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On May 20th, the kilogram will no longer be defined by a lump in France
On May 20th, World Metrology Day, the scientific community will officially change the definition of the kilogram. For 130 years, the kilo has been defined by a physical cylinder of platinum-iridium alloy, known as Le Grand K and stored in a vault outside of Paris. But every time scientists handled it, the cylinder lost atoms -- an estimated 50 micrograms over its lifetime. So, beginning Monday, the kilogram will officially be measured by a physical constant known as the Planck constant.
The Think Tank: How do you define 'massive'?
I was passing out Massively t-shirts at a fan event a few year back when an arguably large man told the crowd that he probably shouldn't be wearing a shirt with the word "massive" on it. We all got a chuckle, but I don't think I would have defined him as massive before he made that comment. We asked for your opinions on the definition of the word "massive" as it pertains to massively multiplayer games, and the answers were both interesting and varied. So I thought it'd be a good idea to see what the Massively staff thinks of that debatable word. Follow along after the jump to see what we call massive.
Visualized: the coolest desktop chassis at Computex, literally
Having a gadget encased in ice is always a cool stunt (pun intended), but Fractal took one step further by using blocks of ice cut out of a Swedish river, and then have them shipped all the way to Computex in Taiwan. Apparently that's how Scandinavians roll. As for the actual products, frequent desktop builders may have already heard of Fractal for its silent, minimalistic chassis, which recently made their way to the US market. While we didn't get a chance to check out how quiet the live machines were, the cases' build quality was surprisingly solid for their prices, and we were also impressed by the attention to detail on damping noise wherever possible. Hit the source link below to check out Fractal's Define, Arc, and Core series cases. %Gallery-125139%
Fractal Design's Define Mini custom PC case ditches LEDs for style
As anyone who's shopped around for a custom PC case knows, the options are virtually endless -- but it's a bit of a different story if you're looking to keep things as sleek and simple as possible. Thankfully, the folks at Fractal Design have now provided one more option for the more modestly-inclined folks out there in the form of their new Define Mini case, which is a Micro ATX version of their larger Define R2 and R3 cases. As you can see above, it's suitably monolith-like, and it doesn't come with too many compromises in terms of specs -- in fact, you'll actually get a generous six HDD trays among all the usual accommodations. No word on a price just yet, but we're guessing it won't demand too much of a premium if the company's other Define cases are any indication.
QAM gets explained in quick-and-dirty fashion
If you've noticed, quite a few Comcast users have been grumbling over the quality of their HD programming recently, and they're attributing the artifacts / compression to the squeezing of three high-def channels onto a single QAM. Granted, delving into technical aspects typically isn't our bag, but given the constant talk of HD Lite, we figured it prudent to pass along a rough 'n dirty explanation that details why cramming more than two HD channels onto one QAM is a bad idea (in the consumer's eye). Quadrature amplitude modulation, as it's formally known, equals 6MHz of bandwidth, which equals 38.8Mbps of broadband data, which equals thousands of voice conversation, which equals "enough" space for two to three HD nets. Granted, just because three will fit doesn't mean things will look as good as if only two were allocated to one QAM. Quite frankly, we're just scratching the surface in this space, but hit up the read link if you're itching to know more.
Where did "Blu-ray" come from? Adam Sandler knows
The name HD DVD, while not particularly original is at least pretty clear to anyone familiar with standard DVDs. Fans of Sony's Blu-ray technology certainly get the connection to its blue laser technology, but the average consumer might be a little thrown off. If you need more explanation of where the term "Blu-ray" originated, Adam Sandler -- star of Sony Pictures' first dual-layer 50GB Blu-ray release -- provided his own retelling of the events during a dinner honoring Sony CEO Howard Stringer recently. No matter how seriously you take his tale of a devastating cross-eyed blonde named Blu-ray who rocked Howard's world many years ago in Singapore, we're sure the company's shareholders hope making the name famous won't "destroy" the executive.
