Technology

In days of old, when knights were bold, and they kept their data on large reels of magnetic tape, the tapes were stored in a central tape library, and were mounted by request on mainframe computers. Each tape in the library was given a volume serial. One requested a tape by its volume serial, which was six characters — letters and numbers. Once in a while, one might need a fresh tape to write information to, which one would then read back in the same program, and the tape would not need to be kept in the library afterward. These were called scratch tapes, and the volume serial “SCRTCH” was…

Earlier this week Zimmer asked readers to help out science journalists and participate in a survey about where we get our science news. He's got the results up. You can go see for yourself what online science readers say about where they get their news, and what they're willing to pay for it. Carl expressed surprise at how few respondents were willing to buy eBooks: But the science reader also reads a lot of books. Books made of paper, that is, not electronic ink. That pattern may change if e-readers get better, but probably not anytime soon. I buy a lot of paper books. I can't stand eBooks,…

Indiana and Rutgers researchers have modified Playstation 3 video game systems to help teenagers with cerebral palsy improve their hand functions. In a pilot trial with three participants, the system improved the teens' abilities to perform a range of daily personal and household activities. The modified system combined the gaming console with a Fifth Dimension Technologies 5 Ultra sensing glove, a flat-panel television, mouse, keyboard and digital subscriber line modem for Internet communication. Researchers reprogrammed the Playstation console using the open-source Linux operating system…

Warner Music Group tries to protect property it doesn't even own: In the first installment of a planned video blog of their American tour, A23’s Tom Shear recorded a nine-and-one-half minute video describing the band’s plan to connect with its fans through social media during the tour. Mr. Shear invites fans to follow the band on Twitter, friend him on Facebook and follow the band via a video diary he plans to update during the tour on its YouTube channel, A23CompassTour2010. The final five minutes of the video is a montage of the band’s just-completed European tour set to the song…

The "humble hooter" could be added to the list of features used to identify an individual, according to scientists at the University of Bath. Researchers created a system called PhotoFace to scan the shape of volunteers' noses, and developed computer software to analyse the results. The PhotoFace system "captures a 3D image of a person's face by taking several photos lit from different angles to throw shadows on the face and then building a model of facial features," according to the article in silicon.com. "The software determined that there are six main nose shapes: Roman, Greek, Nubian,…

Forgive me if this has been covered already, but I am curious about the use of computers in Science I have to add a quick sentence here just to prevent the questions overlaying the initial graphic I'll pose this as a Questionnaire, and would appreciate numbered answers if you respond, thanks Do you use a computer for your work? What Operating System does it use? Windows, MacOSX,  a version of Linux or BSD, or something specifically written for your work? a) Do you know of or use Open Source Software, invariably free, or Proprietary, bought and paid for? b) I'm particularly interested…

SAN FRANCISCO, March 9, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Bigpoint will be demonstrating the next generation of client-free PC gaming at Game Developers Conference 2010. Leading its product slate for 2010 will be Battlestar Galactica Online, a tactical space combat and adventure MMOG based upon Syfy's Battlestar Galactica series. The MMOG, inspired by one of the most popular science fiction series in television history, will launch worldwide exclusively this fall on Syfy.com for a 30 day period. The Unity co-developed MMOG will offer state of the art graphics that can be played directly in an Internet…

This New Scientist article reminds me of a project I worked on about ten years ago. The article talks about analyzing mobile-phone location data to establish patterns of how the users move around. We didn’t analyze predictability rates, but we did look for patterns that foretold other patterns, like this bit from the article: “Say your routine movement is from home to the coffee shop to work: if you are at home and then go to the coffee shop it’s easy for me to predict that you are going to work,” says co-author Nicholas Blumm. We similarly looked for patterns that predicted that you were…

New Scientist tells us that some of my former IBM Research colleagues have been busy looking at ways to give bloggers inspiration: Want to get more people to read your blog? A software tool that provides a list of topics for you to write about could help. Blog Muse [PDF], developed by Werner Geyer and Casey Dugan at IBM’s Watson Research Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, produces the list based on other users’ suggestions or by matching the blogger’s profile with other writers’, and scouring their posts for keywords. It was created after a poll of IBM bloggers showed that new writers often…

Let's Start Using Our (Si) Brains scientists have sequenced the human genome -- the blueprint for all of the proteins in biology -- but how can we understand what these proteins do and how they work? ...However, only knowing this sequence tells us little about what the protein does and how it does it. In order to carry out their function (eg as enzymes or antibodies), they must take on a particular shape, also known as a "fold." Thus, proteins are truly amazing machines: before they do their work, they assemble themselves! This self-assembly is called "folding." One of our project goals is…