Quote:Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD) is an optical disc technology that would hold up to 3.9 terabytes (TB) of information. It employs a technique known as collinear holography, whereby two lasers, one red and one green, are collimated in a single beam. The green laser reads data encoded as laser interference fringes from a holographic layer near the top of the disc while the red laser is used as the reference beam and to read servo information from a regular CD-style aluminum layer near the bottom.

Quote:The Holographic Versatile Card (HVC) is a data storage format by Optware; the projected date for a Japanese launch had been the first half of 2007, pending finalization of the specification, however as of March 2008, nothing has yet surfaced. One of its main advantages compared with discs is the lack of moving parts when played. They claim it will hold 30GB of data, have a write speed 3 times faster than Blu-ray, and be approximately the size of a credit card. At release, the media will cost about ¥100 (roughly $1) each, reader devices are set to cost about ¥200,000(roughly $1800) while reader/writer devices are to cost ¥1 000,000 (roughly $9000) each.

Quote:Group considers relaxing Internet naming rules

The group controlling Internet domain names may soon decide whether to relax naming rules and potentially open up a virtual domain name gold rush.

On Thursday, the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will vote on two key proposals.

The first would allow domains that do not use Latin characters, meaning domain names using Chinese, Arabic or Cyrillic letters. The other proposal would allow domains to use nearly any letter or number combination, up to 64 characters.

If ICANN approves the proposals, the world of .com and .org and country names like .jp or .fr would be opened to a much wider choice, such as .hotel or .sex.

Just the thought of .sex has bloggers predicting an auction frenzy, as almost any word in any language could become a domain name extension.

"You can almost guarantee the most highly sought-after one will, unfortunately, probably be dot-sex," said Bryan Glick of Computing Magazine.

"All the meaningful words and meaningful names in the English language have been bought up already," Glick said.

"This is why you see new companies being formed with made-up, strangely sounding names ... in order to get a unique Web domain for it."

ICANN has turned down requests for .xxx, which would be used by adult sites, over fear of seeming to give approval of pornography sites.

Analysts say .xxx and nearly everything else would be possible if the rules are relaxed.

Among the exceptions would be trademarked domains, such as .cnn or .microsoft not being on general sale.

But the more generic .hotel or .flight could set off a bidding war similar to when .tv was put up for sale by the Pacific island of Tuvalu.

theGrim Wrote:Think of the possibilities!

Quote:BMW creates a morphable, fabric-covered car. Freaky like a Khezu.

http://www.geekologie.com/2008/06/post_26.php

Sforza Wrote:

theGrim Wrote:Think of the possibilities!

It's approved already.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7475986.stm

Sforza Wrote:Pioneer Corp. develops 16-layer, 400gb blu-ray disc.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/07/pioneers-blu-ray-disc-hits-400gb/

I had to read that headline twice.

Quote:Blogging about the wrong topics in Iran won't just get you censored; it could get you killed. Iran's parliament voted last week to discuss a draft bill that would "toughen punishment" for a number of crimes that it believes to be detrimental to society by making them subject to the death penalty. This list already includes crimes like armed robbery, rape, and leaving the religion of Islam (apostasy), but running a blog or website that promotes corruption, prostitution, or apostasy may soon be added.

Citizens found guilty of these crimes "should be punished as mohareb (enemy of God) and 'corrupt on the earth,'" according to the text of the bill seen by the AFP, which lays out a spectrum of punishments ranging from exile and amputation (the theory apparently being that it's hard to post without hands) to hanging. The bill also has stipulations that say it cannot be suspended or changed in the future.

Sforza Wrote:Pioneer Corp. develops 16-layer, 400gb blu-ray disc.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/07/pioneers-blu-ray-disc-hits-400gb/

I had to read that headline twice.

Twin-Skies Wrote:Wikipedia's entry for Iran/Persia was hacked:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persia