181403
submission
grimwell writes:
The TODAY show has the exclusive on Microsoft's new Surface product. Basically it is a touch responsive display. In the TODAY article the display was a tabletop.`At the touch of his hand, the hard, plastic tabletop suddenly dissolved into what looked like tiny ripples of water. The 'water' responded to each of his fingers and the ripples rushed quickly away in every direction. "Go ahead," he said. "Try it." When I placed my hand on the table at the same time, there were more ripples. It took a moment to appreciate what was happening. Every hand motion Gates or I did was met with an immediate response from the table. There was no keyboard. There was no mouse. Just our gestures.`
124675
submission
grimwell writes:
The BBC is carrying the story that the ANI flawed is being used to target WoW players for their account details. "Analysis of that malicious software showed that it lay dormant on a victims machine until they ran World of Warcraft (WoW) at which point it captured login data and sent it to the hacking group." "Research by security firm Symantec suggests that the raw value of a WoW account is now higher than a credit card and its associated verification data."
31511
submission
grimwell writes:
In an Atlanta lab, minibrains in dishes can control robots and computer-simulated animals. Each Animat's "brain" consists of cultured rat neurons growing on a plate of electrodes. This live culture is linked to an artificial body — either a robotic animal or a computer-simulated one. The brain cells can receive input from the synthetic critter's environment, process information, and stimulate behavior. For example, one of the Animats is linked to a robot with light-detecting sensors. Information from the sensors is sent to the brain culture, which sends a signal back to the robot instructing it to move toward the light. Other Animats can chase a target around a room, scribble simple drawings, and move around obstacles. The rest of the article is here
14641
submission
grimwell writes:
Our friends at FermiLab have announced that They have discovered the quick-change behavior of the B-sub-s meson, which switches between matter and antimatter 3 trillion times a second
The CDF discovery of the oscillation rate, marking the final chapter in a 20-year search, is immediately significant for two major reasons: reinforcing the validity of the Standard Model, which governs physicists' understanding of the fundamental particles and forces; and narrowing down the possible forms of supersymmetry, a theory proposing that each known particle has its own more massive "super" partner particle.
363
submission
grimwell writes:
Yahoo is carrying a Reuter's article stating "An Irish technology firm issued a challenge to the world's scientific community on Friday to give its verdict on technology it says smashes one of the basic laws of physics by producing "free energy."
Dublin-based Steorn said it had placed an advertisement in The Economist magazine seeking 12 top physicists to examine the technology — based on the interaction of magnetic fields — and publish their results."
Steorn's website states 78 scientists have expressed interest in testing their technology, so far.
