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Networking

1Gbps Optical Wireless Network Might Replace Wi-Fi 200

Posted by timothy
from the line-of-sight-and-bouncy-bouncy dept.
Mark.JUK writes "Pennsylvania State University has developed a new method of indoor Optical Wireless network that does not require a line-of-sight and runs at speeds of 1Gbps+. The system uses a high-powered laser diode — a device that converts electricity into light — as the optical transmitter and an avalanche photo diode — a device that converts light to electricity — as the receiver. The light bounces off the walls and is picked up by the receiver. Traditional radio frequency systems (Wi-Fi , WiMAX etc.) do not require line of sight transmission, but can pass through some substances and so present a security problem. Light, in a room without windows, will not escape the room, improving security."
Hardware

A Baseball Hat That Reads Your Mind 63

Posted by ScuttleMonkey
from the better-faster-stronger dept.
esocid writes to tell us that researchers from Taiwan have created a new baseball cap complete with embedded bio-signal monitoring system. The purpose was to give a neural interface that could be useful in everyday life. "The cap contains five embedded dry electrodes on the wearer's forehead, and one electrode behind the left ear, that acquire EEG signals. Then, the EEG signals are wirelessly transmitted to a data receiver, where they are processed in real-time by a dual-core processor. The BCI system includes Bluetooth transmission for distances of 10m or less (e.g., for driving applications), as well as RF transmission for distances up to 600m (e.g., for potential sports applications). Next, the processed signals are transmitted back to the cap, where the data can be stored, displayed in real-time on a screen, or be used to trigger an audio warning, if necessary."
The Courts

Woman Indicted In MySpace Suicide Case 654

Posted by Soulskill
from the eye-for-an-eye dept.
longacre writes "The Associated Press is reporting an indictment has been handed down in the sad case of Megan Meier, the girl who committed suicide after receiving upsetting MySpace messages from someone she perceived to be her boyfriend. It was later determined the boy, Josh Evans, was a fictitious identity created by a neighbor of Meier's family. Lori Drew, of a St. Louis suburb, has been charged with 'one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress on the girl.' Interestingly, despite the alleged crime having occurred strictly in Missouri, the case was investigated by the FBI's St. Louis and Los Angeles field offices, and the trial will be held in Los Angeles, home of MySpace's servers. Wired is running a related story about the potentially 'scary' precedent this case could set."
Programming

+ - Linux kernel 2.6.23 to have stable userspace drive

Submitted by
liquidat
liquidat writes "Linus Torvalds included patches into the mainline tree which implement a stable userspace driver API into the Linux kernel. The stable driver API was already announced a year ago by Greg Kroah-Hartman. Now the last patches where uploaded and the API was included in Linus tree. The idea of the API is to make life easier for driver developers:

This interface allows the ability to write the majority of a driver in userspace with only a very small shell of a driver in the kernel itself. It uses a char device and sysfs to interact with a userspace process to process interrupts and control memory accesses.
(more...)"
Google

Which Google Should Congress Believe? 428

Posted by Zonk
from the playing-with-the-big-boys-now dept.
theodp writes "In Congressional testimony last month, Google's VP of People Operations told the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration that, due to limits on the number of H-1B visas, Google is regularly unable to pursue highly qualified candidates. But as Google stock tumbled in after hours trading Wednesday, Google's CEO blamed disappointing profits on a hiring binge and promised Wall Street analysts that the company would keep a careful eye on headcount in the future. So which Google should Congress believe?"
Education

+ - Computing is now a natural science->

Submitted by
wikinerd
wikinerd writes "Peter J. Denning just published an article in the July 2007 issue of the Communications of the ACM journal-magazine explaining that computing is a natural science and announcing his Great Principles of Computing framework. He says that there are 7 common overlapping categories of principles that can be used to study computation in any field. He goes on to report views of other scientists, such as Baltimore's view that biology is an information science, or Wolfram's claim in 'A New Kind of Science' that nature is expressed in terms of computation. He provides an example application of the Great Principles framework in finding out whether the recent game programming degrees offered by many universities are just a fad or a legitimate field, and he ends proclaiming that computing is an infinite game itself. The article suggests that the Great Principles framework could help to develop more meaningful CS curricula, reversing the recent trend of failing student numbers."
Link to Original Source
Biotech

+ - normal man-with thin sheet of actual brain tissue

Submitted by TasaDasa
TasaDasa writes "WASHINGTON (Reuters ) — A man with an unusually tiny brain managed to live an entirely normal life despite his condition, caused by a fluid buildup in his skull, French researchers reported on Thursday. Scans of the 44-year-old man's brain showed that a huge fluid-filled chamber called a ventricle took up most of the room in his skull, leaving little more than a thin sheet of actual brain tissue."
The Internet

+ - Is it time to abandon traditional domain names? 2

Submitted by
jadin
jadin writes "We started with .com .net .org .gov .edu etc which worked as a good way to remember URLs, as well as to a limited degree identify the type of website. Things have since expanded to include countless others. We've more or less abandoned a general identifying system. In addition many of the best website names are registered, not by people making websites, but by people looking to make a future profit. So is there any reason we can't abandon it completely to allow unlimited domain name types? This would provide endless possibilities for unique and interesting domain names. This could encourage a lot more creativity in thinking up the perfect domain name. While unlimited domains won't eliminate squatters, it would definitely open up a lot more opportunities to people actually producing websites, and make it a lot harder to monopolize .coms etc. Some random examples: http://micro.soft/ http://google.search/ http://campbells.soup/ http://slashdot.dot/ Is there any reason why this wouldn't work? Technical or otherwise?"

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