Technology

The next breakthrough in the study of diseases such as cancer may come from a digital mind, with the University of Melbourne and the Victorian government planning to invest AU$100 million in a supercomputer devoted to the life sciences.

Victorian Premier Steve Brumby announced the project this week, pledging AU$50 million from the state government. The remaining AU$50 million will come from Melbourne University.

Brumby said the supercomputer will have "hundreds" of teraflops of computing power, making it the world's largest supercomputer devoted to the life sciences.

If current research pans out, the car of the future could figure out not only where you drive, what sort of music you listen to, news preferences, what you like to eat, or whom you are calling--but it might also know how your mood affects your driving. And eventually, it could turn into the ultimate backseat driver, taking full control if it's not satisfied with the way you're manning the steering wheel.

A team of Korean researchers has successfully made a micro-mini computer keyboard with almost 70 100-㎛ components by pouring liquids onto boards.

The team led by electrical engineering professor Kwon Sung-hoon of Seoul National University said Sunday that they made a super-mini Eiffel Tower, Greek shrine, and computer keyboard by cutting grooves into boards and pouring liquids containing self-assembling micro-mini components into them. These micro-mini structures are about a couple hundred micrometers (㎛) in size -- and one micrometer is a millionth of a meter.

Early last month, webmasters here at The Reg noticed an unexpected spike in our site traffic. Suddenly, we had far more readers than ever before, and they were reading at a record clip. Visits actually doubled on certain landing pages, and more than a few ho-hum stories attracted an audience worthy of a Pulitzer Prize winner. Or so it seemed.

As it turns out, much of this traffic was driven by the new malware scanner from AVG Technologies.

With some industry commentators predicting that the Virtual World population will hit 50 million by 2011 there can be no more attempting to write off these 3D immersive environments as just another gaming fad. Indeed, in my book Being Virtual I have interviewed many people for whom the virtual world is at least as important as the real one, and for some more so.

Concept cars give automotive designers a chance to let their imaginations run wild, often with outlandish results. But even by that measure, BMW has come up with something as strange as it is innovative -- a shape-shifting car covered with fabric.

Imagine how different the computing world would be if IBM had used proprietary chips in the original PC, rather than off-the-shelf components. The PC clone market would never have happened, and IBM, rather than Microsoft, might have emerged as the leading company of the computer revolution.

Or if Steve Jobs had never taken his fateful tour of Xerox PARC? Had he not seen PARC's GUI in action he might never have created the Macintosh. And then where would Windows be today?

Advanced Micro Devices, Nvidia Corp. and Via Technologies have not yet started development of their own next-generation universal serial bus (USB) controller as they cannot get specifications of the bus from Intel Corp. The latter denies any wrongdoing or intention to affect competitive positions of AMD, Nvidia and others as well as claims that the spec is not finalized.

Calton Hill, a UK based software house has developed mobile phone and memory card software that allows people to watch the movies on mobile phones with the film studio retaining full copyright protection.

The General Department of Citizenship and Passports Affairs will soon launch its online services for citizens to renew their passports through the Internet, sources from the department told Al-Watan Arabic daily. Confirming the department will coordinate with the concerned authorities to protect the website from hackers, sources disclosed General Manager of the department Brigadier Sheikh Faisal Al-Nawaf will spearhead the implementation of the project under the supervision of Assistant Undersecretary for Citizenship and Passports Affairs Major General Sheikh Ahmed Al-Nawaf.