Comment Re:Fond memories of Physics exercises in Loomis La (Score 1) 162
Yea now that I think back I do recall the software being very exacting at times. I lived just down the street from Loomis but I do recall visiting the lab at FLB a few times.
Comment Fond memories of Physics exercises in Loomis Lab (Score 1) 162
I have fond memories of taking Physics quizzes and exercises on the PLATO machines at Loomis Laboratory while an undergraduate engineering student at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in the early 90s. The plasma monitors with their orange glow were cool for such "old" technology.
Comment Re:It doesn't come soon enough (Score 1) 143
Well said.
Inventor Demonstrates Infinitely Variable Transmission 609
ElectricSteve writes with this excerpt from Gizmag:
"Ready for a bit of a mental mechanical challenge? Try your hand at understanding how the D-Drive works. Steve Durnin's ingenious new gearbox design is infinitely variable — that is, with your motor running at a constant speed, the D-Drive transmission can smoothly transition from top gear all the way through neutral and into reverse. It doesn't need a clutch, it doesn't use any friction drive components, and the power is always transmitted through strong, reliable gear teeth. In fact, it's a potential revolution in transmission technology."
Researchers Build Evolving Brain Computer? 114
destinyland writes "'We have mimicked how neurons behave in the brain,' announces an international research team from Japan and Michigan Tech. They've built an 'evolutionary circuit' in a molecular computer that evolves to solve complex problems, and the molecular computer also exhibits brain-like massive parallel processing. 'The neat part is, approximately 300 molecules talk with each other at a time during information processing,' says physicist Ranjit Pati of Michigan Tech. When viewed with a scanning tunneling microscope, the evolving patterns bear an uncanny resemblance to the human brain as seen by a Functional MRI. Using the electrically charged tip of a tunneling microscope, they've individually set molecules to a desired state, essentially writing data to the system. And while conventional computers are typically built using two-state (0, 1) transistors, the molecular layer is built using a hexagonal molecule, and can switch among four conducting states — 0, 1, 2 and 3, suggesting it may ultimately have more AI potential than quantum computing."
