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Using only the computing power of 16 Sony Playstation 3 gaming consoles, scientists at The University of Alabama in Huntsville and the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, have solved a mystery about the speed at which vibrating black holes stop vibrating.
It may be the first time this kind of research has been conducted exclusively on a PS3 cluster: A related 2007 UMass Dartmouth/UAHuntsville project using a smaller PS3 cluster also used a "traditional" supercomputer to run its simulations.
The biggest advantage of the console cluster - the PS3 Gravity Grid - at UMass Dartmouth was the cost saving, said Dr. Lior Burko, an assistant physics professor at UAHuntsville. "If we had rented computing time from a supercomputer center it would have cost us about $5,000 to run our simulation one time. For this project we ran our simulation several dozens of times to test different parameters and circumstances, so you can see how much that would have cost us.
We guess “imminent launch” means today
As we told you yesterday, sources were telling us that the start of the PlayStation Home Beta was “imminent” and it would appear that imminent now means today. The beta will kick off later today for those in North America, but we have not been able to confirm when the beta will start for those outside North America.
The delivery of PlayStation Home was a bit of a mystery yesterday, but it would not appear that users will be able to download the beta directly from the PlayStation Network column of the XMB free of charge. Sony has said that the basic services in PlayStation Home will be free, which does at least give the impression that some of the features and activities will at some point either require a membership fee or be charged for as a separate add-on feature.
From game-themed environments to spaces dedicated to a variety of titles from third party publishers, Sony has assembled an impressive list of partners hoping to make an impact in PlayStation Home. One of the more interesting concepts is that Sony is calling “lifestyle brand” partners who offer a variety of areas within the environment. For example, Red Bull has created its own island that even offers a taste of the Red Bull Air Race Word Championships in the form of a game on the island.
As we said yesterday, it remains to be seen how users will embrace the PlayStation Home concept and if this new extension of the social networking that is making its way to a gaming console is a direction that gamers are interested in participating in.
Using only the computing power of 16 Sony Playstation 3 gaming consoles, scientists at The University of Alabama in Huntsville and the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, have solved a mystery about the speed at which vibrating black holes stop vibrating. 
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