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Submission + - There Out there (adelaidenow.com.au)

Submitted by Bat Dude
Bat Dude writes: A GERMAN postman has "married" his obese and asthmatic cat, saying he wanted to tie the knot before his pet died.
"Cecilia is such a trusting creature. We cuddle all the time, and she has always slept in my bed," single Uwe Mitzscherlich, 39, told Bild newspaper.

"Our hearts beat as one — it's unique!"

Because marrying an animal is illegal, Mitzscherlich, from Possendorf, in eastern Germany, paid €300 ($428) for a television actress to play officiator in the ceremony, while his twin brother, Erik, served as witness.

The happy couple dressed up for the occasion — Mitzscherlich in a wedding suit and top hat and 15-year-old Cecilia, who loudly meowed her way through the exchanging of vows, in a white dress.
Google

Submission + - Google TV (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Bat Dude
Bat Dude writes: Google reportedly preparing to intro TV software next month
by Jacqui Cheng | Last updated April 30, 2010 11:12 AM
The Google TV—or rather, Google's software for set-top boxes—is one step closer to reality, according to sources speaking to the Wall Street Journal. Google is reportedly preparing to announce the software at next month's Google I/O conference, where developers may be able to get their feet wet writing applications for the platform, though the sources cautioned that Google might back off on the announcement if it's not quite ready by then.

Google's TV plans have yet to be officially confirmed, though they have been rumored for at least a month now. Consistent with the company's strategy in other areas, Google isn't expected to be involved in manufacturing set-top boxes; rather, the company is supposedly developing a version of Android that would be especially conducive to the big screen. Third-party developers would then be able to write their own apps for the devices, giving more openness and flexibility to people's TV watching habits.

According to the WSJ, hardware makers like Sony, Intel, and Logitech are interested in rolling out devices that work with Google's software. On top of that, Google is reportedly in the process of testing a sort of "television search" with the Dish Network, which allows users to search for content on the Internet and from Dish's programming.

We're still left a little unsure of how well the Google TV project will succeed, given the fact that there are already a handful of other set-top boxes available (and some of them for pretty cheap). However, if the UI is good and the developer community gets on board, there's potential for this device (or, more likely: devices) to fill a small gap in the market. After all, there are few set-top boxes right now that aren't full-blown HTPCs, but still give developers the freedom to develop their own apps, and their growing familiarity with Android—thanks to the mobile world—would certainly help.
Medicine

UK Docs Perform First Remote-Control Heart Surgery 142

Posted by timothy from the a-a-b-up-down-a-b-no-wait dept.
ByronScott writes "Doctors at a British hospital have just carried out the world's first surgery using a remote-controlled robot. The procedure fixed a patient's irregular heart rhythm, and although the doctor was in the same hospital as the patient — just through the wall in another room — developers of the RC surgery technology believe this is the first step toward long-distance operations. Imagine a doctor in London performing surgery on your heart in New York!"
Role Playing (Games)

ArenaNet's MMO Design Manifesto 178

Posted by Soulskill from the not-the-crazy-person-kind dept.
An anonymous reader writes "ArenaNet studio head Mike O'Brien has posted his vision for a new type of MMORPG, which they used in developing Guild Wars 2. Quoting: 'MMOs are social games. So why do they sometimes seem to work so hard to punish you for playing with other players? If I'm out hunting and another player walks by, shouldn't I welcome his help, rather than worrying that he's going to steal my kills or consume all the mobs I wanted to kill? ... [In Guild Wars 2], when someone kills a monster, not just that player's party but everyone who was seriously involved in the fight gets 100% of the XP and loot for the kill. When an event is happening in the world – when the bandits are terrorizing a village – everyone in the area has the same motivation, and when the event ends, everyone gets rewarded.'"
AMD

Submission + - AMD Pushes Affordability With Six-Core Phenom II X (pcmag.com)

Submitted by Bat Dude
Bat Dude writes: AMD Pushes Affordability With Six-Core Phenom II X6

It's not really a surprise, but AMD today announced its entry into the six-core desktop chip market, with its Phenom II X6 chip, which had been code-named Thuban.

This chip, manufactured on Global Foundries' 45nm process (which is used in the current quad-core Phenom IIs as well) is similar to AMD's six-core Operton server chips, but designed for the desktop environment.

0
diggs
diggIn some respects, AMD's entry is similar to Intel's Core i7-980X Extreme processor, known as Gulftown, which was introduced last month. But in other ways, it points out the different approach AMD is taking to the market. While Intel is emphasizing peak performance and "hyperthreading" (allowing two threads to run on each core), AMD is emphasizing its overall chip platform, including discrete graphics, as well as affordability.

The Phenom II X6 is meant to be paired with AMD's 890FX chip set, which adds native support for 6 Gb/second SATA drives, and AMD's ATI Radeon HD 5800 series discrete graphics boards. The chip set supports AMD's Overdrive utility for overclocking, as well as "Black Edition" certified high-speed memory. The graphics boards, which are coming out in more flavors, support Direct X 11 and ATI's Eyefinity technology, which lets them work with up to six monitors. And AMD says all the initial motherboards will support USB 3.0 through an external NEC controller. But the new procesors don't require the new chipset; they were designed to also work in existing AM2+ and AM3 sockets with a software upgrade, and in the existing 125W TDP power envelope.

The new chip is AMD's first to support what it calls "Turbo Core," which lets up to three cores run faster while the other three run in a lower power state, to better support applications that don't need all of the cores. This is similar in intent to Intel's "Turbo Boost" technology, though AMD's method isn't quite as flexible. Still, the company says it should allow the 3.2GHz model 1090T to be run at up to 3.6 GHz.

While the products do not support symmetric multithreading, AMD executives have stressed that more cores are always better than more threads, saying additional threads typically provide an extra 20% performance uplift in applications that can use them, while extra cores typically provide an extra 80% improvement. So AMD will be emphasizing relative affordability, saying the initial high-end chip, that 3.2 GHz version, will sell for under $289, much less than Intel's current six-core offerings; indeed, these chips should be priced more competitively with Intel's 4-core, 8-thread chips. I'll be interested in seeing how it performs in comparison.

Update: Here are early reviews from ExtremeTech, Legit Reviews, Techware Labs, and Toms Hardware.

Intel's 6-core Core i7-980X nearly always wins the benchmarks, but it's notably more expensive. The 6-core AMD Phenom II X6 1090T seems to more than hold its own against the 4-core /8-theread Core i7-920, but the results vary greatly depending on the application
NASA

Submission + - NASA expands role of International Space Station (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: NASA is looking for a few good experiments to run in space. The space agency this week said it was seeking research ideas from private entities to want to do research on board the International Space Station. NASA said it was looking to expand the use of the ISS by providing access to the lab for the conduct of basic and applied research, technology development and industrial processing to private entities — including, but not limited to, commercial firms, non-profit institutions, and academic institutions. NASA said using the ISS as a national lab could help develop a number of applications in areas such as biotechnology, energy, engineering and remote sensing.
Graphics

Submission + - New Graphics Standard Takes On OpenCL And CUDA (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Stoobalou
Stoobalou writes: We already have at least two GPGPU standards jostling for attention from multi-core coders, but compiler developer PathScale has revealed that it reckons it can better both OpenCL and CUDA with a brand new open GPGPU standard.
Games

Submission + - Playing violent video games makes you smarter (thekartel.com)

Submitted by kghapa
kghapa writes: Researchers announced that fast pace, violent video games, specifically Call of Duty and Resident Evil, improve quick thinking and mental flexibility and should be played by youth and elderly.
Games

Submission + - Warzone 2100 2.3.0 Released

Submitted by Abils
Abils writes: Warzone 2100, the fully 3D real-time strategy and real-time tactics hybrid computer game, has released version 2.3.0, Eming reports.

Warzone was first developed by Pumpkin Studios for Microsoft Windows and Sony PlayStation. The source was released under GPL licensed in 2004[slashdot.org], and the game is renamed to Warzone 2100.

The new released has many new features as well as improvements and better stability from 2.2.0 which was released almost a year ago.

There is a Add-ons Database for all user-contributed maps and mods.

Warzone 2100 is now available under Windows, Mac OS X, Linus and BSD.

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