Quantum-Tunneling Electrons Could Make Semiconductors Obsolete

In traditional circuits, transistors are laid down in a bed of silicon that acts as an insulator to prevent crosstalk between circuits. In circuits based on quantum tunneling, silicon is replaced by nanotubes made of boron nitride and electrical pathways consisting of quantum dots—carefully placed bits of gold as small as three nanometers across (PDF).

via Quantum-Tunneling Electrons Could Make Semiconductors Obsolete.

Where interactive fiction authors and games stand today

The rise of the iPhone and mobile platforms in general, along with developer-friendly app stores, has made the idea of commercializing interactive fiction possible again. In the age of Infocom, the crude graphics on top-end hardware meant the potential market for text-only games for personal computers was in the millions, and this was enough to fund a whole company of developers. Today, people aren’t likely to pay money to sit down at a PC to play a text adventure game, but enough of them might want to play such a game on their mobile device to fund teams of one or two independent developers.

via Heirs of Infocom: Where interactive fiction authors and games stand today | Ars Technica.

Beware Of HTML5 Development Risks

As a result, developers have to design with the dangers in mind and weigh that against the type and sensitivity of data stored in the client. At the moment, many development shops are not training their staffs to do that, says David Eads, founder of Mobile Strategy Partners, a mobile development firm that specializes in financial and insurance applications. In fact, he recently ran into a bank that used example HTML5 code for training developers that put data in permanent storage on the client system as opposed to temporary storage.

via Beware Of HTML5 Development Risks — Dark Reading.

Open Source is Not Just About Cost

While some in the past have associated open source with cost – it’s the cheaper alternative to proprietary approaches – that’s not the point anymore. The innovation model for open collaboration enables multiple competitive vendors to co-operate on core functionality and then compete on value added support and services.

via Red Hat CEO: Open Source is Not Just About Cost – Datamation.

UML Tool for Fast UML Diagrams

UMLet is a free, open-source UML tool with a simple user interface: draw UML diagrams fast, produce sequence and activity diagrams from plain text, export diagrams to eps, pdf, jpg, svg, and clipboard, share diagrams using Eclipse, and create new, custom UML elements. UMLet runs stand-alone or as Eclipse plug-in on Windows, OS X and Linux. (Also, check out its sister tool PLOTlet to create chart grids and our other tools.)

via UML Tool for Fast UML Diagrams.