resulting in thinner, more durable
and incredibly beautiful designs. In addition, every member of the new
MacBook family includes state of the art NVIDIA graphics, brilliant
instant-on LED-backlit displays and new large glass Multi-Touch™
trackpads that offer almost 40 percent more tracking area and support
more Multi-Touch gestures. The entire new MacBook family meets
stringent Energy Star 4.0, EPEAT Gold and RoHS environmental
standards, and leads the industry in the elimination of toxic
chemicals by containing no brominated flame retardants, using only PVC-
free internal cables and components, and using energy efficient LED-
backlit displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass.
'Apple has invented a whole new way of building notebooks from a
single block of aluminium. And, just as important, they are the
industry's greenest notebooks' said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. 'The new
MacBooks offer incredible features our users will love 'like their
stunning all-metal design, great 3D graphics and LED backlit displays'
at prices up to £350 less than before.”
'Traditionally notebooks are made from multiple parts. With the new
MacBook, we've replaced all of those parts with just one part'the
unibody' said Jonathan Ive, Apple's senior vice president of
Industrial Design. 'The MacBook's unibody enclosure is made from a
single block of aluminium, making the new MacBook fundamentally
thinner, stronger and more robust with a fit and finish that we've
never even dreamed of before.”
The new MacBook line features the powerful new NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, a
revolutionary new 3D integrated graphics processor that features 16
parallel processing cores and delivers up to five times the 3D
graphics performance as previous MacBook and MacBook Air™ designs.
Apple has worked together with NVIDIA on this groundbreaking graphics
processor and is the first to bring it to market in the new MacBook
family.
The new smooth glass Multi-Touch trackpad on the MacBook and 15-inch
MacBook Pro gives users almost 40 percent more tracking area than
before, making it even easier to use Multi-Touch gestures like pinch,
rotate and swipe. New gestures allow users to activate Exposé® or
switch between applications at the touch of a fingertip. The entire
trackpad surface is also a button, allowing users to both track and
click virtually anywhere on the trackpad. Users can easily enable
multiple virtual buttons in software, such as right-clicking.
Every member of the new MacBook family features an LED-backlit display
for brilliant instant-on performance that uses up to 30 percent less
energy than its predecessor and eliminates the mercury found in
industry standard fluorescent tube backlights. The ultra-thin displays
provide crisp images and vivid colours which are ideal for viewing
photos and movies, and the edge-to-edge cover glass creates a smooth,
seamless surface. Every display in the new MacBook line uses
completely arsenic-free glass.
The new MacBook delivers the top three features that MacBook customers
have told us they want in a new MacBook'an all metal enclosure, high
performance 3D graphics and LED-backlit displays'at an entry price
that is £350 less than the £1,299 (inc VAT) price of the MacBook Pro.
At only 0.95-inches thin and weighing just 4.5 pounds, the new 13-inch
full featured aluminium MacBook is an incredibly compact and durable
notebook starting at just £719 (inc VAT). Featuring the new NVIDIA
GeForce 9400M graphics processor, MacBook delivers outstanding 3D game
play on a consumer notebook, with up to five times faster graphics
performance than the previous generation. The new MacBook is available
in two models: the 2.0 GHz MacBook with a 160GB 5400 rpm hard drive,
and the 2.4 GHz MacBook with a 250GB 5400 rpm hard drive and a backlit
keyboard.
The powerful new 15-inch MacBook Pro at only 0.95-inches thin and
weighing just 5.5 pounds offers ultimate performance and extensive
expansion features in a remarkably portable design. Starting at
£1,399, the MacBook Pro uses the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors
available, running up to 2.8 GHz, and a new graphics architecture that
allows users to switch between the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated
graphics processor for better battery life and the powerful NVIDIA
GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics processor for higher performance.
The new MacBook Pro is available in two models: a 2.4 GHz model with a
250GB 5400 rpm hard drive and a 2.53 GHz model with a 320GB 5400 rpm
hard drive.
Today Apple also updated MacBook Air and the 17-inch MacBook Pro.
MacBook Air, measuring only 0.16-inches at its thinnest point, 0.76-
inches at its maximum height and weighing just three pounds, now
includes new NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics and a faster
architecture to provide robust support for 3D games and enhanced
performance. Starting at £1,299, MacBook Air is available with a 120GB
4200 rpm hard drive, a 50 percent increase from the previous
generation, or a new 128GB solid state drive. The updated 17-inch
MacBook Pro keeps its original aluminium design, and now comes
standard with a high resolution 1920 x 1200 LED-backlit display and a
larger 320GB hard drive or an optional 128GB solid state drive.
Setting a new standard for environmentally friendly notebooks, every
model of the new MacBook family achieves EPEAT Gold status.* Each
MacBook unibody enclosure is made of highly recyclable aluminium and
comes standard with energy efficient LED-backlit displays that are
mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass. The new MacBook family
meets stringent Energy Star 4.0 requirements, contains no brominated
flame retardants and uses internal cables and components that are PVC-
free.
The new MacBook, 15-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air include a next
generation, industry-standard Mini DisplayPort to connect with the new
Apple LED Cinema Display featuring a 24-inch LED-backlit widescreen
display with a built-in iSight® video camera, mic and speakers in an
elegant, thin aluminium and glass enclosure. Part of the next-
generation DisplayPort industry standard, the new Mini DisplayPort
delivers a pure digital signal that can drive up to a 30-inch
widescreen display. The Mini DisplayPort is ultra-compact at just 10
percent the size of a full DVI connector, perfect for the sleek design
of the new MacBook family. Adapters are available for using the
MacBook's Mini DisplayPort with older generation VGA, DVI/HDMI and
Dual-Link DVI displays.
Every Mac® in the Apple lineup comes with iLife® ‘08, Apple's award-
winning suite of digital lifestyle applications, featuring iPhoto®,
the easiest, fastest way to organise and share digital photos, and a
completely reinvented iMovie®, both seamlessly integrated with the
MobileMe™ Gallery for online photo and video sharing.** Every Mac also
includes Leopard®, the world's most advanced operating system which
features Time Machine™,*** an effortless way to automatically back up
everything on a Mac; a redesigned Finder™ that lets users quickly
browse and share files between multiple Macs; Quick Look, the best way
to instantly see files without opening an application; Spaces®, an
intuitive feature used to create groups of applications and instantly
switch between them; and major enhancements to Mail and iChat®.****
Pricing & Availability UK
The new MacBook, 15-inch MacBook Pro and 17-inch MacBook Pro are now
shipping and the new MacBook Air will be available in early November
through the Apple Store® (http://www.apple.com/uk), Apple's retail
stores and Apple Authorised Resellers. An updated 13-inch white
MacBook featuring 2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors, a 120GB 5400
rpm hard drive and a slot-load 8X SuperDrive® is now available for
£719 (inc VAT).
The 2.0 GHz, 13-inch aluminium MacBook, for a suggested retail price
of £949 (inc VAT), includes:
• 13.3-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1280 x 800 glossy display;
• 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3MB shared L2 cache;
• 1066 MHz front-side bus;
• 2GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, expandable to 4GB;
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;
• 160GB serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion
Sensor;
• a slot-load 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/
CD-RW) optical drive;
• Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);
• built-in AirPort Extreme® 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth
2.1+EDR;
• Gigabit Ethernet port;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• two USB 2.0 ports;
• one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both
optical digital and analogue;
• glass Multi-Touch trackpad; and
• 60 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.
The 2.4 GHz aluminium MacBook, for a suggested retail price of £1,149
(inc VAT), includes:
• 13.3-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1280 x 800 glossy display;
• 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3MB shared L2 cache;
• 1066 MHz front-side bus;
• 2GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, expandable to 4GB;
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;
• 250GB serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion
Sensor;
• a slot-load 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/
CD-RW) optical drive;
• Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);
• built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth
2.1+EDR;
• Gigabit Ethernet port;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• two USB 2.0 ports;
• one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both
optical digital and analogue;
• glass Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard; and
• 60 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.
Build-to-order options for the MacBook include the ability to upgrade
to 4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, a 250GB 5400 rpm, 320GB 5400 rpm hard
drive, a 128GB solid state drive, Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter,
Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (for 30-inch DVI display),
Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter, Apple USB Modem, Apple Remote, Apple
MagSafe Airline Adapter and the AppleCare® Protection Plan.
The 2.4 GHz, 15-inch aluminium MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail
price of £1,399 (inc VAT), includes:
• 15.4-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1440 x 900 glossy display;
• 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3MB shared L2 cache;
• 1066 MHz front-side bus;
• 2GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, expandable to 4GB;
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;
• NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics with 256MB GDDR3 video
memory;
• 250GB serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion
Sensor;
• a slot-load 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/
CD-RW) optical drive;
• Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);
• built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth
2.1+EDR;
• Gigabit Ethernet port;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• two USB 2.0 ports;
• one FireWire® 800 port;
• ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot;
• one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both
optical digital and analogue;
• glass Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard; and
• 85 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.
The 2.53 GHz aluminium MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of
£1,749 (inc VAT), includes:
• 15.4-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1440 x 900 glossy display;
• 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 6MB shared L2 cache;
• 1066 MHz front-side bus;
• 4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM;
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;
• NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics with 512MB GDDR3 video
memory;
• 320GB serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion
Sensor;
• a slot-load 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/
CD-RW) optical drive;
• Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);
• built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth
2.1+EDR;
• Gigabit Ethernet port;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• two USB 2.0 ports;
• one FireWire 800 port;
• ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot;
• one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both
optical digital and analogue;
• glass Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard; and
• 85 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.
Build-to-order options for the MacBook Pro include a 2.8 GHz Intel
Core 2 Duo processor, the ability to upgrade to 4GB 1066 MHz DDR3
SDRAM, 250GB 7200 rpm, 320GB 5400 rpm or a 320GB 7200 rpm hard drive,
a 128GB solid state drive, Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter, Mini
DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (for 30-inch DVI display), Mini
DisplayPort to VGA Adapter, Apple USB Modem, Apple Remote, Apple
MagSafe Airline Adapter and the AppleCare Protection Plan.
The 1.6 GHz MacBook Air, for a suggested retail price of £1,299 (inc
VAT), includes:
• 13.3-inch widescreen LED-backlit high resolution 1280 x 800 glossy
display;
• 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 6MB shared L2 cache;
• 1066 MHz front-side bus;
• 2GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM;
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;
• 120GB serial ATA hard drive running at 4200 rpm, with Sudden Motion
Sensor;
• Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);
• built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth
2.1+EDR;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• one USB 2.0 port;
• one headphone port;
• Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard; and
• 45 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.
The 1.86 GHz MacBook Air, for a suggested retail price of £1,799 (inc
VAT), includes:
• 13.3-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1280 x 800 glossy display;
• 1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 6MB shared L2 cache;
• 1066 MHz front-side bus;
• 2GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM;
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;
• 128GB solid state drive;
• Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);
• built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth
2.1+EDR;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• one USB 2.0 port;
• one headphone port;
• Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard; and
• 45 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.
Build-to-order options and accessories for the MacBook Air include the
MacBook Air SuperDrive, Apple USB Ethernet Adapter, Mini DisplayPort
to DVI Adapter, Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (for 30-inch
DVI display), Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter, Apple USB Modem, Apple
MagSafe Airline Adapter, Apple Remote and the AppleCare Protection Plan.
The 2.5GHz 17-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of £1,949
(inc VAT), includes:
• 17-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1920 x 1200 glossy display;
• 2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 6MB shared L2 cache;
• 800 MHz front-side bus;
• 4GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM;
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics with 512MB with GDDR3 video memory;
• 320GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion
Sensor;
• a slot-load 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/
CD-RW) optical drive;
• DVI output port for video output (VGA adapter included);
• built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth
2.1+EDR;
• Gigabit Ethernet port;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• three USB 2.0 ports;
• one FireWire 800 port and one FireWire 400 port;
• ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot;
• one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both
optical digital and analogue;
• Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard; and
• 85 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.
Build-to-order options for the 17-inch MacBook Pro include a 2.6 GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a 320GB 7200 rpm hard drive, a 128GB solid
state drive, anti-glare display, Apple USB Modem, Apple Remote, Apple
MagSafe Airline Adapter and the AppleCare Protection Plan.
*EPEAT is an independent organisation that helps customers compare the
environmental performance of notebooks and desktops. Products meeting
all of the 23 required criteria and at least 75 percent of the
optional criteria are recognised as EPEAT Gold products. The EPEAT
program was conceived by the US EPA and is based on IEEE 1680 standard
for Environmental Assessment of Personal Computer Products. For more
information visit www.epeat.net.
**The MobileMe service is available to persons aged 13 or older.
Annual membership fee and internet access required. Terms and
conditions apply.
***Time Machine requires an additional hard drive (sold separately).
****Video chatting requires a broadband Internet connection; fees may
apply.
Mon, 13 Oct 2008
Bubbly good for heart
Good news for wine lovers. New research suggests that white wines seem to
offer the same heart benefits as reds. Lab rats fed white wine as part of
their diet suffered less heart damage during cardiac arrest, compared to
animals fed only water or grain alcohol. Read the full story on NS.COM:
here
Wed, 08 Oct 2008
EFF Challenges Bogus Patent on Internet Music Files
Illegitimate Patent Threatens New Innovations in Music
Distribution
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is
challenging a bogus patent on Internet music files that
could stifle new innovations in online music distribution.
Seer Systems was awarded this illegitimate patent for a
system and method for joining different musical data types
together in a file, distributing them over the Internet,
and then playing that file. But in a reexamination request
filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office
(USPTO) today, EFF and the law firm Day Casebeer Madrid &
Batchelder show that descriptions of this technology were
published a number of times before Seer Systems made its
claim--including one in a book written by Seer's own
founder and the named inventor of the patent, Stanley
Jungleib.
"Mr. Jungleib extensively publicized techniques for music
distribution in his book, and he did not seek a patent
until after the methods entered the public domain," said
EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney Michael Kwun.
"Patenting technology that has already been publicly
disclosed and widely adopted opens the door to lawsuits
against legitimate innovators who are creating new products
in good faith."
In fact, Seer Systems has already sued Beatnik, Inc., a
company creating music software for mobile devices.
Beatnik and Seer later entered into a settlement, which
means Beatnik may well have paid money for a license to an
invalid patent. Enforcement of the illegitimate Seer
patent also threatens to compromise at least two public
media standards, MPEG4 and XMF.
"The United States patent system is meant to encourage, not
stifle, innovation," said Paul Grewal of Day Casebeer. "We
are confident that the Patent Office will take a close look
at these meritless claims by Seer Systems."
Day Casebeer attorneys Renee DuBord Brown and Andy Chan
were also instrumental in researching and drafting the
reexamination request. Students from the Cyberlaw Clinic
at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard
Law School provided assistance by drafting the prior art
description that EFF posted on its website. The Seer
patent being challenged is U.S. Patent No. 5,886,274.
The challenge to the Seer patent is part of EFF's Patent
Busting Project, which combats the chilling effects of bad
patents on the public and consumer interests. So far, the
project has killed one patent covering a system and method
for creating digital recordings of live performances. Four
more reexaminations are underway by the USPTO due to EFF
requests.
For the full reexamination request:
here
For more on the Patent Busting Project:
here
For this release:
here
About EFF
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil
liberties organization working to protect rights in the
digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and
challenges industry and government to support free
expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported
organization and maintains one of the most linked-to
websites in the world at www.eff.org
-end-
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Tue, 07 Oct 2008
Smoking or Excercise has less Affect than Denigration
Thu, 25 Sep 2008
Mellow Park to be shut?
Quotes from Google Labs
Wed, 24 Sep 2008
Corruption Table
The table is compiled each year by the global anti-corruption group, from polls taken around the world. The results are used to assess how much corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians in 180 countries.
At a glance
Least corrupt countries
1= Denmark
1= New Zealand
1= Sweden
4 Singapore
5= Finland
5= Switzerland
Most corrupt countries
180 Somalia
178= Burma
178= Iraq
177 Haiti
176 Afghanistan
Tue, 23 Sep 2008
Studies show noise is a health risk
Wed, 17 Sep 2008
Wed, 03 Sep 2008
Tue, 19 Aug 2008