Two weeks after the massive blackout darkened most of northeast US and Ontario, another large blackout has hit on the other side of the Atlantic. Large areas of London, England are out of power at the moment, stranding subway riders right in the middle of the afternoon rush.
At just 138g, the new Gigabeat G20 is the thinnest, lightest and smallest hard drive based portable music player on the market. It measures a mere 8.95 x 7.65 x 1.27cm, compared to Apple’s iPod (10.25 x 6 x 1.55cm, 159g). The unit contains a 20Gb hard drive. In addition to the standard mp3 and Read More
The RIAA has come up with this brilliant strategy. “We’re not making any money, so let’s sue our customers!” Nice move guys. Let me know how that works for you! It’s a moot point in Canada though. In 1998, the Copyright Act came into force. It imposed a levy on blank recording media to compensate Read More
In the wake of last week’s massive blackout that darkened 6 US States plus Ontario, electricity users throughout the region are being asked to cut their power usage until the grid can come back up to full capacity to prevent rolling blackouts. Generating stations which were shut down last Thursday, particularly the nuclear powered stations, Read More
This Saturday, NASA will be launching the fourth and final telescope of the “Great Observatory Program” which began in the 70′s. After the Hubble Telescope (1990), the Compton Gamma Ray Telescope (1991), and the Chandra X-ray telescope (1999), the new Space Infrared Telescope Facility will add the fourth wavelength of light allowing astronomers to study Read More
Last week’s blackout showed just how dependant we all are on electricity. Local blackouts are common and usually short-lived. But when half the country (and a quarter of the country to the south) goes dark, the things you take for granted become serious issues. For those of you that weren’t in the affected areas, here Read More
Four days after Blackout 2003, things are getting back to normal in Toronto. The only things still not running are the subways and streetcars, but they are still threatening rolling blackouts as the grid is brought back to normal. It really makes you realize how much we depend on electricity as a society. More to Read More
A new study suggests that workers that are friendly at work are more productive. Researchers at the University of Michigan claim that keeping emotion out of the workplace also cuts down on the “bandwidth” of communication. Friendly workers pay attention to indirect meanings, work well with other cultures and are perceived as trustworthy, Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks Read More
Joetek.com today adds new features and functionality to your favorite technology journal. Joetek has moved from the ubiquitous Blogger to the full-featured tool MovableType. For you, the reader, you will find a number of new features: – The Email Updates on the right actually works now. (Bloglet, which used to run this feature seems to Read More
Toronto-based ATI Technologies has beaten out rival Nvidia to build the graphics chip for the next-generation Xbox. The Xbox contract accounted for 15-20 percent of Nvidia’s sales over the past two years yet they have been trying to distance themselves from the Xbox2 project.
Comdex Canada, originally scheduled for September 16-18, 2003 has been delayed until March 24-26, 2004. This was to be the first Comdex since Key3Media, the former host of the annual event, went bankrupt and transfered the responsibility of running Comdex to MediaLive International. “Why? Several factors outside our control have contributed to a market condition Read More
Scientists in Manchester have assembled technology that enables cameras to see through fog. It filters out light that is reflected by water droplets in the air that obscures vision in fog. They are envisioning this technology for use in everything from Airports to Security Cameras to Television Broadcasts. Pretty cool.