Chad's News

Scientists have created a computer program that cannot be beaten at checkers, once the number of pieces gets down to 10. (I guess you could win if you still had 10 or more pieces left.) The way they worked this out is neat. For every possible combination of 10 checkers or less, the researchers have pre-computed the next move to take—a move that has a certainty of not losing. If the opponent also plays a perfect game, it will result in a draw, but the scientists have proven that the computer cannot lose.

Link#1: http://news.bbc.co.uk/…

Link #2: http://www.nature.com/…
(via Slashdot)

Link #3: http://www.foxnews.com/…
(via Kim Komando)

US and Australian scientists have successfully tested a scramjet, attaining a speed of Mach 10. This technology has the potential to revolutionize international travel, should it ever make it to commercial use. I’ve read about suborbital flights in a variety of science fiction novels, and it would be neat to see it become a reality.

Link: http://www.newscientisttech.com/…

RFID chips keep getting tinier and tinier. These latest ones from Hitachi are thinner than a strand of hair, yet are able to transmit a 38-digit identification number. I believe RFID tracking technology will become ubiquitous in the next few decades, to the point where future generations take it for granted.

Thanks to Josh for this topic.

Link: http://www.popsci.com/…

Chad’s News has previously mentioned flash-based, solid state hard drives, but it’s worth noting that they’re continuing to decrease in price and rise in capacity. For now, they appear to be targeted only at laptops.

Link: http://www.infoworld.com/…

Last week Comcast demonstrated a working cable internet system with 150Mbps download speeds. Dubbed DOCSIS 3.0 (current cable systems use DOCSIS 1.1), it’s about 25 time faster than existing cable technology. Large-scale deployment may begin as early as next year. One downside, however is that the 150Mbps is shared amongst households connected to a node, so it’s possible to get much slower speeds.

Link #1: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/…
(via Slashdot)

Link #2: http://arstechnica.com/…

A company named NeuroSky has developed brainwave reading technology that can detect when a person is focusing on a fixed image. They created a prototype toy lightsaber that lights up when the user concentrates on it. When his/her attention wanders, it turns off. Apparently this is just the beginning of what they can determine from reading brainwaves. The initial market will be toys and games, but I think it could be used in a wide range of applications.

Link: http://www.businessweek.com/…
(via TheForce.Net)

A company named Zink has developed a photo printer that uses no ink. The secret is in the paper.

Link: http://crave.cnet.com/…

The high-definition DVD format war between Blu-ray and HD-DVD is still in progress, but manufacturers are coming up with some useful solutions. The South Korean firm LG has announced a player that will accept both types of discs, while Warner Bros. has simply decided to release its movies in both formats on one disc—one side is Blu-ray and the other is HD-DVD. Yet perhaps both formats will be a moot point, as we may see flash cards replace optical discs completely.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/…

SanDisk is rolling out a 32GB notebook hard drive that uses flash memory instead of spinning platters. Chad’s News has covered this previously, but (as expected) the prices are coming down. On the same general topic, hard drive manufacturers are banding together to develop hybrid hard drives that combine a flash memory buffer with traditional spinning platters.

Link: http://arstechnica.com/…

Fresh on the heels of the Functional Utility Bar, the folks at Stanley/Bostich have developed a better nail. Popular Science has named the Hurriquake® nail as its innovation of the year. The nail is designed to help prevent the roof from lifting off a house during a hurricane, and it also works against the shear forces caused by earthquakes. It looks like a good thing, but I can’t believe they actually patented the idea of a larger nail head.

Link: http://www.popsci.com/…
(via Slashdot and Neatorama)

This article explains how the new Wii and PS3 motion-sensing game controllers work. The hardware can pick up spring deflections measured in tens of hydrogen atoms.

Link: http://www.cnn.com/…
(via Slashdot)

The linked article is primarily about Nokia’s Wibree wireless standard, but there is a section that nicely summarizes five other standards. Look for “The Wireless Zoo,” about a quarter of the way down the page.

Link: http://www.tfot.info/…