The last couple weeks have been filled with news on Microsoft. Microsoft attempts to acquire Yahoo! Microsoft invests $3 million in the development of healthcare applications. Microsoft gives away high-end software development tools to college students. Microsoft takes sides in the high-def DVD format war. Microsoft may partner with Netflix.
Microsoft was famously late to the Internet business, and has always lagged behind one online giant or another, whether it be Google, AOL, Yahoo!, take your pick. Now, as many people begin shifting their digital lives from their desktops to their homepages, online applications of the Google Docs variety have the potential to eat away at the supremacy of Office. Now, the European Union has slapped Microsoft with a $1.3 billion fine for noncompliance with a 2004 antitrust ruling.
Rock n' rollers have had unprejudiced access to the mind-expanding potential of drugs as fuel for inspiration for decades — why shouldn't Silicon Valley wondernerds have the same options?
Silicon Valley blog Valley Wagreports on an insider who says that OC-80 (that's oxycontin in an 80-milligram dose) has swept the valley by storm, seducing "everyone who's anyone" with its "much better than cocaine" effects. The expensive highs can cost $70 per pill at retail prices and $40 in bulk. Allegedly users get docs from the more permissive burg of L.A. to FedEx the prescription medication in its highest dose to their offices. Then it's scrape the green coating, crush, snort and on to some righteous beta testing! Saith Silicon Valley's Deep Throat:
You have no idea (or maybe you do) the amount of prescription painkillers flowing in Silicon Valley. If you think that Hollywood has drug problems, the Valley is way, way worse. It's just that people keep it much more secret.
A follow-up tip from another insider posits that OC use might have even contributed to the much-reported decline of Yahoo. I'm sure Microsoft will clean up the place...right after this last toot of OC. (What, those Yahoo guys practically left it on the counter!)
I'm not going to name names or reasons, but we all know someone who needs to wipe their hard drive to a blinding sheen more often than not. Today's Giftology item is perfect for the covert agent, porn enthusiast or vengeful post-doc candidate who you've been entrusted to serve as Secret Santa. The Drive eRazer simply connects to an old hard drive and erases all the old files by writing a data pattern over the entire disc. The Pro version performs multiple passes while writing random characters over your leather fetish, nuclear proliferation or embarrassing first novel files.
But this story takes that relationship to a whole new level of awesomeness.
EMI is the parent company of The Beatles’ two record labels, Capitol Records and Apple Records. And it had its fingers in several pies at the time (they gave the BBC its first television transmitter), one of which included R&D in medical imaging technology. So they took the heaps and heaps of money they made off of the sales of some 200 million Beatles singles and used it to fund Sir Godfrey Hounsfield's work on his CT scanner prototype at EMI Central Research Laboratories in Hayes, England. As a result he spent four years tinkering on it. Lo and behold the first EMI-Scanner was installed in a hospital in Wimbledon, England in 1972.
For the last few years, the Robo-One competitions have given robot-builders a chance to showcase their creations – and watch them do battle. This year's Grand Championship saw robots that knew how to use their balloons, dancing bots that sang Christmas carols, and shadowy humanoids that engaged in the questionable "three-point defense." After all the robots were introduced, they went head-to-head in the ring to try to knock the circuits out of each other. (Or, at least, knock over an opponent three times.)
The requirements for Robo-One are pretty minimal, but each competing robot has to walk on two legs. About 25 finalists are gathered in Tokyo for the most recent contest.
“You can’t win a battle if you can’t rebuild your robot at least once every half year,” says one of the competitors.
The Japanese are way ahead when it comes to thinking, dancing robots, but when it comes to kicking ass, we still rule. An evil-sounding, Utah-based company called Sarcos spent six years developing a dextrous, highly responsive robotic exoskeleton for military applications. The idea of military exoskeletons is nothing new, but watching one in action is pretty freaking sweet. Let's go to the tape:
Why is this woman smiling? Because her adorable little house-cleaning robot, iClebo, is also a vigilant guardian of the night!
South Korean robot-maker Yujin Robot plans to introduce a new version of their Roomba lookalike, iClebo, next year. Like the current model, the 2008 iClebo will go about its business while you’re not looking, vacuuming and bumping into furniture. But unlike its predecessors, the gadget will be equipped with new technology from mobile phone company KTF: a microphone, a camera and a speaker.
When the robot detects an intruder in your home, the new iClebo will be able to “bark” or send an urgent message to your cell phone. (One imagines it could also be used to break up a particularly disastrous first date, or police your children…)
Rolling right along, here's the second episode of our video podcast, "Instant Egghead."
Ever wonder why Apple puts out a newer, tinier iPod every two freaking seconds? Or why you're watching this on a laptop instead of a blinking, blooping Star-Trek-style wallputer? Moore's Law is the reason. Christie Nicholson explains how it works-- in pretty much the lowest-tech way possible.
Oh, Japan -- through your tireless efforts at improving robotics, obstacle course engineering, and tentacle hentai, we'll soon live in a transhuman world where we can transmit data through our bodies. Thanks to work by researchers at Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, large chunks of data, like resumes, emails, and even tentacle hentai can be transmitted through a simple handshake.
OK, I'm as sorry at having to write that headline as you are having to read it, but can we all just get past that and celebrate the fact that these Tesla coils rock the heazy? Steve Ward and Jeff Larson showcased the best thing they'll ever do with their lives at the 2007 Lightning on the Lawn Teslathon in Baraboo, WI.
It may be no surprise to anyone but Michael Bay, but a recent study shows young children have a preference for interactive robots over traditional toys. Now, if you'll allow me one second to put myself into the mind of a toddler, which I do regularly anyway: "Hmmm, let's see....dolly looks pretty in pink and freaking just sits there, while QRIO dances, giggles and comes with an optional land-to-air missile mount. I think I'm going to go with the robot. Mwaaaah! I want a cookie!"
During the first 27 sessions, the robot was responsive to the children, giggling when its head was touched. The children enjoyed interacting with the robot during this period, the team reports.
The researchers then restricted QRIO's behavior to a more predictable, nonresponsive dance routine for 15 sessions, and children's interest declined. At the end of the study, the team reinstated its full repertoire for three sessions, and interest picked up. Programming the robot to respond to the children was key to engaging them, the team reports online 5 November in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Lame name aside (it's no Pablo 247), Personal Home Robot can water plants, control lights and appliances, play music and remind owners to take their medication. Unfortunately, it didn't remind Trinh to take his naming creativity pills or use paper clips in his design. But Trinh, of Towson, MD, still gets $5,000 in cash. That's a lot of paper clips.
The last couple weeks have been filled with news on Microsoft. Microsoft attempts to acquire Yahoo! Microsoft invests $3 million in the development of healthcare applications. Microsoft gives away high-end software development tools to college students. Microsoft takes sides in the high-def DVD format war. Microsoft may partner with Netflix.
Rock n' rollers have had unprejudiced access to the mind-expanding potential of drugs as fuel for inspiration for decades — why shouldn't Silicon Valley wondernerds have the same options?
I'm not going to name 
The Japanese are way ahead when it comes to 
Dammit. I guess Pablo 247, my robot made from paper clips, didn't win
