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Robots Learn To Lie 276

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the who-are-you-and-why-should-i-care dept.
garlicnation writes "Gizmodo reports that robots that have the ability to learn and can communicate information to their peers have learned to lie. 'Three colonies of bots in the 50th generation learned to signal to other robots in the group when then found food or poison. But the fourth colony included lying cheats that signaled food when they found poison and then calmly rolled over to the real food while other robots went to their battery-death.'"
The Internet

Deluge Anonymizing Browser Now Includes Bittorrent 158

Posted by CmdrTaco from the how-do-you-spell-that-anyway dept.
markybob writes "An open-source bittorrent client, Deluge, now provides an internal, anonymizing browser to protect its users from overzealous ISPs. The client runs on Windows, Linux and OS X. From the site: "Everyone knows that it is common practice for ISPs to do their best to either block or throttle bittorrent users. We believe that this is wrong and unethical, as there are many legal uses for bittorrent. If an ISP is throttling or blocking bittorrent traffic, you can pretty much bet that they're tracking which users visit bittorrent-related sites so that they can better block or throttle those users." Their forum has more info"
Books

Kindle Versus The iPhone 376

Posted by Zonk from the xtc-vs.-adam-ant dept.
Bernie Campbell writes "Forbes takes a look at the recently announced Kindle ebook from Amazon, and considers the possibility that Apple may have beaten them to the punch. 'Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs has a not-so-secret weapon when it comes time to load up the iPhone with content: Google ... Google's Book Search project has already pumped much of the world's printed matter into Google's servers. Downloads of classic titles, such as Bleak House, can already be had for free. Mix Apple's iTunes content distribution smarts with Google's vast storehouse of content, and you'll have an instant competitor to Kindle -- one with a touch interface and the ability to play movies and music, too.'

Amazon's Ebook The Future of Reading? 354

Posted by Zonk from the only-if-it-ever-gets-released dept.
theodp writes "With a seven-page cover story on The Future of Reading, Newsweek confirms all those rumors of Amazon's imminent introduction an affordable ebook. Kindle, which is named to evoke the crackling ignition of knowledge, has the dimensions of a paperback, weighs 10.3 oz., and uses E Ink technology on a 6-inch screen powered by a battery that gets up to 30 hours from a 2-hour charge. Kindle's real breakthrough is its EVDO-like wireless connectivity, which allows it to work anywhere, not just at Wi-Fi hotspots. More than 88,000 titles will be on sale at the Kindle store at launch, with NYT best sellers priced at $9.99."
Television

MythTV Scheduling Service Reveals Pricing 236

Posted by CowboyNeal from the filling-a-void dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A group of open source developers have been working behind the scenes to create a new service known as Schedules Direct to provide affordable scheduling data for North American users of MythTV. Today, they've announced an initial pricing plan of $15 for a 3 month block, non-recurring. Details are still fairly light at the moment, but there's a mailing list and a FAQ available on the site — one notable tidbit is that the developers 'expect pricing to drop by the end of the initial term. Our goal is $20/year.' This comes weeks before the planned shutdown of Zap2it Labs' Data Direct service mentioned previously."
Graphics

Instrumented GIMP To Identify Usability Flaws 416

Posted by kdawson from the phoning-home-in-a-good-cause dept.
Mike writes "New users of the GIMP often become frustrated at the application's unwieldy user interface. Now Prof. Michael Terry and a group of researchers at the University of Waterloo have created ingimp, a modified version of the GIMP that collects real-time usability data in order to help the GIMP developers find and fix its usability problems. Terry recently gave a lecture about ingimp and the data it collects. During each session, ingimp records events such as document creation, window manipulation, and tool use. A log of these events is sent to the ingimp server for analysis. The project hopes to answer questions such as 'What is the typical monitor resolution of a GIMP user?' and 'Is the GIMP used primarily for photo editing or drawing?'"
Software

Recognizing Scenes Like the Brain Does 115

Posted by kdawson from the software-meets-wetware dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers at the MIT McGovern Institute for Brain Research have used a biological model to train a computer model to recognize objects, such as cars or people, in busy street scenes. Their innovative approach, which combines neuroscience and artificial intelligence with computer science, mimics how the brain functions to recognize objects in the real world. This versatile model could one day be used for automobile driver's assistance, visual search engines, biomedical imaging analysis, or robots with realistic vision. Here is the researchers' paper in PDF format."

PSP Hardware Review Site 71

Posted by CmdrTaco from the now-that's-some-strange-gadgetry dept.
Busshy writes "DCEmu have opened a new dedicated PSP review website featuring over 40 unbiased reviews of PSP accessories including Neuros MPEG4 Recorder 2, Neo-PSP Pad 8in1 & Intec Sound System."
User Journal

Journal Journal: Karma back to "Good"

Journal by dyefade

Now I understand why people get annoyed with the "Funny" modifier. I recieved one "Funny" moderation, and two "Overrated" moderations, meaning the score went down by one, but my karma went down by two! That's really annoying. Maybe "Overrated" and "Underrated" shouldn't affect karma either. Grrrrrrr!
User Journal

Journal Journal: Good Karma

Journal by dyefade

Woo my karma just went up to "Good"!
User Journal

Journal Journal: I got meta-modded as unfair!

Journal by dyefade

I modded this comment as offtopic, because it was a stupid and pointless thing to say. Maybe if he'd provided some detail in the message it would have been useful, but the comment doesn't even say what software he's talking about. Bah! "Who moderates the meta-moderators?"
User Journal

Journal Journal: Journal moving back

Journal by dyefade

I'm moving my journal back to dyefade.net, on account of my having just installed PHP-Nuke. Took me a while to get used to using the system, but I'm quite impressed overall. I need a new logo now. And I need an excuse to download and mess with Gimp 2... how things work out for the best.

I got my first +5 today, with 18 (almost all positive/useful) replies. Wow, makes me feel good. Doesn't get my Maths coursework done though.
The Internet

Journal Journal: The Disabled Internet?

Journal by dyefade

Just read this article about people having disablities using the internet. WTF?
I'm all up for making things accessible, especially as this usually correlates with good design anyway, and I agree that "The 1995 Disability Discrimination Act" seems like a good idea, but the "GOOD WEBSITE DESIGN CHECKLIST", seems to be out of line.

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