The second beta version of the iPhone SDK is now available and includes Interface Builder, a powerful tool that allows you to visually build your interface and makes creating a UI as simple as drag and drop.
They’ve also added new sample code and updated documentation to the rich set of resources available to you in the iPhone Dev Center.
View the Beta 1 to Beta 2 API Delta.
In what can only be considered a bizarre court case, a former nuclear safety officer and others are suing the U.S. Department of Energy, Fermilab, the National Science Foundation and CERN to stop the use of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) until its safety is reassessed. The plaintiffs cite three possible ‘doomsday’ scenarios which might occur if the LHC becomes operational: the creation of microscopic black holes which would grow and swallow matter, the creation of strangelets which, if they touch other matter, would convert that matter into strangelets or the creation of magnetic monopoles which could start a chain reaction and convert atoms to other forms of matter. CERN will hold a public open house meeting on April 6 with word having been spread to some researchers to be prepared to answer questions on microscopic black holes and strangelets if asked.
Okay, so I hadn’t written a Blog Post for 67 days. I think that’s probably the longest I’ve been without actually posting any useless crap at all.
Well, at the moment I’m working on what I’d like to call a big big project.
I’ll keep you posted (pun intended).
Submerged in a pool of water at Hanford Site are 1,936 stainless-steel nuclear-waste capsules containing cesium and strontium. Combined, they contain over 120 million curies of radioactivity. It is estimated to be the most curies under one roof in the United States. The blue glow is created by the Cherenkov Effect. which describes the electromagnetic radiation emitted when a charged particle, giving off energy, moves faster than light through a transparent medium. The temperatures of the capsules are as high as 330 degrees Fahrenheit. The pool of water serves as a shield against radiation; a human standing one foot from an unshielded capsule would receive a lethal dose of radiation in less than 10 seconds. Hanford is among the most contaminated sites in the United States.
ZDNet is reporting that 23andme.com will open its doors on Monday, allowing you to send them a cheek swab and have your DNA analyzed for $999 (plus shipping). So what’s a thousand bucks buy you? They can tell you your ancient ancestry, they can tell you what diseases you’re predisposed to and they also give you a “Gene Explorer” that allows you to do a search in your genome to find out if you have a certain gene.
Picture of The Day: Speculation on The Cloverfield Monster.
As improbable as this concept initially seems, pieces of this puzzle are starting to fall into place. The odd vocalization from the official site. The aquatic entry. The text on the Slusho site and Tagruato sites.
Maybe this is another JJ Abrams red herring leading up to the grand reveal. Either way, it’s far more interesting than another giant stompy reptile.
Australian pilots flying the new generation of fighter jets now under development will wear bespoke, high-tech helmets equipped with a feature that gives airmen simulated X-ray vision.
The cutting edge headgear, which looks like it’s been sourced from a Star Wars costume department, is being tested by Royal Air Force (RAF) scientists at the Boscombe Down base south-west of London.
Wikipedia: In Event of Moon Disaster. Contingency speech to be delivered by President Richard M. Nixon if the Apollo 11 astronauts were stranded on the moon.
NASA spends between $400,000 and $1.3 million on a party at every shuttle launch, according to CBS. Select personnel are treated to 5 days at a 4 star hotel. This year alone, they’ve spent $4 million on parties. NASA asked for, and was given, $1 billion more from the Senate this year. NASA proponents argue it makes more sense to give money to talented, productive people in exchange for scientific knowledge, than spend in on unproductive people in the form of straight welfare.
All has been relatively quiet on the 1-18-08 front for the last few months since the San Diego Comic-Con, but a source for ComingSoon.net has revealed to us that the J.J. Abrams-produced monster movie will get a new trailer AND its title will finally be revealed on November 16 in front of Robert Zemeckis’ animated Beowulf.
So far, we know very little about the movie beyond what we’ve seen in the teaser this past summer, the pictures on the official site, the director and writer (Matt Reeves and Drew Goddard) and some of its cast (Michael Stahl-David, Odet Jasmin, Mike Vogel, Lizzy Kaplan), but hopefully, more will become clear in a few weeks.
It’s hard to talk about what Valve’s The Orange Box offers without immediately falling into an impression of some sort of late-night pitchman for fantasy knives and alternative cleaning products. That’s partially because the name “The Orange Box” sounds more like some kind of citrus-scented bathroom cleanser than a video game, and partially because this five-games-in-one package is the kind of crazy deal that almost forces you to shout “Now how much would you pay?” With three amazing new games and two classics all in one package, it’s impossible to go wrong with The Orange Box.
The BBC has a nice high-level overview of some technologies for surveillance developed in the US and the UK. ‘The US and UK governments are developing increasingly sophisticated gadgets to keep individuals under their surveillance. When it comes to technology, the US is determined to stay ahead of the game … But it [a through-the wall sensing device in development] will also show whether someone inside a house is looking to harm you, because if they are, their heart rate will be raised. And 10 years from now, the technology will be much smarter. We’ll scan a person with one of these things and tell what they’re actually thinking.
Half-Life 2 Soundtrack and the official track listing, so that you don’t have to extract it using GCFScape like I did.
Added bit of trivia: I didn’t realize, until reading the Wikipedia article, that much of HL2’s soundtrack were repurposed songs from the first Half-Life.
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