By Sharif Sakr 
posted Jul 21st 2011 7:36AM
Thursday, July 21, 2011
SwiftKey X keyboard app is free today on Amazon, be swift or pay $3.99
By Sharif Sakr
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Vegetarian Diet May Protect Against Common Bowel Disorder
ScienceDaily (July 19, 2011) — Vegetarians are a third less likely to get a common bowel disorder (diverticular disease) than their meat eating counterparts, finds a new study published on theBritish Medical Journal website.
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NAND Flash Better Than DRAM For PC Performance
Posted by Soulskill
from the drams-do-better-for-memory-loss dept.
Lucas123 writes"Adding NAND flash memory to a PC does more for performance than DRAM and costs less, according to a new study. As the price difference between the two memory types widens, NAND flash will become the memory of choice in the PC. The effects of NAND flash adoption are already being felt in the DRAM market, as revenue in 2011 is expected to decline 11.8%."
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Borders Books, Dead At 40
Posted by timothy
from the will-be-sorely-missed dept.
theodp writes"There will be no storybook ending for Borders. The 40-year-old book seller could start shuttering its 399 remaining stores as early as Friday(store closing map). The Ann Arbor, MI-based chain, which helped pioneer the big-box bookseller concept, is seeking court approval to sell off its assets after it failed to receive any bids that would keep it in business. Hang on to those Borders Midnight Magic Party memories, kids!"
IE6 Still Going Strong In China
Posted by timothy
from the not-so-big-in-japan dept.
RackNine writes"Net Applications estimates that IE6 has a share of 33.8% in China, StatCounter estimates about 40.2%. Consider the fact that there are currently about 477 million Internet users in China and you get 160 to 192 million IE6 users. That is potentially more than all Internet users in Africa and the Middle East combined (187 million)."
Dual-boot your Nook Color with Android using a micro-SD card, $35
As David Chernicoff over atBetween the Lines reminds us, the Barnes & Noble Nook Color is an Android device at its core (it runs Froyo 2.2), so it is a shame that the B&N interface would hide the “major capabilities of an Android 2.2 tablet.”Read More
Monday, July 18, 2011
Do 'Ultracool' Brown Dwarfs Surround Us?
Posted by CmdrTaco
from the itsatrap dept.
astroengine writes"The recent discovery of two very cool 'T-class' brown dwarfs in our cosmic neighborhood has prompted speculation that there may be many more ultracool 'failed stars' nearby. Not only are these objects themselves very interesting to study, should there be many such brown dwarfs spanning interstellar space. Perhaps they could be used as 'stepping stones' to the stars."
Stanford Students Build "JediBot"
Posted by samzenpus
from the may-the-grades-be-with-you dept.
An anonymous reader writes"By combining a dexterous robotic arm, a foam-padded lightsaber, the movement tracking capabilities of Microsoft's Kinect sensor, and some clever software, students at Stanford University have created what can only be called a JediBot. Using a series of pre-programmed 'attack moves', and Kinect to detect the location of the enemy's light saber, JediBot can attack and defend with surprising grace. For now its attack moves are fairly slow — it can only attack once every 2 or 3 seconds — but presumably you could tweak a knob (and remove the foam padding) to turn JediBot into a real killing machine."I look forward to model that can also "force choke" an opponent.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Sub-Centimeter Positioning Coming To Mobile Phones
Posted by timothy
from the we-control-the-latitude-we-control-the-longitude dept.
Oooskar writes"SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping), a technique invented by NASA, defines the concept of building a 3D-map of the environment and simultaneously computing the position within it. Based on SLAM, Swedish startup 13th Lab has implemented real-time sub-centimeter local 3D-positioning by using only the sensors, most importantly the camera, already present in most mobile devices (demo video). The technology will be made available as a software platform for developers (sign up for beta). A first application demonstrating the technology has just been released for the iPad2. The technology should be available on other devices with similar computational power soon."
Researchers Build "Squishy" Memory Device
Posted by samzenpus
from the memory-stuck-between-my-fingers dept.
ShipLives writes"Researchers have developed a memory device that is soft and functions well in wet environments, which could lead to new biocompatible electronic devices. 'We’ve created a memory device with the physical properties of Jell-O,' says Dr. Michael Dickey, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research."
Man builds turbine-powered Batmobile, brags about having the only one (video)
By Billy Steele posted Jul 14th 2011 6:51AM
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Snail Discovered That Can Survive Digestion By Birds
Posted by samzenpus
from the service-on-this-flight-is-sh*t dept.
smitty777 writes"A recent article in the Journal of Biogeography describes research showing that 15% of the snails devoured by birds on a Japanese island can survive the digestive process. This is thought to be the mechanism by which the snail populations can migrate from island to island, similar to the way plant seeds are deposited. From the article: 'In the lab, scientists fed the birds with the snails to find out whether any survived the digestive process. "We were surprised that a high rate, about 15 percent, of snails were still alive after passing through the gut of [the] birds," explained researcher Shinichiro Wada.'"As bad as riding in a bird's digestive tract sounds, I'd take it over flying standby on a puddle jumper.
Your Mother Was Right: Good Posture Makes You Tougher
ScienceDaily (July 12, 2011) — Mothers have been telling their children to stop slouching for ages. It turns out that mom was onto something and that poor posture not only makes a bad impression, but can actually make you physically weaker. According to a study by Scott Wiltermuth, assistant professor of management organization at the USC Marshall School of Business, and Vanessa K. Bohns, postdoctoral fellow at the J.L. Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, adopting dominant versus submissive postures actually decreases your sensitivity to pain.
Social x-ray glasses can decode emotions, make your blind dates less awkward
By Amar Toor posted Jul 12th 2011 4:18AM
You may consider yourself a world-class liar, but a new pair of "social x-ray" glasses could soon expose you for the fraud you really are. Originally designed for people suffering from autism, these specs use a rice grain-sized camera to pick up on a person's 24 "feature points" -- facial expressions that convey feelings of confusion, agreement and concentration, among others. Once recognized, these signals are analyzed by software, compared against a database of known expressions and then relayed to users via an attached headphone. If their date starts to feel uncomfortable, a blinking red light lets them know that it's time to shut up. Rosalina Picard, an electrical engineer who developed the prototype with Rana el Kaliouby, acknowledged that her algorithm still needs some fine tuning, but told New Scientist that the glasses have already proved popular with autistic users, who often have difficulty deciphering others' body language. No word yet on when these social specs could hit the market, but they'll probably make us even more anti-social once they do.Thursday, July 7, 2011
Geocaching Shuts Down British Town
Posted by samzenpus
from the everyone-panic dept.
DaveAtWorkAnnoyingly writes"Many geocachers will be thinking twice when planting their treasure in an urban space as one geocacher found out in England after the police cordoned off the center of a small West Yorkshire town and the Bomb Squad was called in. From the article: 't was a normal busy Friday morning in the small West Yorkshire market town of Wetherby when someone working in a café spotted a man acting a bit suspiciously on the street. He appeared to have a small plastic box in his hand and after fiddling with the container he bent down and hid it under a flower box standing on the pavement. He then walked off, talking to somebody on his phone.'"
Outcomes for Cardiac Valve Procedure Patients Are Affected by Insurance Status, Study Finds
ScienceDaily (July 6, 2011) — The type of primary insurance patients carry affects outcomes of cardiac valve operations in the United States according to a study in the May issue of theJournal of the American College of Surgeons. As a result, the type of primary insurance should be considered as an independent risk factor during preoperative risk stratification and planning, the researchers reported. They found that uninsured and Medicaid patients incur worse unadjusted and risk-adjusted outcomes following cardiac valve operations compared with those who carry private insurance.
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Bill Gates On Energy
Posted by Unknown Lamer
from the agreeing-with-bill-gates-feels-dirty dept.
Sam the Nemesis submitted an interview in Wired with Bill Gates on the future of energy. Gates sees nuclear as the only feasible option for base load generation. His views on the current direction of energy funding are particularly distressing: "But the economics are so, so far from making sense. And yet that's where subsidies are going now. We're putting 90 percent of the subsidies in deployment — this is true in Europe and the United States — not in R&D. And so unfortunately you get technologies that, no matter how much of them you buy, there's no path to being economical. You need fundamental breakthroughs, which come more out of basic research."
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Climate Skeptic Funded By Oil and Coal Companies
Posted by timothy
from the not-that-I-can-recall-at-this-time-sir-no dept.
Honken writes with a report from The Guardian that"'One of the world's most prominent scientific figures to be sceptical about climate change has admitted to being paid more than $1m in the past decade by major US oil and coal companies.' This somewhat contradicts that [Harvard researcher Willie] Soon in a 2003 US senate hearing said that he had 'not knowingly been hired by, nor employed by, nor received grants from any organisation that had taken advocacy positions with respect to the Kyoto protocol or the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.'"
Why Do We Share Stories, News and Information With Others?
ScienceDaily (June 30, 2011) — People often share stories, news, and information with the people around them. We forward online articles to our friends, share stories with our co-workers at the water cooler, and pass along rumors to our neighbors. Such social transmission has been going on for thousands of years, and the advent of social technologies like texting, Facebook, and other social media sites has only made it faster and easier to share content with others. But why is certain content shared more than others and what drives people to share?
Did the Chinese Military Use Top Gun Footage?
has the People's Liberation Army signed up Goose and Maverick? Chinese bloggers are accusing state broadcaster CCTV of using re-purposed footage from the 1986 film Top Gun for a story on a recent air force drill.' Is it just me or are communist nations very skilled at embarrassing themselves?"
Assange Handed Sydney Peace Medal
Posted by samzenpus
from the love-or-hate dept.
hihihihi writes"WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been awarded the Sydney Peace Foundation's Gold Medal for 'exceptional courage in the pursuit of human rights.' It is only the fourth time in the organization's 14-year history that the prize for extraordinary achievement in promoting peace with justice has been given out. Previous winners are Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and Japanese Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda. Foundation director Professor Stuart Rees accused the Australian government of demonizing Mr Assange and aiding US efforts to behave like a totalitarian state."
Don't Show, Don't Tell? Direct Instruction Can Thwart Independent Exploration
ScienceDaily (June 30, 2011) — Suppose someone showed you a novel gadget and told you, "Here's how it works," while demonstrating a single function, such as pushing a button. What would you do when they handed it to you?
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Wednesday, June 29, 2011
A Solar-Powered 3D Printer Prints Glass From Sand
Posted by Unknown Lamer
from the print-your-dishes-off-the-grid dept.
Tx-0 writes in with a story in Colossal Art & Design. From the article:"Industrial designer and tinkerer Markus Kayser spent the better part of a year building and experimenting with two fantastic devices that harness the sun's power in some of the world's harshest climates. The first he calls a Sun Cutter, a low-tech light cutter that uses a large ball lens to focus the sun's rays onto a surface that's moved by a cam-guided system. ... Next, Kayser began to examine the process of 3D printing. Merging two of the deserts most abundant resources, nearly unlimited quantities of sand and sun, he created the Solar Sinter, a device that melts sand to create 3D objects out of glass."
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