Semo.net Weblog

IBM Corp. plans to announce today that it has built the world’s fastest supercomputer at one of its facilities in Rochester, Minn., wresting the title from a system in Japan.

Click Here for Yahoo Article

Click Here for USA Today Article

Most everyone has either seen or heard about the 1998 Summer blockbuster, Armageddon. Could it actually be possible for an asteroid that large to hit the Earth and destroy all life as we know it? Believe it or not, we are currently dodging (by a million miles or so) a rock (2.9 miles long and 1.5 miles wide) that, if impacted with Earth, could cause global devastation.
Click here to read the story.

Ever have an idea that you thought could change the world…or at least the world around you? Was cash flow a main hinderance that kept the idea from happening?

Ideas Happen is a program that is offering $25,000 to people with the best ideas, to help them reach their goal.

There are three catagories to pitch your idea in. You have until October 20, 2004, to do this. Go to Ideas Happen and pitch your idea.

Log on, present your idea, and you could be the next winner of $25,000 to help you achieve what you think could change your world.

Recently an email has been rapidly making the rounds that states that the Bush Administration is reinstating the draft in 2005.

This has been confirmed as an urban legend, which is loosely based on current pending legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, but is expected to fail by a very wide margin, according to many experts within the military and U.S. government.

Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, the senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services personnel subcommittee […]: “There is very little support in Congress for reinstating the draft.”

“It ain’t going to happen,” said Lawrence Korb, a former assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration who is now with the Center for American Progress, a liberal Washington think tank.

“It’s an urban legend, and urban legends die hard,” said Rep. Ed Schrock, R-Va., a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

The Selective Service has a notice on their website stating that this email is a hoax.

If you receive this email, please do not forward it.

Semo.net recently hosted a FBI lecture in Poplar Bluff about current Internet based security threats that business face today. Along with area businesses the DAR was there to report, check out what they have to say here.

A group of European-led astronomers has made a photograph of what appears to be a planet orbiting another star. If so, it would be the first confirmed picture of a world beyond our solar system.

Article from space.com

“Forbes is running a report saying that Intel’s CTO claims that the WWW is ‘running up on some architectural limitations’ that will eventually cause its downfall. He said the Internet will begin to collapse as millions of new computer users from developing nations begin to sign on.
Forbes Article

British scientists are developing a robot that will generate its own power by eating flies.

The idea is to produce electricity by catching flies and digesting them in special fuel cells that will break down sugar in the insects’ skeletons and release electrons that will drive an electric current.

I know I have a few flies I would like to donate to research. :)

Check out the rest of the story here

Subscribers to the XM satellite radio service typically pay $9.99 per month
for access to over 100 digital music stations. Most customers of the service
utilize units installed in their vehicle or small portable radio devices.
Several months ago XM began offering a device to install in your computer that
would allow you to listen to the service. Along comes a third party software
provider which allowed these PCR devices to download and store the songs. The
discontinuation of this device comes amid the battle of copyright infringement
spearheaded by the recording industry.

The PCR that originally sold for around $50 is now fetching a premium on ebay
with some bids going as high as $350. XM radio would not comment on why the PCR
was discontinued but stated they would be working to offer a similar unit in the
future that would not allow the songs to be stored. For more information on the
story please check out ZDNet.

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103_2-5330698.html?tag=zdnn.alert