Slashdot Mirror

http://itotd.com/articles/648/cochineal/

Enjoy!

Bonus reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelatin

http://itotd.com/articles/532/the-longitude-problem/
- link has background on the invention of a better watch to solve the longitude problem.
I recently finally read Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, where there's a plot line involving
the creation of the longitude prize. It took about 50 years longer than expected to be claimed.

flywheels are an interesting method of energy storage undergoing contemporary research.
in my book they're cool because they're clean and simple.

there was a good article in science news a few months back, but it's subscriber-only.
here's another.

Interesting question, but gold is 100% biocompatible, and will NOT ever be rejected by the body. Unlike silver, there have never been reports of gold eliciting an immune response (which is why gold teeth were so common a few hundred years ago, and gold continues to be used for dental applications). There are gold nanoparticles that you can drink as a cocktail that are supposed to promote your health, and also don't forget excellent drinks like Goldschlager:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldschläger
or decorative, edible gold leaf that decorates meals at expensive restaurants:
http://itotd.com/articles/477/edible-gold/

So, in short, gold will not ever cause an immune response. Depending on the size of the nanoparticles, it will be cleared by the liver and kidneys over time, and excreted.

Quantization may be showing up in more and more unexpected places, which may lead to the "floating-opint error" effects... here's some links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loop_quantum_gravity# Loop_quantization
http://discovermagazine.com/2006/oct/jarons-world- raft-future
http://discovermagazine.com/1993/apr/loopsofspace1 99/?searchterm=loop%20quantum%20gravity
http://itotd.com/articles/582/quantized-time/
http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf103/sf103a05.ht m

They give us cheap/free Zunes. We re-program them to run Linux. Didn't we do something like that with the Xbox?

This is the old 'give away the razors, make the profit on the blades' trick.
http://itotd.com/articles/295/giving-away-the-razo r-selling-the-blades/

The scroll wheel was invented by Mouse Systems, not Microsoft.

Just because MS got a patent on it, doesn't mean they had anything to do with its creation.

See this article for more.

From what I can tell, MS has never innovated even once, but instead buys or steals ideas from others, or just buys the companies outright.

It took me all of 6s on google.

http://itotd.com/articles/286/

On a slightly offtopic comment on gaming I do not know why games have not used holophonic sound available. Granted it is useful only with headphones but it could be nice for protable games (DS, PSP, etc) and an alternative to the 5.1 sound in homes.

Is it very difficult to do this kind of sound in games?, it will surely need real time processing of sound (sound sources being calculated etc) but that could be a good use for this next generation consoles multiple processors.

2. twm, fvwm, etc all had this too.

3. That was possible with many X window managers long before Windows tried it. However, most people found the visible borders useful.

4. I've seen this on both windows and X for years. I can't remember where I saw it first.

5. This page says the scroll wheel was invented by Mouse Systems, then popularized by Microsoft.

6. I believe Xfm did this in '92. I vaguely recall doing this on the Amiga in '86, but I could be wrong.

The only idea I've heard of first from Microsoft (or more accurately havn't heard of anyone else doing first) was transparent file system space saving by having the file system code combine identical files into a single copy on disk. It kept a hash of every file in the filesystem control structures, and when a new file was written, compared the hashes to see if it could merge files. Copying a file just created a second reference to the saved data. Writing to one copy caused the data to be split into seperate copies.

I'm sure Microsoft has invented other original ideas, but not nearly as many as they like to claim. Mostly they reimplement existing ideas.

does this mean more more cool hidy holes to plan world domination ?
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20010815& mode=classic
http://itotd.com/index.alt?ArticleID=282

Tell me more!

m'kay...

I was thinking the same thing. The Theramin was invented before 1921.

People in the Dada movement were creating mechanical music (or rather, un-music and noisy stuff) before 1920. Dada has had a pretty heavy influence on the modern industrial scene...

It's true, American work more hours and get less vacation time than other industrialized nation--two weeks less than the Japanese.

A non-scientific analysis of how fewer work hours might not be as bad for productivity as we thought can be found here. (note: this link is only authoritative for those who view interesting thing of the day as having authority).

China isn't the only country with this problem. We here in the US have the same problem, albeit that the fires here haven't lasted as long-- only 30 to 40 years instead.

The wheel is in the "garden shed" category to be sure, but it went through its own prduct cycle: initially as a Potters' Wheel then attached to two wheeled-carts before being used for sturdier four-wheeled vehicles.