tgacid - Slashdot User

Chemical Cocktail Can Keep a Heart Viable 10 Days, Outside the Body 97

Posted by timothy on Saturday May 15, 2010 @12:32AM from the with-very-few-exceptions-not-a-worm dept.

nj_peeps writes "Harvard professor Hemant Thatte has developed a cocktail of 21 chemical compounds that he calls Somah, derived from the Sanskrit for 'ambrosia of rejuvenation.' Using Somah, Thatte and his team have accomplished some amazing feats with pig hearts. They can keep the organ viable for transplant up to 10 days after harvest — far longer than the four-hour limit seen in hospitals today. Not only that, but using low temperatures and Somah, they were able to take a pig heart that was removed post mortem and get it to beat 24 hours later in the lab."

Valve Discusses Team Fortress 2's Future 135

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday January 21, 2009 @07:27AM from the improving-and-evolving dept.

The Escapist chatted with Valve's Robin Walker about how the Team Fortress 2 team has been listening to feedback and continually updating the game to fix problems and add to the gameplay experience. Walker mentions that ideas for new classes are "floating around," and that a new mode of play will be introduced soon. "'Players have driven our entire approach to designing achievements, the way we tie unlockables to those achievements and the design of those new weapons themselves. The choices we made within the Medic and Heavy updates were very much the result of the ways that players have used that combination of classes within the game. The addition of the payload game mode came from players requesting an old Team Fortress Classic map called Hunted, and describing what they did and didn't like in that map.' ... The Scout is the next class slated for the special treatment, and Walker expects the update will be available early this year. Additionally, the team is juggling a number of side projects at the moment, including finally bringing a year's worth of the downloadable content and upgrades to the Xbox 360 version of the game. A new Payload map is in the works, more community maps are on the way and the team will soon unveil a very different new game mode."

Comment Re:Group punishment? (Score 2, Interesting) 156

by tgacid on Friday March 07, 2008 @07:07PM (#22682348) Attached to: Chicago Links School Cameras To Police

On one hand, it could be seen as a punishment against a group, but how much of a punishment is it to have a security camera installed to monitor your own safety? I know my school installed outward-facing security cameras after some deadly violence not to actively go after any troublemakers on the grounds, but to have the option to reconstruct any scenes/entries of people entering the building in case anything did happen.

Submission + - Details of Microsoft's new analytics tool leaked (computerworld.com)

Submitted by

hhavensteincw

on Monday July 23, 2007 @04:06PM

hhavensteincw writes: "Details of Microsoft's answer to Google's Analytics have leaked online. Screenshots have been posted on the Net of the new "Gatineau" Web analytics tool that Microsoft now says (http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?co mmand=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyId=9&articleId=9027 638&intsrc=hm_topic) will be available in beta this summer. In a blog post, Microsoft's Ian Thomas also reveals that Microsoft will use Live ID(formerly Microsoft Passport) profiles to get its demographic data."

Five Finger Keyboards 177

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday July 23, 2007 @09:55AM

Tijaska writes "Mobile devices are becoming more capable all the time, but their small screens and keyboards limit their usefulness. This article shows ways in which five buttons located on the edges of a mobile could be used in combinations to generate 325 or many more different characters, making a full-sized keyboard unnecessary. If that sounds like a tall story, remember the case of the retired 93 year old telegraph operator who used a Morse key to send a text message faster than a teenager could send it via mobile phone (see here)."

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