8824934
story
kghapa writes
"Still want to argue that video games shrink your brain? While video games have been previously shown to stimulate brain activity and improve coordination skills, a recently published study has directly linked structures in the human brain with video game aptitude. And yes, apparently size does matter in this case. Quoting: '... each subject received 20 hours of training to play a video game specifically created for research purposes, called Space Fortress. It's basically an Asteroids-type arcade game, in which the object is to knock down and destroy an enemy fortress while dodging space mines. However, the game has lots of extra twists that require close attention. Some of the players were told to focus exclusively on running up a high score, while others were told to shift their priorities between several goals. The result? The subjects who had more volume in an area called the nucleus accumbens did significantly better in the early stages of training. Meanwhile, those who were well-endowed in different areas of the striatum, known as the caudate nucleus and putamen, handled the shifting strategies better.'"
8824462
story
Julie188 writes
"Microsoft is suing TiVo, claiming patent infringement. Microsoft is doing this because TiVo has sued AT&T — and AT&T happens to be Microsoft's largest customer of Microsoft's Mediaroom IPTV technology. Microsoft says that TiVo has copied Microsoft's Mediaroom IPTV technology in its DVRs. If Microsoft wins, it would effectively block TiVo from selling DVRs without a licensing deal with Microsoft."
8823712
story
tedlistens writes
"NASA is asking the public to suggest subjects for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, its super powerful camera currently orbiting Mars. Since it arrived there in 2006, the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has seen more success than that lost lander, recording nearly 13,000 observations of Martian terrain, with each image covering dozens of square miles and revealing details as small as a desk. By letting the public in on the Martian photo shoot, scientists aren't just getting more people excited about space exploration. They're hoping that crowdsourcing imaging targets will increase the camera's already bountiful science return. Despite the thousands of pictures already taken, less than 1 percent of the Martian surface has been imaged."
8606548
submission
nweaver writes:
Some Slashdot readers may already be familiar with our Netalyzr service, from
this June story. For those who aren't, Netalyzr is a free network measurement and debugging applet designed to check for a wide
range of network problems and neutrality violations, including unadvertised port filtering, DNS wildcarding, and hidden proxy servers. We are pleased to announce that Netalyzr is now out of beta. We've made many enhancements, user interface cleanups, and added a bevy of new tests such as enhanced DNS probing and checking for problems with fragmented traffic. Since the Internet is changing constantly, we would love it if
Slashdot readers would (re-)run Netalyzr so we can see how things have evolved since June. More generally, the Netalyzr project aims to
compile a comprehensive survey of the health of the Internet's edge. Your help in making the study a success is greatly appreciated — thanks!
