News broke last October that archeologist had discovered a hobbit-like creature on an Indonesian island. Now neurologists have examined the creature’s brain and believe it to be a lost relative of modern humans, just a bit smaller. But the debate is far from over.
Sweet, hobbits lived. Not that this surprises me. Now we just need evidence of Treeants.
Intel’s 100-core chip could power intelligent toilet | The Register
So there’s Intel’s 100-core chip helping your toilet examine the morning delivery for signs of blood or god knows what else. The powerful toilet can call the doctor and schedule an appointment if it notices suspicious stool – checking, of course, with your online calendar for an appropriate time. Or, should you collapse right then and there, the toilet can call for an ambulance. Brilliant!
All kidding aside, such a toilet could be helpful and even witty. Who wouldn’t want a reminder like, “Easy, big boy. The 10 oz cut will do next time.” in the morning. Or even, “You’ve got mail and a herpes outbreak.”
Intel Inside indeed.
The return of the iLoo. Will the technological marvels created from the Intel-Microsoft partnership ever cease? FYI, in case you missed this old news story, the iLoo is what MSN was doing instead of developing desktop search.
Open Source, Linux News & Software – OSDir.com
A top HP executive has said that open source software is being under-represented in market share statistics because analyst firms are using outmoded measurement techniques
HP is hoping to persuade analyst firms to change the way that they measure the software market to take into account the open source business model.
“I would argue that Microsoft used to know how to ship software, but the world has changed… The companies that ‘know how to ship software’ are the ones to watch. They have embraced the network, deeply understand the concept of ‘software as a service,’ and know how to deliver incredible value to their customers efficiently and quickly,” Lucovsky added.
Lucovsky wrote positively about Amazon.com’s model for delivering new software bits to its customers.
When Amazon makes a fix to its software, “not a single customer had to download a bag of bits, answer any silly questions, prove that they are not software thieves, reboot their computers, etc. The software was shipped to them, and they didn’t have to lift a finger. Now that’s what I call shipping software,” Lucovsky said.
Oww…brain drain.
Robots to Watch Children Showcased
REDMOND, Wash. Mar 2, 2005 — The teddy bear sitting in the corner of the child’s room might look normal, until his head starts following the kid around using a face recognition program, perhaps also allowing a parent talk to the child through a special phone, or monitor the child via a camera and wireless Internet connection.
Kvaran is a tall and hale 56-year-old with a ruddy face, blue eyes, and blond hair that’s turning white. He calls himself an “art historian without portfolio” but has no formal credentials in his area of proclaimed expertise. He’s never published a scholarly article or taught a college course. Over three decades, he’s been a Peace Corps volunteer, an autoworker, a union steward, a homeschooling mentor, and the drummer in a Michigan band called Kodai Road. Right now, he’s unemployed. Which isn’t to say he doesn’t work. For about six hours each day, Kvaran reads and writes about American sculpture and public art and publishes his articles for an audience of millions around the world.
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In the beginning, encyclopedias relied on the One Smart Guy model. In ancient Greece, Aristotle put pen to papyrus and single-handedly tried to record all the knowledge of his time. Four hundred years later, the Roman nobleman Pliny the Elder cranked out a 37-volume set of the day’s knowledge. The Chinese scholar Tu Yu wrote an encyclopedia in the ninth century. And in the 1700s, Diderot and a few pals (including Voltaire and Rousseau) took 29 years to create the Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers.
I wonder how Jack Kent Cooke would feel about this? Early in his career that is.
NEW YORK (AP) — Sony has built the ability to order pizza into its latest online multiplayer game. Type the command “/pizza” while playing Everquest II, a fantasy game with 330,000 active players, and get the Pizza Hut Web site, where you can place orders for delivery.
Chris Kramer, spokesman for Sony Online Entertainment, said he believes this is the first time a game accepts orders for real-world items.
Sony plans to integrate the pizza function more tightly into the game, so players can charge pizza to their monthly game subscription bill.
Now we never have to leave the house! I can already see parents suing Sony further for getting their poor children addicted to evercrack. “Billy used to get up and eat, now he doesnt have to”. Sign of things to come? This could get interesting though if it catches on in other games. Playing the Sims2 and you purchase a big screen tv? Hope you pressed the correct ‘buy this’ button…
LIMA, Peru (AP) — Archeologists have discovered a group of figures scraped into the hills of Peru’s southern coastal desert that are believed to predate the country’s famous Nazca lines.
About 50 giant figures were etched into the earth over an area of roughly 90 square miles (145 square kilometers) near the city of Palpa, El Comercio newspaper reported.
So much yet to discover…
Think the PSP isn%u2019t quite pocketable enough for ya? Yeah, well, SL-Interphase is working on a tablet-style gaming PC called the Rogue that comes with a built-in joystick, track ball, buttons, up to 2GB of DDR2 RAM, and an 8.4-inch LCD screen you can write on
Maybe Tablet PCs are not completely useless.
Raskin died on Saturday night at his home in Pacifica, his family said in a statement. In December, he told friends he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Raskin joined Apple in 1978 – as its 31st employee – to start the young company’s publications department. At the time, computers were primarily text-based and users had to remember a series of arcane commands to perform the simplest tasks.
In 1979, Raskin had a different idea: a computer that was priced affordably, targeted at consumers and extremely easy to use. A small team, under his command, was put together at Apple to pursue his concept that would eventually become the Macintosh.
A brilliant and multi-talented man. His contributions have impacted industry for over two decades and will continue to for years to come. I’ll definately watch the movie and can’t wait to see what comes out of the Raskin Center project Archy.
Aaron Fulkerson 