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Robotics

Robot Composed of "Catoms" Can Assume Any Form 168

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the come-with-me-if-you-want-to-live dept.
philetus writes "An article in New Scientist describes a robotic system composed of swarms of electromagnetic modules capable of assuming almost any form that is being developed by the Claytronics Group at Carnegie Mellon. 'The grand goal is to create swarms of microscopic robots capable of morphing into virtually any form by clinging together. Seth Goldstein, who leads the research project at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, in the US, admits this is still a distant prospect. However, his team is using simulations to develop control strategies for futuristic shape-shifting, or "claytronic", robots, which they are testing on small groups of more primitive, pocket-sized machines.'"
Security

Submission + - Public transport RFID payment system hacked. (cs.vu.nl)

Submitted by
Berry van Halderen
Berry van Halderen writes: "It shows, security through obscurity is worthless. Years ago the dutch government decided to replace the paper ticket based system (a quite unique system), by a modern system based on RFID cards. Unfortunately, the did not want to spend too much money and chose the cheapest solution available. These RFID cards used an encryption method not public available and as such safe, according to the politicians. However last week this chip was partially hacked by german hackers and now it was shown that the cards could indeed be duplicated and used over-and-over again to pay for valid transit. Last years the dutch government is giving more attention to open-source projects, which would hopefully much sooner expose these much misguided trust in security through obscurity."
User Journal

Journal Journal: Walking robot controlled by live monkey's brain

Journal by greginnj
The New York Times reports that neuroscientists have created a connection between a live monkey's brain and a walking robot that allowed the monkey to control the steps of the robot as it walked on a treadmill. The monkey was in North Carolina; the robot was walking in Japan. At first the monkey walked in sync with the robot (which it could see on a large screen). Then, when the monkey's treadmill stopped, it continued to make th
Robotics

Submission + - Walking robot controlled by live monkey's brain (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
greginnj
greginnj writes: "The New York Times reports that neuroscientists have created a connection between a live monkey's brain and a walking robot that allowed the monkey to control the steps of the robot as it walked on a treadmill. The monkey was in North Carolina; the robot was walking in Japan. At first the monkey walked in sync with the robot (which it could see on a large screen). Then, when the monkey's treadmill stopped, it continued to make the robot walk. Cue the whatcouldpossiblygowrong tags now!"
Sun Microsystems

Submission + - Sun just bought MySQL

Submitted by davecb
davecb writes: Sun just announced that they had just bought MySQL, and is specifically interested in performance improvement work and the Falcon transactional storage engine.
Government

Submission + - New Legislation on Child Pornography (criminaldefenseassociates.com)

Submitted by
caseyorion
caseyorion writes: "Congress has attempted to pass a new legislation that makes it illegal to even claim to possess child pornography even though it may not be true. Filmmakers and other artists are wondering how this will affect their freedom of expression when they attempt to approach serious topics concerning minors and sex."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - 1-ton ROUS found... (cnn.com)

Submitted by
PortHaven
PortHaven writes: "The fossilized remains of a rodent measuring nearly 3 meters and weighing approx. 1 ton has been discovered.

The scientists believe the rodent, named Josephoartigasia monesi, roamed the earth about four million years ago...obviously readers of "The Princess Bride" know that these large rodents of unusual size continued to exist until the late 1800's in select regions of the world.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/01/16/super.rat/index.html"
Media

Submission + - Digital camera owners risk losing their images 1

Submitted by MessyBlob
MessyBlob writes: Users of Microsoft Office are repeatedly engaging Microsoft about the openness of their file formats. While this battle is raging, the massive digital camera user base should see the opportunity to ride this tide of publicity to their advantage, because they too are affected by a similar problem. Digital camera manufacturers are renowned for dropping support for cameras, releasing an encrypted format with a new camera, or just going bust. Over time, this would leave most people with a collection of raw-format files that can't be opened. Although the Openraw campaign is a few years in the making, the challenges facing raw images are the same as for Office files. Indeed it can be argued that the raw situation is more complicated, and in need of some good brainstorming, because of the number of manufacturers competing in the market. Could a unified open format be the answer, or can we get by if manufacturers openly documented their formats? Is this the best time to raise awareness about digital raw files?
Power

Nanotech Anode Promises 10X Battery Life 193

Posted by kdawson from the all-day-laptop dept.
UNIMurph sends word out of Stanford University that researchers have discovered a way to increase battery life tenfold by using silicon nanowires. Quoting News.com: 'It's not a small improvement,' [lead researcher Yi] Cui said. 'It's a revolutionary development.' Citing a research paper they wrote, published in Nature Nanotechnology, Cui said the increased battery capacity was made possible though a new type of anode that utilizes silicon nanowires. Traditional lithium ion batteries use graphite as the anode. This limits the amount of lithium — which holds the charge — that can be held in the anode, and it therefore limits battery life... 'We are working on scaling up and evaluating the cost of our technology,' Cui said. 'There are no roadblocks for either of these.'"
Hardware Hacking

14-Year-Old Turns Tram System Into Personal Train Set 380

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the no-volume-control-on-this-tv dept.
F-3582 writes "By modifying a TV remote a 14-year-old boy from Lodz, Poland, managed to gain control over the junctions of the tracks. According to The Register the boy had 'trespassed in tram depots to gather information needed to build the device. [...] Transport command and control systems are commonly designed by engineers with little exposure or knowledge about security using commodity electronics and a little native wit.' Four trams derailed in the process injuring a number of passengers. The boy is now looking at 'charges at a special juvenile court of endangering public safety.'"
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA Complaint Dismissed as "Boilerplate"

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The decision many lawyers had been expecting — that the RIAA's "boilerplate" complaint fails to state a claim for relief under the Copyright Act — has indeed come down, but from an unlikely source. While the legal community has been looking towards a Manhattan case, Elektra v. Barker, for guidance, a case in which amicus briefs had been submitted by various industry groups and the US Department of Justice (see case file), and from Warner v. Cassin, a similar motion in the same Court's Westchester division, the decision instead came from Senior District Court Judge Rudi M. Brewster of the US District Court for the Southern District of California, in a decision denying a default judgment (i.e. the defendant had not even appeared in the action). Judge Brewster not only denied the default judgment motion but dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim. Echoing the words of Judge Karas at the oral argument in Barker , Judge Brewster held (pdf) that "Plaintiff here must present at least some facts to show the plausibility of their allegations of copyright infringement against the Defendant. However, other than the bare conclusory statement that on "information and belief" Defendant has downloaded, distributed and/or made available for distribution to the public copyrighted works, Plaintiffs have presented no facts that would indicate that this allegation is anything more than speculation. The complaint is simply a boilerplate listing of the elements of copyright infringement without any facts pertaining specifically to the instant Defendant. The Court therefore finds that the complaint fails to sufficiently state a claim upon which relief can be granted and entry of default judgment is not warranted." An HTML, non-pdf, versions of the decision is available on p2pnet.net."
Biotech

Submission + - The New Lobotomy

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Popular Science reports on a possible cure for extreme depression: "The most promising new treatment for severe depression isn't a pill. It's a permanent implant that shocks the brain." Currently, fewer than 50 patients have undergone the treatment, but the early results have been astonishingly promising — people experiencing results within hours of the the surgery.

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/7fe10fb25fef4110vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

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