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Comment Re:The Future of Gaming (Score 1) 86

by VShael (#29514289) Attached to: Using a Treadmill and Wiimotes To Run and Fly in <em>Aion</em>

The Nintendo Wii sells by the mega-truckload.
The Wii Fit and various others, sell in a the standard truckload.

As an overweight Wii-game loving freak, I can tell you that Wii-Fit sits quietly on the floor, gathering dust, just like any other fitness product I've bought over the years.

"Being able to introduce a method of exercise that is genuinely fun for all..."

I don't think you can make getting fit, fun.

Comment Re:Dodgy statesmen (Score 1) 681

by commodore64_love (#29514173) Attached to: Microsoft Tax Dodge At Issue In Washington State

A lot of Europeans are criticizing Obama for saying, "We're canceling the missile defense system," but I think he has the right idea. If the European Union wants a missile defense shield to protect themselves from Russia, Iran, et cetera than let the EU build it themselves. They need to stop sucking on the U.S. taxpayer teet and build their OWN defensive army and shield.

>>>I'm not American, I've just had enough of all the US bashing, especially from the people who intersperse it with cries for help.

Thank you British cousin.
Thank you for being honest.
Oh and the reason the American death age is 1 year lower than EU rates has *nothing* to do with the government. Correlation =/= causation. The real cause is that we eating fatty foods that clog arteries & shorten lifespans. Like this ice cream I'm eating for breakfast. ;-)
Security

Submission + - Device Offers a Roadside Dope Test (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Later this year, Philips will introduce a handheld electronic device that uses magnetic nanoparticles to screen for five major recreational drugs.

The device is intended for roadside use by law enforcement agencies and includes a disposable plastic cartridge and a handheld analyzer. The cartridge has two components: a sample collector for gathering saliva and a measurement chamber containing magnetic nanoparticles. The particles are coated with ligands that bind to one of five different drug groups: cocaine, heroin, cannabis, amphetamine, and methamphetamine.

Philips began investigating the possibility of building a magnetic biodetector in 2001, two years after a team of researchers at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, DC, first used magnetic sensors similar to those employed in hard drives to sniff out certain biowarfare agents. The NRL scientists labeled biological molecules designed to bind to target agents with magnetic microbeads, and then scanned for the tagged targets optically and magnetically. The latter approach used the same giant magnetoresistant (GMR) sensors that read the bits on an iPod's hard drive. They quickly developed a shoebox-sized prototype capable of detecting toxins, including ricin and anthrax.

Philips initially developed both a GMR sensor and an optical one that relies on frustrated total internal reflection (FTIR)--the same phenomenon that underlies fingerprint scanners and multitouch screens. The company decided to go the FTIR route in order to exploit its expertise in building optical sensors for consumer electronics devices, says Jeroen Nieuwenhuis, technical director of Philips Handheld Immunoassays, the division responsible for commercializing the biosensor technology, which goes by the trade name Magnotech.

Moving to an optical detection method also allowed Philips to simplify the test cartridges that the device employs, making them easier to mass-produce, says Nieuwenhuis. With the current FTIR-based system, "we can make simpler cartridges in larger quantities more easily," he adds.

Once the device's sample collector has absorbed enough saliva, it automatically changes color and can then be snapped into the measurement chamber, where the saliva and nanoparticles mix. An electromagnet speeds the nanoparticles to the sensor surface, different portions of which have been pretreated with one of the five target-drug molecules. If traces of any of the five drugs are present in the sample, the nanoparticles will bind to them. If the sample is drug free, the nanoparticles will bind to the drug-coated sensor surface instead.

The orientation of the magnetic field that first drew the nanoparticles to the sensor is then reversed, pulling away any nano-labeled drug molecules that may accidentally have stuck to the sensor surface but leaving legitimately bound ones in place. This last magnetic trick promises to reduce what Larry Kricka, a clinical chemist at the University of Pennsylvania who recently co-authored an article in Clinical Chemistry on the use of magnetism in point-of-care testing, calls "a major restraint in such assays": the unintentional capture of molecular labels on the test surface, a leading cause of both false positives and false negatives. Kricka is not involved with Philips but does serve as a consultant to T2 Biosciences, a Cambridge, MA, firm that promotes a magnetic biosensor based on MRI technology.

During the analysis phase, a beam of light is bounced off the sensor. Any nanoparticles bound to the surface will change its refractive index, thereby altering the intensity of the reflected light and indicating the concentration of drugs in the sample. By immobilizing different drug molecules on different portions on the sensor surface, the analyzer is able to identify the drug traces in question. An electronic screen displays instructions and a simple color-coded readout of the results.

The test takes less than 90 seconds and can detect drugs at concentrations measured in parts-per-billion using a single microliter of saliva. The sensor is capable of even greater sensitivity--it has been used to detect cardiac troponin, a commonly used indicator of heart attack, at concentrations 1,000 times lower.

Philips plans ultimately to enter the healthcare market. It is working on a platform capable of testing blood as well as saliva and is seeking partners that can help expand its testing menu by providing it with additional biomarkers.

Other researchers have built experimental devices to magnetically detect a wide range of biomolecules in minuscule samples of blood or saliva at extremely low concentrations. Often this involves using microfluidic or magnetic forces to quickly shepherd the magnetically labeled molecules through scanners--though a group at the University of Utah has even built a prototype in which a sample-laden stick is swiped across a GMR sensor, like a credit-card through a reader.

The combination of high sensitivity, low sample volumes, miniaturization, speed, and ease of use has raised hopes for a handheld biosensor that could perform sophisticated tests with high accuracy.

"Everyone's trying to get there," says Kricka. "The question is who's going to win?" With Philips set to introduce its drug tester in Europe by the end of the year in partnership with the British diagnostics firm Cozart, the consumer electronics maker appears poised to take the prize.
Announcements

Submission + - HillarysBlinds50% off blinds todayCall0800 916 773 (blinds-on-line.co.uk)

Submitted by
hillarysblinds
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Power

Breakthrough in Electricity-Producing Microbe 177

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the devil-in-the-dark dept.
University of Massachusetts researchers have made a breakthrough with "Geobacter," a microbe that produces electric current from mud and wastewater. A conservative estimate puts the energy output increase at eight times that of the original organism, potentially allowing applications far beyond that of extracting electricity from mud. "Now, planning can move forward to design microbial fuel cells that convert waste water and renewable biomass to electricity, treat a single home's waste while producing localized power (especially attractive in developing countries), power mobile electronics, vehicles and implanted medical devices, and drive bioremediation of contaminated environments."
Space

Submission + - South Korea to launch its first rocket into space (spacefellowship.com)

Submitted by
xp65
xp65 writes: "South Korea will launch its first carrier rocket from the Naro Space Center on August 11. If the launch is successful, South Korea will become a member of the so-called 'space club,' whose members have developed their own rockets and satellites and sent them into space from a launch facility on their own soil. A second, more powerful rocket named KSLV-2 could be created and launched by 2018 without foreign assistance. It is expected to be a 50-meter (164-foot) three-stage rocket, capable of carrying up to one metric ton of payload. Additionally the construction of South Korea's first space center on the island of Naro, about 500 km (311 miles) south of Seoul, was completed in June. The facility covers an area of over 5 square km (1.9 square miles). The cost of construction totaled $248.6 million, according to the country's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology."
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Apple: iPhone Jailbreaking Could Hurt Cell Towers (wired.com) 1

Submitted by AHuxley
AHuxley writes: Apple notes nation's cellphone networks could be open to "potentially catastrophic" cyberattacks by iPhone-using hackers at home and abroad if iPhone owners are permitted to legally jailbreak their wireless devices.
The Copyright Office is considering a request by the Electronic Frontier Foundation to legalize the widespread practice of jailbreaking.
Apple feels that if the "baseband processor" software, which enables a connection to cell phone towers is exposed then a user could crash the tower software, or use the Exclusive Chip Identification number to make anonymously calls.
Apple feels its closed business model is what made the iPhone a success.
Costas Tsalikidis, the Greek telco (Vodafone) whistleblower did show what could be done within the Greek telco network but that was from within and he was later found hung.
What do slashdot readers think? Is Apple playing the "evil genius" hacker card or can "anyone" with a smartphone and a genius friend pop a US cell tower?

Comment Layoffs (Score 3, Interesting) 506

by bowl_of_petunias (#26330509) Attached to: Microsoft Rumored To Lay Off Thousands Worldwide

I know a few people in the NYC office who have been worried this week by the layoff rumor. Hopefully, Microsoft will streamline the company responsibly. It is unfortunate that so many companies are considering large layoffs, but it is hardly surprising. Many corporations are bogged down by redundancy or mediocrity in the workforce, and would benefit from a careful re-analysis. I know it's easy to jump to the "microsoft sucks" conclusion, but I'm afraid we will be hearing more of these stories from around the country in the next few months. I'm sure even the "evil" microsoft top executives are heartsick over the human cost (and bad press).

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