Comment Hijack (Score 0) 311
Actually it was a major $%^$ing pain in the butt to change firefox back to the default browser after IE8 hijacked it.
Toys You Control With Your Brain 83
Kaliann writes "Toys that respond to brainwaves are the next generation of unique user interfaces. The Washington Post looks at the current market appeal and future uses of technology that can meaningfully respond to the thoughts of a user. Currently the toys have a fairly simple basic idea: the harder you concentrate the more the object moves. A sensor on the forehead picks up brain waves that are associated with concentration, then levitates a ball in response: basic biofeedback. While this may seem to be a rather humble beginning, progress in this field could have astounding consequences in the advancement of technologies devoted to thought-controlled devices. As the author points out, Jedi Beer Pong is within our grasp."
Analyzing YouTube's Audio Fingerprinter 116
Al Benedetto writes "I stumbled across this article which analyzes the YouTube audio content identification system in-depth. Apparently, since YouTube's system has no transparency, the behaviors had to be determined based on dozens of trial-and-error video uploads. The author tries things like speed/pitch adjustment, the addition of background noise, as well as other audio tweaks to determine exactly what you'd need to adjust before the fingerprinter started mis-identifying material. From the article: 'When I muted the beginning of the song up until 0:30 (leaving the rest to play) the fingerprinter missed it. When I kept the beginning up until 0:30 and muted everything from 0:30 to the end, the fingerprinter caught it. That indicates that the content database only knows about something in the first 30 seconds of the song. As long as you cut that part off, you can theoretically use the remainder of the song without being detected. I don't know if all samples in the content database suffer from similar weaknesses, but it's something that merits further research.'"
Scientists Discover Exoplanet Less Than Twice the Mass of Earth 201
Snowblindeye writes with this excerpt from the European Southern Observatory:
"Well-known exoplanet researcher Michel Mayor today announced the discovery of the lightest exoplanet found so far. The planet, 'e,' in the famous system Gliese 581, is only about twice the mass of Earth. The team also refined the orbit of the planet Gliese 581 d, first discovered in 2007, placing it well within the habitable zone, where liquid water oceans could exist. Planet Gliese 581 e orbits its host star — located only 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra ('the Scales') — in just 3.15 days. 'With only 1.9 Earth-masses, it is the least massive exoplanet ever detected and is, very likely, a rocky planet,' says co-author Xavier Bonfils from Grenoble Observatory. Being so close to its host star, the planet is not in the habitable zone. But another planet in this system appears to be. ... The planet furthest out, Gliese 581 d, orbits its host star in 66.8 days. 'Gliese 581 d is probably too massive to be made only of rocky material, but we can speculate that it is an icy planet that has migrated closer to the star,' says team member Stephane Udry. The new observations have revealed that this planet is in the habitable zone, where liquid water could exist. '"d" could even be covered by a large and deep ocean — it is the first serious "water world" candidate,' continued Udry."
Developing Battery Replacement Infrastructure For Electric Cars 369
FathomIT sends in a NY Times profile of Shai Agassi, owner of a company named Better Place, who is working to build the infrastructure to support large numbers of small-scale charging spots for electric cars, as well as fast, automated battery swap stations.
"The robot — a squat platform that moves on four dinner-plate-size white wheels — scuttled back and forth along a 20-foot-long set of metal rails. At one end of the rails, a huge blue battery, the size of a large suitcase, sat suspended in a frame. As we watched, the robot zipped up to the battery, made a nearly inaudible click, and pulled the battery downward. It ferried the battery over to the other end of the rails, dropped it off, picked up a new battery, hissed back over to the frame and, in one deft movement, snapped the new battery in the place of the old one. The total time: 45 seconds."
Comment Music Mafia (Score 0, Redundant) 667
This just shows what a bunch of scumbags music companies really are.
Bookmark Shrunk Budget for NASA Causes Delays in Manned Moon-Flight - Science News - Play (playfuls.com)
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Feed The Onion Goes Viral With Video (wired.com)
Submission + - More Boston Bomb Scares
Stanza writes: "I note via a livejournal entry that there was another bomb scare in Boston yesterday. However, searching around more mainstream press, there is only the video they link to, and a google search only comes up with two hits (one of which is boingboing.net, the other a satire site, also noting the lack of news on the subject).
There is some suspicion noted at the livejournal entry claiming that someone is calling favors to hide this. With such little noise in the media (it happened yesterday) it makes me wonder. Does this bother anyone else?"
There is some suspicion noted at the livejournal entry claiming that someone is calling favors to hide this. With such little noise in the media (it happened yesterday) it makes me wonder. Does this bother anyone else?"
Submission + - A way to break the major label monopoly?
Roger writes: "Who-is-roger.com is the homepage of a project intended to break the grip of major labels on the music industry and put power back in the hands of musicians. The idea is simple: use video sites like Youtube and Metacafe along with word of mouth advertising to promote the project while using online distribution channels like Myspace, iTunes, and Cafepress to sell the songs and merchandise. The videos tell a coherent storyline, with each one broken into an introductory video blog segment followed by a narrative video pertaining to the song. This keeps out all of the middlemen (managers, labels, etc.) and allows earned revenue to go toward ongoing recording and production expenses. Every penny the project makes goes to someone involved in the creative process, not to some label executive who is more concerned with the bottom line than good art.
You can find their most recent video here. The songs are available for purchase on their home website, under the heading "Songs.""
