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Submission + - Commercial brain computer systems are coming

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "All over the world, systems that directly connect silicon circuits to brains are under development, and some are nearly ready for commercial applications, according to a new report from the World Technology Evaluation Center and announced by a news release of the University of Southern California (USC). Some of the conclusions of this report about brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are quite surprising. For example, North America researchers focus almost exclusively on invasive BCIs while noninvasive BCI systems are mostly studied in European and Asian labs. If you don't have enough time to read the 234-page report, please look at my selection of four exciting projects from all over the world."
Programming

Submission + - What happens to your brain when you're coding?

Submitted by youthoftoday
youthoftoday writes: Discussions with friends have shown that we all have slightly different mental approaches to coding. I personally find that often the code just appears under my fingers. Sometimes when trying to code something complex (usually with pointers) I have to actively stop thinking about the problem and some more abstract part of my brain over which I have no control writes the code for me. This seems to raise a few eyebrows.

So how do slashdot readers write code? Cold and logical? Subconscious and inexplicable? Is there some truth in http://xkcd.com/323 ?
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Goodbye from the STARTREK.COM Team 1

Submitted by Curlsman
Curlsman writes: Goodbye from the STARTREK.COM Team

Sadly, we must report that CBS Interactive organization is being restructured, and the production team that brings you the STARTREK.COM site has been eliminated. Effective immediately.
We don't know the ultimate fate of this site, which has served millions of Star Trek fans for the last thirteen years.

If you have comments, please send them to editor @ startrek.com — we hope someone at CBS will read them.

Thank you for your loyal fandom over the years. It has been a pleasure to serve you.

http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/2316633.html

Is this site worth a write-in campaign?
Biotech

Submission + - Brain grown in jar pilots F-22 sim (pantherhouse.com) 5

Submitted by NJ Hewitt
NJ Hewitt writes: "Florida scientists have grown a brain in a petri dish and taught it to pilot an F-22 jet simulator." The brain, with neurons connected to 60 electrodes, at first had no ability to pilot the fighter jet, but slowly learned and can now reliably navigate through even hurricane-force winds in the simulator.
Space

Submission + - NASA Sees Electrical Plasma Structure in Space (nasa.gov)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: NASA's THEMIS Mission to study the Aurora Borealis has captured images of a space plasma structure that's familiar to laboratory plasma physicists. The problem is that the rope-like structure that's connecting the Earth and the Sun in these images resembles a Birkeland Current. NASA states on their website specifically that, "Sometimes a burst of electrical current within the solar wind will hit the bow shock and — Bang! We get an explosion." (Emphasis mine)
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Terry Pratchett diagnosed with Alzheimers. (timesonline.co.uk)

Submitted by LoFi
LoFi writes: The Times is reporting on a statement by Terry Pratchett on Paul Kidby's (his illustrator) website, in which he reveals that he is suffering from a rare form of Alzheimer's Disease. In his typically laconic style, he says this news should be interpreted as "Not Dead Yet", and states "I know it's a very human thing to say "Is there anything I can do", but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry.". Buggrit.
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Slashdot Gems 1

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "In the years I have read Slashdot, I have often enjoyed the cleverness and humor of some of the readers replies to the various stories. Take for instance one of the stories posted today about Iran building a supercomputer with 216 AMD processors, one wit quipped that 'Not only can they never be allowed to have nukes but it will be a cold day in hell before they are allowed to get the processing power to run Windows Vista!!!!!'

For the benefit of posterity, I recommend that these 'gems' should be collected and published in a book entitled 'Slashdot Gems.' However, if you feel this task would be quite an undertaking, a simplier way of sharing the mirth would be ask your readers for a list of their memorable Slashdot moments, and then post them in a story thread entitled 'The Best of Slashdot Humor'."
Debian

Submission + - Debian win32-loader goes official (goodbye-microsoft.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After a long process of review and polishing, the win32 loader from http://goodbye-microsoft.com has finally made its way to official Debian CDs. Latest daily builds of lenny (the development version) are including it, making the start of Debian Installer as simple as just a few clicks. The win32-loader version, now based on GRUB 2, includes new features such as detection and preseeding of Windows settings, and is translated to 20 languages.
Space

Submission + - Explorers Find "Wonderland" on Moon of Sat (nasa.gov)

Submitted by
Riding with Robots
Riding with Robots writes: "After recovering from a cosmic ray hit, the robotic spacecraft Cassini has sent home additional striking pictures from Monday's close encounter with Saturn's strange moon Iapetus. NASA quotes Cassini Imaging Team Leader Carolyn Porco as saying, "Our flight over the surface of Iapetus was like a non-stop free fall, down the rabbit hole, directly into Wonderland. Very few places in our solar system are more bizarre than the patchwork of pitch dark and snowy bright we've seen on this moon." More details, including the raw image feed, are found on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Cassini site. And a nice display of images can be seen on the Planetary Society's blog."
Quickies

Submission + - Diamond synchrotron reads unrolled scrolls

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The hidden content in ancient works could be illuminated by a light source 10 billion times brighter than the Sun. The technique employs Britain's new facility, the Diamond synchrotron, where intense light beams will enable scientists to uncover the text in scrolls and books without having to open — and potentially damage — them. Iron gall ink, which is made from oak apples, has been in use from the 12th Century, but causes parchment to deteriorate rendering precious documents unreadable. Scientists from the University of Cardiff have developed a technique that uses a powerful x-ray source to create a three-dimensional image of an iron-inked document. The team then applies a computer algorithm to separate the image into the different layers of parchment, in effect using the program to unroll the scroll. Professor Tim Wess, who led the research, said: "We've folded up a real piece of parchment and then done a process of x-ray tomography on it. We've been able to recover the structure where we can see the words that are written inside the document." The team now plans to use the Diamond synchrotron's powerful x-ray source to penetrate many layers of parchment.
VA

Submission + - VMware releases Tools to Open Source community (sourceforge.net)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: VMware has released the source code to it's Virtual Machine Tools for Linux to the Open Source community. Now distros can compile the Tools and distribute them, saving end users the time and trouble. Undoubtedly the FOSS community will examine the code to improve the tools, or perhaps design tools to be used internally to a Virtual Machine.
Education

Submission + - Scientists create di-positronium molecules (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
doxology
doxology writes: "The BBC reports that scientists have been able to create di-positronium molecules. A di-positronium molecule consists of two positronium atoms, exotic atoms which are made from an electron and a positron (the anti-particle of the electron). A potential use of these molecules is to make extremely powerful gamma-ray lasers, possibly on sharks."

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