Comment Obligatory model (Score 1) 91
Chocolate Aperture Science Companion Cube...
"You ate your companion cube faster than any other test subject on record."
Comment The "Welcome Back" Appreciation Program (Score 1) 174
Is that like the Aperture Science Bring Your Daughter to Work Day? 'Cause we all know how that turned out.
Comment Speed is great, but not a fair comparison (Score 1) 236
I think releasing earlier, faster is great -- execution is everything. I don't know if Mozilla needs to be afraid that Google is somehow getting ahead of them, though. I mean, yes, in terms of speed and simplicity, Chrome wins hands down. Considering how fast JagerMonkey is getting better, it doesn't seem that's as much of an issue to me (or at least, they're on the right track). But in terms of how much each company is churning out, I think Mozilla is keeping up just fine. Think about what they've talking about for the past year: Panorama, maybe a new privacy UI, Jetpack, application tabs, "HTML5" features -- this shows that they're actually thinking about the future of the browser. What has Google produced in the past year? Chrome jumped from v4 to v8 (and now v9, and soon v10). Extensions, HTML5 stuff, WebM, GPU-accelerated compositing, page prerendering. How much of this work was put toward Webkit, though? And why do you think they added all of this? To catch up with IE and Firefox. I just don't think it's a fair comparison.
Light Resonators Used To Move Nano-Sized Objects 63
ElectricSteve writes "Scientists at Cornell University report they can now use a light beam carrying a single milliwatt of power to move objects and even change the optical properties of silicon from opaque to transparent at the nanometric scale." As the article says, such an advancement "could prove very useful for the future of micro-electromechanical (MEMS) and micro-optomechanical (MOMS) systems."
Comment Re:bad summary? (Score 4, Informative) 86
There are two experiments involved here, one using rat neurons and one using human neurons. The article is badly written -- it first introduces the two experiments, talks about the rat-neuron experiment for a bit (that's what the video refers to) and then abruptly segues to the human-neuron experiment (which there is no video for). Only the last three paragraphs are really about the human one. Looks like it's the same setup as the rat one though.
Robot Controlled By Human Brain Cells 86
destinyland writes "There's a new experiment from the British researchers who created a robot controlled by cultured rat neurons. They're now using a line of human brain neurons to control robots. The neurons are placed onto a multi-electrode dish that registers the neurons' electric signals. 'Every time the robot nears an object, the electrodes generate signals to stimulate the brain. In response, the brain's output is used to drive the wheels of the robot left and right so that it avoids hitting objects. The robot has no additional control from a human or a computer — its sole means of control is from its own brain.'"
Submission + - Swarm: A new approach to distributed computation (google.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Ian Clarke, creator of Freenet, has been working on a new open source project called Swarm. The concept is to allow a computer program to be distributed across multiple computers in a manner almost completely transparent to the programmer. The system observes the program executing and figures out how the workload should be distributed for maximum efficiency. Swarm is implemented in Scala. Its at an early-prototype stage, and Ian has created a good 36 minute video explaining the concept and the current implementation.
Submission + - T-Mobile loses all information stored on Sidekicks (t-mobile.com)
stigmato writes: T-Mobile's popular Sidekick brand of devices and their users are facing a data loss crisis. According to the T-Mobile community forums, Microsoft/Danger has suffered a catastrophic server failure that has resulted in the loss of all personal data not stored on the phones. They are advising users not to turn off their phones, reset them or let the batteries die in them for fear of losing what data remains on the devices. Microsoft/Danger has stated that they cannot recover the data but are still trying. Already people are clamoring for a lawsuit. Should we continue to trust cloud computing content providers with our personal information? Perhaps they should have used ZFS or btrfs for their servers...
The Pirate Bay Sails To a New Home 244
the monolith writes "Back in August, the company supplying bandwidth to The Pirate Bay was forced to disconnect them. Quoting TorrentFreak: '"It took just 20 minutes before the Hollywood companies telephoned the new host who took over operation of The Pirate Bay," commented Patrik from the ISP which had been indirectly supplying bandwidth to TPB. Despite initially putting on a brave face and standing strong, Patrik's company continued to feel the heat. It is not a large outfit and doesn't have the resources to fight the entertainment industry and its threats. Last night, Patrik could hold off no longer after receiving mounting threats from the entertainment industries, which culminated in threats of a court summons. Having come this far, there is little doubt that IFPI and the MPAA would litigate if necessary. ... On the heels of several rumors today, Patrik said he could confirm news of the move, saying that he believes The Pirate Bay is now hosted in Ukraine.'"
Synthetic Sebum Makes Slippery Sailboats 128
sonnejw0 writes "Sea-faring vessels are a major contributor of greenhouse gas production due to a deficit in international laws and inherent inefficiencies at sea, such as barnacle build-up on hulls. Many marine animals avoid the build-up of drag-inducing barnacles through secreting oily residues from their pores or through the nano-molecular arrangement of their skin. Sailors regularly defoul their hulls, removing the barnacles at dry-dock, which requires them to reduce the amount of time they have at sea. Some synthetic chemicals in paints have been used to prevent barnacle build-up but have been found to be toxic to marine animals and thus outlawed by several nations. Now, engineers are trying to replicate the skin of marine animals to produce a slippery hull to which marine bacteria cannot attach, saving fuel costs and improving speeds."
Comment Obligatory question (Score 1) 92
Does it run Linux?
Comment Re:Yeah, except... (Score 1) 569
That's what I think. Why waste money on re-inventing the incandescent when we already have a solution that beats incandescents *and* CFLs?
India To Put All Citizen Info In a Central Database 132
Oracle Goddess writes "As part of a project to issue ID cards for all 1.1 billion of its citizens, India has announced plans to place information on every single citizen in what will be the world's second largest citizens' database. The government believes the scheme will aid the delivery of vital social services to the poorest people who often lack sufficient identification papers. It also sees the scheme as a way to tackle increasing amounts of identity fraud and theft, and, at a time of increased concern over the threat of militant violence, to boost national security and help police and law officials. 'This could be used as a security measure by the government which leaves migrant workers, refugees and other stateless people in India in limbo, without access to public services, employment and basic welfare,' said Charu Lata Hogg, an associate fellow of the Asia program at Chatham House."
Comment With such a hyped up description (Score 1) 127
you'd think they'd have decent demo videos. I mean for the love of the Holodeck, if you're trying to film something that looks 3D, and you want to convince us it looks 3D, maybe move the camera in a three-dimensional motion? Like walk around the TV or something? Sheesh.
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