Freedomship: City At Sea
http://www.freedomship.com/
Freedomship is an enormous floating city that will be a monument to engineering skill and ingenuity. It will serve as a vacation resort or even a home for people with enough money. Although still in the pre-construction phase of the project, the Web site offers a good deal of information about the ship's design. It will be almost a mile long and rise 25 stories above the water. The ship will accommodate around 40,000 visitors who can arrive by boat or plane (yes, there will even be a small airport on the top deck). When Freedomship is not moving, it will sit offshore near major cities and other popular tourist destinations. The Web site provides several artist renderings that tantalize the imagination. Freedomship will be featured on Engineering the Impossible on the Discovery Channel February 25th, 2002.
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Google Programming Contest
http://www.google.com/programming-contest/
The first annual Google Programming Contest is underway, sponsored by the makers of the Internet's most popular search engine, Google. Contestants are required to develop a program that processes Web pages. A data set consisting of 900,000 Web pages is what eager programmers have to contend with. Java and C++ are the only two languages accepted, and entries are due by April 30, 2002. When the winner is announced on May 31, he/she will be awarded $10,000 and a trip to Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California. The winner could also have a chance to run their program on Google's vast database. With less than three months left, you had better start coding!
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CodeSwap
http://www.vscodeswap.com/
With the release of Microsoft Visual Studio.NET on February 13th, eager software developers around the world now have a powerful Web tool with which to share their knowledge. CodeSwap is a free code-sharing add-in, created by Vertigo Software specifically for Visual Studio. People can upload their source code to CodeSwap's Web service or download other people's code. There were over 5,000 users of the service just one day after the release of Visual Studio.NET, and this number is sure to skyrocket. As the number of users grows, the more powerful CodeSwap becomes; more users means more shared code. There is even a voting system that allows people to rate individual developers and their code. CodeSwap is a valuable tool for the entire developer community.
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Pioneering EE Patents: The Collection [.pdf]
http://eepatents.com/collection.html
Twice a month, an historic patent from the field of electrical engineering is highlighted on this Web site. From basic building blocks of electronics like the transistor to more recent advances like the computer mouse or camcorder, the profession is replete with monumental creations. The creator of the site, a registered patent agent, has a strong interest in this topic because he is also an electrical engineer. For each featured patent, you can read a summary of why the item is important and when it was patented. Also, you can download a copy of the original patent in .pdf format. Currently, there are only fifteen patents reviewed, but more are on the way.
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Kennedy Space Center Next Gen Site: Routine, Affordable Access to Space [.pdf]
http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/nexgen/rlvhp.htm
The Next Gen Site, operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at Kennedy Space Center, is investigating ways of making space travel more routine and affordable. The site offers many reports on the Vision Spaceport Partnership, the Highly Reusable Space Transportation Project, Space Solar Power, and Space Transportation System Affordability. A map of Cape Canaveral highlights each launch pad, and you can see information on each one by clicking on it. Related Info Including X-Vehicles is a section with background on several experimental projects and has links to sites that examine different aspects of design and planning for easier access to space.
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Free Computer & Internet Online Books
http://hoganbooks.com/freebook/webbooks.html
This Web site contains links to over 800 online editions of books related to computers and the Internet. The online versions are generally identical to the printed versions; however, some originally came with a CD-ROM that cannot be electronically distributed. Books range in topic from computer programming guides to Web site design. Most of the books are located on various other sites, but the advantage of this site is the access to so many books from one central location. A free registration is needed to view some books, but most can be viewed on demand. Although the option to see the complete alphabetical listing of books requires downloading a zip file, you can get around this by simply typing "A" when you search the database.
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CERT Coordination Center [.pdf]
http://www.cert.org/
The CERT Coordination Center is part of the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Its primary function is to work with industry to identify and eliminate Internet security vulnerabilities. Additionally, the center analyzes business and personal software to find potentially dangerous flaws that could compromise the system, meaning that both corporate and home users can benefit from the information offered on the Web site. There are continual updates of security advisories, survivability guides, and fixes that can help prevent disasters or speed recovery from them. Step-by-step suggestions make finding and implementing an efficient security practice reasonably painless. A wide range of papers and presentations on Internet and computer security research are available for free download.
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EEdesign
http://www.eedesign.com/
EEdesign is a "comprehensive source of information for electronic design tools and methodologies" that helps people stay current in the constantly changing industry. Its features include business and product news, exclusive features and columns by leading industry specialists, and technical insights. There is also a buyers guide for electronic design automation tools with very long searchable lists of vendors and product categories. The ISD Magazine section has articles from the Integrated System Design journal, free of charge. Design seminars and events taking place throughout the world are listed in the conference calendar.
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