Category: Science & Geeks
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GigaPan: billions of pixels on panoramas
Photographers are avid of more pixels per frame. Most of them are also fond of panoramic photos (they look so cool). Why not join forces and make a contraption able to shoot panoramas with billions of pixels (multi-giga-pixel panoramas)? This is what Charmed Labs and Carnegie Mellon University did when they developed the GigaPan robotic…
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World’s biggest digital sensor on a telescope
The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) is a project that is being prepared to hunt for dangerous asteroids that may hit Earth (and possibly wipe out Humans like one did for the Dinosaurs). Technically, the sensor is impressive. It’s no less than 40cm-wide and hosts 1.4billion pixels (can you say “1.4 giga-pixel…
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Blog action day: Save the planet, energy-saving computer tricks
Today is Blog Action Day: The day that bloggers chose to try and help save the planet from the impact of Human activity. For my own part, I decided to collect a few ideas to save energy in your computer usage: Upgrade your gear Dim your screen Consolidate and virtualize computers Turn off peripherals Kill…
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Less Watts for your Linux
The Linux kernel is trying to be the best contender in the race against electrical power use. In this context, a web site has been created to support this tendency and to help GNU/Linux users improve their power efficiency: LessWatts.org. It even has some downloadable free applications to help you find the worst power hungry…
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Meaning and origin of phrases, sayings and idioms
It is often quite difficult to know where a language idiom is coming from (it is less etymology than social history). For English, I foudn the ideal web site: phrases.org.uk. In their own words: The meanings and origins of over 1,200 English sayings, phrases and idioms. Whether you want to resolve a friendly argument over…
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Doomsday photo gallery
A photo gallery only about nuclear explosions: nuclear.fatal.ru from Russia.
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Blu-Ray bad DRM scheme
The very first discs for BluRay+ (BluRay discs with BD+ newest DRM technology) arrived: Rise of the Silver Surfer and The Day After Tomorrow. Unfortunately, these discs are nearly useless because of the DRM scheme used to protect them. For the first time, they use a virtual machine technology that allows to load code at…
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Mimas or the Death Star
Maybe the deep space Mother Nature has been copying from the Star Wars movies when it created Mimas, one of Jupiter’s satellites. Mimas in front of Jupiter’s rings Via Neatorama.
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November 2007: Giant leap for PC gaming
Do you remember 2004? In this year, we saw the birth of FarCry, Half Life 2 and Doom 3, three games that really redefined PC gaming. This year, in November, we will see a blooming of new games which are set to retrace the PC gaming industy. Expect no less than: Hellgate: London is for…