Comment Not so hot (Score 0, Flamebait) 150
I mean, Toyota has this system where the car parks itself (http://www.hiptechblog.com/2006/02/25/toyotas-parallel-parking-assist/). So tell me, how does this Nissan toy improve over that?
Comment Coincidental fortune (Score 1) 359
At the bottom of the page:
"Our vision is to speed up time, eventually eliminating it." -- Alex Schure
"Our vision is to speed up time, eventually eliminating it." -- Alex Schure
Submission + - Hawking goes to space!
oxide7 writes: Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, who has been confined to a wheelchair for most of his adult life, expects weightlessness to feel like "bliss" when he goes on a "zero-gravity" flight Thursday aboard a refitted jet.
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20070425/hawking-f light.htm
Submission + - Is the US Suffering an Innovation 'Brain Drain'?
eldavojohn writes: "A recent article I read was looking for answers in the United States' drop in broadband rankings and proposed an 'innovation brain drain' as one of the reasons. Being an ego-centric American, I initially dismissed the idea but thought more about it and now am more curious as to what everyone else thinks. Do you think that the US is suffering from lack of innovation? If so, what's causing it? What's so different today from a period renowned for innovation? Poor schooling or grade inflation? Governing laws, regulations or patents? Economy? Growing difference in pay? A sense that everything is 'good enough' or lack of necessity? Political & military problems? I know I've read posters warning that the US is falling behind in several fields but I'd like to hear ideas why that is."
Submission + - Google Groups broken for over a day
nucal writes: It appears that Google Groups posting and archiving of Usenet has not been working too well and Google has not formally acknowledged the problem. This raises some questions about whether Google in general is a good platform for critical applications.
Submission + - Revolution OS -the award winning documentary
An anonymous reader writes: This article calls Revolution OS the finest documentaries created which traces the path taken by GNU, Free Software, Open Source and Linux. The whole documentary all of 1 hour and 10 minutes long consists of bits and pieces of conversation with various leaders of the community which of course includes Linus Torvalds, Eric Raymond, Richard M Stallman, Bruce Perens and many others.
In the documentary, Linus Torvalds calls RMS the great philosopher of the movement and himself the engineer.
The documentary produced by J.T.S Moore also shows snippets of publicity the movement received in the main stream media such as in CNBC and The New York Times. Some prominent people from Slashdot also make their appearances in the documentary. The article goads you to watch and enjoy it and as a follow up buy the DVD to support the cause.
In the documentary, Linus Torvalds calls RMS the great philosopher of the movement and himself the engineer.
The documentary produced by J.T.S Moore also shows snippets of publicity the movement received in the main stream media such as in CNBC and The New York Times. Some prominent people from Slashdot also make their appearances in the documentary. The article goads you to watch and enjoy it and as a follow up buy the DVD to support the cause.
When the Earth Was Purple 278
Ollabelle writes "It's always been a bit of a mystery why plants absorb red and blue light, reflecting green, when the sun emits the peak energy of the visible spectrum in the green. A new theory offers one possible answer: that the first chlorophyll-utilizing microbes evolved to exploit the red-and-blue light that older green-absorbing microbes didn't use, eventually out-competing them through greater efficiency and the rise of oxygen."
Submission + - Berkeley Ph.D. Proves "Jesus Tomb" Improba
Daniel Foster writes: "Looks like the 'Jesus Tomb' people got their math wrong. Dr. Randy Ingermanson (Ph.D. in physics from U.C. Berkeley) recalculates the statistical probability used by the Jesus Tomb book and documentary and finds that 'Jesus of Nazareth is EXTREMELY UNLIKELY to be the Jesus found in the family tomb.'
He says, 'My estimate is that the odds are at least 10,000 to 1 AGAINST Jesus of Nazareth being the man found in the tomb.'
Check out his data and decide for yourself whether he's onto something."
Submission + - Jeff Hawkins' Cortex Simulation Platform Available
UnreasonableMan writes: "Jeff Hawkins is best known for founding Palm Computing and Handspring, but for the last eighteen months he's been working on his third company, Numenta. In his 2005 book, On Intelligence, Hawkins laid out a theoretical framework describing how the neocortex processes sensory inputs and provides outputs back to the body. Numenta's goal is to build a software model of the human brain capable of face recognition, object identification, driving, and other tasks currently better suited to humans.
For an overview see Hawkins' 2005 presentation at UC Berkeley. It includes a demonstration of an early version of the software that can recognize handwritten letters and distinguish between stick figure dogs and cats. Whitepapers are available at Numenta's website.
Numenta wisely decided to build a community of developers rather than try to make everything proprietary. Yesterday they released the first version of their free development platform and the source code for their algorithms to anyone who wants to download it."
For an overview see Hawkins' 2005 presentation at UC Berkeley. It includes a demonstration of an early version of the software that can recognize handwritten letters and distinguish between stick figure dogs and cats. Whitepapers are available at Numenta's website.
Numenta wisely decided to build a community of developers rather than try to make everything proprietary. Yesterday they released the first version of their free development platform and the source code for their algorithms to anyone who wants to download it."
Submission + - Schwartz: Solaris is Key to Sun's Growth
narramissic writes: "Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz said Tuesday at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference that adoption of its Solaris 10 operating system is key to the company's success. Said Schwartz, 'If your OS is in front of a customer you're now given permission to sell everything we've got in our portfolio.'"
Submission + - Creative Looking to Phone Market with ZenPhone?
ack154 writes: In an attempt to maybe follow Apple into the DAP/phone game, rumors are starting to surface about a possible "ZenPhone" being developed by Creative. A Creative fan site has some of the info on this potential device that was discovered while browsing Creative's flyer for an upcoming IT show in Singapore.
Milky Way's Black Hole a Gamma Source? 100
eldavojohn writes "A paper recently accepted for publication (preprint here) proposes a sound explanation for the source of the gamma rays that permeate our galaxy. The Milky Way's central object Sagittarius A*, widely believed to be a supermassive black hole, is now suspected to be the source. To test this theory, two scientists created a computer model to track the protons, flung outward with energies up to 100 TeV by the intense magnetic fields near the event horizon, as they make a random walk through the plasma environment. It can take thousands of years for them to travel 10 light-years from the black hole, where they collide with lower-energy protons to form pions. These decay into gamma radiation emanating from a torus-shaped region around the central object."
Submission + - Researcher Laments Being Published in Science
An anonymous reader writes: The Voltage Gate has a story about a researcher who was recently published in Science without his approval. It turns out that he is a blogger himself, and wrote a long commentary about how his wishes to publish in an open access journal (like PLoS) were ignored.
Submission + - Diebold looking for exit from Voting Machines?
RealGene writes: AP is reporting:
"Diebold Inc. saw great potential in the modernization of elections equipment.
Now, analysts say, executives may be angling for ways to dump its e-voting subsidiary
that's widely seen as tarnishing the company's reputation."
Now, analysts say, executives may be angling for ways to dump its e-voting subsidiary
that's widely seen as tarnishing the company's reputation."
Submission + - Nielson Results Reveal Consoles on the Rise
eldavojohn writes: "Nielson ratings are in and the results are that gaming is continuing its steady trend upward. From the article, "In a study released on Monday entitled, "The State of the Console," Nielsen Media Research found that 41.1 percent of households with televisions in the U.S. now have gaming consoles. That number represents an 18.5 percent increase since 2004, according the research firm, who used a sample of 12,000 TV-viewing households for its report." More ammo for Jack Thompson or simply proof that game consoles are universally enjoyed?"
