Slashdot Mirror

Alexander Burke writes "In the 27,000-square-foot Carmel, Indiana home of Scott Jones, head of Escient Technologies, fireplaces ignite and drapes close on demand, televisions appear as if by magic and the ceilings play music. Touch-screen panels throughout the house run lights, security, heat and cooling systems, and video and audio libraries. Speakers are embedded in the walls and ceilings behind the plaster. The home includes a movie theater that seats 20 and has a wine cellar accessible only by fingerprint scan. Ted's outfit brings us more information."

castilejw writes "CNN has an article showing where researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have teamed with researchers from Maya Designs, Inc. to produce the ultimate universal remote, which "would choreograph not just home entertainment systems but also intelligent appliances all around the house: microwave ovens, clothes dryers, air conditioners.". The device they have shown is a modified Compaq iPAQ, which they have so far modified to control two lamps, a fan and a stereo with a five-CD changer." Seems like that much is pretty easy. Now when it can control my answering machine, my MP3 collection, and my garage door, I'll be ready to automate my soul. Update: 09/02 15:34 GMT by CT : Oops, this is a duplicate. Move along :) We suck so much. Blah blah blah.

castilejw writes "CNN has an article showing where researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have teamed with researchers from Maya Designs, Inc. to produce the ultimate universal remote, which "would choreograph not just home entertainment systems but also intelligent appliances all around the house: microwave ovens, clothes dryers, air conditioners.". The device they have shown is a modified Compaq iPAQ, which they have so far modified to control two lamps, a fan and a stereo with a five-CD changer." Seems like that much is pretty easy. Now when it can control my answering machine, my MP3 collection, and my garage door, I'll be ready to automate my soul. Update: 09/02 15:34 GMT by CT : Oops, this is a duplicate. Move along :) We suck so much. Blah blah blah.

azaroth42 writes "The end of Napster has finally come according to the Guardian as German group Bertelsmann pull the plug on the already 'past its use by date' music service. And the same story on CNN."

TheMayor writes: "CNN.com has a story about how researchers at Maya Designs, Inc. and Carnegie-Mellon are trying to come up with a remote control that controls everything in your house. From the TV to the blender, these guys want to make an all-in-one piece to turn everything on and off. Now I wonder if I could remotely flush my toliet?"

alanjstr writes: "We all hate how movies get 'edited for tv,' removing the sex, gore, and foul language that make them worth watching. A private firm decided to rent videos for private use after having made them clean. The Directors Guild of America doesn't like things like this (a la The Phantom Edit). CNN.com carries an article about Clean Flicks suing for the right to make edits. It's copyright vs. the first amendment as they battle over the right to censor and fair use." Since the equipment to make your own versions of movies is so ubiquitous, it would be interesting to see edit decision lists circulate for particular films.

tarawa writes: "This story at CNN reports that researchers have developed a new and easy way to extract hydrogen from a glucose solution that could provide a clean, environmentally safe fuel for our cars in the future." Stay calm, though -- ""We are not talking about spooning glucose into your car to make it go. That is 'Back to the Future' stuff."

ssyladin writes: "CNN is reporting a new dream cyber home being designed by the Brits for use in Hong Kong. It combines smart home technologies of touch panels for lights, heating, water taps, with the ability to move the interior wall partitions around with a basic toolbox and about a half day of labor. No more LAN parties in the garage! The homes can also be built faster and with less waste too. Bit skimpy on the details, but its an exciting prospect if its ever finished." Concepts like this probably fill a lot of napkin doodles around the world -- what do you think this particular one should do differently?

ssyladin writes: "CNN is reporting a new dream cyber home being designed by the Brits for use in Hong Kong. It combines smart home technologies of touch panels for lights, heating, water taps, with the ability to move the interior wall partitions around with a basic toolbox and about a half day of labor. No more LAN parties in the garage! The homes can also be built faster and with less waste too. Bit skimpy on the details, but its an exciting prospect if its ever finished." Concepts like this probably fill a lot of napkin doodles around the world -- what do you think this particular one should do differently?

Scratch-O-Matic writes "This story at CNN explains how gecko feet are sticky due to an electro-mechanical phenomenon rather than a chemical glue, as had been previously assumed. The gecko is one of just a few animals capable of climbing vertical and beyond-vertical surfaces that are smooth and dry. Researchers have discovered that the secret to the adhesion lies in millions of tiny hairs called 'setae.' Each hair is the width of two human hairs, and contains about 1000 little pads at the end. The pads are so tiny that they actually cling to the surface at the molecular level, due to van der Waal forces. A gecko using all of its setae and pads at the same time could support 280 pounds. Seems to me that his should be easily replicated in the coming age of nanotechnology." Other readers point to the AP story, as carried by Yahoo! and also playing at Salon.

Scratch-O-Matic writes "This story at CNN explains how gecko feet are sticky due to an electro-mechanical phenomenon rather than a chemical glue, as had been previously assumed. The gecko is one of just a few animals capable of climbing vertical and beyond-vertical surfaces that are smooth and dry. Researchers have discovered that the secret to the adhesion lies in millions of tiny hairs called 'setae.' Each hair is the width of two human hairs, and contains about 1000 little pads at the end. The pads are so tiny that they actually cling to the surface at the molecular level, due to van der Waal forces. A gecko using all of its setae and pads at the same time could support 280 pounds. Seems to me that his should be easily replicated in the coming age of nanotechnology." Other readers point to the AP story, as carried by Yahoo! and also playing at Salon.

eberry writes "Despite over 70,000 respondents (.37% of the population) replying "Jedi" to an optional faith question on Australia's census, it will not become a recognized religion According to CNN "Australian officials say respondents could face a $1,000 fine for supplying false information. Citing, and I quote, "...people of a particular religious affiliation do not provide the correct information, certain facilities might not be built that otherwise would be." Personally I find their lack of faith disturbing." And I find the fact that this is on CNN even more so ;)

ke4roh writes "NASA reports that they're readying Atlantis for a launch "no earlier than October 2". STS-112, space station assembly flight 9A (the 15th) will add to the truss on the station. To get the station from the vehicle assembly building to the launch pad, they transport it in launch position - on one of the 37-year-old crawlers that travels at just 1 mile per hour. Each 6 million pound vehicle transports a big rectangle - the Mobile Launch Platform - to the launch pad. The crawler is 40 by 37 meters, has two steering wheels and two mufflers the size of a car. The crawlers have received minimal service to date, and an inspector noticed a cracked bearing shortly before a crawler took Atlantis out for the launch. A few folks are enjoying the opportunity to work on the crawlers before they make their journey. Will N-Sync's 23-year-old singer Lance Bass be space tourist number three - and the youngest person to ever fly in space? Corporate sponsors get to decide. Telescopes show Contour, short for "Comet Nucleus Tour", in three pieces. Unfortunately, it's only supposed to be one. The craft was to visit three comets to investigate their contents. They're murmuring about a replacement which would cost about $15M less (than the $154M price tag) thanks to much of the engineering being done already. The AP has more."

ke4roh writes "NASA reports that they're readying Atlantis for a launch "no earlier than October 2". STS-112, space station assembly flight 9A (the 15th) will add to the truss on the station. To get the station from the vehicle assembly building to the launch pad, they transport it in launch position - on one of the 37-year-old crawlers that travels at just 1 mile per hour. Each 6 million pound vehicle transports a big rectangle - the Mobile Launch Platform - to the launch pad. The crawler is 40 by 37 meters, has two steering wheels and two mufflers the size of a car. The crawlers have received minimal service to date, and an inspector noticed a cracked bearing shortly before a crawler took Atlantis out for the launch. A few folks are enjoying the opportunity to work on the crawlers before they make their journey. Will N-Sync's 23-year-old singer Lance Bass be space tourist number three - and the youngest person to ever fly in space? Corporate sponsors get to decide. Telescopes show Contour, short for "Comet Nucleus Tour", in three pieces. Unfortunately, it's only supposed to be one. The craft was to visit three comets to investigate their contents. They're murmuring about a replacement which would cost about $15M less (than the $154M price tag) thanks to much of the engineering being done already. The AP has more."

M. Boss writes "CNN is running a story about a gene split between humans and the apes. This is the second major DNA article regarding human evolution published in the last month (the first being about the FOXP2 gene, possibly responsible for human speech and comprehension). This second story is about a gene missing in humans that is responsible for production of a sugar acid, and possibly human brain expansion."

TibbonZero writes "CNN reports that "Gamers drive souped-up PC market". They talk about the cost of high end computers, as well as their place in the PC Market. For some reason I thought it was playing solitaire that drove us to buy a Geforce 4 ti 4600..."

Jay Moore writes "According to this article on CNN, scientists believe a giant meteor 12 kilometers across struck the earth some 3.5 billion years ago making it the oldest known meteorite to have hit the earth."

Jay Moore writes "According to this article on CNN, scientists believe a giant meteor 12 kilometers across struck the earth some 3.5 billion years ago making it the oldest known meteorite to have hit the earth."

Jeff asks: "So the folks at a place called Conniption Films (great name) developed a camera called the Millisecond Camera which can shoot 12,000 frames of film a second. I read the article and thought 'Hmm that's neat' but then realized they were still using an analog process for shooting this highspeed film. Being a geek, not necessarily into the film side of things but curious nonetheless, I wonder, shouldn't a computer be able to do a better job of such a thing? They say the film runs around a spindle going 500 mph (!). Wouldn't that be prone to failure and use alot of energy? Wouldn't it be more appropriate, easier, and overall cheaper to just hook up a high res CCD to a beowulf </duck> cluster of 2 ghz+ machines and capture high speed images that way? Why hasn't it been done yet? Or has it and I haven't seen it yet?" I did a double-take, when I first read this question, and then got curious and did a little digging. Turns out, high frame rates are not exclusive to the analog photography world, and to illustrate my point, I provide this link. It's woefully short on details, and the explanations as to why a camera that can record 1M frames per second is limited to a playback of only 103 frames, but the technology is out there. Has anyone seen any other digital cameras out there with high frame-rates? What visual mischief could you aspiring photographers get into with such a camera?

I am linus's ho writes "CNN is running a story about gloves which transelate sign language into audble speach, in a stephen hawking type mannor, only, i suppose, much different. The article can be found here"

Scoria writes "CNN is reporting that the infamous Microsoft has disclosed six critical Internet Explorer vulnerabilities, including some that would allow an attacker to execute arbitary commands. According to the relevant TechNet bulletin, a cumulative patch has been released to address them." Please be sure to read the EULA before installing the patch.

netringer writes: "Two Yale University students used the WIYN 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory to capture a series of still images of asteroid 2002 NY40 on August 15-16, two nights before it made a close flyby of Earth. The still images were made into a cool digital movie that shows the asteroid streaking across the sky over a period of two hours. According to an AP story the students were supposed to looking at some binary stars when they decided to look a the asteroid instead."

PyroMosh writes "The next generation expendable heavy lifting rocket, the Atlas 5, lifted off today from Cape Canaveral Air Station. The American rocket, built by Lockheed Martin, sporting Russian RD-180 engines carried the Eutelsat Hotbird 6 telecommunications satellite into orbit. This next generation heavy lifter can out-lift any rocket built since the Saturn V 'Moon rocket', including the shuttle." Spaceflightnow has extensive coverage.

prostoalex writes: "CNN reports on growth of Internet phone services in Japan. The high cost of telephone calls, which many saw as an impediment to spread of the Internet is right now actually a menace to plain old phone companies, as more and more people are switching to VoIP services."

An anonymous reader submits: "CNN reports there seems to be a dramatic drop in N. hemishpere phytoplankton and a net overall decline in the ocean's overall phytoplankton population. This has very serious implications for the overall food chain and also the scrubbing of CO2 in the atmosphere."

whovian writes: "Caught this at CNN. This weekend there will be a asteroid traveling close enough to Earth to be seen by small telescope and perhaps binoculars. CNN's article is here while the venerable Sky and Telescope's is here. Time to try the ol' binocular plus digital camera trick!"

whovian writes: "Caught this at CNN. This weekend there will be a asteroid traveling close enough to Earth to be seen by small telescope and perhaps binoculars. CNN's article is here while the venerable Sky and Telescope's is here. Time to try the ol' binocular plus digital camera trick!"

Okay, let's close out the Linuxworld Expo news as best we can. CNet has an article on the march on City Hall (there's also an AP article) to promote open source in government (some people even want to get Linux certified). CNN loves Linux. Bruce Perens, as we mentioned last night, is bailing out of Hewlett-Packard. And Newsforge has several stories from the Linuxworld floor: 1, 2, 3, 4. And finally, CmdrTaco and Chris Dibona (Gamara here on Slashdot) were on TechTV yesterday (and repeats today). Viewer discretion advised.

falser writes "Caffeine addicted geeks everywhere may rejoice that scientists have discovered a protein that appears to be responsible for amplifying the caffeine buzz. It also makes the effects last longer. Just one question: how soon until we have a new generation of ultra powerful caffeine products?"

jmoriarty writes "CNN reports about a group of researchers who can convert "fast-twitch" muscle fibers to "slow-twitch" muscles in mice. This essentially trades strength for endurance, and has potential to treat degenerative muscle diseases in humans down the road."

jmoriarty writes "CNN reports about a group of researchers who can convert "fast-twitch" muscle fibers to "slow-twitch" muscles in mice. This essentially trades strength for endurance, and has potential to treat degenerative muscle diseases in humans down the road."

pbranes writes: "CNN has an article discussing the 25th anniversary of both of the Voyager spacecraft and what the next few years hold for the spacecraft. Scientists believe that they can maintain contact with the spacecraft for at least 20 more years, and they hope that the spacecraft passes the heliopause, the boundary for interstellar space, during this time." We've mentioned the long-term prospects of these probes before; it's not long until they may meet Termination Shock.

Ender writes "As if the NASA folks at KSC did not have enough problems to deal with a the moment, (see previous /. article on the engine cracks and the following CNN article on the repairs) a NEW problem has sufaced in the Apollo Era transporter which vehiculates the Shuttles to the launch pads (crawler). They found many cracked bearings in the cylinders that lift the shuttle and its launch platform on the transporter. After this discovery they took a look at the other crawler and it too had quite numerous cracked bearings. No word from NASA yet but these findings may further delay the next Space Shuttle launch which is currently scheduled for NET (no earlier than) Sept 28th and by the same token slow down the assembly of the ISS. Complete articles at SpaceFlightNow and United Press International."

anzha writes: "CNN is reporting that India is planning an unmanned mission to Luna in 2007. The US, Russia (when it was the USSR), and Japan are the only nations to have done so, or so they say. For some reason, I thought that ESA, the European Space Agency, had sent one also. At any rate, while I'd like to see the Stars and Stripes posted all over the galaxy, more competition is better! So, all I have to say is, 'Go, India! Go!'" I wonder if China is still on track for 2005.

anzha writes: "CNN is reporting that India is planning an unmanned mission to Luna in 2007. The US, Russia (when it was the USSR), and Japan are the only nations to have done so, or so they say. For some reason, I thought that ESA, the European Space Agency, had sent one also. At any rate, while I'd like to see the Stars and Stripes posted all over the galaxy, more competition is better! So, all I have to say is, 'Go, India! Go!'" I wonder if China is still on track for 2005.

belgin writes "For those who never cease to be fascinated by the strange stuff you can find on our own planet, add snakes to the list of animals that can 'fly' without real wings. CNN's story covers this interesting phenomenon. Chicago researcher Jake Socha, says that the Singapore Paradise tree snakes glide as well as flying squirrels without the assistance of wing flaps. He is using a pair of cameras and unnamed software to construct a 3D biomechanical model of what the snakes do that lets them glide. This may inspire a few more cool projects. Apparently, the Twin-barred and Golden tree snakes from the same area pulls the same stunt. FlyingSnake.org, Socha's web site, might be a good place to start for more details, but it seems rather under construction."

Satanboy writes "This article states that a record $5.4m fine was levied on Fax.com after blatantly ignoring requests by the FCC to discontinue the activity of sending unsolicited faxes. This is similar to actions CmdrTaco posted about earlier." The people at junkfax.org are apparently planning a large class-action suit against fax.com as well.

Bonker writes "CNN reports that Beagle 2, a lander that's part of ESA's next Mars mission, is beginning construction in England. The lander will be constructed in clean-room conditions to avoid being contaminated with any kind of terrestrial life so that it can more accurately determine if there is or was any kind of martian life once it arrives."

Isthistakenyet? writes "CNN is running a story about a series of FAA webcams designed to give fliers in Alaska pictures of current weather conditions around the state. I can even get current conditions near where I used to live - check out the 'Clear Day Image' :)" Hopefully the slashdotting won't keep a legit pilot from checking conditions.

Isthistakenyet? writes "CNN is running a story about a series of FAA webcams designed to give fliers in Alaska pictures of current weather conditions around the state. I can even get current conditions near where I used to live - check out the 'Clear Day Image' :)" Hopefully the slashdotting won't keep a legit pilot from checking conditions.

smashr writes "GRACE, the robot mentioned earlier on slashdot, has succeeded in the AAAI challenge at the conference in Canada. Her creators are saying that GRACE exceeded their expectations. The entire competition went well with only several minor hiccups (GRACE cut in front of a judge in line to register, and then demanded a conference badge several times). The team is looking forward towards refining GRACE for the competition in Mexico. Stories at: CNN.com, Yahoo, and the Edmonton Journal."

jeffy124 writes "Recently there was a discussion about blobs in the sidewalks of Camden, NJ. The mystery has been solved. It's paraffin wax, which is used in industrial processes and in candles, and poses no health risks whatsoever. Some residents suspect a coverup, but then again, this is Camden were talking about."

Ieshan writes "Strange alien scares or just New Jersey Pollution? Occam's razor points towards the latter, but still, odd black blobs are appearing in a New Jersey city - no joke. CNN has the story - apparently, no one can identify them yet. Investigators say that they're not petrolium based, and that's about all anyone knows. On the plus side, at least they don't have stalks with green eyes?"

circletimessquare writes "A Thai guy wrote a program that uses your computer speaker to repel mosquitoes, cockroaches, and rats! Just when you thought you heard it all before (pun intended for no good reason). " Thats nothing- CowboyNeal can repel all known lifeforms just by playing his massive collection of boy band MP3s.

dr_delete sent in a story about Athens, Georgia joining the ranks of municipalities creating free public wireless networks. In a counterpoint to that, we have the Pentagon cracking down on wireless devices, trying to control information leakage. And Newsforge has a story about starting your own wireless ISP. Nifty stuff.

dr_delete sent in a story about Athens, Georgia joining the ranks of municipalities creating free public wireless networks. In a counterpoint to that, we have the Pentagon cracking down on wireless devices, trying to control information leakage. And Newsforge has a story about starting your own wireless ISP. Nifty stuff.

I thought CNN's gushing forth of breathless admiration in today's piece: 'Disposable cell phones on the way' sounded familiar. Yep, it's Hop-On, the same company Slashdotters took to task last March ('Disposable' Cell Phone Actually Repackaged Nokia) after reading the San Francisco Chronicle's expose ("Sample 'new' cell phone really just modified Nokia [8260]"). Maybe this time the technology is for real. Or maybe I'm just too skeptical for my own good. Caveat lector.

opencity writes "CNN (and AP) reports on the 'Spy Fly' project. "Biologists and technologists at the University of California, Berkeley have spent the past four years developing a tiny robot, called the Micromechanical Flying Insect, that they say will one day fly like a fly." Good technical stuff on the Cal Berkeley page. The Pentagon likes the idea for spying and battlefield deployment but their page has no info about weaponization or command / communication technologies."

smashr writes "Researchers are currently putting the finishing touches on robots that will be attending the AAAI (American Association for Artificial Intelligence) conference this year as part of the AAAI robot challenge. In addition to robots wearing tuxedos and serving drinks, several robots designed to actually register themselves will be participating in the conference. One such robot is GRACE, being built by Carnegie Mellon University and the Naval Research Lab (among others). GRACE features a digital face and speech recognition to interact with people attending the conference. (She even runs Linux!) Her goal is to register for the conference, give a speech and answer questions. Stories at: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, CNN.com, and USA Today."

AdamBa writes "Speaking to financial analysts and reporters, Bill Gates admitted that .NET hadn't caught on as quickly as he had hoped. The headline ('Gates admits .NET a "misstep"') is a bit misleading; he doesn't think all of .NET was a misstep, just the My Services part (aka Hailstorm). He also said that labelling the current generation of enterprise products as .NET might have been 'premature.' Summary: Microsoft got too excited about locking in users via Hailstorm and botched the overall .NET message." There's also a Reuters report and a NYTimes story on the same subject, which includes the interesting line: "Microsoft also warned today that the era of "open computing," the free exchange of digital information that has defined the personal computer industry, is ending." It isn't clear if Microsoft is talking about something happening beyond their control, or if they're boasting about ending it.