oregon

100-million-year-old spider attack captured in amber

Oregon State University researchers this week revealed details about a piece of amber from the Early Cretaceous period that contains a spider in its web attacking an intruding wasp.

The fossilized moment of doom -- the first of its kind discovered in amber -- derived from the Hukawng Valley in Myanmar, somewhere around 97 to 110 million years ago. … Read more

Ideo's prize-winning utility bike debuts via Kickstarter

A clever electric bike, which won a design competition last fall for creating the best urban utility bike, is coming to market via Kickstarter today.

The Faraday, designed by the Palo Alto, Calif., design consultancy Ideo and Santa Cruz, Calif., bike-maker Rock Lobster Custom Cycles, took home top honors in the Oregon Manifest creative collaboration challenge, which CNET followed. The competition paired global design firms with small, handcrafted bike builders to create a bike for city living.

That success generated enough interest that Adam Vollmer, who led the design efforts for Ideo, left the firm to launch a company to … Read more

Apple confirms plans to build data center in Oregon

A 160-acre parcel of land has been signed over to Apple and will be used to build a data center, an Oregon TV station reported today, confirming a long-standing rumor.

The piece of land in Prineville cost the company $5.6 million and the deal, formerly known as "Project Maverick," has been quietly in the works for months, according to a KTVZ.com report. An Apple representative confirmed to the station that the company purchased the land for a data center but declined to comment further.

Before the deed was signed over last week, no one was allowed … Read more

Here's why Obama is visiting Intel

On Wednesday, President Obama is due to visit an Intel plant in Arizona. Here's why.

Obama aims to highlight manufacturing in America--one of the State of the Union's themes--and it's hard to find a better example of that than the world's leading chipmaker. Intel is now one of America's foremost manufacturers, boasting some of the most sophisticated manufacturing facilities in the world, many of them sprinkled throughout the U.S. 

Its development fabs (fabrication plants) in Oregon are the most cutting-edge of its leading-edge factories and have already received one presidential visit, in February … Read more

Shoot the curl with Oregon Scientific's ACTCMini Action cam

LAS VEGAS--As I've said before, it's not often that I get to cover surf-related tech, so when CNET's Kent German told me Oregon Scientific had a new video camera for surfboards, you'd better believe I bolted over to the company's booth to check it out.

The ATCMini Action Video Camera is Oregon Scientific's latest action cam, and it's one of the lightest ones yet at just 2.3 ounces. This means it won't weigh you down when you're trying to capture all your thrills and spills as you're surfing, biking, … Read more

Oregon judge rules bloggers aren't journalists

A recent court ruling has re-ignited the debate about whether bloggers are journalists.

A U.S. District Court judge in Portland, Ore., ruled that a blogger who wrote about an investment firm that subsequently accused her of defamation must pay the company $2.5 million because she's a blogger who doesn't legally qualify as a journalist.

Crystal Cox, whose blogs are a mixture of fact, opinion, and commentary, wrote several posts that were critical of Obsidian Finance Group and its co-founder, Kevin Padrick. In one blog post, Cox accused Padrick of fraud while serving as trustee in a … Read more

Apple may build data center in Oregon

Apple is reportedly considering beefing up its data center muscle by building a new facility in central Oregon.

The tech giant is exploring the possibility of constructing a 31-megawatt data center on 160 acres near Prineville, Ore., people familiar with the matter tell The Oregonian. The company, which is negotiating with the city under the code name "Maverick," is expected to make a decision this month on whether to purchase the property, the newspaper reports. The property is owned by Crook County and is about a quarter mile south of where Facebook opened a server farm last year, … Read more

Ideo's electric bike wins design competition

An electric bike, created by the Palo Alto, Calif., design consultancy Ideo and Santa Cruz, Calif., bike maker Rock Lobster Custom Cycles, has won the competition for creating the best urban utility bike in the Oregon Manifest creative collaboration challenge.

The bike, which combines classic styling with an electric motor, beat out the creations of the pairing of Portland, Ore., design firm Ziba with bike builder Signal Cycles, and the tandem of San Francisco design consultancy Fuseproject with Santa Rosa, Calif., SyCip Designs.

On its Web site, Oregon Manifest posted reviews of each bike from four independent critics. Then, it … Read more

The ultimate utility bike? Maybe it's an e-bike

PORTLAND, Ore.--For years, the cycling industry has wrestled with creating a bike convenient enough for the masses.

A new effort from the Palo Alto, Calif., design consultancy Ideo and Santa Cruz, Calif., bike builder Rock Lobster Custom Cycles may have pushed the industry a step closer to achieving the goal. The team created a bike for the Oregon Manifest 2011 Constructor's Design Challenge, a bike building competition pitting three teams of designers and handcrafted bike builders. Their goal: create the best utility bike for urban living.

This summer, CNET visited with the three teams--including the pairing of Portland … Read more