Chad's News

Japanese researchers have successfully grown replacement teeth in mice. Here’s hoping this will be a common procedure for humans when I’m old enough to need dentures.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/…

Astute Chad’s News readers already know that the performance of a Solid State Drive (SSD) deteriorates over time. The linked article explains why this slowdown occurs, and also describes how SSD manufacturers are working around the problem.

Link: http://hothardware.com/…

Sony is offering up some serious competition to the Amazon Kindle. The end result is that we may see a lessening of proprietary e-book formats. But I’m not sure how Sony will be able to match Amazon’s extensive catalog of books.

Link #1: http://blogs.consumerreports.org/…

Link #2: http://www.internetnews.com/…
(via Kim Komando)

The linked article has some real gems that come from actual job interviews, like “What is your company’s policy on Monday absences?” and “I was fired from my last job because they were forcing me to attend anger management classes.”

Link: http://jobs.aol.com/…
(via The Consumerist)

CERN’s super-expensive Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was shut down last September due to one badly-soldered electrical connection, with the expectation that it would be up and running this September. This will not be the case. After inspecting the entire system, technicians found 5,000 faulty electrical connections, apparently due to poor workmanship. In an effort to get something in the way of results, CERN will run the collider at half-power starting this November. Then in late 2010 it will shut down the system to make the repairs necessary for full-power usage. So it may be years before we see the ground-breaking results that were originally expected.

Link: http://www.newscientist.com/…

So you’ve got a brand new bachelors degree but can’t find a job. What do you do? Sue the college, of course! Trina Thompson filed a lawsuit against her alma mater, New York’s Monroe College, for $70,000 to reimburse her tuition and $2,000 to compensate for the stress of her job search.

Link: http://www.cnn.com/…
(via digg)

Here’s a new type of computer attack that could catch the unwary user. The program, called Ippon, scans unsecured wireless traffic for software update requests, many of which are automatically performed by the programs on your computer. It then responds to the update request before the real site does, and your system is updated with malware that can take over your computer, steal personal information, or destroy data. There are ways to defend against this, but it takes a tech-savvy person to use them.

Link: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/…

The next step forward in display technology is OLED-based screens. OLED displays are thinner, use less power, and provide better picture quality. The linked article says we’ll see them in small devices in another month or two. It may be a while, however, before we get large-screen OLED televisions. Also, there is a significant difference between LED and OLED televisions. Don’t be fooled by the similarity of the acronyms.

Link: http://arstechnica.com/…

Long-time Chad’s News readers will recall this article about the extended quest to create viable colored soap bubbles. The product has finally been released and is known as Zubbles.

Link: http://dsc.discovery.com/…
(via naacal)

Criminals placed a fake ATM in a Las Vegas hotel, hoping to skim card and PIN data. Unfortunately for them, the hotel was hosting the Defcon hacker conference. While normal people might not notice a problem, it didn’t take long for attendees to spot the fake ATM and report it to the authorities.

Link: http://www.computerworld.com/…
(via Slashdot)

Interorbital Systems is selling satellite kits for the low, low price of $8000—this includes launching the satellite into a low-Earth orbit that will be maintained for a few weeks. The kit has quite a bit of pre-configured hardware and software, but you can send pretty much whatever you want as long as it meets the size and weight requirements. I’m thinking this would be a great way to make a marriage proposal.

Link #1: http://spacefellowship.com/…
(via Slashdot)

Link #2: http://interorbital.com/…

According to the New York Attorney General, three major banks paid out nearly $18 billion in bonuses, yet only managed to drum up $9.6 billion in revenue. That’s revenue, not profit. They gave bonuses worth almost twice their total income. Seems pretty absurd to me.

Link: http://consumerist.com/…