AySz88 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Google reinvents Wikipedia (blogspot.com) 1

Submitted by teslatug on Friday December 14, 2007 @12:30AM

teslatug writes: Google appears to be reinventing Wikipedia with their new product that they call knol (not yet publicly available). In an attempt to gather human knowledge, Google will accept articles from users who will be credited with the article by name. If they want, they can allow ads to appear alongside the content and they will be getting a share of the profits if that's the case. Other users will be allowed to rate, edit or comment on the articles. The content does not have to be exclusive to Google but no mention is made on any license for it. Is this a better model for free information gathering?

Submission + - Patent Trolls are nothing new

Submitted by BigLinuxGuy on Thursday December 13, 2007 @12:36PM

BigLinuxGuy writes: Gerard N. Magliocca has published an interesting white paper "Blackberries and Barnyards: The Perils of Innovation" that demonstrates that the patent troll phenomenon is at least a few hundred years old. Surprisingly, the paper asserts that trolls can't be rehabilitated by changing the patent system. Interesting read, regardless.

Submission + - Bar Codes Keep Surgical Objects Outside Patients

Submitted by

Reservoir Hill

on Saturday December 08, 2007 @08:42PM

Reservoir Hill writes: "Every year, in the United States about 1,500 people have surgical objects accidentally left inside them after surgery, according to medical studies. "When there is significant bleeding and a sponge is placed in a patient, it can sometimes look indistinguishable from the tissue around it," said Dr. Steven DeJong. To prevent this potentially deadly problem, Loyola University Medical Center is utilizing a new technology that is helping its surgical teams keep track of all sponges used during a surgical procedure. Each sponge has a unique bar code affixed to it that is scanned by a high-tech device to obtain a count. Before a procedure begins, the identification number of the patient and the badge of the surgical team member maintaining the count are scanned into the counter. When a sponge is removed from a patient, it is scanned back into the system. A surgical procedure cannot end until all sponges are accounted for. "This device will help us eliminate the human factor in our standard counting procedure," said Jo Quetsch, RN. "We are definitely able to keep track of all sponges.""

Video of Wild Crow Tool Use Caught With Tail Cams 203

Posted by Zonk on Friday October 05, 2007 @07:29PM from the and-bernd-heinrich-is-well-pleased dept.

willatnewscientist writes "Scientists from the University of Oxford have recorded New Caledonian crows using tools in the wild for first time. The footage was captured by attaching tiny cameras to their tail feathers. The wireless cameras weigh just 14 grammes and can be worn by the crows without disturbing their natural behavior. The trick has provided the first direct evidence of the birds' using tools in the wild and may represent an important development in animal behavior studies. 'The camera also contains a simple radio transmitter that reveals the crows' location. This lets the researchers track them at a distance of few hundred metres, so that they can catch the camera's video signal with a portable receiving dish. Up to 70 minutes of footage can be broadcast by the camera's chip, and the camera is shed once the bird moults its tail feathers.'"

Submission + - Apple Sued Over iPhone Bricking

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 05, 2007 @07:05PM

An anonymous reader writes: The week's debate over the iPhone 1.1.1 has finally resulted in legal action. InfoWeek reports that on Friday, California resident Timothy Smith sued Apple in a class-action case in Santa Clara County Superior court. The suit was filed by Damian Fernandez, the lawyer who's been soliciting plaintiffs all week for a case against Apple. The suit doesn't ask for a specific dollar amount, but seeks an injunction against Apple, which prevents it from sell the iPhone with any software lock. It also asks that Apple be enjoined from denying warranty service to users of unlocked iPhone, and from requiring iPhone users to get their phone service through AT&T.

Stem Cells Change Man's DNA 171

Posted by Zonk on Friday October 05, 2007 @05:21PM from the oh-man-science-is-weird dept.

An anonymous reader writes "After receiving umbilical cord stem cells to replace bone marrow as treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Greg Graves temporarily had three different sets of DNA. Eventually, one of the two sets of cells transplanted into his bone marrow took root, leaving him different DNA in his blood from the rest of his body: 'If you were to do a DNA test of my blood and one from my skin, they'd be different,' Graves said. 'It's a pretty wild thing.'"

Submission + - RIAA loses counterclaim lawsuit (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 05, 2007 @04:42PM

An anonymous reader writes: This is the case in which the Court had sustained 5 of the 6 counterclaims interposed by Ms. Del Cid.

The court sustained defendant's counterclaims for

-trespass to defendant's personal property based on the RIAA's having accessed files on Ms. Del Cid's computer without her permission,
-violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act based on the RIAA's unauthorized intrusion into defendant's computer,
-violation of Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act,
-a declaratory judgment of non-infringement, and
-conspiracy to commit extortion, since defendant sufficiently alleged "a peculiar power of coercion possessed by Plaintiffs [by] virtue of their combination, which an individual alone would not possess".

Submission + - Real-time raytracing for PC games almost a reality (pcper.com) 1

Submitted by

Vigile

on Thursday September 20, 2007 @09:06PM

Vigile writes: "Real-time raytracing has often been called the pinnacle for computer rendering for games but only recently has it been getting traction in the field. A German student, and now Intel employee, has been working on raytraced versions of the Quake 3 and Quake 4 game engines for years and is now using the power of Intel's development teams to push the technology further. With antialiasing implemented and anisotropic filtering close behind, they speculate that within two years the hardware will exist on the desktop to make "game quality" raytracing graphics a reality."

Slashdot Top Deals