blzb - Slashdot User

Comment cancel your verizon subscription today (Score 5, Interesting) 260

by blzb on Friday October 10, 2008 @04:25PM (#25331981) Attached to: Verizon To Charge Content Providers $.03 Per SMS

so now verizon is charging other people money to *call you*. aren't you alrady paying verizon to have a phone number just so people can call you and send you messages.

you would have to be a real sucker to let verizon charge your friends and associates money to communicate with you, on top of what they are already paying *their* phone company to send the message in the first place.

Submission + - Robot composed of "catoms" can assume any (newscientist.com) 1

Submitted by

philetus

on Friday February 01, 2008 @01:38PM

philetus writes: "An article in New Scientist describes a robotic system composed of swarms of electromagnetic modules capable of assuming almost any form that is being developed by the Claytronics Group at Carnegie Mellon. From the article: 'Swarms of robots that use electromagnetic forces to cling together and assume different shapes are being developed by US researchers. The grand goal is to create swarms of microscopic robots capable of morphing into virtually any form by clinging together. Seth Goldstein, who leads the research project at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, in the US, admits this is still a distant prospect. However, his team is using simulations to develop control strategies for futuristic shape-shifting, or "claytronic", robots, which they are testing on small groups of more primitive, pocket-sized machines. These prototype robots use electromagnetic forces to manoeuvre themselves, communicate, and even share power.'"

Submission + - Smart 'Lego' conjures up virtual 3D twin (newscientist.com)

Submitted by

philetus

on Thursday January 31, 2008 @12:08PM

philetus writes: "newscientist.com has a story on Posey, a hub-and-strut construction kit that senses its configuration and communicates it wirelessly to a computer. From the article:

'If you gave Lego brains, you might get something like Posey, a new hands-on way of interacting with computers developed at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, US. When Posey's plastic pieces are snapped together, an exact copy of the construction appears on a computer screen. Every twist of, say, a stick figure's arm is mirrored in 3D modelling software.'
(full disclosure: I am a researcher involved with the project)"

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