Computer

Frank E. LaVerghetta, 79, of Ardmore, a Philadelphia-raised electrical engineer and pioneer of early computer technology, died Thursday, Jan. 10, at Lankenau Hospital from complications of heart disease. Mr. LaVerghetta worked for 18 years for Philco and its successor, Philco-Ford Corp. In the 1950s with a group of engineers, he developed a transistorized computer, according to his brother-in-law, Robert Smargiassi. Mr. LaVerghetta was developing the computer as part of a bombing system to be used by the military, Smargiassi said.

  Official: Computer cable used to kill woman Sabrina Bullock, the Woodbury woman whose body was found in a clothing collection bin early Monday, was killed with a computer keyboard cord, the spokesman for the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office said Wednesday. Harry John Neher, 32, who has been charged with first-degree murder in Bullock's death, ran a home-based computer business, said spokesman Bernie Weisenfeld. The body of Bullock, 41, was found in the clothing bin near the apartment where Neher lived on South Broad Street in Woodbury.

Sabrina Bullock, the Woodbury woman whose body was found in a clothing collection bin early Monday, was killed with a computer keyboard cord, the spokesman for the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office said Wednesday. Harry John Neher, 32, who has been charged with first-degree murder in Bullock's death, ran a home-based computer business, said Bernie Weisenfeld, the spokesman. The body of Bullock, 41, was found in the clothing bin near the apartment where Neher lived on South Broad Street in Woodbury.

NEWTOWN, Conn. - As the nation paused to mark a week since the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, new details emerged about the gunman, Adam Lanza, who acquaintances said was able to take apart and reassemble a computer in a matter of minutes but rarely spoke to anyone. In high school, Lanza used to slither through the hallways, awkwardly pressing himself against the wall while wearing the same green shirt and khaki pants every day. He hardly ever talked to classmates and once gave a presentation entirely by computer, never uttering a single word.

VIENNA, Austria - Iranian scientists have run computer simulations for a nuclear weapon that would produce more than triple the explosive force of the World War II bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, according to a diagram obtained by the Associated Press. The diagram was leaked by officials from a country critical of Iran's atomic program to bolster their arguments that Iran's nuclear program must be halted before it produces a weapon. The officials provided the diagram only on condition that they and their country not be identified.

A high-intensity beam of violet light pierced the air in the darkened laboratory, precisely striking a whisper-thin strand of wire so that it glowed with its own, secondary light. The wire, less than a millionth of a meter wide, was the equivalent of a miniature fiber-optic cable - a potential building block for a new kind of ultrafast computer chip, according to scientists at the University of Pennsylvania. You think your sleek new laptop is fast? A slow-footed plow horse compared to what Ritesh Agarwal has in mind.

IMAGINE AN ELK whose antlers sprawl upward and outward like a 10-story apartment building. Then imagine there are inhabitants of those antlers - birds and squirrels and people who built a child's tree house and left it there. Now try to see yourself wearing "The Elk With Antlers That Never Stopped Growing," a piece of 21st-century art jewelry that encircles your head and neck like a whimsical bramble bush. To witness this 3-D fairy-tale object and others equally fantastical, head to the Philadelphia Art Alliance for "Legends," a show of visionary jewelry made by 25-year-old Emily Cobb, who designs her works with CAD (computer-assisted design)

SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc. is opening a virtual window into the secretive data centers where an intricate maze of computers process Internet search requests, show YouTube video clips, and distribute e-mail for millions of people. The unprecedented peek is being provided through a new website unveiled Wednesday at http://tinyurl.com/bnbcy8j . The site features photos from inside some of the eight data centers that Google already has running in the United States, Finland, and Belgium.

LOS ANGELES - A teacher arrested Friday at Los Angeles International Airport wearing a bulletproof vest and with checked bags containing knives, body bags, a smoke grenade and other weapons also had files on his computer detailing how to kidnap and kill people, according to federal authorities. In addition, Yongda Huang Harris had items on his computer revealing he has a "strong interest" in sexual violence against girls, including a video titled "Schoolgirls in Cement," Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Mills said.

WASHINGTON - American companies should avoid doing business with China's two leading technology firms because they pose a national-security threat to the United States, the House Intelligence Committee is warning in a report to be issued Monday. The panel said that U.S. regulators should block mergers and acquisitions in this country by Huawei Technologies Ltd. and ZTE Corp., among the world's leading suppliers of telecommunications gear and mobile phones. Reflecting U.S. concern over cyber-attacks traced to China, the report also recommends that U.S. government computer systems not include any components from the two firms because that could pose an espionage risk.