Yes. It looks like we are still alive. The first ignition of the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland, is now underway and nothing has happened yet. But there’s a simple reason for that, one that I realised two days ago and I didn’t have time to actually write about until today: we got it all wrong. Everyone got it wrong.
We knew for sure that today was not the actual End of the World Day. Nothing–nothing according to Stephen Hawking–is going to happen when the the Large Hadron Collider tries to actually make those pesky particles to collide. But the fact is that today, you, my dear hadronmongers, it is not the day the collision was supposed to happen.
Today it’s just the first beam test, not the actual first collision. That’s programmed to happen on October 21, 2008. So all those stupid morons writing to us and CERN scientists will probably keep rambling for two more months.
As for the normal people, you can think about it as another extension to your life. In other words: You have two more months to find Uma Thurman/Brad Pitt/Richard Simmons and 1) convince her/him/it that the world is going to end and 2) you are the best lay there is to have before that happens. [Large Hadron Collider in Gizmodo]
A New York City school teacher that went missing almost two weeks ago was recently spotted at the 5th Ave Apple Store. Looks like 23-year-old Hannah Upp was just as obsessed over the Let’s Rock event as we were—only instead of pulling a disappearing act three days before the start of the school year, we channelled our anxiety into non-stop Apple blogging and reviewing.
Upp’s friends and family have informed all major New York publications (and Facebook) of her disappearance. According to her roommates, she had left her apartment on Sunday and then never came back. When she didn’t return, they entered her room and found her keys, her phone, her wallet and ID still there. Random Apple store appearance aside, she’s still nowhere to be found.
So, Upp, it’s great to see that you’re healthy and well, but all joking about Apple fandom aside, please get in touch with your loved ones! They’re no doubt worried sick about you! And if any of you New York Gizmodo-ers spot her around, please contact the 30th Precinct. [ABCNews]
Gearheads at Carnegie Mellon University are partnering up with tractor-maker Caterpillar to build the world’s largest robotic dump truck, a 700-tonne ground mover capable of hauling 240 tonnes of earth. In case you can’t wrap your head around that amount, that’s like 33 African bull elephants worth of dirt.
Looks like iTunes 8 is really not playing so well with Windows. Users of both 32-bit and 64-bit Vista are reporting getting the blue screen of death whenever they plug in an iPod or iPhone. Downgrading back down to 7.7 appears to solve the problem, but not without some weird, but easily fixable, app-erasing hijinks.
The BlackBerry Storm / Thunder, which should be coming to Verizon sometime in November for US$199, has finally been caught on video! At roughly 2:55, BREW Ninja whips out the touchscreen-y smartphone and shows off some of its apparently underwhelming (to him, at least) features–an accelerometer, a screen that functions as a button, and an ugly-as-sin on-screen keyboard. [BREW Ninja via Crackberry]
Apparently some Vudu beta testers are being asked to check out new HD downloads that are supposed to match Blu-ray quality. These new HDX flicks are so data heavy, you’ve gotta wait two to three hours just for the flick to start. This actually jibes with what we heard a few months ago–that Vudu was looking at offering two tiers of HD movies, though there’s no guarantee that this is anything more than market research. That’s a long time to wait for a quality (and likely, price) bump that your average Joe probably wouldn’t be able to tell distinguish from their standard HD stuff. [Engadget]
China’s HiVision has debuted a Linux-based laptop that makes the OLPC seem ridiculously expensive. For US$98, you get a MIPS-based processor, 1GB flash storage, 3 USB ports, Ethernet, an SDHC card reader, WiFi, audio in and out, voice-chat and Firefox browser support on a Linux user interface. No word who this is being marketed towards, but with a price tag that low, maybe this will end up being the device that fulfils Nicholas Negroponte’s much criticised mission. The video above is Tech Video Blog’s review of Hivision’s miniNote (hmm, naming conflict with HP in the near future?) at IFC 2008. [ Tech Video Blog via The Earth Times]
I’m confused by the Asus strategy here – after naming everything small and cheap they can possibly come up with as “Eee”, from ultraportables to monitors and desktops, they then go and produce another Netbook, but drop the Eee branding. It’s confusing, that’s for sure, but what isn’t confusing is that we’ve been tipped off from a very reliable source that the N10E (a version of the N10 we saw the other day) will be launching in Australia by the end of the month for an RRP of $1,099.
It’s much more expensive than the other Eee PCs, so that’s probably the biggest factor in the naming scheme, but considering its 10.2-inch screen, Atom processor, 802.11n wireless, 120GB HDD, 1GB DDR2 RAM, and XP Home OS, it’s not too expensive.
What do you guys reckon? Is this an Eee killer or Eee fodder?
You guys must have done something right. Remember that Sony media event we mentioned yesterday, UCHI? Well, it’s exclusively for media (and Sony people of course). Oh, and five of you guys.
That’s right. Sony are offering five Gizmodo readers the chance to win a double pass to the (very) exclusive UCHI party night on Thursday September 25. You can’t get these tickets anywhere else – you can’t even buy them (although I am open to bribery*).
There’ll be food, drinks and a live performance by a Sony BMG artist – I know who it is, but I can’t tell you. However, I can guarantee that it’s not John Mayer.
Unfortunately though, it’s only open to Sydney residents (or people prepared to travel to Sydney for one night’s entertainment during the middle of the week.
How to enter:
