may the force be with you

"Ted Bridis of the Associated Press reports that more than 8000 Congressional Research Service reports produced exclusively for legislators are now available to the public for free. The Center for Democracy & Technology's Open CRS project is a Web-based central clearinghouse that features several collections of government reports. The research service has '... a staff of more than 700 and a nearly $100 million budget ...' but 'CRS Reports do not become public until a member of Congress releases the report.' The Open CRS project wants your help in obtaining and adding reports to the database."

source: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/29/2239238&tid=103&tid=17&tid=14

From the same company that brought you the Wasp MAV, Aerovironment announced yesterday that they have successfully completed the world's first liquid hydrogen powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) flight tests. From the press release: " AeroVironment's Global Observer High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) platform will be able to operate at 65,000 feet for over a week with a flexible payload-carrying capacity of up to 1,000 pounds." Applications include government and military surveillance operations, communication relays, and the potential for persistent real-time imagery of wildfires, hurricanes, and other natural disasters. More pictures here.

source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/29/2235219&tid=126&tid=216

Slashdot | Our Brains Don't Work Like Computers: "Wednesday June 29, @08:27PM
'We're using computers for so long now that I guess that many of you think that our brains are working like clusters of computers. Like them, we can do several things 'simultaneously' with our 'processors.' But each of these processors, in our brain or in a cluster of computers, is supposed to act sequentially. Not so fast! According to a new study from Cornell University, this is not true, and our mental processing is continuous. By tracking mouse movements of students working with their computers, the researchers found that our learning process was similar to other biological organisms: we're not learning through a series of 0's and 1's. Instead, our brain is cascading through shades of grey.'"

Enterprise computer maker Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) announced its first-ever laptop yesterday, saying the machine was designed to let engineers and scientists perform demanding computer tasks away from their desks.

Sun, which has seen sales fall for the last four years, said that it was also lowering prices for some of its computers by up to 40 percent.

Cheaper Prices

The Ultra 20 Workstation, a desktop computer equipped with an AMD (NYSE: AMD) Opteron processor, now will cost US$895, a cut from the previous price of $1,495.

The Ultra 3 Mobile Workstation will list at $3,400 and is equipped with Sun's Ultrasparc processor, the Solaris 10 operating system, 512 megabytes of memory, a 40 gigabyte hard drive and WiFi connectivity.

Also unveiled were several initiatives to drive customer adoption, including a "try and buy" program that lets customers take an Ultra 20 for a 90-day test drive at no charge.

Free Software

Sun is also loading its newest workstations with free software that it values at thousands of dollars, such as Java Studio Enterprise 7 and Sun Java Studio Creator. The goal is to coax developers to create applications that run on Sun machines, the company said.

Sun is also giving away the source code for its application server software, which helps corporate databases work together, to spur development of new programs, the company said.

source: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/44210.html

Slashdot | Next-Gen Console CPUs Not Up to Hype: "Wednesday June 29, @05:06PM
'Anandtech follows up their initial in-depth coverage of the Xbox 360 and PS3 CPU with the real truth about the next-gen consoles' Poor CPU Performance. From the article: 'Speaking under conditions of anonymity with real world game developers who have had first hand experience writing code for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 hardware (and dev kits where applicable), we asked them for nothing more than their brutal honesty. What did they think of these new consoles? Are they really outfitted with the PC-eclipsing performance we've been lead to believe they have? The answer is actually quite frequently found in history; as with anything, you get what you pay for.''"

Slashdot | Britain's First Jedi Member of Parliament: "Wednesday June 29, @02:22PM
'In his maiden speech to the House of Commons, the Hon. Member for Copeland, Jamie Reed MP, announced that he is a Jedi: 'as the first Jedi Member of this place, I look forward to the protection under the law that will be provided to me by the Bill' (the quotation is a fair way down the page; search for 'Jedi,' not surprisingly). How long before we have a Congressional equivalent?' Update: 06/29 23:15 GMT by T : Reader JE_Hoover adds a correction: 'Although the previous MP for Copeland was the Hon. Member for Copeland, the current MP for Copeland is not a member of the privy council. Debretts make it all clear.'"