[H]ardNews - Blair's Tech Ed

Single Atom Lasers:

The laser has the smallest active region possible and emits quantum light. Quantum light beams contain streams of individual photons rather than the usual, randomly timed bunches of photons. The device could eventually be used as a source of single photons for quantum cryptography systems, which guarantee perfect security, and for quantum computers, which have the potential to crack secret codes and search large databases far faster than ordinary computers.

Grid Computing “How To”:

A grid is something like a roster in a team sport like football. It's a list of computing resources that a coach can send into the game. The players are servers, workstations, PCs, and, often, scientific instruments. Their plays are the software and networking equipment that connect them, and the field is the public Internet or a VPN.

Campaign To Counter Spam:

"Spam is the unwelcome by-product of a largely free and open email system", says IIA chief executive, Peter Coroneos. "Spammers are freeriding on the system because their costs are very low relative to their returns. The economics of spam are simple. Send millions, and if a few respond you make a profit. We want the few to understand that their innocent actions are keeping spammers in business. Worse still, many are being scammed, with the US Federal Trade Commission estimating over 70% of spam is either fraudulent, misleading or deceptive."

CD Quality Car Radio:

The move toward CD-quality car radios gained momentum last week, as Kenwood Corp. delivered the first HD Radio tuner and Philips Semiconductors said it will roll out a new chip that could help cut the cost of entry into the fledgling market. The separate rollouts of the chip and tuner"a "black box" that plugs into an existing car radio"follow on the heels of Texas Instruments Inc.'s introduction of an HD Radio chip earlier this month. Analysts believe that the rollouts could be a sign that automakers are preparing to launch the HD Radio technology in their 2005 vehicles, which debut less than a year from now.