] Varadarajan predicted IBM's new partially built Blue
] Gene/L prototype will come out on top (at about 36
] teraflops), followed by Japan's Earth Simulator (35.8
] teraflops), NASA's new Columbia (about 19.5 teraflops),
] Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Thunder (about
] 19 teraflops) and Los Alamos National Laboratory's Asci Q
] (13.8 teraflops).

Except that Columbia just clocked in at 42.7 teraflops.

Same poor situation for System X though.

Wired News: System X Faster, but Falls Behind

] MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
] Silicon Graphics (NYSE: SGI - News) with NASA today
] confirmed that NASA's new Intel® Itanium® 2
] processor-based Columbia supercomputer is the most
] powerful computer in the world. Only days after NASA
] completed installation of Columbia -- and using just 16
] of Columbia's 20 installed systems -- the new
] supercomputer achieved sustained performance of 42.7
] trillion calculations per second (teraflops), eclipsing
] the performance of every supercomputer operating today.

So this was the October suprise of supercomputing; the expectations were much lower for this. Wow. SGI at #1? Itanium2? Huh.

NASA's Columbia Supercomputer Is World's Fastest

] A devil-worshipping sailor in the Royal Navy has become
] the first registered Satanist in the British Armed
] Forces.

Good for England.

CNN.com - Royal Navy to allow devil worship - Oct 24, 2004

] It has happened many times in history that new systems
] will come along and, instead of obliterating the old,
] will surround and encapsulate them and work in symbiosis
] with them but otherwise pretty much leave them alone
] (think mitochondria) and sometimes I get the feeling that
] something similar is happening with these two literary
] worlds. The fact that we are having a discussion like
] this one on a forum such as Slashdot is Exhibit A.

Slashdot | Neal Stephenson Responds With Wit and Humor

] HUNTER S. Thompson lived up to his legend as the
] Godfather of Gonzo Journalism the other night at a book
] signing in West Hollywood. A wobbly Thompson reportedly
] vomited outside the Book Soup store and signed copies on
] the floor inside as celebrity pal Benicio del Toro %u2014
] who starred in the film adaptation of Thompson's "Fear
] and Loathing in Las Vegas" %u2014 helped him hold his
] head up. "Hunter was drinking and smoking and yelling out
] weird obsenities every once in a while," says our spy.
] "Good to see the stories are true!"

New York Post Online Edition: gossip

] Senator John Kerry goes toward the election with a base
] that is built more on opposition to George W. Bush than
] loyalty to his own candidacy.
] ...
] There is no denying that this race is mainly about Mr.
] Bush's disastrous tenure.

The New York Times' real Endorsement: Anyone But Bush.

The New York Times : Opinion : John Kerry for President

] So with that in mind, we called up those at the crux of
] the thing: dedicated Democratic Red Sox fans. In the
] spirit of the metaphysical deals we strike -- "I will not
] have another sip of this beer if we get out of this
] inning," "I will never complain about my in-laws again if
] they vote for Kerry in Cleveland" -- we asked them to
] make a choice. If this year they were allowed only one
] victory -- a Red Sox World Series or a John Kerry
] presidency -- which would it be?
]
] "Oh God, you can't do this to me," was the first response
] of director Ken Burns ("Baseball," "The Civil War")...
]
] "For a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat and a Red Sox fan since
] 1938 at the age of 4 and a half, that is an impossible
] choice," said Michael Dukakis, the 1988 Democratic
] presidential candidate...

Even better answers from the likes of Doris Kearns Goodwin...

Salon.com Life | Curses!

] Santa Clara, California-based Sun reported a net loss for
] its first fiscal quarter ended Sept. 26 of $174 million,
] or 5 cents per share, compared with a year-ago net loss
] of $286 million, or 9 cents per share.

Latest Business News and Financial Information | Reuters.com

] FDA CLEARS VERICHIP FOR MEDICAL APPLICATIONS IN THE
] UNITED STATES
]
] Applied Digital (NASDAQ: ADSX - News), a provider of
] Security Through Innovation(TM) and Digital Angel
] Corporation (AMEX:DOC - News) announced today that
] VeriChip(TM), the world's first implantable radio
] frequency identification (RFID) microchip for human use,
] has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
] (FDA) for medical uses in the United States. The FDA
] clearance follows the completion of a de novo application
] review.

CORRECTING and REPLACING FDA Clears VeriChip for Medical Applications in the United States

] The DS6000 is "as small as one-twentieth the size of
] comparable EMC systems" for as little as half the price,
] IBM touted in its press release. It broadens IBM's
] storage portfolio into the midrange, but offers more
] storage capacity and features than had been available at
] that price level.
]
] List price for the base model is $97,000. It is built on
] IBM's Power4 process and has storage capacity ranging
] from 580 gigabytes to 67.2 terabytes.

"Small" Storage Systems.

Technology News: Hardware: IBM Gets Flexible with Small Storage Systems