jfruh writes:Computing devices have been gobbling up more and more memory, but storage tech has been hitting its limits, creating a bottleneck. Now researchers in Spain and Scotland have reported a breakthrough in working with metal-oxide clusters that can retain their charge. These molecules could serve as the basis for RAM and flash memory that will be leagues smaller than existing components (abstract). Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Molecular Clusters That Can Retain Charge Could Revolutionize Computer Memory
With another sweltering summer over you might have already forgotten the glory of your AC unit, the 100-year-old modern convenience which truly changed the way we live. But the U.S. might have felt the cool breeze of relief a half-century sooner, if an entire industry built on keeping things frozen hadn’t stopped the first air conditioner from being made. Read more… 
Ptolemarch writes: Blizzard never officially announced it, but now it’s gone: Titan, the next-generation MMO that had been in development for seven years, has been canceled. Mike Morhaime said, “[W]e set out to make the most ambitious thing that you could possibly imagine. And it didn’t come together. We didn’t find the fun. We didn’t find the passion. We talked about how we put it through a reevaluation period, and actually, what we reevaluated is whether that’s the game we really wanted to be making. The answer is no.” Polygon adds an article detailing everything publicly known about Titan (which wasn’t much). MMO-Champion’s report mentions rumors of a new project at Blizzard called Prometheus. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
A product’s packaging is usually nothing but the last obstacle between you and a shiny new gadget, but often there’s as much thought that goes into the design of a cardboard box as the device inside. For instance, LG put a remarkable amount of design effort into the box its OLED TVs ship in, and most consumers will never even notice. Read more… 
An anonymous reader writes “Remember AltaVista from the late ’90s? Yahoo is finally pulling life support and letting Altavista die a noble death after over 15 years of hard service.” You can only take so many years of being a running gag. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
The sheer awesome filtration power of the OKO filter is on display here as a fellow from Japan’s RocketNews24 uses it to separate the clear, relatively benign H2O out of the Black Waters of American Imperialism. If it can turn Coke into water, the entertainment industry should consider using it — after all, they’ve spent the past 20 years trying to get the food coloring out of the swimming pool. In any event, I wonder how you dispose of the sludge that remains in the bottle? I tried drinking by clear and colorless cola [filtration] ‘s great! Taste to be worried about? ( via Kottke ) 