[H]ardNews - Blair's Tech Ed.

Fiber Optic Stuff:

A cheap alternative to the lasers used in surgery has been devised using an energy source that is free and abundant - sunshine. The working prototype made by Israeli physicists concentrates sunlight down a fibre-optic cable to provide a tool for surgeons.

NanoFab Partnerships:

Intel Corp., has high hopes for nanotechnology — and a $4 billion research budget to make those hopes a reality. Intel expects to perfect 100-nanometer chip features this year, two years ahead of schedule. At its current pace, that number should drop to 22 nanometers by 2015. Paolo Gargini, director of technology strategy at Intel Corp., has high hopes for nanotechnology — and a $4 billion research budget to make those hopes a reality.

PCs That Monitor You:

Researchers from Duke University have devised a detector that determines if a person is present and looking at a computer screen, and keeps the screen on only when it is being watched. The key to making a practical power-saving detector was using very low power sensors, and simplified algorithms that did not use more energy in overhead than it saved.

Spousal Spying:

Suspicious husbands and wives who once might have hired a private eye to find out if their spouses were cheating are now using do-it-yourself technology to check on an increasingly popular hideaway for trysts - the Internet. Divorce lawyers and marriage counselors say Internet-abetted infidelity, romance originating in chat rooms and fueled by e-mails, is now one of the leading factors in marital breakdowns.