rakjr - Slashdot User

Zombie Pigs First, Hibernating Soldiers Next 193

Posted by samzenpus on Monday December 07, 2009 @07:06PM from the fattening-up-on-brains dept.

ColdWetDog writes "Wired is running a story on DARPA's effort to stave off battlefield casualties by turning injured soldiers into zombies by injecting them with a cocktail of one chemical or another (details to be announced). From the article, 'Dr. Fossum predicts that each soldier will carry a syringe into combat zones or remote areas, and medic teams will be equipped with several. A single injection will minimize metabolic needs, de-animating injured troops by shutting down brain and heart function. Once treatment can be carried out, they'll be "re-animated" and — hopefully — as good as new.' If it doesn't pan out we can at least get zombie bacon and spam."

Brain-Control Gaming Headset Launching Dec. 21 112

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday December 03, 2009 @06:20AM from the oh-hey-it's-real dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Controlling computers with our minds may sound like science fiction, but one Australian company claims to be able to let you do just that. The Emotiv device has been garnering attention at trade shows and conferences for several years, and now the company says it is set to launch the Emotiv EPOC headset on December 21. PC Authority spoke to co-founder Nam Do about the Emotiv technology and its potential as a mainstream gaming interface." One wonders what kind of adoption they expect with a $299 price tag.

Submission + - Microsoft Admits to Spying on Partners (channelinsider.com)

Submitted by

dasButcher

on Monday May 04, 2009 @09:03AM

dasButcher writes: "Is Microsoft going lawsuit happy? After filing lawsuits against four Canadian resellers for selling unlicensed copies of Microsoft software, Microsoft admitted to having a clandestine program for monitoring partners for fraudulent and illegal activity (http://www.channelinsider.com/c/a/Microsoft/Microsoft-Sues-Four-Partners-Reveals-Channel-Monitoring-Program-893222/). Microsoft is using secret shoppers, faux companies and other means for detecting unauthorized deals. Is this a good thing?"

Submission + - Windows 7 on an entry level netbook: first look (itwire.com)

Submitted by

davidmwilliams

on Monday May 04, 2009 @07:55AM

davidmwilliams writes: "You ve read all about Windows 7RC1, but how does it really perform in practice? I wanted to know too so I loaded it on a modern Acer Aspire One netbook."

Submission + - Out of control windmill closes California highway (turnto23.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04, 2009 @02:28AM

An anonymous reader writes: The California Highway Patrol has closed HWY. 58 near windy Tehachapi due to a windmill that has lost it's power braking system. They fear a failure could send debris as far as one mile.

Submission + - Australia invests in cyber warfare skills (arnnet.com.au)

Submitted by on Monday May 04, 2009 @12:42AM

An anonymous reader writes: An Australian defense whitepaper has outlined plans for the country to boost its cyber warfare capabilities. A new R&D organisation will have armed forces staff and funding from the federal government. Details of their operations are classified, but the whitepaper placed a significant emphasis on the need to boost these skills along with cooperation with the US.

Science's Alternative To an Intelligent Creator 683

Posted by kdawson on Monday November 17, 2008 @09:07AM from the theory-of-anything dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "Discover magazine has an interesting article on the multiverse theory — a synthesis of string theory and the anthropic principle that explains why our universe seems perfectly tailored for life without invoking an intelligent creator. Our universe may be but one of perhaps infinitely many universes in an inconceivably vast multiverse. While most of those universes are barren, some, like ours, have conditions suitable for life. The idea that the universe was made just for us — known as the anthropic principle — debuted in 1973 when Brandon Carter proposed that a purely random assortment of laws would have left the universe dead and dark, and that life limits the values that physical constants can have. The anthropic principle languished on the fringes of science for years, but in 2000, new theoretical work threatened to unravel string theory when researchers calculated that the basic equations of string theory have an astronomical number of different possible solutions, perhaps as many as 101,000, with each solution representing a unique way to describe the universe. The latest iteration of string theory provides a natural explanation for the anthropic principle. If there are vast numbers of other universes, all with different properties, at least one of them ought to have the right combination of conditions to bring forth stars, planets, and living things." So far xkcd is simulating just one single universe.

Some Schools Welcoming Patent Firm, Others Wary 55

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday November 16, 2008 @02:54PM from the and-by-firm-i-mean-troll dept.

theodp writes "Intellectual Ventures (IV) will be setting up shop at the top of a Four Seasons this week as Headline Sponsor of the Ready to Commercialize 2008 conference hosted by the University of Texas at Austin. It's the patent firm's 100th university deal, though some, such as Professor Michael Heller at Columbia University, warn against such deals. '... their individual profit comes at the cost of the public ability to innovate. The university's larger mission is to serve the public interest, and some of these deals work against that public interest.' It's a follow-up to the conference IV sponsored last summer for technology transfer professionals entrusted with commercializing their universities' intellectual property, and should help IV, a friend of Microsoft, snag even more exclusive deals (PDF)."

Journal Journal: [POLL] DRM-Free music 8

Journal by Pirogoeth on Monday April 02, 2007 @09:14AM

So, EMI becomes the first major label to make the DRM-free jump. Personally, while I see it as a good thing from different angles (customer: music can be played on any software/player, reseller: Apple makes more money because people will come to them to buy DRM-free tunes, supplier: EMI makes more money from the higher per-song price, artists: still get screwed) I don't see it as jumping for joy news. I'm not much of an au

Submission + - Creator of Bomb-Sniffing Device Honored

Submitted by YonathanY on Monday April 02, 2007 @09:14AM

YonathanY writes: Timothy Swager began developing bomb-sniffing technology a decade ago under a Pentagon-funded research project to help explosives disposal teams clear land mines — but it hasn't been used for that purpose.

Submission + - EMI to offer DRM-free music in iTunes

Submitted by

beat.bolli

on Monday April 02, 2007 @09:12AM

beat.bolli writes: "According to the press release, EMI music and Apple have agreed to sell music sans DRM. Not without a catch: The DRM-less music will be $1.29 but have "twice the sound quality of existing downloads", which are still available for $0.99."

Feed Microsoft licenses Vista for 'diskless' PCs (com.com)

From feed by cnetfeed on Monday April 02, 2007 @09:12AM

Redmond changes contract terms for corporate version of Vista, making way for PCs whose hard drive lives in a data center.

Submission + - Folding@home on PS3

Submitted by steff on Monday April 02, 2007 @09:05AM

steff writes: Playstation 3 now is not only for fun. Very interesting:

"Computer-game consoles most commonly associated with killing aliens may soon be used to actually search for them. At the same time, they could also help to cure Alzheimer's disease, carry out climate predictions and malaria epidemiology, and study gravity waves."

article from nature

Submission + - Cartoon Contest to Highlight Abuses of Science

Submitted by

Aaron Huertas

on Monday April 02, 2007 @08:51AM

Aaron Huertas writes: "Three top cartoonists have joined with the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) to kick off the organization's second annual "Science Idol" scientific integrity cartoon contest to draw humorous attention to a very serious issue: political interference in science. The judges for this year's contest include two Pulitzer Prize winners: Washington Post editorial cartoonist Tom Toles and "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau. They will be joined by Dave Coverly, whose cartoon "Speed Bump" has won the National Cartoonists Society's newspaper panel cartoon award twice, and James MacLeod, the Evansville, Indiana, history professor who won last year's contest. The Science Idol winner will get $500 and a free 3-day trip to the nation's capital to have lunch with Toles. All artists, amateur or professional, are welcome to participate. The submission deadline is May 22. Cartoons should address the abuse of science in general or highlight one or more of the ways in which science has been misused, ranging from the censorship of scientists to the manipulation of scientific reports. For contest rules and submission guidelines, go to: www.ucsusa.org/scienceidol."

Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring RC3 released 28

Posted by Hemos on Monday April 02, 2007 @08:31AM from the springing-forth dept.

AdamWill writes "Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring RC3 "Beijing" is now available. Featuring the most comprehensive support for 3D desktop technologies, the latest versions of KDE, GNOME, Mozilla Firefox and others, a beautiful new theme and enhancements and refinements to the comprehensive suite of Mandriva configuration utilities, Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring is the best Mandriva Linux release yet. Beijing features fixes to all major bugs in previous betas and release candidates, the final version of GNOME 2.18, and the full feature set intended for the final release. Both traditional installer-based Free editions and combined live / install CD One editions are available. Beijing is available from all Mandriva mirror sites in the /devel/iso/2007.1 directory. Please consult the release notes for more information."

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