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User: DrKayBee

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Comments · 17

  1. Women as computers? on When Computers Were Human · · Score: 3, Funny

    Is that when laptops were pretty secretaries?

  2. Re:This could be awesome... on Automakers Working on Car-to-Car Ad-Hoc Networks · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Another possible use, and something I've been thinking of for a while is a smarter 'cruise control', which automatically adjusts your speed / position / lane based on ambient traffic.

    With GPS and proximity sensing, this should be possible to engineer.

  3. Re:Tactile Feedback on Non-Invasive Computer Control Through Brainwaves · · Score: 1
    There are other ways of providing tactile feedback. If there exists such a device, one can envision a tactile feedback using an array of electrodes placed on the tongue. This device can fire patterned feedback to the tongue and provide that level of feedback.

    I have seen a presentation on this kind of device that was connected to a gyroscope on a person's head, which allowed the person to maintain better balance. Applications include prosthetic training, aircraft pilots and better snipers.

  4. Re:Safety is doable, but human limitations.. on Laser Powered Virtual Display · · Score: 3, Interesting
    When light falls on the retina, the vitamin A molecule absorbs the photon and changes its energy state. This leads to the molecule slipping out of the rod cell protein (rhodopsin) in which it is lodged. The conformational change triggers an electrical response that is registered as an image.

    With this background, I can think of a laser that has just enough power to absorb into the vitamin A molecule without having the power to heat up any other molecules around it - like the rhodopsin protein.

    The collimation of the laser merely allows precise control of where the image is created.

    Reference http://www.chemsoc.org/exemplarchem/entries/2002/u pton/rhodopsin.htm

  5. Re:Good idea that should be expanded on Design Your Own Audio Controller · · Score: 1
    The salient feature of this gizmo is its multiple touch capabilities. I don't know of too many applications other than faders and musical instruments that require fingerpress chords.

    Although I can think of other potentially convenient applications such as 'context sensitive menus' such as those found in the 3d modeling package Blender http://www.blender3d.org/. In there, function keys bring up completely different sets of buttons. Kinda like the armament consoles in F-16s.

  6. adware - Adaware??? Foncusion on McAfee lists Adware in Top 10 Viruses · · Score: -1, Redundant

    Was it only me that misread the article summary that it's adware and not AdAware http://www.lavasoft.de/? Its been some time since I used that product....(MS-free for a year now)

  7. Re:Well... on Intel Predicts Death Of WWW · · Score: 1

    Whatever's on the inside of your service point (like the cable modem or the gateway) should still be fine right? The router on the other side of the gateway should just be concerned about what's coming out from the gateway.

  8. Re:It's the government on Does Microsoft Need China? · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I agree. The governments in the east are quite smart and they know just how to get the best deal. On the other hand, one of the strategies that might work is for MS to fund a company in China, have it run by the chinese and make them develop their own version of Windows. Kinda like how AT&T spun a gazillion companies.

    This might ensure that they have a foothold in the trends of a growing economy while at the same time have a diversified risk, in terms of what the market there is like and what pricing point it needs to achieve. I'm sure MS has the $$$ to leverage something like this.

  9. Re:Latest Cellular Technology Users in New Era of. on Net Sticky Notes All Over London · · Score: 1

    It would make for pretty good scavenger hunting accessories - but what if someone accidently lands on a spot and recevies the message without working for it? Would that give away the prize?

  10. Another excuse for MS? on Bagle/Beagle Variant Includes Source Code · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ....to say that 'open source' is bad?. In all seriousness - what is the end to all this?

  11. Re:Hope this will bring us closer to on Synthetic Life In The Lab · · Score: 3, Insightful

    People have been modifying bacteria, viruses and other simple organisms to make them do things they usually don't. However, even if these things are published, it is not easy to share this information. A parts-library will help because is like open source and is hopefully machine-searchable. That itself is worth the trouble. What was once the technique and expertise of one lab can now be leveraged somewhere else.

    IMHO, a parts library should not just have the names of the components but also how they can be interfaced to work properly (Their API). This is more useful and less obvious when constructing devices from biological materials. Biological components are very stringent in the environmental conditions they need to work properly.

    They are not claiming or aiming to create "life" but rather new functionality in existing life. Doesn't vaccination do that to us? As for answering fundamental questions, I'm not sure we get any closer. Describing the processes of biology doesn't do much to explain why it is so.

  12. Re:Stem Cells on Brain's Cache Memory Found · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Neuronal networks work on their degree of interconnectivity. I can bet there's enough cells in our brain, but their activity is limited by how their connections are put together.

    There is a part of behaviorial science that says "you get better at solving the problems that appeal to you, and the better you are, the more appealing the problems become", of course most /.ers know that already!

    On RTFAing, I have this feeling that the region of the brain under discussion is not the cache memory but rather the pipeline... but maybe I'm wrong.

    Further comments: How did they decide the time between tests of 3 -4 seconds? Maybe I should write one of those brain scan grants myself (or sign up for one at least)

    ___

  13. Re:Penetration Problem? on FCC Opens Wireless 3.6GHZ Band · · Score: 1

    If I remember correctly, the penetration scales as the inverse fourth power of the frequency (f^-4) - so I don't know how good of a signal carrier it might be. Also the power consumption will be quite high - no?

  14. Re:Why am I not surprised :-) on Hubble Photo of Sedna Suprises Astronomers · · Score: 1

    Wasn't there a theory that said the earth rotates when the sun rises in the East and the birds start flying towards it... which causes air currents westward that make the earth rotate... Have they checked if there are enough birds on Sedna?

  15. Re:Spam on FTC Adopts New Rule For Sexually Explicit Spam · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Besides look at how hard they try to spoof mail filters. I doubt if they are going to get scared by this law. Already we arre seeing spam with a mixture of words in it that doesn't trip the mail filters. I don't think the answer is in red-tape.

  16. Re:How to control it... on Scotts Testing Genetically Modified Grass · · Score: 2, Insightful

    One other thing to consider is how this grass fits in within the existing ecosystem. The trouble is not so much as it will grow out of control (although there is a mechanism by which it could) but that what happens to the critters that feed on that grass. How are they affected by the weed-killer resistance? One of the arguments regarding "Frankenfoods" and with other GMO in general is that they may induce immunity / susceptibiility to something that was oringinally absent in nature. Those effects are less predictable.

  17. Re:Do these people have morals? on Tiny Surveillance Aircraft Fly in Tucson · · Score: 1

    All technology is double-edged. To someone with a really destructive bent, there's enough information out there in scientific papers to do enough harm. We were in a nanotech class where the topic was molecular adressing mechanisms used by the human body - enough information to target an organ of a specific ethnic race of humans. And all that is in the journals. As for this MAV - as an engineering project there's nothing inherently wrong in it. IMHO there's nothing wrong in investigating and developing technology. As far as its applications go, all these social / human / personal tastes start playing into the picture. As technology progresses we will become more and more `enabled' to do certain things but we will also make our own lives more and more precarious. It's up to us to keep our morals in check given that we have access to all this technology. (Afterall, guns don't kill people - do they :))