Ancient Egypt King possessed glass from outer space?

Among King Tutankhamun's treasures, an eloborate necklace contains beetle shaped yellow gem dated back BC1300s. Recently, it has been understood that this is actually glass. But how could King Tut had glass is still unknown.

At extreme temperatures, like 1800 degree celcius, glass can occur and only events like atomic bomb explosions can produce such heat resulting a thin layer of glass. However, for the thickness of King Tut's beetle, power of thousands of atomic bombs are necessary. A possibility, scientists consider is, large meteor hits; but there's no proof of such hit at that time period in Egypt.

Since, there's no Earth based source for such high temperatures, scientists believe the source of the gem in King Tut's necklace is from outer space...

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Computer game tests telepathy

In an interesting research project, computer technology is put to work. Researchers at Manchester University have created a virtual world to test for evidence of telepathic links between 100 people in what is being described as the most objective study undertaken so far.

The test is carried out using two volunteers who could be friends, work colleagues or family. They are placed in separate rooms on different floors of the same building to eliminate any possibility of communication. During the experiment participants view a random selection of computer-generated objects. These include a telephone, a football and an umbrella. The person in the first room sees one object at a time, which they are asked to concentrate on and interact with. The person in the other room is simultaneously presented with the same object plus three decoy objects. They are then asked to select the object they believe the other participant is trying to transmit to them.

The results of the experiment are expected to be published early in 2007. And, although experimenters reported that they have not intended to prove or disprove telepathy, this will study certainly add a scientific dimension to the discussion.

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Microsoft acquired Winternals

Microsoft today announced the acquisition of Winternals Software, a privately held company based in Austin, Texas, that provides Windows®-based enterprises with systems recovery and data protection solutions in addition to offering a freeware tools web site called Sysinternals.

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Google's Domains

Here's an updated list of more than 500 domains owned by Google. The list is maintained by Neil Patel. In case you have ever wondered :))

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Using our brain

There has been a recent break-through in brain computer interface research with the successful trial of BrainGate; an implantable chip that records electric activity directly from cortex. Although BrainGate is an invasive tool and subjects need to get surgery to get started, there are many volunteers. It is like a beginnings of new era where science fictions meets reality.

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There's also some progress in non-invasive brain-computer interface technologies. A team of cognitive neuroscientists including John Kounios of Drexel University used EEG to identify Aha signal. A recent study use this technique to enable humans to sort/find images much faster. A computer monitors the human subject while he is looking at a series of images and computer captures much before then the subject himself if he has found what he is looking for.

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All these tell me one thing, we are certainly in the "stone age" of cognitive sciences and the way we live will change (big time) after we understand more about how brain works and invent tools to intervene....

Virtual PC for free

Microsoft makes Windows-based version of Virtual PC 2004 free. Also upcoming version Virtual PC 2007 is planned to be released free.

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Intel Core 2

Intel has set date for the launch of its next generation CPUs. Core 2 Duo will be unveiled at July 27. Recently, AMD 's Athlon 64 X2 was beating Pentium D of Intel in several becnhmarks, yielding high-end performance seeking users to AMD. Intel expects the new chips to bring 20% better performance than AMD's. Let's see the benchmarks...

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Microsoft Imagine Cup 2006

Imagine Cup 2006 finalists will compete in India between August 6 and 12. Here are some pictures and information about the projects of groups representing various countries during their visit to Microsoft Headquarters. Among all, a promising project is "Docterra": medical information management system from Team Japan. This is certainly a fertile subject and much work is needed.

Google SketchUp

Another cool program released from Google, SketchUp [ http://sketchup.google.com/ ]
This is a free 3D graphic design & modelling program originally developed by @Last Software. This powerful tool has been used in Holywood and even visited Goldern Globe Awards. [ more ]
A design competition, 3D Challenge, is also underway for users of this tool.

Media Blogging for Profit

YouTube's rival eefoof promises to share advertisement profit with content providers that is users. If your video attracts lots of traffic, you will start making some cash ;)

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