Large Hadron Collider

Exciting week for particle physics with the Large Hadron Collider being turned on the 10th September. Pity though that some seem to think that it will destroy the Earth when it is switched on. Have a look at these links as to why this is not correct:

No, the LHC won’t destroy the Earth | Bad Astronomy

Brian Cox calls ‘em like he sees ‘em

New iPods next week

ArsTechnica - Apple confirms September 9 Special Event: "Let's Rock"

Yep 2 posts in one day! There has been some speculation on this on the interwebs but today Apple released invitations for the annual September iPod update. Easy guess is that the iPod Nano and Touch will be updated. The rumors are suggesting another big change to the Nano (much like the change from the 2G to 3G last year).

I think we will also see a price restructure of the Touch to align with the iPhone changes in July. There will also be an update to iTunes to v8 with appropriate features to justify going from v7 to v8 (MacRumors link). As for Mac updates, these will come later in September. 

However, it is also worth noting that Apple hinted at a product transition in September. Perhaps a Mac Tablet or a Nano that runs the iPhone OS? Or is this just the price restructure of the iPod line or something else Mac related? 

Google's browser released

Google released their web browser today, called Google Chrome. Currently it has only been released for Windows with Mac and Linux versions on the way. Overall they have taken a very minimalist view of a web browser, there is no menu bar and the tabs are on the top. For a good overview of the interface see John Siracusa's blog post.

I tried it out at work today and I am very impressed and I will probably use it instead of Firefox and Safari. However, at home I will most likely continue using Safari, but I will give Chrome a go when it comes out for the Mac. Interestingly the rendering engine they used is WebKit which is the same as used by Apple's Safari.  Also, a very cool feature is the saving web pages as applications (Safari will get this in version 4 apparently). Now I can just have a shortcut on the desktop to Gmail or Google Docs!

Sydney Harbour Bridge blocked yesterday

ABC News - CBD back to normal after bridge smash

There was an accident on the Sydney Harbour Bridge yesterday which caused serious problems for Sydney traffic yesterday. I heard on the ABC news last night that "transport experts" were calling for another harbour crossing. Maybe instead of this we should be examining why there are so many people driving into the city! I normally drive against the traffic and I am amazed that people would sit in traffic that barely moves for several hours a day.