Clipmarks | Mohir's 'computers' clips

Citroen GTbyCitroen goes from game to reality

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 03:14:41 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: Sadly, very little is known about the GTbyCitroen in terms of performance, expected cost, or whether it'll reach mass production, but here's hoping. Citroen would earn itself a virtually unlimited amount of kudos if it went ahead and made it for real for real. We might even forgive it for the Citroen Ami.

Clip Source: crave.cnet.co.uk

Citroen's just gone up in our estimation -- way up. At the Paris Motor Show today, it announced it would be the first car manufacturer to build a car originally designed for a computer game -- a bleedin' computer game, we tell you.

The frankly dangerous-looking GTbyCitroen is the brainchild of Polyphony Digital's Kazunori Yamauch, and Citroen's Takumi Yamamoto. It was first designed to hurtle around the virtual tracks of the PS3's Gran Turismo: Prologue, but Citroen -- presumably bored of making Picassos and C5s -- has decided to make one for real.

Clip Source: crave.cnet.co.uk

Okay, so 'for real' is something of an exaggeration, since the GTbyCitroen is still in the concept stage. Visitors to the Paris Motor Show, however, are being given the opportunity to drive one -- virtually -- in a Citroen simulator.

Tags: cars, computers, gaming, citroen

Walking strategies of artifically evolved organisms

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:37:08 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.boingboing.net

[Video]

Here's a mesmerizing ten-minute video from the Darwin@Home project (which harnesses idle computers to simulate evolution) that shows the different, bizarre randomly evolved walking-strategies that have emerged from the simulations. Darwin at Home in Ten Minutes

Tags: evolution

Scientists Develop New Computational Method To Investigate Origin Of Life

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:33:15 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: "Retroelements are an ancient and highly diverse class of proteins; therefore, they provide a rigorous benchmark for us to test our approach. We are happy with the results we derived, even though our method is in an early stage," said Patterson. The team plans to make the algorithms that they used in their method available to others as open-source software that is freely available on the Web.
Scientists map out the evolutionary histories of organisms by comparing their genetic and/or protein sequences. Those organisms that are closely related and share a recent common ancestor have greater degrees of similarity among their sequences.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Scientists at Penn State have developed a new computational method that they say will help them to understand how life began on Earth. The team's method has the potential to trace the evolutionary histories of proteins all the way back to either cells or viruses, thus settling the debate once and for all over which of these life forms came first.

"We have just begun to tap the potential power of this method," said Randen Patterson, a Penn State assistant professor of biology and one of the project's leaders. "We believe, if it is possible at all, that it is within our grasp to determine whether viruses evolved from cells or vice-versa."

The team is focusing on an ancient group of proteins, called retroelements, which comprise approximately 50 percent of the human genome by weight and are a crucial component in a number of diseases, including AIDS.

Tags: life, computers, science

How to Hitchhike Across the Globe Without Leaving Your Living Room

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:26:37 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: The 360° World Atlas DVD lets anyone with a computer become a virtual hitchhiker, no packing or neck-craning required. Creator Everen Brown does all the hard work for you. He jets around the globe, lugging a 40-pound bag full of 600 rolls of film past airport security, and picks a picture-worthy spot. Then he takes one of the world’s last Globuscope rotational cameras (no longer in production), holds it over his head (sometimes he lies on his stomach), and waits (sometimes for hours) for the right shot. When he sees it, snapping the picture takes only a second. The lens rotates full circle, so you get to see what’s across from the Taj Mahal’s minarets too. Once Brown develops the film, he embeds the images into an interactive atlas ($69.95, www.360atlas.com) that shows off head-turning views, panorama style.

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

The 360° World Atlas turns anyone with a computer into a global traveler.

Incan stonework in one direction, stepped agricultural terraces in another: Your eyes lock on the mountains surrounding Machu Picchu, and at last you’ve found peace and quiet. Then you’re ready to move on. You click on Antarctica, choose a region, and zoom in. Suddenly you’re standing on an iceberg in the middle of a group of playful Adélie penguins on rocky, volcanic Franklin Island (above right).

Tags: technology, computers, travel

Computer model of bees probes the hive mind

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:46:55 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: Thenius believes the foragers may be picking up clues about the quality of sources from their interactions with receivers. If some foragers have found a bountiful new source, the receivers have more work to do, so average unloading times across all foragers increase. This delay might suggest the existence of a better nectar source than the one a given forager has been visiting. Similarly, receivers are sometimes already half-full from another bee's nectar when a new forager arrives, so a forager needs to unload to more than one receiver. If this occurs more frequently, it may also suggest that a richer nectar source has been found.
To test this hypothesis, Thenius's team built a computer simulation of a hive containing 5000 independent virtual bees. Each forager started out visiting one of two different flower patches, but would switch destinations if it had to wait too long to be unloaded or was being serviced by too many receivers.

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

GIVEN a choice between two different flower beds, how can honeybees hunting for nectar be sure they've chosen the best patch? A new computer model may provide the answer, as well as insights into the workings of a "hive mind" that could be used to guide swarms of robots.

Within a bee colony, two different types of bee handle nectar: foragers go out to collect it from flowers, and receivers unload it from the foragers and store it in honeycomb. The forager then leaves the hive to hunt for more.

Different foragers from a single hive visit more than one separate source of nectar - so how can an individual forager be sure it's going to the best one? While bees can communicate with each other using complicated waggle dances, "these only show where a source is - not how good it is", says Ronald Thenius of the University of Graz in Austria.

Tags: bees, computers, hive, mind

Scientists to study synthetic telepathy

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 20:59:15 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: The brain-computer interface would use a noninvasive brain imaging technology like electroencephalography to let people communicate thoughts to each other. For example, a soldier would “think” a message to be transmitted and a computer-based speech recognition system would decode the EEG signals. The decoded thoughts, in essence translated brain waves, are transmitted using a system that points in the direction of the intended target.

“Such a system would require extensive training for anyone using it to send and receive messages,” D’Zmura says. “Initially, communication would be based on a limited set of words or phrases that are recognized by the system; it would involve more complex language and speech as the technology is developed further.”

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

A team of UC Irvine scientists has been awarded a $4 million grant from the U.S. Army Research Office to study the neuroscientific and signal-processing foundations of synthetic telepathy.

The research could lead to a communication system that would benefit soldiers on the battlefield and paralysis and stroke patients, according to lead researcher Michael D’Zmura, chair of the UCI Department of Cognitive Sciences.

“Thanks to this generous grant we can work with experts in automatic speech recognition and in brain imaging at other universities to research a brain-computer interface with applications in military, medical and commercial settings,” D’Zmura says.

Tags: telepathy, computers, communication

Future 'Top 10' Hot Careers in 2012

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:14:56 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: 5) Simulation Engineering
By 2012, an increase in processing power and rich data will make simulations more realistic, and user-friendly. Simulation engineers will be working on bringing us closer to “Star Trek’s” Holodecks—the ultimate total immersion simulation. Simulations will be in every industry and every engineering field,

6) Boomer Caregiving
7) Genetic Counseling
8) Brain Analysts
9) Space Tourism
10) Roboticists

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

In our information-rich society there is an ever increasing demand for workers in the fields of computers, health care, science and space technology—much of it driven by the demands of the retiring baby boomers. If you like to plan ahead, here is sampling of some of the jobs that will be hot in the next several years and beyond.

1) Organic food Industry

By 2010, organic food and beverage will represent about 10 percent of the total market — a tenfold increase from 1998

2) Computational Biology

There is a growing need to combine computer science, biology and math to make sense of research data in massive quantities,

3) Parallel Programming

By 2012, computers will jump from core duo processors to multi-core processors — as many as 80 processors per machin

4) Data Technology

Data technologists build structures—real and virtual—that turn the pile of data into something meaningful and beautiful,

Tags: future, work, jobs

An Artificial Pancreas

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:50:26 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.technologyreview.com

A device that reads glucose levels and delivers insulin may be close at hand.

Today, people with diabetes have a range of technologies to help keep their blood sugar in check, including continuous monitors that can keep tabs on glucose levels throughout the day and insulin pumps that can deliver the drug. But the diabetic is still responsible for making executive decisions--when to test his blood or give himself a shot--and the system has plenty of room for human error. Now, however, researchers say that the first generations of an artificial pancreas, which would be able to make most dosing decisions without the wearer's intervention, could be available within the next few years.

an artificial pancreas consists of three components: a continuous sensor to detect insulin levels in real time,

a miniature computer that can take those readings

and an insulin pump driven by the computer that doses out the appropriate amount of the drug.

Tags: ai, technology, pancreas, health, computers, insulin

When Computers Meld With Our Minds

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:30:20 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: a worthwhile read.

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

Is your overflowing e-mail in-box a herald of the next stage in human evolution? Those e-mails represent just a small sample of the vast amount of digital information being generated by the gigabyte every minute. If we can cope with this rising flood of information, we are likely to be on track for using technology in the creation of superhuman intelligence, according to Vernor Vinge, futurist, best-selling science fiction author, and retired professor of computer science. Machines will become far more than just tools; they will physically merge with us, seamlessly endowing powers that are currently beyond our imagination. And all of this will happen in our lifetime, Vinge says.

Tags: singularity, brain, computers, mind

New permanent near terabit per square inch computer memory

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:09:45 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: nextbigfuture.com

Capacitors in the mask: Thanks to a 100 nm thin mask made of aluminum oxide (above), the German and Korean research team were able to trickle the ceramic (PZT) onto the platinum layer (Pt). The scientists then cut off some platinum to create electrical contact to the ceramic. Image: Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics

Ferroelectric materials have emerged in recent years as an alternative to magnetic and dielectric materials for nonvolatile data-storage applications. Lithography is widely used to reduce the size of data-storage elements in ultrahigh-density memory devices. However, ferroelectric materials tend to be oxides with complex structures that are easily damaged by existing lithographic techniques, so an alternative approach is needed to fabricate ultrahigh-density ferroelectric memories.

The permanent memory produced through the German-Korean cooperation can save 176 billion bits per square inch,

Tags: memory, computers

New Computerized System Estimates Geographic Location Of Photos

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 23:33:00 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: Amazing

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have devised the first computerized method that can analyze a single photograph and determine where in the world the image likely was taken. It's a feat made possible by searching through millions of GPS-tagged images in the Flickr online photo collection.

The IM2GPS algorithm developed by computer science graduate student James Hays and Alexei A. Efros, assistant professor of computer science and robotics, doesn't attempt to scan a photo for location clues, such as types of clothing, the language on street signs, or specific types of vegetation, as a person might do. Rather, it analyzes the composition of the photo, notes how textures and colors are distributed and records the number and orientation of lines in the photo. It then searches Flickr for photos that are similar in appearance.

Tags: gps, photos, computers, software

Firefox 3 Vulnerabilities Could Affect Over 14 Million Computers

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 23:27:13 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: In conclusion, having in mind that over 14 millions downloads of Mozilla Firefox 3.0 have been performed, users' computers are in potential danger until the security patches are released to fix the existing vulnerabilities.

Clip Source: news.softpedia.com

Since the new release of popular web browser Mozilla Firefox 3.0, over 14 million downloads have been registered by the counter posted on the Spread Firefox website. But just in a few hours (about five) after the Mozilla Firefox 3.0 was made available to the public, security flaws have been reported.

In response to this security report, Mozilla Security Blog posted, "This issue is currently under investigation. To protect our users, the details of the issue will remain closed until a patch is made available. There is no public exploit, the details are private, and so the current risk to users".

If other security reports are taken into account, like the one found on SecurityFocus website which deals with an unspecified buffer overflow vulnerability (boundary condition error), the new security improvements from Firefox 3.0 are not powerful enough for present pishing and malware threats.

Tags: firefox, security, malware, spyware

June 5, 1833: Ms. Software, Meet Mr. Hardware

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:04:12 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: June 5, 1833: Ms. Software, Meet Mr. Hardware

Clip Source: www.wired.com

1833: Ada Byron meets Charles Babbage. He designed an early computer, and she would write the first computer program.

Ada's father was the poet Lord Byron, but her parents separated when she was a month old. Her famous -- and poetically wild -- father went to Greece, and she never knew him.

Ada was 15 when she met the Cambridge mathematics professor Babbage 175 years ago today. Babbage had already received funding from Parliament to build a "difference engine" that could do mathematical calculations. While that project was still unfinished, he conceived in 1834 a new and broader idea: an "analytical engine" that "could not only foresee but could act on that foresight."

She also wrote a plan for the analytical engine to calculate Bernoulli numbers. It's now considered the first computer program. The countess originated the idea of a loop in a program, which she likened to a "snake biting its tail."

Tags: computers, ada, ada byron, babbage

Photo Tampering Throughout History

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:58:48 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: see rest of photos in original page,
linked to my previous post:
Digital Forensics: 5 Ways to Spot a Fake Photo
http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/D516F80D-C71B-4B53-BB9C-77EA80B8C919/

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Photography lost its innocence not long after it was born. As early as the 1860s photos were already being manipulated—only a few decades after Joseph Nicéphore Niépce created the first photograph in 1826. With the advent of high-resolution digital cameras, powerful personal computers and sophisticated photo-editing software, the manipulation of digital images has proliferated. Here, I have collected some examples of tampering throughout photography's over 180-year history.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Circa 1860:
This nearly iconic portrait of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is a composite of Lincoln's head and the body of Southern politician, John Calhoun. Putting the date of this photo into context, note that the first permanent photographic image was created in 1826 and the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company (later to become Eastman Kodak) was created in 1884.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Circa 1865:

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Soviet premier, Joseph Stalin, routinely airbrushed his enemies out of images.

Tags: photography, fake, history

Paralysed man takes a walk in virtual world

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:21:18 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: It is the first time a paralysis patient has succeeded in meeting a person and having a conversation in an Internet virtual world, they added.

Researchers are now studying a system that would let patients create text messages by mentally selecting certain letters, said Junichi Ushiba, associate professor at the biosciences and informatics department of Keio Universty's Faculty of Science and Technology.

"In the near future, they would be able to stroll through Second Life shopping malls with their brain waves... and click to make a purchase," Ushiba said.

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

A 41-year-old paralysed man uses brain waves to control his character in 'Second Life'.

A paralysed man using only his brain waves has been able to manipulate a virtual Internet character, Japanese researchers said Monday, calling it a world first.

The 41-year-old patient used his imagination to make his character take a walk and chat to another virtual person on the popular Second Life website.

The patient, who has suffered paralysis for more than 30 years, can barely bend his fingers due to a progressive muscle disease so cannot use a mouse or keyboard in the traditional way.

In the experiment, he wore headgear with three electrodes monitoring brain waves related to his hands and legs. Even though he cannot move his legs, he imagined that his character was walking.

He was then able to have a conversation with the other character using an attached microphone, said the researchers at Japan's Keio University.

Tags: computers, second life, brain, virtual