earthquake

Google real-time search: 6 min. to spot quake

At 10:09:36 a.m. PST, a modest but noticeable magnitude 4.1 earthquake rattled the San Francisco Bay Area. Six minutes later, Google's real-time search system had spotted the activity and spiced up its search results accordingly.

(Update 7:44 p.m. PST: Google said it actually started showing the real-time results for the earthquake less than 2 minutes afterward. One possible reason it was apparently later for me is that I'm in Detroit, using a different data center from people in the Bay Area, the company said.)

Earthquakes and plane crashes are among the quintessential … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1004: We have come for your units

Dr. Kiki from This Week in Science joins us to talk tech and science, and we realize that we will all soon wear solar-powered Gundam suits and travel the Earth. That is until they become self-aware and eject us and kill us all. We also take NASA to task and tell you when to get a new Windows PC.

Listen now: Download today's podcast Subscribe now: iTunes (audio) | iTunes (video) | RSS (audio) | RSS (video) EPISODE 1004

HTC Hero running Android and Sense UI http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/24/htc-hero-details-begin-leaking-from-htcs-own-website/

China not backing off despite filter code post … Read more

Los Angeles earthquake chokes phone calls, not Twitter

A 5.4 earthquake hit Tuesday while Verdell Wilson was having an exam in her gynecologist's Los Angeles office.

Given it was her first earthquake experience, Wilson did what comes naturally--she twittered it.

"As soon as I got dressed, I twittered my experience from my cell phone," Wilson said. "I usually twitter to 80 friends, but I now have 274 messages from people commenting on it."

Twittering and texting may be the way to go in an emergency, given landline and cellular phone networks were heavily congested as callers jammed the lines, creating frustration for … Read more

A moment of silence, not even Googling, for earthquake victims

A week after the Sichuan earthquake lit up instant messengers and Twitter, Google statistics show a huge drop in searches during a national moment of silence.

Users apparently observed the silence while sitting at their computers. Meanwhile many people around the country paused.

My experience seems a bit odd in retrospect. Having just landed in Shenzhen, a Mainland metropolis across the border from Hong Kong, I found people at the pick-up area speechless, but surrounded by blaring bus horns. I considered the possibility that the sound, which I couldn't determine the source of at the time, was an air … Read more

Intel reopens facility after China quake, checks inventory

Intel said its employees are safe and the chipmaker has resumed operations at its assembly test facility in Chengdu while it analyzes inventory.

The facility handles CPUs (central processing units) and chipsets.

"Intel is currently analyzing its current inventory, work in process, and other factors to ensure that the company can best serve its customers," according to Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy, responding to an e-mail query.

A report had cited three Intel chipsets, the G31, G33, and 945GC, as being affected and subject to price increases. Mulloy said prices have not been raised by Intel.

Chengdu is 55 … Read more

Where the opinions of Phil J. Ryan are not necessarily those of the 404

The legendary Phil Ryan makes his last appearance on The 404 as a CNET employee as we talk about the Netflix player, the 3G iPhone, and strange clouds above China right before the earthquake. It's an interesting show today, sorry if we came close to offending you! OK, we're not sorry. EPISODE 103 Download today's podcast

How valuable are you on Twitter?

At around 11:50 p.m. Pacific time Sunday night, uber-blogger Robert Scoble posted a short note to Twitter: "@dtan just reported an earthquake in Beijing. Wonder how large it is? Off to check out USGS site."

Of course, as the world knows by now, Scoble was referring to the devastating quake that is already believed to have killed at least 12,000 people.

Some may be skeptical about Scoble's subsequent claims that news of the disaster was flying around Twitter before the U.S. Geological Survey posted anything on it, but one thing seems clear. Because … Read more

Turning to Twitter after China quake

Editors' note: this post has been updated to reflect a new magnitude given to the earthquake. Although the earthquake was initially rated as a 7.8 magnitude, the U.S. Geological Survey updated it to 7.9 after a further review of the data.

The loss of life and damage in many cities in and around China's Sichuan province continues to grow after a 7.9 earthquake hit about 55 miles from the major city of Chengdu at 2:28 p.m. local time on Monday.

I live in Beijing, which is about 950 miles from the epicenter. Along … Read more

7.9 quake stuns Chinese tech region

Update at 1:50 p.m. PDT: Comment from Microsoft on minor damage from earthquake.

A massive earthquake struck Western China on Monday, killing more than 8,500 people and trapping more than 900 students in a high school, according to press reports.

The quake, which had a 7.9 magnitude, was centered in a mountainous region of the country in the Sichuan Province, according to The New York Times.

The epicenter was about 55 miles northwest of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan--one of the country's most populated provinces. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the earthquake … Read more