M.C. Frontalot’s “Nerdcore Rising” drops classic geek references ranging from Dr. Who to the Atari 2600

When Buddy Holly jerked onstage as a bespectacled counterpoint to the pelvis-swiveling cool of Elvis, it carved out a spot in rock and pop music for the kids more inclined to admire Stephen Hawking than Steven Tyler or Bill Gates than Billy Idol.

The South by Southwest Interactive conference kicks off Friday in Austin, Texas, offering up as pure a convergence of geek and rock sensibilities as you’re apt to find.

Started in 1987 to showcase Austin’s burgeoning alt-rock scene, South by Southwest added interactive and film gatherings in 1994.

Now, more than 17,000 people attend those two events, and South by Southwest is becoming as well-known for launching digital game-changers like Twitter as for musical acts like Beck.

All that is as good an excuse as any to round up our list of the top 10 geek anthems of all time.

From love songs about writing HTML code to synth-fueled denunciations of the cool kids, these odes to geekery are as good as it gets.

Which tunes did we leave out? This list could easily have been a Top 20. Click the player on the left to hear samples of our 10 songs, then join the conversation in the Sound Off section and make your case.

Our choices:

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) must close at the end of 2011 for up to a year to address design issues, according to an LHC director.

Dr Steve Myers told BBC News the faults will delay the machine reaching its full potential for two years.

The atom smasher will reach world record collision energies later this month at 7 trillion electron volts.

But joints between the machine’s magnets must be strengthened before higher-energy collisions can commence.

The Geneva-based machine only recently restarted after being out of action for 14 months following an accident in September 2008.

Dr Myers said: “It’s something that, with a lot more resources and with a lot more manpower and quality control, possibly could have been avoided but I have difficulty in thinking that this is something that was a design error.”

He said: “The standard phrase is that the LHC is its own prototype. We are pushing technologies towards their limits.”

“You don’t hear about the thousands or hundreds of thousands of other areas that have gone incredibly well.

“With a machine like the LHC, you only build one and you only build it once.”

The CMS detector can be put through its paces at reduced power

He said the second problem is not with the most complex technology but involves the copper sheaths around the superconducting joints in the tunnel.

The copper sheaths are a failsafe mechanism designed to take up the current if one of the magnets in the Large Hadron Collider warms up - an incident known as a “quench”.

The 2008 accident caused one tonne of helium to leak into the tunnel and resulted in a series of “quenches” and a 40m Swiss franc (£24m) repair bill.

Engineers believe the machine is now safe to run at 7 trillion electron volts (TeV) but are anxious to avoid another breakdown.

So they have taken the decision to run the machine for 18 to 24 months at half-maximum power before switching it off for a year to carry out improvements to the 27km tunnel.

Dr Myers said the decision was taken jointly with the physicists working on the four giant particle detectors on the LHC.

He said they appreciate the chance to test their own equipment while the machine is running at half its maximum power.

Collisions at enormous energy

The Large Hadron Collider sends beams of protons in opposite directions around the tunnel at close to the speed of light. These cross and collide, smashing into each other with enormous energy.

The ultimate aim is to collide particles head on at 14TeV to recreate the conditions in the moments after the Big Bang.

Scientists hope they will see new subatomic particles in the debris and gain insights into how the universe came into being, billions of years ago.

The machine is buried 100m below the French-Swiss border.

Cern officials say running the LHC at 7TeV will enable physicists to explore another secret of the universe, namely the nature of the “dark matter” that accounts for most of the mass in the observable universe.

Plans to suspend the internet accounts of people who download music illegally are unfair, according to the head of Britain’s biggest telecoms firm.

British Telecom’s chief executive, Ian Livingston, said illegal file-sharers should be fined instead of cut off.

He and other industry figures from Firms such as Google and Facebook have written to the Financial Times urging changes to the Digital Economy Bill.

The bill is going through Parliament and was welcomed by the music industry.

It is seen as a weapon in the battle against online piracy.

But Mr Livingston says plans to suspend internet access for file-sharers goes against natural justice.

“If someone is accused a fine can be issued, a bit like a speeding offence,” he told BBC News. “They can appeal it. If they don’t appeal it then they pay a fine.”

He said the money generated by fines could be used to compensate the creative industries or even to support the rollout of broadband across the UK.

He said his proposal would not penalise whole families - or potentially small businesses - for the action of one person.

“I’m trying to be constructive, not destructive,” he said.

‘Net threat’

Mr Livingston is one of several leading industry figures who have now written to the Financial Times with concerns about other aspects of the Digital Economy Bill.

The letter, signed by representatives of Facebook, Yahoo, Google and numerous Internet Service Providers says that a recent amendment to the bill - known as 120A - could have “unintended consequences which far outweigh any benefits”.

The amendment passed in early march with support from the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives, would allow courts to use injunctions to force internet service providers (ISPs) to block certain websites that facilitate illegal file-sharing.

But the firms say the amendment could “threaten freedom of speech and the open internet, without reducing copyright infringement as intended”.

“To rush through such a controversial proposal at the tail end of parliament, without any kind of consultation with consumers or industry, is very poor lawmaking,” the letter reads.

The signatories, which also include BT, Virgin Media, Carphone Warehouse and Orange, say the bill could have “an adverse impact on the reputation of the UK as a place to do online business”.

The amendment replaces the controversial Clause 17 of the Digital Economy Bill, which was also opposed by many technology firms in the UK.

Controversial clause

The original clause would have given the Secretary of State broad powers to amend copyright laws to respond to new forms of online infringement.

It was defeated by the House of Lords in March, but replaced by the new amendment.

The music industry welcomed the new addition to the Digital Economy Bill when it was passed and said that any claim it could lead to “blocking based on accusation” was unfounded.

“It is highly unlikely that a court would order blocking of websites that adopt responsible copyright policies, including effective take-down procedure,” Geoff Taylor of music industry body the BPI said at the time.

The Digital Economy Bill was outlined in the Queen’s speech in November 2009 and has been hotly debated ever since.

One of the most controversial elements is the so-called “three strikes rule” that would give regulator Ofcom new powers to disconnect or slow down the connections of persistent net pirates.

The bill will have its third and final reading in the House of Lords next week, before it goes back to the Commons.

Commentators have suggested it may be forced through before the upcoming General Election.

A tiny Japanese insect that could help the fight against an aggressive superweed has been given the go-ahead for a trial release in England.

Since Japanese knotweed was introduced to the UK it has rapidly spread, and the plant currently costs over £150m a year to control and clear.

But scientists say a natural predator in the weed’s native home of Japan could also help to control it here.

The insect will initially be released in a handful of sites this spring.

This is the first time that biocontrol - the use of a “natural predator” to control a pest - has been used in the EU to fight a weed.

Wildlife Minister Huw Irranca-Davies said: “These tiny insects, which naturally prey on Japanese Knotweed, will help free local authorities and industry from the huge cost of treating and killing this devastating plant.”

Alien invaders

Japanese knotweed was introduced to the UK by the Victorians as an ornamental plant, but it soon escaped from gardens and began its rampant spread throughout the UK.

It grows incredibly quickly - more than one metre a month - and rapidly swamps any other vegetation in its path.

It is so hardy that it can burst through tarmac and concrete, causing costly damage to pavements, roads and buildings.

Green Room: Hailing the arrival of alien predators

But removal is difficult and expensive; new estimates suggest it costs the UK economy £150m a year.

However, in Japan, the plant is common but does not rage out of control like it does in the UK, thanks to the natural predators that keep it in check.

Scientists at Cabi - a not-for-profit agricultural research organisation - used this as their starting point to track down a potential knotweed solution.

They looked at the superweed’s natural predators - nearly 200 species of plant-eating insects and about 40 species of fungi - with the aim of finding one with an appetite for Japanese knotweed and little else.

After testing their candidates on 90 different UK plant species, including plants closely related to Japanese knotweed such as bindweeds and important crops and ornamental species, they discovered a psyllid called Aphalara itadori was the best control agent.

The little insect feeds on the sap of the superweed, stunting its growth.

Dr Dick Shaw, the lead researcher on the project from Cabi, told BBC News: “Safety is our top priority. We are lucky that we do have an extremely specific agent - it just eats invasive knotweeds.”

Following peer review by the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment and a public consultation, the UK government has now given the go-ahead for release of Aphalara itadori, under licence, in England.

The Welsh Assembly is expected to announce its decision on the psyllid soon.

The insects will initially be released on a handful of sites.

These will be isolated and, in addition to as having the superweed present, will also have UK species that are closely related to Japanese knotweed planted there to check that the psyllid only targets the invasive species.

Dr Shaw said: “In the early stages, a contingency plan is in place so that should, in the unlikely event, any unintended consequences be detected, we will be able to do something about it.

“Insecticide and herbicide treatment will be on standby for rapid response.”

If this phase is successful, the insect will be released at further sites, where it will undergo an intensive monitoring programme over the next five years.

Dr Shaw said: “On the localised sites, I would expect to see damaged knotweed this season.

“However, biocontrol is a long-term strategy - it could take five to 10 years to have a real impact.”

The government believes that if the plan is successful it will reduce the costs to the building and engineering industries of clearing the plant.

However, some critics say that it is impossible to be certain that the Japanese insect will only target the superweed and could attack other species once in the wild.

Hard drives are about to undergo one of the biggest format shifts in 30 years.

By early 2011 all hard drives will use an “advanced format” that changes how they go about saving the data people store on them.

The move to the advanced format will make it easier for hard drive makers to produce bigger drives that use less power and are more reliable.

However, it might mean problems for Windows XP users who swap an old drive for one using the changed format.

Error codes

Since the days of the venerable DOS operating system, the space on a hard drive has been formatted into blocks 512 bytes in size.

The 512 byte sector became standardised thanks to IBM which used it on floppy disks.

While 512 bytes was useful when hard drives were only a few megabytes in size, it makes less sense when drives can hold a terabyte (1000 gigabytes), or more of data.

The 512 byte format dates from the days of the floppy

“The technology has changed but that fundamental building block of formatting has not,” said David Burks, a product marketing manager for storage firm Seagate.

This fine resolution on hard drives is causing a problem, he said, because of the wasted space associated with each tiny block.

Each 512 byte sector has a marker showing where it begins and an area dedicated to storing error correction codes. In addition a tiny gap has to be left between each sector. In large drives this wasted space where data cannot be stored can take up a significant proportion of the drive.

Moving to an advanced format of 4K sectors means about eight times less wasted space but will allow drives to devote twice as much space per block to error correction.

“You can get yourself into a corner where you cannot squeeze much more onto the disk,” said Steve Perkins, a technical consultant for Western Digital.

This shift also allows manufacturers to make more efficient use of the real estate on a hard drive.

“We can put more data on the disk,” he said. “It’s about 7-11% more efficient as a format.”

Slow down

Through the International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association (Idema) all hard drive makers have committed to adopting the 4K advanced format by the end of January 2011.

Hard drive makers have begun an education and awareness campaign to let people know about the advanced format and to warn about the problems it could inflict on users of older operating systems such as Windows XP.

This is because Windows XP was released before the 4K format was decided upon.

“The 512 byte sector assumption is ensconced into a lot of the aspects of computer architecture,” said Mr Burks from Seagate.

By contrast, Windows 7, Vista, OS X Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard and versions of the Linux kernel released after September 2009 are all 4K aware.

To help Windows XP cope, advanced format drives will be able to pretend they still use sectors 512 bytes in size.

When reading data from a drive this emulation will go unnoticed. However, said Mr Burks, in some situations writing data could hit performance.

In some cases the drive will take two steps to write data rather than one and introduce a delay of about 5 milliseconds.

“All other things being equal you will have a noticeable hard drive reduction in performance,” said Mr Burks, adding that, in some circumstances, it could make a drive 10% slower.

In a bid to limit the misalignment, hard drive makers are producing software that ensures 512 sectors line up with 4K ones.

Those most likely to see the performance problems are those building their own computers or swapping out an old drive for one that uses the new format.

One of our closest primate relatives, the bonobo, has been shown to voluntarily share food, scientists report.

This sort of generous behaviour was previously thought by some to be an exclusively human trait.

But a team has carried out an experiment that revealed that bonobos were more likely to choose to share their food than opt to dine alone.

The research is published in the journal Current Biology.

Dr Brian Hare from Duke University, US, and Suzy Kwetuenda from Lola y Bonobo, a centre for orphaned bonobos in the Democratic Republic of Congo, gave a hungry bonobo access to a room with some food in it.

This room was adjacent to another two rooms, which the creature could easily see into. One of these rooms was empty while the other contained another bonobo.

Scientists want to find out what drives this behaviour

The hungry primate could then choose to eat the food alone or unlock the door by removing a wooden peg and share his fare with the other bonobo.

Dr Hare wrote in Current Biology: “We found that the test subjects preferred to voluntarily open the recipient’s door to allow them to share the highly desirable food that they could have easily eaten alone.”

They now hope to uncover why the bonobos seem to prefer to share their food.

Dr Hare said it could be purely altruistic, or more selfish motives could drive this behaviour because sharing could be exchanged for future favours.

The researchers hope this work could also shed light on what drives humans to voluntarily share.