FeetOfStinky - Slashdot User

Scientists Powering Batteries with Soda, Tree Sap 216

Posted by Hemos on Monday March 26, 2007 @10:49AM from the power-UP dept.

BobB writes "St. Louis University researchers have concocted batteries fueled by almost any kind of sugar, from tree sap to flat soda, and that could be used to power everything from computers to cell phones. Their thinking: If sugar can jack up the human body, why not electronics?"

New Tolkien Book Released 'The Children of Hurin' 260

Posted by Hemos on Monday March 26, 2007 @09:32AM from the hoom-hoom dept.

Zoolander writes "Christopher Tolkien has completed the last book of J.R.R. Tolkien from notes left from his father." The ultimate question is how much of a quality difference will there be; for instance the difference between Dune and Dune: House Atriedes is a pretty big gap. But in my experience, Christopher Tolkien has always taken a good, cautious approach when it comes to his father's work so here's to hoping.

Wii May Be Succeeding in Widening Game Market 184

Posted by Zonk on Sunday March 25, 2007 @03:37PM from the oldies-but-goodies dept.

superdan2k writes "When Nintendo brought the Wii to market, one of their stated goals was to get people who didn't normally play video games using their console. Based on an article from the AP, it seems they've made some headway in capturing the senior citizen market. With the Wii's price point, and it being a good way to get people engaged in physical exercise, it's easy to envision it catching on with other retirement homes beyond the one mentioned in the article."

Submission + - Intel Prototype Chip Raises Industry Bar

Submitted by

Carl Bialik from WSJ

on Monday February 12, 2007 @11:32AM

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes: "Intel has developed a prototype chip with the equivalent of 80 electronic brains, the latest sign of a design shift sweeping the semiconductor industry, the Wall Street Journal reports. The teraflop chip draws just 62 watts of power. From the article: 'Some jobs, like identifying and processing images, are ideal for multibrained machines. Video-security systems might quickly scan and pick out a face in a crowd, for example, or a PC might automatically create video highlights of a single player in a football game, said Justin Rattner, Intel's chief technology officer. Mr. Rattner said cameras on future videogame systems could track users' motions — eliminating the need for the kind of hand-held controller offered with Nintendo Co.'s Wii console. Realistic three-dimensional models of users could be transferred into videogames, or programs like a digital dance lesson. "Then you could put the model for your partner in there," Mr. Rattner says. "If you step on their toes, it's not a big deal." '"

Submission + - Vista not playing nice with FPS games

Submitted by

PetManimal

on Monday February 12, 2007 @11:30AM

PetManimal writes: "Computerworld reports that gamers who have installed Vista are reporting problems with first person-shooter titles such as CounterStrike, Half-Life 2, Doom 3 and F.E.A.R. (users have compiled lists of games with Vista issues here). The complaints, which have turned up on gamers' forums, cite crashes and low FPS rates. The problems, not surprisingly, relate to graphics hardware and software:

Experts blame still-flaky software drivers, Vista's complexity and a dearth of new video cards optimized for Vista's new rendering technology, DirectX 10. That's despite promises from Microsoft that Vista is backwards-compatible with XP's graphic engine, DirectX 9, and that it will support existing games. Meanwhile, games written to take advantage of DirectX 10 have been slow to emerge. And one Nvidia executive predicts that gamers may not routinely see games optimized for DirectX 10 until mid-2008.
"

Submission + - Edible RFID Tags

Submitted by giampy on Monday February 12, 2007 @11:29AM

giampy writes: New Scientist is reporting that Kodak has filed a patent for edible RFID tags. "The tags would be covered with soft gelatin that takes a while to dissolve in the stomach. After swallowing a tag a patient need only sit next to a radio source and receiver". They claim that these tags could be embedded in pills and used to monitor a person digestive system, among other things.

Submission + - AACS broken for all HD and Blu-ray disks

Submitted by on Monday February 12, 2007 @11:26AM

An anonymous reader writes: Two months after Muslix64 initially publicized his method for getting AACS keys, a user on Doom9 has found the processing key, which is able to decrypt all disks for both formats released thus far. The exploit can even be reused for future keys. This will allow the creation of a one-click backup utility and is a major blow against DRM.

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