World's First Vertical Farm

I'm not sure if this is true or not, but it doesn't sound far fetched. Apparently, the worlds first vertical farm is to be built in Las Vegas, costing 200 million dollars, and being able to feed 72,000 people per year. Annual revenue is estimated to be 40 million dollars. The farm would grow over 100 types of crops. According to the article, if all goes well, the doors could open in 2010.

Vertical farming is thought to be the next big, and logical step, in farming. The world's population is growing rapidly, and farm space is starting to become more scarce. Vertical farms have been dreamed of for a long time now, and recently have become of interest to many, including investors. Building up instead of across could solve many problems, and could be more environmentally friendly, using solar power to power the facilities, and of course, being engineered for efficiency.

Source: Next Energy News
More information on vertical farming: Wikipedia
Picture: Chris Jacob's Vertical Farm

GeForce 9800 GX2 Pics and Specs Leaked

Pictures and Specs have been released by HardOCP today for Nvidia's next video card. They appear to be 2 8800's that have been die shrunk to 65nm and SLI'd. This sounds a lot like ATI's (AMD now remember!) 3870 X2's. So, it looks like were going to have a competitive year in the video card industry, I just hope ATI hasn't given up on the high end market. With such little competition right now, it is thought that Nvidia will hold off its own next gen video cards until ATI comes out with something. The same is rumored to be happening with Intel and AMD, Intel rumored to have pushed back their second generation 45nm code named Nehalem to prolong sales of their current processors. Hopefully this year we'll see some revitalized attempts from AMD at competition so we can see some larger advancements in the consumer computer market.

Link: GeForce 9800 GX2 Exclusive Pics & Specs

Happy New Years

I would just like to wish everyone a happy New Years and hope that the year of 2008 brings more technological and scientific breakthroughs that push the boundaries of our society.

Firefox Live Chat Support Launched

There's now a new form of help available to new and old users of the Firefox browser. It's a live chat support system, and it looks like a promising way to help beginners with the installation, use, and common problems that they may have with the browser, while at the same time giving another part of the open source community a way to contribute without having programming or more specialized skills available. As of writing this, the Firefox support site still lists the service as open and ready for questions.

If you feel you could lend a hand and have some fun at the same time, helping others out with their problems, you can find the steps here. The steps are pretty basic, although right now, I'm a little doubtful about the amount of traffic in need of help. It's in beta, so hopefully once it's officially released, the service will be better integrated into the services of Firefox.

This is just one of the many neat ideas that are constantly coming out of the open source community.

Source: Firefox Support Blog

16 Year old Murdered in "Honour Killing"

Aqsa Parvez, 16, was allegedly murdered by her father in an "honour killing". I am deeply saddened that Aqsa was not given a say in her religion and way of life, which is a constitutional right in Canada. It is such a senseless tragedy.

Privacy on the Internet

There are many people who take serious precautions in their day to day lives to secure their privacy, and keep their information out of prying eyes. While your probably careful with your paper documents, do you exercise caution with your online activities?

Search engines are powerful tools these days. A hacker with some skill can type in custom search engine strings to find insecure databases of information. Think of all the sites that you sign up for. Now think for a moment about what would happen if someone infiltrated just one of those sites. Chances are, if your like most people, you use the same password. If hackers were to obtain your password, they would have access to all your accounts! Security experts recommend using different passwords for your most important accounts, such as banking and subscriptions. This is very good advice.

As for information available about you on the web. I'm sure you've seen movies where a person says "I found all the information about you on the web." I'm not too sure how true that is, but I would like to warn you about usernames. You might think your basically anonymous on the web, but if you use the same username everywhere you go, chances are a quick search would show some very big tracks, with forums you visited, online stores you shopped at, and maybe even medical information you've divulged to others.

The internet is no longer a chaotic place, so that means you have to be. With the right tools and skills, there is lots of information available on the web, from security mistakes from the government to hacked databases of major internet companies. So remember, when your online, you don't have a complete cloak of invisibility. So take caution in information you would rather keep to yourself. With the right precautions, you can avoid your social security number and latest bank statements being plastered all over the net.

*By the way, there are many other security tips such as making longer passwords with characters in them, and not using common names that can be found in a dictionary, but I figured I would leave that stuff for a security novel and not bore you to death. And besides, that's why many websites now employ a system that will disable an account after so many guesses. So following the tips above, as well as any on the sites your signing up for, should prove secure enough. As always, remember to use proper security on your computer, such as anti-virus and spyware tools. And remember, don't follow links in your email. If you get a bank statement, type your banking site into the address bar in your browser yourself. Following a link does not ensure you've reached your intended site, even if it looks identical!