Modern life would be very, very different if it weren’t for photolithography, a very simple step in the processes for making an integrated circuit. Essentially, you use a slide projector to project an image of the circuit pattern on a wafer. Exposing the wafer to a light pattern modifies a chemical layer on top of the wafer, creating a mask. The mask allows selected parts of the wafer to be … Read More → "High-resolution microscopy advance could shrink CPUs beyond current limits"

More and more, big corporations are focusing on how to increase the interactions between employees, and look to coworking as a possible model. Steelcase, one of the largest designers of office furniture and workspace environments in the world, is definitely taking note of the growth of shared workspace formats like coworking and incorporating that into their designs. As the co-founder of two coworking spaces in Minnesota — and, full disclosure, having stocked one of our spaces with some of the company’s more unconventional, collaborative furniture — I was curious about the thinking that was … Read More → "How Steelcase is designing now for the future of work"

For nearly two weeks, a debate ignited by a CNN documentary has raged on the Internet about the obstacles to success in Silicon Valley and whether the technology industry is as meritocratic and as color-blind as it aspires to be.

And the documentary hasn’t even had its premiere yet. via New York Times

Continue reading</ … Read More → "CNN documentary sets of debate on diversity in Silicon Valley"

This is a long and thoughtful piece from someone who worked with McCarthy.

http://www.abnormaldistribution.org/2011/11/11/john-mccarthy/

Burt Rutan is up to something. He isn’t saying much about it, but whatever it is, you know it’s interesting.

There’s been plenty of speculation within the aviation world about whether Rutan would stop designing airplanes now that he’s retired from Scaled Composites. Imaginative and prolific, Rutan has been at the leading edge of aerospace design since the 1970s, and few thought he would simply play golf all the time. True … Read More → "Burt Rutan is up to something"

The report is the result of research carried out by Metra Martech entitled Positive Impact of Industrial Robots on Employment and claims that one million industrial robots currently in operation have been directly responsible for the creation of close to three million jobs.

A statement from the International Federation of Robotics asserts that the growth in robot use over the next five years will result in the creation of one million high-quality jobs around the world in industries such as consumer electronics, food, solar and wind power, and advanced battery manufacturing. via … Read More → "Report points to robotics as a major driver of job creation"

In 2004 Barrett Lyon’s friends bet him $50 that he couldn’t map the entire Internet in a day. Within two weeks the self-described technologist and entrepreneur had created a program that could output a detailed visualization of Internet connectivity in a few hours. Seven years and billions more Internet-connected devices later, Lyon is still at it. This cosmic-looking image, one of his newest creations, traces the millions of routes along which … Read More → "The internet looks like a fractal dandelion"

Tea merchants, bakers and Wimpy burger founder J Lyons and Co instituted the enormous programmable computer – LEO – in its Hammersmith office to help with deliveries of perishables including cakes way back in 1951. Today is LEO’s 60th anniversary.

You can read about LEO’s driving force, David Caminer, in one of Reg Hardware’s … Read More → "World’s first biz computer was British – and sold teacakes"

It all depends what you mean by “invent”. Geoffrey Dummer descibed an IC in 1952 – but didn’t make one. Jack Kilby made a working IC in 1958 – but it wasn’t capable of volume production. Six monhs later, and not knowing about Kilby, Bob Noyce built an IC that was capable of volume production. Who was the inventor?

The Mars Science Laboratory, the largest and most complex machine that has ever landed on another planet, is on target to launch on Nov. 25 at 7:25 a.m. PST.

“MSL has been assembled, tested, encapsulated, placed atop an ATLAS rocket and is ready to go,” said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA’s Mars Program, during a briefing at NASA headquarters on Nov. 10.

The rover, nicknamed Curiosity, weighs in at nearly 1 ton and … Read More → "NASA’s next Mars Rover to launch in 15 days"