Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 01:04:50 -0400
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Comments: Originally-From: Patrick Douglas Crispen
From: Patrick Douglas Crispen
Subject: TOURBUS -- 27 MAY 01 -- FOUR NEW TECHNOLOGIES
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TOURBUS Volume 6, Number 83 -- 27 May 2001
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\___/ \___/ T h e I n t e r n e t T o u r B u s \___/
FIVE YEARS of Searchable Archives at http://www.TOURBUS.com !!
TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP(S):
Four New Technologies
TODAY'S TOURBUS ADDRESS(ES):
http://www.orbitz.com
http://www.llnl.gov/str/Sween.html
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/apr2001/nf20010426_300.htm
http://www.ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/F8DE74C08688375E85256A5300483B8F
http://www.llnl.gov/llnl/06news/NewsReleases/2001/NR-01-01-06.html
Howdy, y'all, and greetings once again from the beautiful city of
Tuscaloosa, Alabama, home of the flying monkeys from the movie "The
Wizard of Oz." :P
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TOURBUS is made possible by the kind support of our sponsors. PLEASE
take a moment to thank each for keeping our little bus of Internet
happiness on the road week after week. Jack Edwards is a fellow
TOURBUS riderand will treat you right. Oh, and the link for the
Klipsch ProMedia speakers is working now. :)
On with the show ...
Today's post is a little different. Instead of talking about one or
two really cool Web sites, today's post introduces you to four
controversial technologies that may soon have an impact on us all.
The first new technology is a travel website that will be debuting
next month, the second and third are new computer manufacturing
techniques announced just a few days ago, and the final technology is
a medical breakthrough that is still several years away.
Enjoy!
------
Orbitz
------
The Internet is replete with Faustian bargains. The Internet gives us
the ability to communicate with people around the world, but it also
gives spammers around the world the ability to flood our email inboxes
with annoying advertisements. We can save a bunch of money buying
books at a discount at Amazon.com, but doing so takes money away from
our local mom-and-pop book sellers. And don't forget that while the
Internet gives us access to millions of books, magazines, and
newspapers from around the world, studies have shown that people read
text on a screen 25 percent slower than they read text on paper.
The latest Internet-related Faustian bargain, one that would make even
Goethe proud, arises from the fact that you can now book your own
airline, hotel, and even a rental car reservations online, something
that was once solely the purview of travel agents. Travel agents earn
a commission on every reservation they make. No reservations, no
commissions.
I mention this because today's first TOURBUS stop, Orbiz.com, is a
new Web site that helps you and hurts travel agents. Before you visit
Orbitz.com or any other online travel reservation site, you might want
to take this into consideration: no online travel site, however
empowering that site may be, is going to be able to give you the level
of service that you would get from a professional travel agent.
Of course, the travel providers -- the airlines, the rental car
companies, and so on -- love online reservations because it means that
they can pocket the commission that they would normally have to pay to
the travel agents. That's why every travel provider you can think of
now provides online reservations.
Recently, the five largest airlines in the United States -- American,
Continental, Delta, Northwest, and United -- came together to create a
new travel site called Orbitz.com. You can find Orbitz.com on the
Internet at
http://www.orbitz.com .
Orbitz doesn't officially launch until next month, but you can use it
today. Just go to the website and click on the "flight search" button
at the top of the page. Currently, you can only search for flights
between U.S. cities, but I expect that to change shortly. According
to Orbitz press releases, the site will let you search for the lowest
fares from 450 different airlines. We may have a bunch of airlines in
United States, but I don't think we have 450. :)
Anyway, I want to give you a sneak peek at a site that promises to be
a giant in the online travel industry. A *BUNCH* of people will be
watching Orbitz over the next couple of months, especially travel
agents and government regulators. For more information about some of
the hurdles that lie ahead, take a look at Business Week's recent
article titled "Will Orbitz Suck the Air Out of Travel Sites" at
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/apr2001/nf20010426_300.htm .
---------------------------------------
EUVL -- Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography
---------------------------------------
For the past 40 years, the pattern for computer chips has been
projected onto wafers of silicon through huge, expensive lenses. To
create smaller circuits on the chips you simply used shorter
wavelengths of light. The problem, according to Intel chairman
emeritus Gordon Moore, is that
... you can’t make images much smaller than the wave length of
the light that you’re using to make the image. It’s fundamental
physics that limits this.
[quote from http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/speeches/euv91197.htm ]
In short, the semiconductor industry has hit a wall. They can't keep
using smaller and smaller wavelengths of light to create smaller and
smaller circuits because the smaller wavelengths are simply being
absorbed by the lenses. Not good.
One solution is to replace the lenses with mirrors and to use
brighter, smaller wavelength light -- extreme ultraviolet, stuff in
the 10 to 100 nanometer range. According to the Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratories,
Using a prototype system, the Virtual National Laboratory has
successfully printed lines as small as 50 nanometers (billionths
of a meter) wide in photresist. Current lithographic tools used
in the semiconductor industry print patterns with 180-nanometer
size features.
[quote from http://www.llnl.gov/str/Sween.html ]
What does this mean to you and me? According to former U.S. Secretary
of Energy Federico Pena,
These new chips will have 100 times the computing power and 1,000
times the storage capacity of today’s best chips. We’ll be able
to store perhaps an entire library on one of these new chips
[quote from http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/speeches/euv91197.htm ]
I've seen the future, folks. It's SMALL!
For more information about EUVL, visit
http://www.llnl.gov/str/Sween.html .
-----------------------------------
Antiferromagentically-Coupled Media
-----------------------------------
IBM announced earlier last week a new magnertic coating for CD-ROM
drive platters that could conceivably quadruple the data density of
existing hard drives. Thanks to this coating, a three atom thick
layer of the element ruthenium (playfully referred to as "pixie
dust"), 400 Gb hard drives are possible within the next two years.
According to CNET,
Before AFC, hard drives could store about 20 gigabits of data per
square inch. IBM unveiled new Travelstar drives this spring that
... can store 25.7 gigabits of data per square inch. ... [and]
data densities of 100 gigabits per square inch [may be possible]
by 2003.
[Quote from http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-5976693.html?tag=bplst ]
Both IBM and internationally renowned imp Tinkerbell failed to
comment, though, if the combination of ruthenium and shoulder wiggling
will cause flight. :P
For more information about "pixie dust," visit
http://www.ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/F8DE74C08688375E85256A5300483B8F .
-----------------------------
Smart Probe for Breast Cancer
-----------------------------
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in conjunction with
BioLuminate, has created a breast cancer detection tool that "removes
no tissue" and "expected to achieve accuracy levels comparable to
surgical biopsies in detecting cancerous cells."
The "Smart Probe" is a small needle that is inserted into the breast.
The probe measures, in real time,
optical, electrical and chemical properties that are known to
differ between healthy and cancerous tissues. The "Smart Probe"
can detect multiple (5 to 7) known indicators of breast cancer.
Not only are the results from the smart probe instantaneous, it will also cut
down on the need for surgical biopsies:
In the U.S. each week, approximately 16,000 women undergo
unnecessary, surgical breast biopsies on suspicious tissue that
turns out benign. In addition, physicians miss about 4,600 cases
of breast cancer each week during physical examinations and
mammogram reviews.
"By using the BioLuminate ‘Smart Probe’ before biopsies are
performed on suspicious lesions, many unnecessary surgeries can
be eliminated," said Richard Hular, President and CEO of
BioLuminate.
Human trials begin this spring.
For more information about the "Smart Probe," visit
http://www.llnl.gov/llnl/06news/NewsReleases/2001/NR-01-01-06.html .
That's it for today. Have a safe and happy weekend, and we'll talk
again soon. :)
TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP(S):
Four New Technologies
TODAY'S TOURBUS ADDRESS(ES):
http://www.orbitz.com
http://www.llnl.gov/str/Sween.html
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/apr2001/nf20010426_300.htm
http://www.ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/F8DE74C08688375E85256A5300483B8F
http://www.llnl.gov/llnl/06news/NewsReleases/2001/NR-01-01-06.html
---------------------------------
TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE WEEK
---------------------------------
FARSCAPE (noun) An means of emergency egress.
Usage: "FAR! FAR! Everyone head to the farscape!"
[Special thanks to *me* for today's wurd]
You can find all of the old Southern Words of the day at
http://netsquirrel.com/crispen/word.html
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