04:56 AM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

The topic whether cell phone radiation has a negative biological effect on human cells is controversial, and every other day we hear different opinions from "experts" on the field. So far there is no real scientific evidence for or against. Experts hired by Japanese mobile phone operators (yes, right!) are now claiming that radio frequency energy from mobile phone base stations does not affect human cells.

Using four human cell lines, two containing established infant and fetal fibroblast cells and two containing cerebral tumor tissues, and examining about 20,000 genes in the human genome (approximately 40,000 genes have been identified), researchers found no effect on cell proliferation, gene expression profile or DNA single-strand breaks. The results seem to indicate the safety of radio waves, as the radio waves used in the experiment were up to 10 times stronger than the limit set forth in radio frequency radiation protection guidelines for base stations.

What I surmise: Although there isn't any hard evidence to show mobile phones damage health yet, I would not sleep with a cell phone under my pillow.

12:52 AM by hacker in E-Book Formats | Workshop

I've taken some time tonight to convert the Gentoo Handbook to Plucker format. I'll be auto-generating these on a monthly basis for download and use by anyone who chooses to use them on their Palm handheld device.

For those who don't know what Plucker is, it is an offline Web and e-book viewer for Palm handheld devices and PDAs. You can convert text files, web pages, and other types of documents to a format suitable for viewing on a Palm handheld device. Plucker is the only Palm "reader" format out there that is 100% Free Software, openly-documented, and supports such rich features as anti-alias fonts, images (color, b&w, pan and zoom), colored text, styles, and much more. No other viewer even comes close in features.

Plucker supports Linux, Win32, OSX, and other platforms through various "distiller" components. There are GUI desktop applications for configuring and converting Plucker content as well as commandline tools written in Python, Perl, Java C++ and other languages.

If you can't get Plucker working on your desktop, there's even an email-only interface to Plucker called "pler" (written in Perl, see the pun?). Plucker runs on PalmOS handhelds as well as PocketPC handhelds (using the Vade Mecum Plucker viewer). It also runs on Linux-based handhelds with the GPE-Plucker viewer.

I've also done dozens of other conversions for other projects, books and works. Feel free to give me some feedback on my progress and some ideas you might have to help me improve the quality or quantity of these works.

If you're interested in the Plucker'ized Gentoo Handbook (and the Gentoo RSS news feed), please feel free to visit the Gentoo Plucker page where I've put up some of the conversions so far. I don't use Gentoo myself (I'm primarily a Debian and FreeBSD guy), but I thought these would be worthwhile contributions to the cause.

(Also posted to the Gentoo forums).

Thanks everyone!

http://code.plkr.org/gentoo/

07:58 PM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Although long sought after as a solution to energy problems, so called "cold fusion" has led to claims that have been less than convincing. But three scientists from UCLA have managed on a desktop to do small scale room temperature fusion, which could be the beginning of a revolution in environmentally friendly energy creation.

The results, to be published in Thursday's issue of Nature, conform to standard physics, and are therefore much more convincing and simple to confirm independently.

Unfortunately, current techniques only generate small amounts of energy, actually less than is required as input, so there is much work to be done before we have a revolution that will reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. But some potential future applications of the technology are expected to include cancer therapy, rocket propulsion, and (I kid you not!)...

...portable neutron generators that could be used for oil well drilling...

If you ask me, there's something wrong when the ultimate potential source of energy is being applied to oil well drilling!

(via Slashdot)

12:44 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

That's the title of a nice editorial by Sammy over at PalmAddicts today. Besides our shamless delight in seeing MobileRead mentioned, it is very interesting to hear more about how he uses his Palm pda, with a focus this time on games and ebooks. He also talks about how the PalmAddicts site is a two-way conversation, so don't forget to email the PalmAddicts team with your thoughts related to all things Palm.

Sammy is not only well-respected by the mobile community, but has contact with PalmSource and PalmOne, and today even took advantage of a personal invitation to be at PalmOne in London to rub elbows with the big guys and attend the official launch of the Treo650 with Orange in the UK. We're all jealous now!

Even though I'm currently a Pocket PC user, I enjoy stopping by for Palm news every day. And one of these days I may just jump back to PalmOS myself. Surely the best is yet to come!

12:28 PM by Zire in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

I would like to point everyone to a relatively new game called Village Sim. When I first put it on my device I was sceptical of whether I was going to keep it on my device thinking that it was how in my opionion other Sims are. BORING! This game is presently the most active game on my palm. Truthfully the only one I'm playing cause it's so addictive. I had to buy it there was no if ands or buts about it. The features (below) are just a hint of what you will actually be experiencing with this gem of a game. Try it you'll like it!

Game Description

Village Sim is a village simulator where you care for and nurture a tribe of little people by teaching them the basics of survival. The object of the game is to grow a small village in your Palm OS device: they have food needs, housing needs, technologies to research and diseases to fight! As the village grows and prospers, the villagers become curious about their mysterious island home and the secrets it holds. Aside from guiding the villagers' day-to-day lives, they player helps them to explore and restore the island.
The game runs in TRUE REAL-TIME, so that if your device is turned off or you exit the game, hours later the little people will have grown and new surprises await you.

Features

*Hundreds of different little people that inhabit your Palm OS
*Discover the Island of Isola, home of the Magic Fish and Magic Plants!
*Hidden puzzles: uncover the mysteries of the Island of Isola
*Dozens of Random Island Events to keep you on your toes! Trapped Whales, Monkeys, Measels and much more!
*Control the destiny of your survivors! Create your own adventure with the decisions you make
*Breed your villagers and build your own tribe!
*REAL-TIME! Keeps going even when your Palm is off!
*New surprises every time you turn on your device!
*Extremely Addictive and Unique Style of Gameplay
*Total of 3 amazing original Soundtracks and ambient sound effects!
*No time pressure - No stress - No violence
*Adjustable difficulty and flow of time
*Great Tutorial to get you started

Download at http://www.ldw.com/vs/

11:21 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Here is the scoop: Ya-Qin Zhang (pronounced yah-CHEEN jong), Microsoft's new smart guy behind Windows Mobile, is going to unveil the much participated Windows Mobile 2005 (codenamed Magneto) at a conference in Las Vegas on May 9-10.

Much has been already been said (see here, here, and here); in less then two weeks we'll hear it officially from Microsoft, and only with the emergence of the first WM 2005 devices in a couple of months we will know for sure if Bill could keep his promise to deliver a major breakthrough in mobile operation software.

[via C|Net]

10:41 AM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

It seems besides producing iPods, Apple has nothing better to do than going against book publishers. According to Associated Press, Apple removed dozens of John Wiley & Sons books last week from all 104 of its stores after failing to persuade the publisher not to release the unauthorized Steve Jobs biography iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business. It should be obvious even to Apple fanatics that this is not a way of making new friends:

"Pulling books off the shelf is a little draconian," said Rob Frankel, a brand consultant. "It reeks of repression."

We are confident that at least the book's author, Jeffrey Young, won't be too upset for this kind of unanticipated publicity.

10:20 AM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

According to Reuters, Nokia is aiming to cut the costs for developing mobile phones by using nanotechnology within the next two or three years.

Nanotechnology deals with manipulating particles one-billionth of a meter in size, and promises benefits from a coating of paint that last decades to faster acting and more effective medicines. Ojanpera [Nokia Chief Strategist] said the new technology would only be used in phone components like casings in the first stage.

[via PhysOrg]