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Robotics

NASA Fashions Mountain-Climbing Robot 65

Posted by CmdrTaco from the release-the-robo-shirpa dept.
coondoggie writes "NASA researchers today said they had built and tested a robot that can rappel off cliffs, travel over steep and rocky terrain, and explore deep craters. The prototype rover, called Axel, might help future robotic spacecraft better explore and investigate foreign worlds such as Mars. On Earth, Axel might assist in search-and-rescue operations in locations where people might not be able to reach. Axel can operate upside down and right side up and uses only three motors: one to control each of its two wheels and a third to control a lever. The lever contains a scoop to gather lunar or planetary material for scientists to study, and it also adjusts the robot's two stereo cameras, which can tilt 360 degrees, NASA said."
Games

Dead Space Highlights Disparity Between Plot and Gameplay 87

Posted by Soulskill from the this-is-bob-see-bob-kill-aliens dept.
Gamasutra is running an opinion piece praising recent horror-action game Dead Space for its pacing and gameplay while simultaneously criticizing the plot and the attempts to scare the player. Quoting: "What Dead Space is, is carefully and stylishly unoriginal. You'll love playing it, but when you aren't playing it, it's hard to say what's so great about it. It has some really great set pieces, some sweet effects, solid gameplay, an amazing interface and that's all. Anything and everything having to do with dialogue and story comes off as rote. ... You get the feeling the developer are trying very hard, though. When I see a dark shape in the distance, which turns and disappears, I don't get scared. I know he'll pop out of a vent later! Likewise, when I find a scientist who promptly slits her throat because of the horror, I just check for an item drop. None of the survivors ever surprise you and go hostile (which I think would have been a brilliant scare), so you never have to worry."
Linux

Ubuntu Brainstorm Launched 242

Posted by kdawson from the good-ideas-are-where-you-find-them dept.
thorwil writes "Brainstorm is a new site where everyone can submit and vote on ideas for Ubuntu. It's inspired by Dell's Ideastorm. By default, you see the ideas submitted by the community sorted by popularity. Each idea is accompanied by arrows so you can vote it up or down (you have to log in first). You can only click once per idea. So this is an easy way to submit ideas and see what people are really wanting."

Feed Science Daily: Orphaned Children Show Higher Intelligence And Fare Better In Foster Care Than I (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
New research, published in Science, shows strong evidence that children fare much better in foster care than in an institution. The study -- conducted in Bucharest, Romania -- could be a wake-up call to nations that feel institutionalization is the best way to handle abandoned children. Children reared in institutions showed greatly diminished intellectual performance relative to children reared in their families of origin. Further, children who were randomly assigned to foster care experienced "significant gains in cognitive function."
Space

Submission + - Voyager 2 finds solar system's shape is 'dented' (reuters.com)

Submitted by
Selikoff
Selikoff writes: "NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft has found that our solar system is not round but is "dented" by the local interstellar magnetic field of deep space, space experts said on Monday. The data was gathered by the craft on its 30-year journey into the edge of the solar system when it crossed into a sweeping region called the termination shock, they said. It showed that the southern hemisphere of the solar system's heliosphere is being pushed in or "dented." Voyager 2 is the second spacecraft to enter this region of the solar system behind Voyager 1, which entered the northern region of the heliosheath in December 2004."
Software

Submission + - Flickr images used to build 3D models of the world 1

Submitted by
willatnewscientist
willatnewscientist writes: "Scientists at TU Darmstadt in Germany and the University of Washington in the US have developed software that analyzes images of famous landmarks on photo-sharing websites like Flickr and uses them to build a 3D model of the structure. The researchers found the software to be as accurate as using laser range finding in many instances — an 3D model of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris is shown in an image and video. "The system provides an opportunity to use the billions of user-contributed images available online to 'reconstruct the world' without relying on specialised equipment," says researcher Michael Goesele."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft finally bows to EU antitrust measures

Submitted by Rogue Pat
Rogue Pat writes: From the Reuters press article: "Microsoft ended three years of resistance on Monday and finally agreed to comply with a landmark 2004 antitrust decision by the European Commission."

From other news sources: Competitors will be able to buy interface protocols for 10.000 Euro to make their software work better with Windows. Moreover, Microsoft won't appeal the 500 million Euro fine any further.
Data Storage

Submission + - Is Canada Following the USA or Britain on this?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It looks like Toronto is trying to become Canada's #1 filming location.

City News reports that, "almost every person using Toronto's transit system will be photographed" because the TTC will be adding a nice little camera in ever bus, subway car, streetcar and sub-way station that they have.

Of course they claim that they will only release the video and audio in the event that an event occurs. Are we going to extend this to hospitals, police stations, government access centers, libraries, public parks and sidewalks as well?

I'm totally against having public service companies do this to us — even for the reasons and under the conditions they are presenting them. I think that once the infrastucture and public acceptance that these devices are there is when the corruption starts. When will some elected body twist around the reasoning or the laws to do more with the devices?

A Slashot Poll would be nice but — What is the general public view on these things?

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"Only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core." -- Hannah Arendt.

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