Feed Architect of Sony’s PlayStation to Retire Amid Faltering Sales (nytimes.com)
Ken Kutaragi will retire in June as Sony struggles for dominance in the video-game industry.
Submission + - Laser Based Self Navigating Robot
An anonymous reader writes: Ashish Derhgawen has put together a fantastic self navigating robot with the use of a robot development kit, a wireless web cam & a laser pointer.
http://ashishrd.blogspot.com/2007/04/self-navigati ng-microbric-viper-robot_25.html
http://ashishrd.blogspot.com/2007/04/self-navigat
Journal Journal: How to prepare for alien invasion
When the aliens finally invade Earth, you may wish you had listened to Travis Taylor and Bob Boan. And if the invasion follows the plot of a typical Hollywood blockbuster, they might also be the guys called in at the last minute to save the day. After all, they have written "An Introduction to Planetary Defence"
Feed Replace your mouse with a DS, eliminate work-related fanboy downtime (engadget.com)
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals
Adding to the list of questionably-useful ways to use your Nintendo gear, German hacker Dankredues posted up a little app that lets you use the DS screen as a mouse. While it's no MIDI keyboard or homebrew tilt sensor, the app seems like it could make an interesting and cheap tablet for you to knock out that Princess Peach fanime you keep talking about. Wacom's not going to be losing sleep over this anytime soon though -- right now the software is available only in German, requires you to hardcode your IP address into the source before compiling, and opens two ports on your machine: one each for X and Y coordinates. Ouch. Give the dude some credit, though, he's only 14. True fanboys can prove their mettle by nabbing the software at the Read link.[Via DS News]
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Submission + - IBM researchers push MRI imaging to nanoscale
TheCybernator writes: "Researchers at IBM's Almaden Research Center have developed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to visualize nanoscale objects. The new techniques are a major milestone in the quest to build a microscope that could "see" individual atoms in three dimensions.
Using Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy (MRFM), IBM researchers have captured two-dimensional images of objects as small as 90 nanometers. (A nanometer is one billionth of a meter; a human hair is roughly 100,000 nanometers in diameter.)
"Our ultimate goal is to perform three-dimensional imaging of complex structures such as molecules with atomic resolution," said Dan Rugar, manager, Nanoscale Studies, IBM Research. "This would allow scientists to study the atomic structures of molecules — such as proteins — which would represent a huge breakthrough in structural molecular biology."
MRFM offers imaging 60,000 times more sensitive than current MRI technology. MRFM uses what is known as force detection to extend the limits of conventional MRI and view structures that would otherwise be too small to be detected.
The imaging breakthrough could eventually have major impact on the study of materials ranging from proteins and pharmaceuticals to integrated circuits — that required detailed understanding of the atomic structure. Knowing the exact location of specific atoms within tiny nanoelectronic structures, for example, would improve designers' insight into manufacture and performance. The ability to directly image the detailed atomic structure of proteins would aid the development of new drugs."
DARPA's Artificial Arm Comes With VR Training 71
An anonymous reader writes "The first prototype of an artificial limb commissioned by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency can reportedly be controlled naturally, provide sensory feedback and allows for eight degrees of freedom — way beyond the current state of the art for prosthetic limbs. Oh yeah, it also has its own VR environment to learn how to use it."
Submission + - U of Kansas recommends against Vista, Office 2007
An anonymous reader writes: In an email to all faculty and staff, the University of Kansas IT recommended against installing either Microsoft Vista or Office 2007. Vista is deemed problematic because of hardware requirements and incompatibility with widely used software such as statistical packages, Blackboard and PeopleSoft; Office is zinged because "The radical redesign has moved and/or renamed virtually every feature." Individuals purchasing machines with Vista are asked to "roll back" to XP. Obligatory evolution and Wizard of Oz jokes aside, KU is probably typical of a large organization that has apparently decided after a few weeks of consideration that Microsoft's latest offerings just aren't worth the trouble. How general is this trend?
Submission + - Vista Sales Strong
An anonymous reader writes: It seems Microsoft is not only alive, but has been thriving these last few months. Following Apple's solid earnings yesterday comes above-expectations from Microsoft. Profits jumped 65% from the previous year, and sales of its Windows operating system were strong: (from TFA)
Microsoft said it deferred $1.2 billion in Windows Vista revenue to the third quarter, to account for upgrade coupons given to PC buyers during the holiday season before the consumer launch of the new operating system. Excluding this figure, client revenue totaled $4.1 billion, 30 percent higher than last year.
Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said Vista beat internal forecasts by $300 million to $400 million, and Office 2007 sales were $200 million better than expected.
Microsoft said it deferred $1.2 billion in Windows Vista revenue to the third quarter, to account for upgrade coupons given to PC buyers during the holiday season before the consumer launch of the new operating system. Excluding this figure, client revenue totaled $4.1 billion, 30 percent higher than last year.
Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said Vista beat internal forecasts by $300 million to $400 million, and Office 2007 sales were $200 million better than expected.
Submission + - macbookinux: the first Mac specialized penguin
aiop631 writes: "A new project is under way to develop a Linux distribution designed especially for Macbooks: MacBook Linux. This distributions will have advanced Linux technologies built-in like Compiz, OpenOffice and KOffice for office tools, development tools like GCC and Java, and server technologies like Apache and Bind to turn your machine into a server. A powerful package management system similar to that of OS X will be available (yes, no dependency hell). The first stable release date is aimed for later this summer. This is part of a broader project to develop a Linux distribution family for Intel-powered Macs — that is, 3 Linux distributions specialized for MacBooks, MacBook Pros and Mac Pros."
Submission + - NY Teen Hacks AOL, installs Malware
temerity writes: A New York teenager broke into AOL networks and databases containing customer information and infected servers with a malicious program to transfer confidential data to his computer, AOL and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office allege.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/04/26/HNteenha ckaol_1.html
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/04/26/HNteenh
Submission + - Children on the News and MySpace
MikeDataLink writes: "I recently did a little investigation of my own. I noticed that the news station I watch shows the full names of children and teens on the air when doing interviews and stories. I wrote the names down and then searched MySpace.com for those names in my area. To my not so much suprise, I found a large majority of them with pictures, blogs, and contact information. Is it a good idea for news stations to use a little more caution in showing full names of minors in this day and age or am I over reacting?"
Submission + - Best popular science books named
solitas writes: A BBC story lists the choices for the Royal Society's six 'Best Popular Science Books' awards.
One of the titles is called "Homo britannicus" — and so I figured I'd take the story to Slashdot where hopefully one of it's learned members could explain to me why an Elton John biography should make a science book list?
One of the titles is called "Homo britannicus" — and so I figured I'd take the story to Slashdot where hopefully one of it's learned members could explain to me why an Elton John biography should make a science book list?
Submission + - Re-shipping scams skyrocketting
sorry-scammed-loser writes: A new online threat, reshipping fraud, is emerging in the form of a massive organized crime ring that is recruiting people in the US and Europe as "shipment handlers", and having them re-ship items to Russia. The criminals are using stolen Visa card details to pay for shipments from many large retail and auction sites (including ebay.com and amazon.com), and having the items shipped to their recruits who re-ship them to addresses they have been provided with. I personally lost a laptop this way that I had auctioned on ebay — I shipped the laptop after verifying that the funds had been deposited into my PayPal account, and two days later was contacted by PayPal who said that the account holder had not authorized the transaction. Now I have no money and no laptop. In my case, the scammers had recruited my re-shipper through an online job posting site, which pointed her to a legit-looking website called expertdelivery.biz that claims to operate offices in Minnesota and the UK (but is hosted in Belize). This reads like an episode of "24"... Please get the word out about this scam, at this point consumer education is the best protection against perpetuation of these scams.
Submission + - New Patent Suit Threatens Bluetooth Standard
Aditi.Tuteja writes: "A U.S. research institute has sued Nokia, Samsung Electronics and Matsushita-owned Panasonic for violating a patent for Bluetooth technology, potentially putting the free wireless standard at risk.
The Washington Research Foundation, which markets technology from the University of Washington, is seeking damages from the three mobile-phone makers for using a radio frequency receiver technology without paying royalties, according to court papers obtained by Reuters./p"
The Washington Research Foundation, which markets technology from the University of Washington, is seeking damages from the three mobile-phone makers for using a radio frequency receiver technology without paying royalties, according to court papers obtained by Reuters./p"
Submission + - Larry King Says He's Never Used The Internet
corerunner writes: From a story by NBC 10:
During a segment with guest Roseanne Barr this week, King and Barr got into a discussion about her blogs and her obsession with the Drudge Report, a widely popular Web news site.
When prodded by Barr, King said his wife loved the Internet, but he had no intention of trying to access it.
During a segment with guest Roseanne Barr this week, King and Barr got into a discussion about her blogs and her obsession with the Drudge Report, a widely popular Web news site.
When prodded by Barr, King said his wife loved the Internet, but he had no intention of trying to access it.
