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Science

Submission + - Microscopic Analysis via Smart Phones (plosone.org)

Submitted by edwub
edwub writes: As described over at Pathtalk (http://pathtalk.org/archives/1420), UC Berkeley researchers developed a "developed a portable, mobile phone-based light microscopy system." Ideal for areas with poor technological resources, yet surprisingly good cellular coverage. This bad boy can image P. falciparum (a causative agent of Malaria), look at the tuberculousis causing bacteria, and of course, sickle-celled red blood cells among other things. What's really cool is that coupled with a smart phone with cellular coverage, it allows for GPS-localization tagging of samples, and most importantly the uploading/saving files for further computer analysis — or even on the spot with the right software!
Power

Submission + - Algae-Powered Lamp Converts CO2 Into Light (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Designer Mike Thompson has created a remarkable living lamp that is powered by algae. The lamp is made possible thanks to a recent discovery made by researchers at the universities of Yansei and Stanford. The researchers found that a tiny electrical current can be extracted from algae during photosynthesis. The Latro Lamp derives energy from an algae chamber that requires just sunlight, CO2, and water to operate. Stick the lamp outside, breathe into it, and voila, you’ve created your own bio battery-powered living lamp.
Technology

Submission + - Creepy-cool Robot Snake has Killer 'Bite'

Submitted by yyzmcleod
yyzmcleod writes: Researchers in the Biorobotics and Biomechanics Lab (BRML) at Technion, Israel Institute of Technology have created a series of hyper-redundant or snake robots, which, among other applications, could be used in combat. Sheathed in a camouflage “skin”, BRML’s robo snake can slither through rough terrain or urban environments and rear up like a cobra to perform reconnaissance. A camera and LED lights mounted in its “face” beam audio and video back to the operator’s laptop. Taking the concept one step further, Israeli military have said they may adapt the robot to act as weapon. Packed with explosives, the snake could worm its way into an enemy position and curl up near combatants’ before detonating.

Submission + - Man buys the police website to complain (usatoday.com)

Submitted by Geoffrey.landis
Geoffrey.landis writes: When a Tennessee police department let its website expire, the site was purchased by a man who uses it to complain about the traffic cameras that gave him a $90 speeding ticket.
The bluffcitypd.com site now shows a cartoon police badge clutching a handful of money and smiling.
Also reported in other places, such as the Chicago Tribune and USA Today
Science

Submission + - Cloth Successfully Separates Oil from Gulf Water (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by Chinobi
Chinobi writes: Di Gao, an assistant professor at the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering in the Swanson School of Engineering has developed a method of separating oil from water within just seconds using a cotton cloth coated in a chemical polymer that makes it both hydrophilic (it bonds with the hydrogen molecules in water) and oleophobic (oil repellant), making it absolutely perfect for blocking oil and letting water pass through. Gao tested his filter successfully on Gulf Oil water and has an impressive video to show it. Check it out here.
Space

Rogue Brown Dwarf Lurks In Our Cosmic Neighborhood 188

Posted by Soulskill from the brown-dwarf-rogue-lurks-in-ironforge dept.
astroengine writes "The UK Infrared Telescope in Hawaii has discovered a lone, cool brown dwarf called UGPSJ0722-05. As far as sub-stellar objects go, this is a strange one. For starters, it's the coolest brown dwarf ever discovered (and astronomers using the UKIRT should know; they are making a habit of finding cool brown dwarfs). Secondly, it's close. In fact, it's the closest brown dwarf to Earth, at a distance of only 10 light years. And thirdly, it has an odd spectroscopic signature, leading astronomers to think that this might be the discovery of a whole new class of brown dwarf."
Transportation

Solar-Powered Plane Makes First Successful Flight 118

Posted by timothy from the finally-a-daytime-launch dept.
lilbridge writes "The Solar Impulse, a solar-powered plane covered in 12,000 solar cells, took its maiden flight today in Switzerland. The plane stayed aloft for 87 minutes, performing test maneuvers as well as completing a successful takeoff and landing. With the first test flight behind them, the developers can focus on gearing up for their around-the-world solar powered flight set for 2012."
Idle

Submission + - The Most Painful Biofeedback Machine Ever (harcoslabs.com) 1

Submitted by wintersynth
wintersynth writes: We hacked a Mindflex toy brainwave reader to electrocute people if their brainwave frequency got too high (by concentrating). We took outputs off of the 5 level LED indicator, put the outputs through a transistor/resistor/relay circuit to give 2 levels of high voltage through an electric shock circuit right into the user's arm. I thought the Slashdot audience would appreciate the how to and video and this concern: if we used this device frequently, would we condition our brains to always stay in idle (alpha) state and would lose our ability to concentrate?
Google

Submission + - Google Buzz flaw?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I haven't seen anything about this mentioned anywhere, so I thought I'd pass it along.

I've been using Buzz lightly since inception. I was talking with one of my friends, who I follow on Buzz, this morning, and mentioned that he might want to comment on something another of our friends had buzzed. He informed me that he had disabled Buzz a week or two ago. I found this odd, since I had been receiving his buzz updates from Google Reader and Twitter the whole time, including some tweets from last night. We discovered that even when you tell Google to disable Buzz, all that does is remove it from your own Gmail interface. It keeps on happily feeding any input streams into Buzz and displaying it to anyone who was already following you. When my friend turned Buzz back on, he discovered that some of his followers had commented on things he didn't know he had buzzed and which comments he had never seen.

This struck us as a flaw.
Input Devices

The Computer That Can Read Your Mind 145

Posted by timothy from the what-am-I-thinking-and-where-does-she-live dept.
magacious writes "Gtec has showcased a computer that can read your mind over at the CeBIT trade show in Germany. Designed primarily to help those who can't write or speak, the system makes use of a skull cap and wireless technology to transform brain waves into letters. It's the first patient-ready computer-brain interface, according to its Austrian makers. It takes around 30 seconds per letter for the computer to recognise what you're saying the first time you use it, according to Gtec, but this improves vastly with practice. '"One second per letter is very tough," Gtec's Engelbert Grunbacher said, adding users can usually easily get to five or 10 letters per minute. "You learn to be relaxed, focused. You improve."' It might look quite wacky (pictures here) and at €9,000 the system is not cheap, but it could help enhance the lives of many people who have a great deal to say but no real way of saying it."

Submission + - Using a treadmill, wiimotes, and the natural inter (manapotions.com)

Submitted by
wintersynth
wintersynth writes: "We hooked a treadmill and wiimotes through BlueTooth and GlovePIE to AION so we could take advantage of the run/fly sequences in Aion and get fit while we play the game. Interval training is supposed to burn more fat and be better for cardio. It's too tough to play this way all the time, but for a quest a day, it might be perfect. Check out the how to with video"

Submission + - The Soviet Union built a Doomsday Machine. Here's (wired.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Wired Magazine has a new story posted about the Doomsday Machine built by the Soviet Union in the 1980s---and that remains active today. It explains why the device was built, and why the Soviets considered it to be something that kept the peace, event though they never told the U.S. about it.
Silicon Graphics

Submission + - SGI rolls out 'personal supercomputers' (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
CWmike
CWmike writes: "They aren't selling personal supercomputers at Best Buy just yet. But that day probably isn't too far off, as the costs continue to fall and supercomputers become easier to use. Silicon Graphics International on Monday released its first so-called personal supercomputer. The new Octane III system is priced from $7,995 with one Xeon 5500 processor. The system can be expanded to an 80 core system with a capacity of up to 960GB of memory. This new supercomputer's peak performance of about 726 GFLOPS won't put it on the Top 500 supercomputer list, but that's not the point of the machine, SGI says. A key feature instead is the system's ease of use."
Wireless Networking

Submission + - Virgin American in-flight Internet Review (manapotions.com)

Submitted by
wintersynth
wintersynth writes: "I've posted a review of Virgin America's in-flight internet provided by Gogo. Here's the scoop: Avg. .90 megabits/sec DL, .283 megabits/sec UL, ping: 130.6 msecs, $12.95 for the duration of the flight. Verdict: AWESOME, in fact, I'm posting this from 36,000 feet right now. Skype did NOT work for voice even though I'm pretty sure those stats are over the minimums. Any ideas from the slashdotters on what might be going on? click here for the full review."

Comment Re:HD Camera (Score 5, Interesting) 149

by wintersynth (#22089950) Attached to: Industrial Robot Arm Becomes Giant Catapult
Okay, I have to admit, we felt pretty bad about this "renting" tactic until we actually tried the camera. It was hands-down the worst HD camera I have ever used. I mean seriously, it had all sorts of proprietary software with weird codecs so that the footage was extremely difficult to transcode at high resolution.

I felt absolutely no remorse returning that thing. I know, that still doesn't make it right, because we didn't know that going into it. But I hope it is at least a mitigating factor. Plus, I give Fry's tons of (non-"rented") business, and their awesome return policy is a big part of the reason.

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