[H]ardNews - Blair's Tech Ed.

Itanium Not Paying Off:

I think we’ll all agree that the Itanium has been a huge misstep for Intel. I think you will also agree that the success of all their other CPUs kinda lessens the blow. Think about it, how many CPU “duds” has Intel had in the last few years? Not many.

In its biggest strategic mistake in a decade, Intel has spent an estimated $2 billion creating a high-speed computer chip, the Itanium, that most customers don't want and don't need.

Mars Rover Battery:

If you don’t think of an Energizer bunny commercial when you read this article, there is something wrong with you.

The batteries put out about 900 watt hours per day when the vehicles landed, but that output drops about 100 watt-hours every 50 days, Richard Cook, project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory told reporters during a Friday

Chameleon Tire:

How about a tire that changes color when the tire is under inflated? This is some pretty cool stuff.

More than a quarter of all passenger vehicles on the road in the United States have one or more underinflated tires—a condition that can lead to tread separation and blowouts. The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration estimates that up to 10,000 injuries could be prevented annually if all vehicles had systems that warned drivers of underinflation.

Fastest Stopwatch:

Holy hell man, a watch that can measure a millionth of a millionth of a millionth, of a second. Wow.

A new ultrafast stopwatch can now measure the speed of atomic processes down to the smallest fraction of a second yet. Krausz describes the device as "the fastest stopwatch in the world", capable of measuring the movement of atomic particles in time units of under a 100th of an attosecond - the name given to a quintillionth, or a millionth of a millionth of a millionth, of a second.