Cutting Umbilical Cord Early Eliminates Stem Cells 139

Posted by timothy on Wednesday May 26, 2010 @02:40PM from the just-leave-it-on-a-few-years dept.

GeneralSoh writes "Delaying clamping the umbilical cord at birth may have far-reaching benefits for your baby, according to researchers at the University of South Florida's Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair — and should be delayed for at least a few minutes longer after birth. This new recommendation published in the most recent Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine (14:3) notes that delaying clamping the umbilical cord allows more umbilical cord blood and crucial stem cells to transfer from mama to baby."

Halo 2 Online Preservation Effort Ends 201

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday May 12, 2010 @12:48AM from the good-show dept.

A couple weeks ago, we discussed news that some dedicated Halo 2 fans were keeping the game's multiplayer alive after support for online play was dropped. Now, a few days shy of a month after support ended, the last users have been knocked off the server. "[A user named] Apache N4SIR outlasted everyone. 'May 11th @ 0158hrs I was FORCEFULLY REMOVED!!' he wrote on the forums at Bungie.net. 'I thought I'd be the one turning off the lights but that was done for me. Good night everyone, my Elite needs a rest.' His last comrade in arms, Agent Windex, was still signed on, as spotted by Kotaku at 4 p.m. US Pacific Time on May 10, but their adventure, which began on April 15, ended after Windex announced 21 minutes later that he had been removed from play and Apache N4SIR suffered a similar fate hours later, as he described in his post."

EA Launches Ultima-Based Browser Game 106

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday April 21, 2010 @03:19AM from the my-face-has-gone-numb dept.

On Monday Electronic Arts launched Lord of Ultima, a free-to-play, browser-based strategy game that's based on the Ultima universe. Quoting VG247: "Set in the new world of Caledonia, players start the game as conquerors raising an empire, and then move from developing a village to evolving it into a highly customized capital. Players can be peaceful merchants by trading resources over land or sea and using diplomacy, or become feared conquerors using armies of knights and mages to crush their enemies one by one in maniacal glee."

OpenSSL 1.0.0 Released 105

Posted by Soulskill on Monday March 29, 2010 @04:31PM from the sweet-when-is-2.0 dept.

hardaker writes "After over 11 years of development since the start of the OpenSSL Project (1998-12-23), OpenSSL version 1.0.0 has finally hit the shelves of the free-for-all store."

Iron Alloy Could Create Earthquake-Proof Buildings 107

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday March 25, 2010 @01:37AM from the shake-all-you-want dept.

separsons writes "Researchers at Japan's Tohoku University designed a new shape memory metal alloy. The super elastic iron alloy can endure serious stretching and still return to its original shape. The scientists say that once optimized, the material could be used in everything from braces to medical stents to earthquake-proof buildings!"

Comment I think you are using the WRONG UPS'es (Score 1) 154

by cprice on Sunday March 21, 2010 @09:50PM (#31562520) Attached to: Server Room Smells Can Be an Early Warning

'Smart' UPS'es from various vendors properly attached to a server or network SNMP trap will tell you when its batteries are going bad (opr the telltale signs of the same). I think you guys need to step up from the $99 Costco UPS'es into something a little more reliable. Home consumer grade electronics have NO place in a commercial environment really (they can be pressed into service in a pinch).

Comment Re:Tape is your friend (Score 1) 411

by cprice on Thursday March 04, 2010 @12:00AM (#31354292) Attached to: Long-Term Storage of Moderately Large Datasets?

yes but the lto tape and drives are expensive compared to 2tb sata drives. I'm guessing he doesnt have much of a budget, for if he did a 4 or 8 tape lto libray with attached to a san fabirc and striping to the tapes would be a good solution.

Comment Statistical basis for your main premise? (Score 1) 750

by cprice on Friday February 26, 2010 @01:43PM (#31287612) Attached to: Should I Take Toyota's Software Update?

"...because a large percentage of firmware updates actually brick the hardware or cause other unforeseen consequences..."

I'd love to see the statistical data to back up this claim.

Comment Re:UO wasn't that much fun really (Score 1) 480

by cprice on Monday February 22, 2010 @11:29AM (#31229626) Attached to: Why Are There No Popular <em>Ultima Online</em>-Like MMOs?

I've been playing wow on a fairly regular basis for a number of years now and always on a PVP server.

I've found that the majority of what you would call 'world pvp' is really just cyber-bullying. As I level new toons through the game, I find that the people who chose to engage me in PVP are players of significantly higher level than I. I can count on one hand the number of times a player of roughly equivalent level to me engaged me in what one would call a 'fair fight'. The VAST majority of PVP incidents I have experienced have been where my lowly level 20 gets 'ganked' by a level 80. Often, the level 80's are working in groups and attacking low level towns for long periods of time, effectively bullying the lower level toons populating the area. Well equipped level 80's of the same faction often come to help the low level toons drive off he bullies, but its usually a case of too little too late.

Battlegrounds and Arenas are popular as they make for a relatively 'fair' PVP fight and this much more enjoyable.

Comment Re:So (Score 1) 334

by cprice on Saturday February 20, 2010 @07:31PM (#31214110) Attached to: Ars Analysis Calls Windows 7 Memory Usage Claims "Scaremongering"

Linux does something very similar to SuperFetch from the sounds of it - I have no experience with, nor do I want to run Windows 7. I believe Linux has been doing this since 2.2 or 2.4 kernel came out.

Valve's Battle Against Cheaters 336

Posted by Soulskill on Friday February 19, 2010 @04:13AM from the busting-punks dept.

wjousts writes "IEEE Spectrum takes a look behind the scenes at Valve's on-going efforts to battle cheaters in online games: 'Cheating is a superserious threat,' says [Steam's lead engineer, John] Cook. 'Cheating is more of a serious threat than piracy.' The company combats this with its own Valve Anti-Cheat System, which a user consents to install in the Steam subscriber agreement. Cook says the software gets around anti-virus programs by handling all the operations that require administrator access to the user's machine. So, how important is preventing cheating? How much privacy are you willing to sacrifice in the interests of a level playing field? 'Valve also looks for changes within the player's computer processor's memory, which might indicate that cheat code is running.'"

Aussie Attorney General Says Gamers Are Scarier Than Biker Gangs 409

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday February 16, 2010 @02:31PM from the well-perhaps-in-some-senses dept.

Sasayaki writes "South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson claims, in an interview with Good Game, that gamers were more of a threat to his family than biker gangs. This is the man who has been the biggest opponent to Australia receiving an R18+ rating for video games and who has the power to veto any such law introducing it."

Porsche Unveils 911 Hybrid With Flywheel Booster 197

Posted by timothy on Friday February 12, 2010 @10:10PM from the yeah-well-I-get-better-mileage dept.

MikeChino writes "Porsche has just unveiled its 911 GT3 R Hybrid, a 480 horsepower track vehicle ready to rock the 24-hour Nurburgring race this May. Porsche's latest supercar will use the same 911 production platform available to consumers today, with a few race-ready features including front-wheel hybrid drive and an innovative flywheel system that stores kinetic energy from braking and then uses it to provide a 160 horsepower burst of speed. The setup is sure to offer an advantage when powering out of turns and passing by other racers."

Why the First Cowboy To Draw Always Gets Shot 398

Posted by timothy on Thursday February 04, 2010 @04:00PM from the more-guns-less-crime dept.

cremeglace writes "Have you ever noticed that the first cowboy to draw his gun in a Hollywood Western is invariably the one to get shot? Nobel-winning physicist Niels Bohr did, once arranging mock duels to test the validity of this cinematic curiosity. Researchers have now confirmed that people indeed move faster if they are reacting, rather than acting first."

Using Infrared Cameras To Find Tastiness of Beef 108

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday January 31, 2010 @01:31PM from the i-use-a-fork dept.

JoshuaInNippon writes "Might we one day be able to use our cell phone cameras to pick out the best piece of meat on display at the market? Some Japanese researchers seem to hope so. A team of scientists is using infrared camera technology to try and determine the tastiest slices of high-grade Japanese beef. The researchers believe that the levels of Oleic acid found within the beef strongly affect the beef's tenderness, smell, and overall taste. The infrared camera can be tuned to pick out the Oleic acid levels through a whole slab, a process that would be impossible to do with the human eye. While the accuracy is still relatively low — a taste test this month resulted in only 60% of participants preferring beef that was believed to have had a higher level of Oleic acid — the researchers hope to fine tune the process for market testing by next year."