Shownotes:
Scientists at CERN have been working on the Large Hadron Collider. It’s a 17 mile ring with the initial intention to test the theory of how mass happens. Some scientists are worried that the experiment will cause the world to end. I’m not worried. We’ll be live on Ustream, watching the CERN webcam while the experiment takes place. Join us if you can!
When: Wednesday the 10th
CERN Webcam: http://webcast.cern.ch
Our Live Stream: Ustream.tv
Times:
7:00 AM UTC
3:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
2:00 AM Central Daylight Time
1:00 AM Mountain Daylight Time
12:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time
Tomorrow there’s an Apple event called “Let’s Rock”. Kevin Rose says we’ll see this Nano announced, and iTunes 8.0. I’m skeptical about the nano. I’m reading how Apple develops hardware, and I can’t see this version getting through. We’ll be live on Ustream.tv during the event.
When: Tuesday the 9th
Where: Ustream.tv
Time: 10 AM Pacific (5 PM GMT)
Plastic Logic is introducing their electronic reading device today. It’s the size of an 8.5×11″ piece of paper. The goal is provide publishers with more flexibility for business documents. It’ll go on sale next year.
RealDVDis a new Windows DVD ripping application that will copy the entire contents of your DVD…special features and DRM included. It’s similar to my favorite Mac DVD ripping application called Drive-in. Drive-in is now available for purchase from Flip4Mac. RealDVD will be released soon.
These applications are legal due to a precident setting case involving Kleidescape. The judge in that case said “Nothing in the agreement prevents you from making copies of DVDs. Nothing requires that a DVD be present during playback.” We’ll see how this develops in the future!
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September 8th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Thanks for the heads up on the end of the world. I knew it was coming, just didn’t know when. Now I can properly enjoy it with a bowl of popcorn and a nice cool drink. And I hope everyone in Europe and Asia appreciates the end of the world happening in daylight hours for them, while the rest of us will have to lose sleep for it.
Nice show, and nice little explosion, too!
September 8th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Are you really going to make a donation?
September 8th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Sorry to be a downer, but this Wednesday is supposed to be the first proton beam at LHC, with no collisions. In fact, it’ll be one proton beam alone, instead of two heading in opposite directions.
You should still watch, but don’t do anything you wouldn’t want to live with for at least a little while longer – no collisions, no black holes.
(But seriously, there’s nothing to worry about. Don’t let CNN fool you.)
September 8th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Oh, and please continue covering particle physics when you can fit it in. My field could use the exposure, plus it’s freaking cool stuff. The technology behind the machine and the detectors (as you touched on with CMS in this brief) is really incredible, and the analysis and software is also pretty neat. I’ve just finished my Ph.D. at a much older facility, and there’s lots of cool stuff around there… but LHC is many technological generations ahead, and must be overflowing with fascinating topics.
If you need a hand with high energy physics coverage, let me know!
September 8th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Adam: do you have a link to information about Wednesday that specifies what will happen when? The information we pulled (and all the other gadget blogs) says that first they’ll send the beam one way, then the other way, then the collision. You’re right, though – it doesn’t specify that’s not all happening on the same day. I guess we all assumed from the way it’s written. Anyway, would love a link if you have one!
I don’t want to stay up until 2am my time if there isn’t going to be a collision! ;)
September 8th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Cali,
The CERN press release at
http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2008/PR06.08E.html
gives Sept. 10 as the date for first circulating beam but doesn’t specify how long it will take before collisions take place. The NY Times article at
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/science/29cernrap.html
is a bit older (and has the expected first circulating beam date as Sept. 2 or 3), but correctly says that “engineers estimate that it will take one or two months of tweaking and ratcheting up the intensity of the beams before they begin colliding…”
These times are always fuzzy, so it could be anywhere from a few weeks to three months, depending on how the machine reacts to the beam. As for a broad expectation, the NY Times article is consistent with what I hear from colleagues.
I can try to dig up other sources if it will help. So sleep now and save your energy for when the army of miniature black holes battles the robot army. :P Hopefully, the date of first collision will be set over the coming weeks.
Keep up the great work!
September 8th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
So that’s a no then?
September 8th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Yes, we did make a donation.
September 8th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
In that case, I will make a donation too, as a gesture of reconciliation.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Wow Cali, I haven’t been on your site since the redesign. The site looks amazing!
Great job with the aesthetics and your content is engaging and amazing as always.
Dany
raad.wordpress.com
September 9th, 2008 at 9:58 am
For those of you in the UK or can fudge the iPlayer to play this but you really MUST MUST MUST watch “The Big Bang Machine” here : http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00dccnr/
It’s fantastic and please lets stop talking about the end of the world it isn’t going to happen.
>rolls eyes<
September 9th, 2008 at 10:02 am
You didn’t take me seriously, right Lee?