Geno Z Heinlein - Slashdot User

The Top 25 inventions of 2007

Submitted by

coondoggie

on Wednesday March 21 2007, @03:20PM

coondoggie writes "Ever wonder where the next great idea will com from? Well, seems likely it could come from this group: The History Channel and Invent Now, a subsidiary of the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation, today named the Top 25 Inventions of 2007. These top 25 creators come from 17 states across the U.S. and their inventions cover a myriad categories, ranging from medical advancements such as a modular, information technology platform for motorized wheelchairs called the Gryphon Shield to environmental breakthroughs such as a green home powered by solar and geothermal energy. Other inventions include a shield designed to protect windows during hurricanes to a method that forces diesel engines to take in and re-use their own exhaust, reducing pollution. http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1274 1"

The "Godfather of Sudoku"

Submitted by

circletimessquare

on Wednesday March 21 2007, @03:18PM

circletimessquare writes "The New York Times profiles 55 year old Maki Kaji who runs Nikoli, in it's article "Inside Japan's Puzzle Palace. Nikoli is a puzzle publisher that prides itself on 'a kind of democratization of puzzle invention. The company itself does not actually create many new puzzles — an American invented an earlier version of sudoku, for example. Instead, Nikoli provides a forum for testing and perfecting them.' Also notable is how Mr. Kaji describes how he did not get the trademark for Sudoku in the United States before it was too late. But reminescent of a theme many Slashdotters will find familiar about intellectual property: 'In hindsight, though, he now thinks that oversight was a brilliant mistake. The fact that no one controlled sudoku's intellectual property rights let the game's popularity grow unfettered, Mr. Kaji says.' Will Nikoli be the source of the next big puzzle fad after Sudoku?"

Star Trek's Omnipotent Q Is A Mac User

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2007, @02:39PM

An anonymous reader writes "InformationWeek interviews John de Lancie, the actor who played the omnipotent Q, about science fiction influences on real-life technology. He says, in case of fire, the first thing he'd save is his Apple laptop. He also says the food and decor on Trek was terrible:

"I have to say, though, that I never saw them have a really good meal," he said laughing. "And I hated the colors. It all looked like a Holiday Inn. It looked like everyone was living in a hotel somewhere eating bad hotel food."
"

Bankrupt AMD: Means Cheap Chips for Us

Submitted by bagopa on Wednesday March 21 2007, @02:15PM

bagopa writes "Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE: AMD) may be planning another round of price cuts and may be looking to tap financial markets to offset its negative cash flow, according to one research analyst. This cant be good for them, but its sure good for the consumer. I'll be picking up my heavily discounted a64 soon."

Spy satellites real time trackable

Submitted by

n2yo

on Wednesday March 21 2007, @11:25AM

n2yo writes "An interesting article has been posted on some Chinese web sites. Basically, the Japanese media reported that the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) are broadcasting some sensitive satellite tracking data including 2 Japanaese optical spy satellites. The article translated in English via Google can be seen here: http://translate.google.com/translate?sourceid=nav client&hl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Frd.trafic.ro%2F%3Fu%3D war.163.com%252F07%252F0320%252F08%252F3A116HMM000 11232.html On other hand this AJAX based real time satellite tracking web site is very interesting too."

DS Could Be Best Selling Video Game Platform Ever

Submitted by

njkid1

on Wednesday March 21 2007, @11:08AM

njkid1 writes "Nintendo's DS handheld has taken the industry by storm; that's no secret. In Japan the Nintendo portable has been out-shipping Sony's PSP on a nearly three-to-one basis. Moreover, in 2006 the DS almost single handedly elevated the Japanese video game market out of its previous doldrums. On this side of the Pacific, not only is the DS consistently outselling the PSP, but it often outsells all consoles. In February, the DS was once again No.1 with 485K units sold.http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id =15549&ncid=AOLGAM000500000000021"

Russian Trojan Powering Massive ID-Theft Ring

Submitted by

Buchanan's Toys

on Wednesday March 21 2007, @10:54AM

Buchanan's Toys writes "Researchers at SecureWorks have stumbled upon a massive identity theft ring using state-of-the-art Trojan code to steal confidential data from thousands of infected machines in the U.S. The Gozi Trojan, which connects to a server in Russia, has so far pilfered information from more than 5,200 home computers with 10,000 account records. The records retrieved included account numbers and passwords from clients of many of the top global banks and financial services companies (over 30 banks and credit unions were represented), the top US retailers, and the leading online retailers."

Silverbrook's ultra-fast, low cost inkjet printer

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2007, @09:49AM

An anonymous reader writes "Silverbrook research has created a cheap and ultra fast inkjet printer with low running costs. Using a print head that spans the entire width of the paper Silverbrook's prototype A4 printer can deliver 60 pages per minute. Printing costs are $0.02pp for black text (presumably at 5% coverage) and $0.06pp for colour (at 20% coverage), due to the generous 50mL refill cartridges that will sell for less than $20. The introductory photo printing model will cost under $300 and print at 30ppm with a 100mm wide print head that delivers ink drops smaller than one picolitre. The nearest competition is from HP at $16,000/unit.

Full article and video at:
http://www.texyt.com/silverbrook+memjet+technology +available+desktop+photo+wideformat+hp+edgeline+co mparison

The photo printing model is due out by the end of the year."

DRM causes televison outage in Australia

Submitted by jebiester on Wednesday March 21 2007, @09:48AM

jebiester writes "Tens of thousands of LG televisions arounds Australia are freezing during prime time shows such as CSI. It's now been revealed that the encryption of these shows, implemented to stop copying, is causing the problem. LG will now need to send technitians to the houses of many new LCD television owners to perform "A simple software upgrade"."

Kids test theory of relativity in a mini-van

Submitted by

Matthew Sparkes

on Wednesday March 21 2007, @09:48AM

Matthew Sparkes writes "Tom Van Baak and his three young children performed an impressive experiment on the theory of relativity. The group took a van equipped with 3 atomic clocks up Mount Rainier, near Seattle, for a couple of days camping. Because of the altitude, and therefore speed difference, they could calculate that there would be a time dilation of +22 nanoseconds between the two vans clocks, and some left at their house. If everyone's dad was like this then the world would be filled with theoretical physicists."