Krieger - Slashdot User

Chip Allows Blind People To See 231

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 04 2010, @05:07AM
from the bionic-eye dept.

crabel writes "3 blind people have been implanted with a retinal chip that allowed them to see shapes and objects within days of the procedure. From the article: 'One of the patients surprised researchers by identifying and locating objects on a table; he was also able to walk around a room unaided, approach specific people, tell the time from a clock face, and describe seven different shades of gray in front of him.'"

MIT Unveils Portable, Solar-Powered Water Desalination System 117

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday October 19 2010, @01:07AM
from the water-the-chances dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Field and Space Robotic Laboratory has designed a new solar-powered water desalination system to provide drinking water to disaster zones and disadvantaged parts of the planet. Desalination systems often require a lot of energy and a large infrastructure to support them, but MIT's compact system is able to cope due to its ingenious design. The system's photovoltaic panel is able to generate power for the pump, which in turn pushes undrinkable seawater through a permeable membrane. MIT's prototype can reportedly produce 80 gallons of drinking water per day, depending on weather conditions."

NASA Creates First Global Forest Map Using Lasers 55

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday July 21 2010, @07:39PM
from the if-a-tree-is-measured-and-nobody-is-around-to-see-it dept.

MikeCapone writes "Scientists, using three NASA satellites, have created a first-of-its-kind map that details the height of the world's forests. The data was collected from NASA's ICESat, Terra and Aqua satellites. The latter two satellites are responsible for most of NASA's Gulf spill imagery. The data collected will help scientists understand how the world's forests both store and process carbon. While there are many local and regional canopy maps, this is the very first global map using a uniform method for measure."

Nuclear Power Could See a Revival 415

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday July 14 2010, @03:34AM
from the comforting-bremsstrahlung-glow dept.

shmG writes "As the US moves to reduce dependence on oil, the nuclear industry is looking to expand, with new designs making their way through the regulatory process. No less than three new configurations for nuclear power are being considered for licensing by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The first of them could be generating power in Georgia by 2016."

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Internet 92

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday July 13 2010, @09:17AM
from the vicky-who? dept.

MMBK writes "Our friends at JESS3 have unveiled The Ex-Blocker. It's a Firefox and Chrome plugin that erases all name and likeness of your ex from the Internet, even if they become a meme, or the president. You'll no longer have to threaten to delete your Facebook account or concoct an elaborate e-hoax to assuage the reality-shattering complications that are born from break-ups. Simply construct an Internet that omits bad vibes all together."

Things You Drink Can Be Used To Track You 202

Posted by timothy on Thursday July 01 2010, @02:40PM
from the don't-hate-me-because-I'm-a-beautiful-spy dept.

sciencehabit writes with an intriguing story about the potential of figuring out where people have been by examining their hair: "That's because water molecules differ slightly in their isotope ratios depending on the minerals at their source. Researchers found that water samples from 33 cities across the United State could be reliably traced back to their origin based on their isotope ratios. And because the human body breaks down water's constituent atoms of hydrogen and oxygen to construct the proteins that make hair cells, those cells can preserve the record of a person's travels. Such information could help prosecutors place a suspect at the scene of a crime, or prove the innocence of the accused." Or frame someone by slipping them water from every country on the terrorist watchlist.

Comment: Re:Nope. (Score 1) 237

by Krieger on Tuesday May 04 2010, @11:17AM (#32085618) Attached to: The Laidoff Ninja

I have to agree with this 100%.

There are jobs, you just have to be willing to move, and that's the catch-22. Assuming you have the potential mobility to move, I can virtually guarantee there is a job out there for you.

Of course getting your foot in the door to get them to take you seriously is the next challenge. For that excellent past performance and networking are always helpful.

Good luck hunting.

The Manga Guide to Databases 236

Posted by samzenpus on Monday May 04 2009, @02:00PM
from the read-all-about-it dept.

stoolpigeon writes "Princess Ruruna, of the Kingdom of Kod, has a problem. Her parents, the King and Queen, have left to travel abroad. Ruruna has been left to manage the nations fruit business. Much is at stake, Kod is known as "The Country of Fruit." Ruruna is not happy though, as she is swamped by paperwork and information overload. A mysterious book, sent by her father, contains Tico the fairy. Tico, and the supernatural book are going to help Princess Ruruna solve her problems with the power of the database. This is the setting for all that takes place in The Manga Guide to Databases. If you are like me and learned things like normalization and set operations from a rather dry text book, you may be quite entertained by the contents of this book. If you would like to teach others about creating and using relational databases and you want it to be fun, this book may be exactly what you need." Read below for the rest of JR's review.

Comment: Re:re-read the section you quote (Score 1) 324

by Krieger on Wednesday April 08 2009, @04:43PM (#27509255) Attached to: Google's Plan For Out-of-Print Books Is Challenged

Is it just way too obvious to point out that the physical copies of the books still exist? That Google is in fact not a monopoly in this regard? That any idiot with sufficient time and money could go out and replicate Google's effort?

I'd say it's a business opportunity waiting to happen. Obviously as has already been posted, the publishers were to do high quality scans of all their materials they could become great competitors to Google.

But clearly this is too obvious a solution.

BBC told Windows DRM is not enough

Submitted by

Richard Fairhurst

on Wednesday January 31 2007, @11:19AM

Richard Fairhurst writes "The trustees who govern the British broadcaster have demanded that its new video-on-demand service mustn't be Windows-only. The BBC Trust says the new iPlayer must be "platform-agnostic within a reasonable timeframe", explaining: "This requires the BBC to develop an alternative DRM framework to enable users of other technology, for example, Apple and Linux, to access the on-demand services.""