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Robotics

Robots Successfully Invent Their Own Language 159

Posted by CmdrTaco from the killall-humans dept.
An anonymous reader writes "One group of Australian researchers have managed to teach robots to do something that, until now, was the reserve of humans and a few other animals: they've taught them how to invent and use spoken language. The robots, called LingoDroids, are introduced to each other. In order to share information, they need to communicate. Since they don't share a common language, they do the next best thing: they make one up. The LingoDroids invent words to describe areas on their maps, speak the word aloud to the other robot, and then find a way to connect the word and the place, the same way a human would point to themselves and speak their name to someone who doesn't speak their language."
Social Networks

News Corp. Looking To Sell MySpace 146

Posted by Soulskill from the betting-wrong dept.
rudy_wayne writes "News Corp. is reportedly trying to sell MySpace for $100 million, a fraction of the $580 million it originally paid for the social network in 2005. Parties interested in acquiring MySpace include private equity firm THL Partners, Redscout Ventures and Criterion Capital, owner of social network Bebo (the company AOL bought for $850 million and then sold for $10 million). Chinese Internet holding company Tencent is also reportedly interested, and so is MySpace co-founder Chris De Wolfe. What's not yet clear is what any of these companies plan to do with MySpace if a sale goes through." This follows news of massive layoffs and a rapidly shrinking userbase in recent months.
Hardware Hacking

If You're Going To Kill It, Open Source It 245

Posted by timothy from the get-some-goodwill-for-your-investment dept.
ptorrone writes "MAKE Magazine is proposing big companies like Cisco and Sony consider 'open sourcing' their failed or discontinued products. The list includes Sony's AIBO and QRIO robots, IBM's Deep Blue chess computer, Ricochet Wireless, Potenco's Pull-Cord Generator, Palm, Microsoft's SPOT Watch, CISCO Flip Camera and more. MAKE is also encouraging everyone to post about what products they'd like to see open sourced."
Science

Artificial Synapse Created For Synthetic Brain 129

Posted by timothy from the let's-vote-these-amateur-clowns-out-of-office dept.
Zothecula writes "It's probably still going to be a while before autonomous, self-aware androids are wandering amongst us. That scenario has come a little closer to reality, however, with researchers from the University of Southern California having created a functioning synapse circuit using carbon nanotubes. An artificial version of the connections that allow electrical impulses to pass between neurons in our brains, the circuit could someday be one component of a synthetic brain."
AMD

Submission + - ARM To Keynote at AMD Fusion Developer Conference (hothardware.com)

Submitted by
MojoKid
MojoKid writes: "AMD is hosting its first AMD Fusion Developer Summit (AFDS) this summer, from June 13-16. The conference will focus on OpenCL and
upcoming AMD Llano performance capabilities under various related usage models. One interesting twist is that the keynote address will be given by Jem Davies, currently ARM's VP of technology. To date, AMD's efforts to push OpenCL as a programming environment have been limited, particularly compared to the work NV has sunk into CUDA. With its profit margins and sales figures improving, AMD is apparently turning back to address the situation—and ARM's a natural ally. The attraction of OpenCL is that it can potentially be used to improve handheld device performance. AMD's explicit mention of ARM hints that there might be more than meets the eye to this conference as well."
The Courts

Submission + - Amazon responds to "App Store" Lawsuit from Apple (tekgoblin.com)

Submitted by
tekgoblin
tekgoblin writes: "Apple had filed a lawsuit in March against Amazon's use of "App Store" in their newly launched Amazon AppStore. Apple had informed Amazon that using the term "App Store" was unlawful because they owned the rights to the term itself. In the lawsuit Amazon indicates that the term "App Store" is too generic for Apple to lay claim to the name itself."
Transportation

What Happens If You Get Sucked Out of a Plane? 327

Posted by Roblimo from the do-not-try-this-at-home dept.
astroengine writes "We've all wondered about it. When flying at 30,000ft, you look around the cramped economy class cabin thinking 'I wonder if I'd survive being sucked out of this plane if a hole, say, just opened above my head?' That's probably around the time that you should fasten your seat belt. According to medical experts interviewed by Discovery News in the wake of the Southwest Airlines gaping hole incident, the rapid depressurization, low oxygen levels and freezing cold would render you unconscious very quickly. Assuming you don't get chopped in half as you exit through the hole and hit the tail, you'd be long dead before you hit the ground. Nice."
Sci-Fi

All Star Trek TV Coming To Netflix 272

Posted by timothy from the hulu-minus dept.
tekgoblin writes "This is great news for all the Star Trek fans out there. Starting in July, every episode from every Star Trek series will be available for Instant Watch over Netflix. Right now Star Trek TOS is available for Instant Watch, and the movies, but that's all. Soon it will all be here for our viewing pleasure."
Medicine

Submission + - Merck's Drug Propecia Causing Sexual Dysfunction 2

Submitted by
zaxios
zaxios writes: "Merck — the pharmaceutical giant previously featured on Slashdot for drawing up a 'hit list' of doctors that criticized its drug Vioxx, and creating a fake medical journal to endorse its products — is embroiled in a new scandal. USA Today is reporting on two new studies that show that Propecia, Merck's $250 million prescription medication for baldness, can make men irreversibly impotent. Lawsuits have been filed in the United States and Canada from men claiming to have permanently lost their sexual function after taking the drug. All this is reminiscent of Merck's difficulties with Vioxx, a once $2.5 billion a year drug withdrawn from the market in 2004, after a study showed it doubled the risk of heart attack and stroke in users. That led to a $4.85 billion settlement by Merck for personal injury claims."
Software

Submission + - Free DARPA software lets gamers hunt submarines (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: If you have ever wanted to go torpedo-to-torpedo with a submariner, now is your chance. The crowdsource-minded folks at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency rolled out an online game that lets players try to catch elusive, quiet enemy submarines.

According to DARPA the Sonalysts Combat Simulations Dangerous Waters software was been written to simulate actual evasion techniques used by submarines, challenging each player to track them successfully. "Your tracking vessel is not the only ship at sea, so you'll need to safely navigate among commercial shipping traffic as you attempt to track the submarine, whose driver has some tricks up his sleeve. You will earn points as you complete mission objectives, and will have the opportunity to see how you rank against the competition."

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