Comment: Re:Two words: (Score 3, Insightful) 250
It's a gift for the lawyers really... who is dumb enough to go against three litigiously-experienced heavy weights with a frivolous patent lawsuit.
Indonesians Want To Microchip AIDS Patients
120
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the let-me-scan-you dept.
from the let-me-scan-you dept.
Lawmakers in Papua, Indonesia have thrown their support behind a bill requiring some HIV/AIDS patients to be implanted with microchips in order to better monitor the disease. In addition, legislator John Manangsang said by implanting chips in "sexually aggressive" patients, authorities would be in a better position to identify, track and punish those who deliberately infect others. Health workers and rights activists sharply criticized the plan. It would make the dating scene a lot less scary if you could carry your AIDS chip reader into the club.
Comment: i loved my capsela. (Score 1) 785
capsela is why i am an electronic engineer.
Comment: Re:This result isn't surprising. (Score 1) 301
While the newton, geoport modem, scanners and displays come to mind, I am thinking of Apple's larger skill set here in producing electronic devices. Such as laptops, chips and at a more basic level many electronic standards. They have a very wide tool set of experience to call upon.
Comment: Re:bias. (Score 5, Informative) 301
actually, the apple consumers are usually very pedantic about their product and rightly so, the product is usually marketed as a premium item and costs a little more than the competitor.
So far even minor issues found in the iphone have been turned into a maelstrom of users, fanboys and haters all cashing in their feedback. There are people actively petitioning the iPhone for the following: Canadian pricing, the autocorrection feature having a disable switch, iphone unlocking/drm, 3rd party application NDAs, iphone in china & other providers, chrome for iphone, mms, 802.1x NACS, etc etc.
The blackberry is not getting anywhere near this much attention, petitions for the blackberry are aimed at the service providers disablement of a particular BB feature.
However all this vocal activity is a good thing for apple, as it gives them ways they can improve their product.
Comment: This result isn't surprising. (Score 1) 301
Apple have many years of experience in making small electronic devices that users run with, drop, hit, sweat into, cover in dirt, dust and sand, sit on and so on. They've learnt and studied reliability significantly from and for all those iPods.
Combining this with apple's experience in electronics and software and I'm not surprised that the iPhone is failing less than a company who only have experience in producing one kind of product for a significantly shorter amount of time with a much smaller research & development budget.
Magnetic Portals Connect Sun and Earth 235
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the no-cake-jokes-allowed dept.
from the no-cake-jokes-allowed dept.
MaxwellEdison writes "Scientists have discovered evidence of magnetic portals connecting the Earth and the Sun every 8 minutes. 'Several speakers at the Workshop have outlined how FTEs form: On the dayside of Earth (the side closest to the sun), Earth's magnetic field presses against the sun's magnetic field. Approximately every eight minutes, the two fields briefly merge or "reconnect," forming a portal through which particles can flow. The portal takes the form of a magnetic cylinder about as wide as Earth. The European Space Agency's fleet of four Cluster spacecraft and NASA's five THEMIS probes have flown through and surrounded these cylinders, measuring their dimensions and sensing the particles that shoot through.'"
How Vampire Bats Evolved To Live On Blood Alone
82
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the I-vant-to-suck-your-blood dept.
from the I-vant-to-suck-your-blood dept.
New research has discovered some of the genetic changes that allowed vampire bats to live on a diet of pure blood. One of the bats' most important evolutionary traits is the ability to manipulate an anticoagulant protein in their blood and saliva. In humans similar proteins protect against heart attack by breaking up blood clots and clearing vessels.
Google Negotiating With Justice Department 83
Posted
by
CmdrTaco
from the they-should-hire-shatner dept.
from the they-should-hire-shatner dept.
mikesd81 writes "Cnet reports that to avoid being sued by the US Justice Department, Google is negotiating with them. The Justice Department and a multistate task force are still reviewing the proposal to decide whether to oppose the partnership. Under the non-exclusive partnership Google would supply Yahoo with some search ads, a move that could increase Yahoo search revenue, but that also gives Google even more power in the market. Yahoo expects the 10-year deal to raise revenue by $800 million in its first year and to provide an extra $250 million to $450 million in incremental operating cash flow. Google's share of the US search market reached 71 percent in August, compared with Yahoo's 18.26, according to Hitwise's most recent numbers."
The Joy of the Flash Drive 332
Posted
by
Zonk
from the little-quiet-different dept.
from the little-quiet-different dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A post to the C|Net site covers the numerous benefits of flash drives, such as speed, temperature, and battery consumption. The perk author Michael Kanellos is most fond of? The distinct lack of noise. 'The notebook I'm testing--a Dell Latitude D830 with a 64GB flash hard drive from Samsung--hasn't emitted a sound in three days. Flash drives, which store data in NAND flash memory, don't require motors or spinning platters. Thus, there are no whirring mechanical noises. Compare that with my T42 ThinkPad. It sounds like a guinea pig got trapped inside, particularly during the start-up phase. Vzoooot. Cronk, cronk, cronk. Zip, zip. (Pause.) Gurlagurlagurla...zweeee. '"
+ - Pixels or Polygons? Why 2D still beats 3D-> 5
Submitted
by
Joerg Langer
Joerg Langer writes "GamersGlobal has posted a special on the evolution of computer game graphics. Ten years ago, most genres, notably Adventure, Strategy, RPG and Action-Adventure games were typically 2D, often using an "isometric" (bird's eye) view. Today they are based, with few exceptions, on a 3D engine. 2D (or pixel based) games are clearly following the Elves of the Third Age into obscurity. Why should anyone still bother with 2D?
Because 3D isn't the best solution for all games. Polygon based games may be less beautiful and more difficult for the player to navigate. 3D games are more difficult to produce. This is one of the main reasons that NextGen video games are more expensive than previous generations. Most importantly, 3D graphics — and the never-ending technical progress they symbolize — might be limiting the development of computer games as an art form.
You'll read four arguments and counterarguments why 2D can still beat 3D graphics, and also citations from game developers Cliff Bleszinski, Richard Garriott and Koji Igarashi on the subject."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
+ - Dog pees on server rack and shuts down business->
Submitted
by
Funny Finder
Funny Finder writes "After taking her small lap dog to the vet on her day off Stint stopped by Action Tools to pick up her first paycheck. She sat her dog down to talk to another employee in the back office. While the dog was unattended it walked over to the company's small floor computer rack server and did its business all over the set up. Dog pee story"
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
+ - Disaster Recovery Getting Lots Cheaper->
Submitted
by
Marc Farley
Marc Farley writes "Disaster recovery technologies are coming down in cost — making it possible for many companies to get the same sort of business continuity protection that was only available to the largest companies a few years ago."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
+ - 100 Terabyte 3.5-inch Digital Data Storage Disks->
Submitted
by
oblonski
oblonski writes "A very good article over at PhysOrg.com about a new patented technology that allows the manufacturing of 100 Terabyte 3.5" digital data storage discs There is lots of technical explanations and diagrams of the science involved.
From the article:
"Have you ever dreamt of 100 terabyte of data per 3.5-inch disk? New patented innovation nanotechnology from Michael E. Thomas, president of Colossal Storage Corporation, makes it real.
Michael invented and patented the world's first and only concept for non-contact UV photon induced electric field poling of ferroelectric non-linear photonic bandgap crystals, which offers the possibility of controlling and manipulating light within a UV/Deep Blue frequency of 1 nm to 400 nm.
It took him 14 years to find a practical conceptualization that would work to advance the storage industry; 3D Volume Holographic Optical Storage Nanotechnology, for which Michael holds the patents. He was invited to present this fascinating discovery to the National Science Foundation in February 2004.
This invention and patents on a technique for changing matter at the molecular level is one of the World's only new enabling technologies, having many hundreds of electro-optic applications.
Atomic Holographic Nanotechnology will allow for the first time a functional method for programmable molecular lenses that will allow incoming light to be rejected, modified internally, or allowed to pass unaltered through a transparent lens known as disk, tape, card, drum, film, etc.
By being able to program optical lenses, many applications based on light and color can be developed, such as holographic storage, bio-terror detection devices, optical electronics, security products, and hundreds of other products never seen before on the world's markets.
The small size of ferroelectric transparent structures makes it possible to fabricate nano-optical devices, such as volume holographic storage, having both positive and negative index of refraction that will allow molecular particles of an atomic size to be modified, controlled, and changed to perform a specific function, desired task, used for low cost accurate chemical / biological matter detection, and reprogrammed to accept new non-volatile data and molecular functions. ""
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
+ - Kodak unveils brighter CMOS color filters->
Submitted
by
brownsteve
brownsteve writes "Eastman Kodak Co. unveiled what it says are "next-generation color filter patterns" designed to more than double the light sensitivity of CMOS or CCD image sensors used in camera phones or digital still cameras. The new color filter system is a departure from the widely used standard Bayer pattern — an arrangement of red, green and blue pixels — also created by Kodak. While building on the Bayer pattern, the new technology adds a "fourth pixel, which has no pigment on top," said Michael DeLuca, market segment manager responsible for image sensor solutions at Eastman Kodak. Such "transparent" pixels — sensitive to all visible wavelengths — are designed to absorb light. DeLuca claimed the invention is "the next milestone" in digital photography, likening its significance to ISO 400 color film introduced in the mid-1980's."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source