Posts in the Technology Category at NetMassimo Blog, Page 132

Texas Instruments acquires National Semiconductor

Massimo Luciani April 6, 2011 1

Last Monday Texas Instruments Incorporated and National Semiconductor announced they signed a definitive agreement for Texas Instruments to acquire National for $25 a share in a transaction that reaches a total of about $6.5 billion.

The geoid measured by the GOCE satellite (photo ESA)

Earth’s gravity measured like never before

Massimo Luciani April 1, 2011 3

The GOCE (Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer) satellite was launched in an ESA mission about two years ago with the aim of taking measurements of the geoid with a precision never achieved before. With its gradiometer, an very sensitive gravity detection instrument, the GOCE has collected enough data to create the most accurate image of the Earth we’ve ever seen.

100 million users for LinkedIn

Massimo Luciani March 23, 2011 1

Yesterday in the social network LinkedIn’s blog an article was published to announce the achievement of the 100 million users threshold. LinkedIn is the largest professional social network in the world. It was founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003. Over the years it received several investments for a total of over $100 million and in 2006 it started having profits from advertising and the sale of Premium services.

The Space Shuttle Discovery lands at the end of its last mission (photo NASA)

The Space Shuttle Discovery has been retired

Massimo Luciani March 10, 2011 2

After the return to Earth that took place yesterday the Space Shuttle Discovery has been retired. At the end of this mission the Space Shuttle Discovery has flown nearly 150 million miles during 39 flights for a total of 5,247 orbits in 322 days divided over 27 years of distinguished service and in this case it’s not just rhetoric. With these numbers the Discovery is the spaceship that was used the most.

A comparison of the same part of the Tempel 1 comet before and after being hit by the impactor launched by the Deep Impact probe (photo NASA)

The Stardust probe met the Tempel 1 comet

Massimo Luciani February 17, 2011 1

In July 2005 the Deep Impact probe made the first visit to the comet Tempel 1, in recent days the Stardust spacecraft has taken new photos, including the ones of the crater left by the impactor launched from Deep Impact, and made new measurements to improve our knowledge.