October 12, 2008
A Robot To Destroy Breast Cancer Cells
Sunday, October 12, 2008 12:03 AM
Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers at the University of Maryland are developing a robot able to detect and destroy breast cancer cells in a single session. After a tumor is located on an MRI, the robot will perform a biopsy of the breast while the patient is inside the scanner. 'If the biopsy displays cancerous cells, the robot will then insert a probe into the breast until it reaches the tumor. The probe will then burn the cancer cells until they are destroyed.' This looks great, but the researchers have only built a prototype. After they refine this robot, they'll need to go through clinical trials and obtain FDA approval. So this is not a robot that will appear on the medical market before several years."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot
October 11, 2008
iPhone 3G may be coming to a Walmart near you (Zach Epstein/Boy Genius Report)
Saturday, October 11, 2008 11:55 PM
Zach Epstein / Boy Genius Report:
iPhone 3G may be coming to a Walmart near you — Back in June we broke the news that Apple would be mixing things up a bit by moving away from its prior iPhone distribution model and getting a couple of nation-wide retailers in on the action. A little more than two months later …
Source: Techmeme
Categories: Web 2.0
Apple dumping Intel chipsets for NVIDIA's in new MacBooks (AppleInsider)
Saturday, October 11, 2008 11:05 PM
AppleInsider:
Apple dumping Intel chipsets for NVIDIA's in new MacBooks — Apple will announce as part of its special media event Tuesday a new family of MacBooks that will abandoned Intel's integrated graphics chipsets for those part of NVIDIA's new mobile platform, AppleInsider can confirm.
Source: Techmeme
Categories: Web 2.0
A 3D Curve Sketching System For Tablets
Saturday, October 11, 2008 8:53 PM
dominique_cimafranca writes "The Dynamic Graphics Project of the University of Toronto has released a pretty nifty 3D curve sketching system. Apart from the large drawing area, the tablet software looks very intuitive to artists. From the site: 'The system coherently integrates existing techniques of sketch-based interaction with a number of novel and enhanced features. Novel contributions of the system include automatic view rotation to improve curve sketchability, an axis widget for sketch surface selection, and implicitly inferred changes between sketching techniques. We also improve on a number of existing ideas such as a virtual sketchbook, simplified 2D and 3D view navigation, multi-stroke NURBS curve creation, and a cohesive gesture vocabulary.'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot
IM: Not coming soon (Twitter Status)
Saturday, October 11, 2008 8:45 PM
Twitter Status:
IM: Not coming soon — In October 2006, just three months after Twitter launched publicly, we added IM support—i.e., the ability to get and send tweets via XMPP/Jabber/Google Talk. I was a big fan of this feature, because this interface, which millions of people were already familiar with …
Source: Techmeme
Categories: Web 2.0
Don't Shoot The Messenger - I've detected a bit of irritation ... (Fred/A VC)
Saturday, October 11, 2008 7:05 PM
Fred / A VC:
Don't Shoot The Messenger — I've detected a bit of irritation, and even cynicism about the motives of Sequoia, Benchmark, Ron Conway, and others (including me perhaps) in the venture capital business who have been publicly and privately advising their portfolio companies and entrepreneurs everywhere …
Source: Techmeme
Categories: Web 2.0
Profit Maximization V. Survival Maximization
Saturday, October 11, 2008 6:55 PM
A lot of criticism has been aimed at venture capitalists the last few days. The VCs are telling their portfolio companies to get ahead of the curve and conserve cash right now, and companies are starting to take their advice.
The criticism is coming from people who don't understand that the world has changed in the last week and that companies need to change with it. And so they're asking why VCs waited until now to tell everyone to conserve cash. Others are saying the boom is the VCs fault, and for them to lecture companies on conserving cash is ironic.
Fred Wilson wrote about this issue today and says VCs have a responsibility to give their best advice to their portfolio companies: "It's all about acting responsibly and making sure we all survive to fight another day."
But he doesn't address the issue head on. I will. What we're talking about is the goal of profit maximization, which is what every for profit business needs to aim for or go out of business. In the good times, that means growing intelligently. In the bad, it means maximizing your chances of survival.
Source: TechCrunch
Categories: Web 2.0
Open Office Plans To Party Like It's Version 3.0
Saturday, October 11, 2008 6:11 PM
penguin_dance writes "The Register reports that 'OpenOffice.org is throwing a launch party in Paris on 13 October' to celebrate eight years, and hopefully announce the release of version 3.0. Some notes: [OpenOffice.org 3.0] will support the OpenDocument Format 1.2 standard, and be able to open files created by MS Office 2007 and Office 2008 for Mac OS X." As maj_id10t notes, though the OO.o site does not yet carry an announcement, "Lifehacker has posted an entry stating the final release of OpenOffice 3.0 is available for download via their distribution mirrors."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot
Microsoft's New Programming Language, "M"
Saturday, October 11, 2008 4:54 PM
Anthony_Cargile writes "Microsoft announced Friday their new 'M' language, designed especially for building textual domain-specific languages and software models with XAML. Microsoft will also announce Quadrant, for building and viewing models visually, and a repository for storing and combining models using a SQL Server database. While some say the language is simply their 'D' language renamed to a further letter down the alphabet, the language is criticized for lack of a promised cross-platform function because of its ties to MS SQL server, which only runs on Windows."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot
In Defense of Piracy - Digital technology has made it easy ... (Lawrence Lessig/Wall Street Journal)
Saturday, October 11, 2008 4:45 PM
Lawrence Lessig / Wall Street Journal:
In Defense of Piracy — Digital technology has made it easy to create new works from existing art, but copyright law has yet to catch up. — In early February 2007, Stephanie Lenz's 13-month-old son started dancing. Pushing a walker across her kitchen floor, Holden Lenz started moving …
Source: Techmeme
Categories: Web 2.0
Forget the Front Desk: Hotels Go High Tech
Saturday, October 11, 2008 4:24 PM
There's nothing like a bit of luxury when staying at a nice hotel. Be it in-room dining or the staff waiting on your every need, feeling like a king for a day is a matter of taking advantage of the hotel's services. Unfortunately, the systems in place for requesting such things are years behind, teetering on the edge of archaic. You can stare at the minuscule writing on the phone handset in hopes that dialing the listed numbers won't throw you into an infinite loop of forwards and "accidental" hang ups or, at some hotels, you can click your way through a sluggish and ancient feeling TV interface. They may as well be using pneumatic tubes.
Runtriz, a software firm out of Hollywood, CA, is aiming to bring hotels up to speed. Following a series of quiet test runs at other LA hotels, they've debuted a product called "Hotel Evolution" at the Malibu Beach Inn in Malibu, CA, which puts all of the hotel's offerings in the palm of your hand.
Source: TechCrunch
Categories: Web 2.0
Loebner Talks AI
Saturday, October 11, 2008 3:43 PM
Mighty Squirrel writes "This is a fascinating interivew with Hugh Loebner, the academic who has arguably done more to promote the development of artifical intelligence than anyone else. He founded the Loebner prize in 1990 to promote the development of artificial intelligence by asking developers to create a machine which passes the Turing Test — meaning it responds in a way indistinguishable from a human. The latest running of the contest is this weekend and this article shows what an interesting and colourful character Loebner is."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot
Google Rewires Washington in Challenge to Microsoft (Molly Peterson/Bloomberg)
Saturday, October 11, 2008 2:40 PM
Molly Peterson / Bloomberg:
Google Rewires Washington in Challenge to Microsoft — Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) — Vivek Kundra, recruited to Washington to overhaul city computer networks plagued by cost overruns and viruses, treats his projects like stocks. The biggest “buy” on his trading floor is Google Inc.
Source: Techmeme
Categories: Web 2.0
Huge Credit Fraud Ring Sends Europeans' Data to Pakistan
Saturday, October 11, 2008 2:32 PM
marshotel excerpts from a story at the Wall Street Journal: "European law-enforcement officials uncovered a highly sophisticated credit-card fraud ring that funnels account data to Pakistan from hundreds of grocery-store card machines across Europe, according to U.S. intelligence officials and other people familiar with the case. Specialists say the theft technology is the most advanced they have seen, and a person close to British law enforcement said it has affected big retailers including a British unit of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Tesco Ltd."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot
Map of Web Content By Perspective
Saturday, October 11, 2008 1:23 PM
Anonymous Coward writes "Cruxlux has a perspective-based search engine up. It provides a map of results laid out by viewpoint. For example, querying 'Obama' shows a map with liberal blog posts, articles, and video clumped together, conservative stuff nearby, and nonpolitical sources farther away. It works for nonpolitical queries too (sports, etc.). It also lets you limit results to certain types of views — you can focus on hot 'Obama' content from a liberal angle, for instance."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot
New machine prints sheets of light (Associated Press)
Saturday, October 11, 2008 1:10 PM
Associated Press:
New machine prints sheets of light — NISKAYUNA, New York (AP) — On a bank of the Mohawk River, a windowless industrial building of corrugated steel hides something that could make floor lamps, bedside lamps, wall sconces and nearly every other household lamp obsolete. — It's a machine that prints lights.
Source: Techmeme
Categories: Web 2.0
Twitter to IM: Drop Dead
Saturday, October 11, 2008 12:29 PM
It took a worldwide financial meltdown for Twitter to finally cough up the IM hairball. At BearHug Camp, I spent about 10 of the 30 minute executive visitation trying to pin down Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Alex Payne on when exactly Track and IM would be back, and in what order. Turns out the IM part isn't coming back; it's been moved from Broken to Build.
Evan Williams delivers the bad news with a refreshing frankness, suggesting the ROI of IM services for a small percentage of Twitter users puts it down the list below other more pressing priorities. And at the bottom of the email, he points at a fledgling third-party service that gives you a way of "tweeting" over the Jabber XMPP gateway. The author is mulling how to provide access to users' follows. No mention is made of Track, of course.
Source: TechCrunch
Categories: Web 2.0
Esther Dyson To Train For Space Flight
Saturday, October 11, 2008 12:12 PM
DynaSoar writes "Esther Dyson, known to many as a founding and consistently guiding member of ICANN, and for working with the startups of Flickr, del.icio.us, Medscape and others, is now expanding her interests upwards. She recently announced that she will be heading to Moscow to train as backup astronaut for Charles Simonyi, who plans to fly aboard Soyuz TMA-14 next year. The US$3 million price tag won't be her first cash contribution towards personal space flight. She's already an investor in Space Adventures, the company that arranges the space tourist flights on Soyuz."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot
Where are we going?
Saturday, October 11, 2008 11:59 AM
The question of where we are going is on the mind of most people these days. While I for one do not know, Tim O'Reilly and Dave McClure have some great ideas.
Source: TechCrunch
Categories: Web 2.0
Lessig's "In Defense of Piracy"
Saturday, October 11, 2008 11:03 AM
chromakey writes "The Wall Street Journal is running an essay from Lawrence Lessig about the fair use of copyrighted material on the Internet. He makes the case that companies who go to extreme lengths to squash minor videos, such as Universal, are stifling creativity in the modern era. Lessig makes specific reference to a YouTube video that was hit by a DMCA takedown notice, in which a 13-month-old child is dancing to a nearly inaudible soundtrack of Prince's 'Let's Go Crazy.' Lawrence Lessig is a board member for the Electronic Frontier Foundation."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot
