Comment Reason to hope (Score 1) 98
Thanks,
Submission + - New Research Could Mean Cellphones That Can See Through Walls (utdallas.edu)
suraj.sun writes: Comic book hero superpowers may be one step closer to reality after the latest technological feats made by researchers at UT Dallas. They have designed an imager chip that could turn mobile phones into devices that can see through walls, wood, plastics, paper and other objects. The team’s research linked two scientific advances. One involves tapping into an unused range in the electromagnetic spectrum. The other is a new microchip technology. “We’ve created approaches that open a previously untapped portion of the electromagnetic spectrum for consumer use and life-saving medical applications,” said Dr. Kenneth O, professor of electrical engineering at UT Dallas and director of the Texas Analog Center of Excellence(TxACE). “The terahertz range is full of unlimited potential that could benefit us all.”
Using the new approach, images can be created with signals operating in the terahertz (THz) range without having to use several lenses inside a device which could reduce overall size and cost. “CMOS is affordable and can be used to make lots of chips,” Dr. O said. “The combination of CMOS and terahertz means you could put this chip and receiver on the back of a cellphone, turning it into a device carried in your pocket that can see through objects.”
Using the new approach, images can be created with signals operating in the terahertz (THz) range without having to use several lenses inside a device which could reduce overall size and cost. “CMOS is affordable and can be used to make lots of chips,” Dr. O said. “The combination of CMOS and terahertz means you could put this chip and receiver on the back of a cellphone, turning it into a device carried in your pocket that can see through objects.”
Submission + - Regenerative medicine can cure anything...in mice (nature.com)
scibri writes: We're well on our way to using regenerative medicine to cure all mouse diseases. Three studies published this week show that introducing new cells into mice can replace diseased cells — whether hair (abstract), eye (abstract) or heart (abstract) — and help to restore the normal function of those cells.
The hair study used follicular stem cells to re-grow hair on nude mice. The eye study restored vision to mice with congenital stationary night blindness using rod precursor cells. The heart study used a retrovirus to deliver three transcription factors that reprogrammed cardiac fibroblasts into beating cardiomyocytes.
The hair study used follicular stem cells to re-grow hair on nude mice. The eye study restored vision to mice with congenital stationary night blindness using rod precursor cells. The heart study used a retrovirus to deliver three transcription factors that reprogrammed cardiac fibroblasts into beating cardiomyocytes.
Submission + - Judge Grudgingly awards $3.6 Million in DRM Circumvention Case (techdirt.com)
Fluffeh writes: "The case involves an online game, MapleStory, and some people who set up an alternate server, UMaple, allowing users to play the game with the official game client, but without logging into the official MapleStory servers. In this case, the people behind UMaple apparently ignored the lawsuit, leading to a default judgment. Although annoyed with MapleStory (The Judge knocked down a request for $68,764.23 — in profits made by UMaple — down to just $398.98), the law states a minimum of $200 per infringement. Multiply that by 17,938 users of UMaple... and you get $3.6 million. In fact, it sounds like the court would very much like to decrease the amount, but notes that "nevertheless, the court is powerless to deviate from the DMCA's statutory minimum." Eric Goldman also has some further op-ed and information regarding the case and judgement."
Comment Re:Spain, Italy and Greece (Score 5, Insightful) 353
The unreasonable part is that you're putting a tax on something that is ridiculously changeable. Right now 1 Terabyte seems a lot, so to pay an extra few euro for a hard drive seems ok.
In 2002 the Canadian copyright lobby proposed a levy of 0.8 per megabyte on removable flash media and 2.1 per megabyte on non-removable storage in an audio player (in addition to the existing levy on blank audio tapes / cd's).
That means that the 16GB SD card I bought recently for my camera would have cost not $10 but $141 and a 32GB media player would be an extra $688.
Those sizes were unheard of in 2002 but only ten years later are commonplace. In another ten years, a gigabyte tax will probably be just as absurd.
Comment Re:Spain, Italy and Greece (Score 1) 353
That's incorrect, Canada does not have this tax on storage devices or media players.
The copyright lobby has tried and failed a few times to have the copyright levy extended from blank media. As of right now the levy is only on blank cd's. http://www.cpcc.ca/en/the-cpcc/private-copying-tariff
Comment Re:It has now.... (Score 1) 77
It means the video is still unavailable on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLTZgqSAjQs You'll get the following kind message:
"Blackfella's Guide to
This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Tanya Steele.
Sorry about that."
Seems to me that the Youtube pulling is a more recent development as it appeared to be available as of the writing of TFA: "The trailer for the video is now on YouTube. Click here to watch the trailer." The original complaint had to do with the video being pulled from Vimeo.
Submission + - Boston Dynamics develops an 11-lb robot that can jump 30 feet into the air, (youtube.com)
Ruvim writes: Boston Dynamics has developed a "Sand Flea" 11-lb robot that drives like an RC car, but when it needs to it can jump 30 feet into the air. An onboard stabilization system keeps it oriented during flight to improve the view from the video uplink and to control landings. This youtube video shows its amazing trickery.
Submission + - F.B.I.'s top cyber-cop says we're losing the war against hackers (wsj.com)
sienrak writes: "Shawn Henry, who is preparing to leave the FBI after more than two decades with the bureau, said in an interview that the current public and private approach to fending off hackers is "unsustainable.''
"I don't see how we ever come out of this without changes in technology or changes in behavior, because with the status quo, it's an unsustainable model. Unsustainable in that you never get ahead, never become secure, never have a reasonable expectation of privacy or security,'' Mr. Henry said."
"I don't see how we ever come out of this without changes in technology or changes in behavior, because with the status quo, it's an unsustainable model. Unsustainable in that you never get ahead, never become secure, never have a reasonable expectation of privacy or security,'' Mr. Henry said."
Comment Re:Credit is not everything (Score 5, Insightful) 275
"Credit is very nice, at the end of the day it is getting the job done that matters"
Maybe to the owners and shareholders but not for anyone else. Having worked under both good and bad managers, and now in a position of leading my own team, I have to say you'd be crazy to ignore this. The worst case is not people leaving your company. The worst case is turning great employees into average employees.
Comment Re:I've noticed this too (Score 1) 601
Have there been any cases where Skype was used for legal purposes? I could see a couple problems...
1) it's being peer to peer so no server logs to say if a conversation really happened as claimed, even if they're logged
2) the proprietary logging formats are very difficult to locate and export data from, even within the Skype client
I use Skype extensively for work but I still ask for email copies of anything important.
Comment Re:Depends on the machine (Score 2) 261
I do almost the same thing with my netbook and my notebook but instead of the full drive I have a Truecrypt mount for documents and portable apps.
If I need to quickly fire up the machine and get on the net I can - but if I want access to any of my documents, bookmarks, Eclipse workspace or my portable apps, I have to mount the drive.
We've made this a standard practice for all company notebooks where I work - very little speed compromise and stolen or lost computers pose very little risk (as long as they were off at the time).
Comment Re:Blocks (Score 1) 308
Blocking phone numbers is meaningless - the spam calls you get originate from VOIP services where setting a caller id is trivial. None of those phone numbers are actually the number of the caller.
You basically end up with the phone provider being in the exact position of an ISP in blocking spam - do you really want them to decide which phone calls you get and which you don't, based on criteria you have no control over? ISP's at least have some experience doing this now but it's pretty new for the telecoms.
Comment Re:The way I see it. (Score 1) 249
"V" may be right, bullets may not be effective against ideas, but that doesn't make ideas any less vulnerable to far more mundane threats like a lack of money or leadership.
Comment Misleading Headline? (Score 2) 585
IANARC (I am not a Roman Catholic) but I did RTFA. Am I still allowed to comment? :)
I really hate to spoil the party that seems to happen every time the Roman Catholic church is mentioned on Slashdot but nowhere in the article does anyone say that the Internet promotes *anything* or say that the Internet is to blame for anything.
They're simply saying that the Internet has fuelled an exchange of information that is a game-changer in the arena these particular clergy are interested in. I don't think anyone on /. could disagree with that. The original article barely mentions the Internet at all.
There are plenty of articles about the RC Church far more deserving of comment. This one's a non-starter.
I really hate to spoil the party that seems to happen every time the Roman Catholic church is mentioned on Slashdot but nowhere in the article does anyone say that the Internet promotes *anything* or say that the Internet is to blame for anything.
They're simply saying that the Internet has fuelled an exchange of information that is a game-changer in the arena these particular clergy are interested in. I don't think anyone on
There are plenty of articles about the RC Church far more deserving of comment. This one's a non-starter.
