Soviet Video Games from the 70s 66
vigmeister writes "A group of Russian kids have uncovered and rebuilt some arcade games from the Soviet era. These games apparently offered free play when someone played well, but no list of hi-scores. Roughly 32 of them have been found and although they are based on other arcade games, I hope these games were unique enough to offer playability for the present day arcade game lovers. 'Based largely (and crudely) on early Japanese designs, the games were distributed -- in the words of one military manual -- for the purposes of "entertainment and active leisure, as well as the development of visual-estimation abilities." Production of the games ceased with the collapse of communism, and as Nintendo consoles and PCs flooded the former Soviet states, the old arcade games were either destroyed or disappeared into warehouses and basements. It was mostly out of nostalgia that four friends at Moscow State Technical University began scouring the country to rescue these old games. '"
Journal Journal: Feds Armored Vehicle seen outside Ed and Elaine Brown's home
The Feds are preparing for a Waco style attack on Ed and Elaine Brown's home in Plainfield, NH
Updated Blog
Feed Rullemarie robot shot, bludgeoned with axe after attempted arrest (engadget.com)
Filed under: Robots
As we've seen, robots can be quite capable of making arrests (or at least helping police make arrests). But even the best robots sometimes meet their match, as evidenced by this latest turn of events out of the Netherlands. It seems that police were having trouble contacting a man that was holding out in a cottage, so they decided to send in their trusty "Rullemarie" robot on a mission of peace. The criminal doesn't appear to have been in a mood to negotiate, however, and promptly shot the unarmed bot a few times before bludgeoning it with an axe. Sadly, the damage appears to have so extensive that even a robot MASH unit would likely not have been of any help.
[Thanks, J]
[Thanks, J]
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
White House Derails Attempts to End Illegal Wiretapping 647
P. Rivacy writes "If you recall, last month we discussed Congress's attempts to outlaw the already illegal NSA wiretaps authorized by the President. The White House is now using delaying tactics to derail the passage of that bill. Their tactic is to stall on providing documents related to the President's warrantless wiretapping program, despite requests from the Senate Intelligence Committee that is currently reviewing the proposed legislation. '"Another critical priority for congressional oversight is government wiretapping of Americans, conducted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and, illegally, under the President's warrantless wiretapping program," Senator Russ Feingold said. "When the program was finally placed within the FISA process, an opportunity arose for the Administration and the Congress to move forward, under the law. Unfortunately, the Administration has yet to demonstrate a real interest in doing so."'"
Feed Project over-runs make US IT workers scared for their jobs (theregister.com)
Europeans are much more chilled
The majority of European IT professionals say that a failure to finish projects on time would not pose a risk to their job. Under a quarter of IT workers in the US felt safe enough to say the same.
Feed VMware slaps SWsoft with hosting play (theregister.com)
Rent-A-VM
In a clear shot at rival SWsoft, VMware has started hyping a new pricing model for its VMware Infrastructure software suite aimed at hosting service providers.
Feed A Step Nearer To Understanding Superconductivity (sciencedaily.com)
Transporting energy without any loss, travelling in magnetically levitated trains, carrying out medical imaging (MRI) with small-scale equipment: all these things could come true if we had superconducting materials that worked at room temperature. Researchers have now taken another step forward on the road leading to this ultimate goal. They have revealed the metallic nature of a class of so-called critical high-temperature superconducting materials.
"Bear" Robot to Rescue Wounded Troops 331
Jim Hall writes "The US military is developing a robot with a teddy bear head to help carry injured soldiers out of combat. The "friendly appearance" of the robot is designed to put the wounded at ease. The 6ft tall Bear can cross bumpy ground without toppling thanks to a combination of gyroscopes and computer controlled motors to maintain balance. It is expected to be ready for testing within five years. 'It is also narrow enough to squeeze through doorways, but can lift 135kg (500 lbs.) with its hydraulic arms in a single smooth movement, to avoid causing pain to wounded soldiers. While the existing prototype slides its arms under its burden like a forklift, future versions will be fitted with manoeuvrable hands to gently scoop up casualties. The Bear is controlled remotely and has cameras and microphones through which an operator sees and hears. It can even tackle stairs while carrying a human-sized dummy.'"
Submission + - Serious diseases genes revealed
gollum123 writes: "A major advance in understanding the genetics behind several of the world's most common diseases has been reported ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6724369.stm ). The landmark Wellcome Trust study analysed DNA from the blood of 17,000 people to find genetic differences. They found new genetic variants for depression, Crohn's disease, coronary heart disease, hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis and type 1 and 2 diabetes. The Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC) involved 50 leading research groups analysing the DNA from 2,000 patients for each of the seven conditions and 3,000 healthy volunteers. One of the most exciting finds was a previously unknown gene common to type 1 diabetes and Crohn's disease, a type of inflammatory bowel disorder, suggesting that they share similar biological pathways. There is also disease by disease data at the BBC ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6727043.stm )."
Feed Publishing exec 'steals' Google laptops in silly demonstration (engadget.com)
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
We can't say that we'd recommend a CEO steal property from Google in order to prove a point, but the head honcho of Macmillan Publishers pushed his superego aside and did just that at a recent BookExpo America in NYC. It's no secret that a number of publishers have been up in arms about Google's approach to digitizing their works, but Richard Charkin went so far as to recruit a colleague and swipe a pair of laptops from a Google Books kiosk at the event. About an hour later, the booth attendants actually noticed the missing goods and presumably began to panic, and the haughty executive then had the nerve to return the machines to their rightful owners whilst dropping the "hope you enjoyed a taste of your own medicine" line. He justified the bizarre behavior by suggesting that "there wasn't a sign by the computers informing him not to steal them," apparently referencing Google's controversial tactics when scanning books. That'll show 'em, Mr. Charkin.[Via TechDirt]
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Feed Kazehakase brings innovation to the browser (newsforge.com)
Nowadays, half the free software world seems to be building Gecko-based browsers (and the other half writing plugins for them). With so many available, you might think the Kazehakase browser would hardly rate a mention. However, Kazehakase breaks away from the pack by being one of the few browser projects that is actually thinking of new features and ways to enhance old ones. From its interface to its features for bookmarks and tabs to its customization options for keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures, Kazehakase is crammed with nonstandard features. You may not want every new feature offered by Kazehakase, but chances are you'll appreciate some of them.
Feed Star duo are biggest yet (pheedo.com)
Feed Latest Microsoft Linux Deal Less Than Meet The Eye (techdirt.com)
On Monday, Microsoft announced a deal with Linux distributor Xandros, the details of which were similar to a previously announced deal with Novell. As a result of these deals, both Xandros and Novell (and their customers) are immune from any IP infringement threats that Microsoft might make. Although it's really an old story, Microsoft has once again been making vague threats about wanting to collect royalties from users of open source software. Today the company announced yet another Linux-related deal, as electronics maker LG will license some IP from Microsoft in exchange for its ability to use Linux in its products. At first glance, this deal would appear to be the fruit of Microsoft's intimidation tactics, and some will assume that this is just LG paying Microsoft "protection money" for the right to operate its own business. But as part of the deal, Microsoft gets to license some IP from LG and one of its partners, and in fact, Microsoft is paying more money to LG than the other way around. The most likely explanation is that neither side really needs the other side's IP to continue doing business, but, rather, Microsoft is simply buying itself a licensee of its patents. In this respect, the move looks fairly similar to what NTP did during its battle with Research In Motion, when it took equity stakes in two companies while simultaneously getting them to license the relevant patents. Later on, if this actually becomes a contentious issue, Microsoft will point to LG as an example of a company that recognized the need to license its IP in order to keep using Linux.
Feed New Nanomaterials To Deliver Anticancer Drugs To Cells Developed (sciencedaily.com)
Researchers report a novel approach using silica-based nanoparticles for the delivery of camptothecin and other water-insoluble drugs into human cancer cells. They manipulated nanomaterials to create a new drug-delivery system that promises to solve the challenge of the poor water solubility of today's most promising anticancer drugs and thereby increase their effectiveness.
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