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Comment Re:mental imagery in practice (Score 1) 165

by yo303 (#27382961) Attached to: Researchers Identify Phantom Limb Brain Activity

Yes, but your dad's itch was in his missing part. If you had read TFS, you would have read she scratched her head with her phantom limb. If where she had perceived an itch was in the missing part... no, you can't perceive with a missing head.

She was asked to scratch her cheek. It wasn't a physical irritation, so it seems reasonable that the imagined itch could be relieved if the brain believed it was scratched.

This would also be true for itches caused by nonverbal body language expression. Your brain wants you to scratch your head, to signal puzzlement and thinking to those around you, so it suddenly makes you think that your head itches. See http://www.2knowmyself.com/body_language/body_language_state_of_confusion
Image

How To Be A Geek Goddess Screenshot-sm 349

Posted by samzenpus from the Ramia-goddess-of-corn-chips-power-strips-and-motherboards dept.
stoolpigeon writes "The geek world is dominated by those of the male persuasion. For those of us working in a technology related field, or who spend a considerable amount of time pursuing high tech leisure, we usually find women to be in the minority. I've seen considerable discussion over the years on how to change this imbalance but I think it is safe to say that right now that it remains. Many women are interested in using technology, they just don't want to dive in to quite the same depth. Or they may not be interested in the way most men approach it. Columnist and tech-writer Christina Tynan-Wood has attempted to come to their rescue with her book How To Be A Geek Goddess." Read below for the rest of JR's review.

Comment Re:Say what? (Score 1) 452

by yo303 (#26504833) Attached to: Seagate Hard Drive Fiasco Grows

If you don't know what I'm talking about,
you are young and inexperienced.

.

If this sentence spreads onto two lines, you need to get a new computer that can do more than 40 characters across. Or at least an 80 column card for your Apple ][.

If you don't know what I'm talking about you probably have a Commodore 64.

yo.

Comment Re:OCR plugins? (Score 1) 215

by yo303 (#25741855) Attached to: Saving Energy Via Webcam-Based Meter Reading?

OK, if you're already doing all this, it will be pretty easy for you from here on in.

Since you have 7 segment displays, all you need to do is mask off each segment in each digit. Check if the segment is on or off, by adding up all the pixels' brightnesses in the mask, and checking it with a threshold.

Run through a loop comparing the state of all seven segments against the digits 0 through 9.

Repeat for each digit.
Biotech

Biologist (Almost) Creates Artificial Life 539

Posted by Soulskill from the almost-doesn't-count dept.
Aditya Malik writes "Wired has an interesting story up about how a lab led by Jack Szostak, a molecular biologist at Harvard Medical School, is building 'protocells' from artificial molecules which are very close to satisfying the conditions for being 'alive.' 'Szostak's protocells are built from fatty molecules that can trap bits of nucleic acids that contain the source code for replication. Combined with a process that harnesses external energy from the sun or chemical reactions, they could form a self-replicating, evolving system that satisfies the conditions of life, but isn't anything like life on earth now, but might represent life as it began or could exist elsewhere in the universe.' This obviously raises some questions about creationism, not to mention some scary bio-research-gone-wild scenarios."
Linux Business

How Dell Is Making Ubuntu Linux More Attractive 160

Posted by timothy from the gussyin'-n'-prettyin' dept.
CWmike writes "Dell was the first of the major computer manufacturers to support pre-installed Linux, but it's not just pre-installing Linux. The Austin, Tex. company is also adding functionality to Ubuntu Linux on its desktops and laptops, writes Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols. It began by adding DVD-playback to its systems shipping with Ubuntu 7.10. With the recent release of Dell PCs with Ubuntu 8.04, Dell is now including 'Fluendo GStreamer codecs for mp3, wma (Windows Media Audio), and wmv (Windows Media Video) playback' in its latest Ubuntu-powered desktops and laptops. On Ubuntu systems with ATI or NIVDIA graphics, Dell also now supports HDMI output. Yesterday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said his company hopes to steal a page from Apple's playbook and change how it works with hardware makers in an attempt to duplicate its rival's success. Is OS customization the way forward for desktop Linux, and Windows?"
Programming

More Interest In Parallel Programming Outside the US? 342

Posted by kdawson from the maybe-it's-the-language dept.
simoniker writes "In a new weblog post on Dobbs Code Talk, Intel's James Reinders discusses the growth of concurrency in programming, suggesting that '...programming for multi-core is catching the imagination of programmers more in Japan, China, Russia, and India than in Europe and the United States.' He also comments: 'We see a significantly HIGHER interest in jumping on a parallelism from programmers with under 15 years experience, verses programmers with more than 15 years.' Any anecdotal evidence for or against from this community?"
Communications

Cell Phone Sommeliers on the Way? 159

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the aged-vintages-not-quite-so-popular-for-some-reason dept.
Japan is reportedly toying with the idea of educating and licensing "sommeliers" to help potential buyers wade through the vast sea of options available for a new cellphone purchase. "Japan's communication ministry is looking to the private sector to manage the potential nightmare exam and certification process, with children's online safety highlighted as an important part of the plan. Mobile sommelier sounds like a pretty sweet title, we can totally feel how an HTC TyTN II might be paired with an earthy unlimited plan followed by the soft nutty finish of a 200-minute a month daytime calling package."
The Media

HBO Exec Proposes DRM Name Change 544

Posted by Zonk from the that's-all-that's-in-the-way dept.
surfingmarmot writes "An HBO executive has figured out the problem with DRM acceptance — it's the name. HBO's chief technology officer Bob Zitter now wants to refer to the technology as Digital Consumer Enablement. Because, you see, DRM actually helps consumers by getting more content into their hands. The company already has HD movies on demand ready to go, but is delaying them because of ownership concerns. Says Zitter, 'Digital Consumer Enablement would more accurately describe technology that allows consumers "to use content in ways they haven't before," such as enjoying TV shows and movies on portable video players like iPods. "I don't want to use the term DRM any longer," said Zitter, who added that content-protection technology could enable various new applications for cable operators.'"
Music

RIAA Claims Ownership of All Artist Royalties For Internet Radio 458

Posted by Zonk from the isn't-that-called-stealing dept.
ISurfTooMuch writes "With the furor over the impending rate hike for Internet radio stations, wouldn't a good solution be for streaming internet stations to simply not play RIAA-affiliated labels' music and focus on independent artists? Sounds good, except that the RIAA's affiliate organization SoundExchange claims it has the right to collect royalties for any artist, no matter if they have signed with an RIAA label or not. 'SoundExchange (the RIAA) considers any digital performance of a song as falling under their compulsory license. If any artist records a song, SoundExchange has the right to collect royalties for its performance on Internet radio. Artists can offer to download their music for free, but they cannot offer their songs to Internet radio for free ... So how it works is that SoundExchange collects money through compulsory royalties from Webcasters and holds onto the money. If a label or artist wants their share of the money, they must become a member of SoundExchange and pay a fee to collect their royalties.'"
Politics

Resolution To Impeach VP Cheney Submitted 1202

Posted by kdawson from the domino-number-one dept.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) has submitted a resolution, HR 333, to impeach VP Dick Cheney on charges of "high crimes and misdemeanors." The charges were submitted on 24 April 2007. Congressman Kucinich has posted his supporting documents online, including a brief summary of the impeachment procedure (PDF), a synopsis (PDF), and the full text (PDF) of the impeachment resolution.

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