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May 26, 2003
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MIT, Army open nanotech center
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the U.S. Army formally unveiled the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, which is geared toward creating battlefield armor for the 21st century.
MIT on Thursday cut the ribbon on the nanotechnology institute, which was funded by a $50 million grant from the Army in 2002. Corporations including Dow Corning, DuPont, Raytheon and Carbon Nanotechnologies are participating in the center's development. In all, private companies have invested $40 million in the center.
The center's research can largely be characterized as chemistry in action. During a ceremony held at the university on Thursday, researchers showed off a technique for applying new types of coatings to fabrics to make them more resistant to water or capable of killing bacteria.
Other projects involve developing fabrics that will contract or expand like an accordion when exposed to electricity; these materials could potentially be used for in-field medical devices such as tourniquets.
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Report: Planets could form in 3 million years
Recipe for an "instant" Earth-like planet: scrape up cosmic dust swirling around a newborn star and wait a mere three million years.
Even the building blocks for giant gas planets like Jupiter might form just as quickly, about three times faster than many scientists believe, a team of astronomers reported on Monday.
Three million years may sound like a long time when set against the human life span, but it is a relative blink of the eye in cosmic time. Earth is considered a middle-aged planet at about 4.5 billion years or so, and compared to Earth, these theoretical 3-million-year-old planets would be formed when the star they orbit is the equivalent of a 1-week-old baby.
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Microsoft to give support for free
Microsoft Corp., the world's biggest software maker, will start giving companies free support and service as it overhauls a licensing plan introduced last year that's been met with slow sales.
The company will give customers of its two-year and three-year Software Assurance upgrade plan free training and support, said Rebecca LaBrunerie, a licensing product manager. It comes after the switch to the new plan, which gave customers free upgrades over several years, angered licensees by raising prices in some cases and imposing too early a deadline for some to act.
Microsoft chief financial officer John Connors has said the company needs to provide more "value" to customers who choose multi-year licenses under the program.
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Nvidia accused of fudging tests
A software maker that specializes in tools for measuring performance of PC components has accused graphics chip giant Nvidia of manipulating test results for its latest graphics chip.
Saratoga, Calif.-based Futuremark on Friday said in a statement that Nvidia tweaked software needed to run its new GeForce FX 5900 processor to distort performance in Futuremark's 3DMark 03 testing application. Futuremark is one of the leading independent providers of software and services for performing PC "benchmark" tests.
The company said drivers--software files that govern how a component interacts with the rest of the PC--for the new Nvidia chip were altered to detect activity characteristic of a benchmark and adjust performance accordingly.
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SCO's Linux claim slammed
THE open-source community has launched a broadside against the SCO Group's claim to own part of Linux's code.
Linux users have started a petition suggesting defiance and have labelled SCO's move as "unjust, ill-founded and bizarre".
The Open Source Initiative, a peak body of the open source movement, has released a detailed position paper attacking SCO's management.
The initiator of the Linux system, Linus Torvalds, also joined the fray, more diplomatically saying he was waiting for SCO to detail its claim.
The OSI, headed by Eric Raymond, staked out the high moral ground: "Unix, Linux and the open-source movement are vital components of the internet and the World Wide Web.
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