Thursday, 11 April 2013

Innovation and re-invention at the Stanford Cool Product Expo

At the Cool Product Expo, design studios show off their latest ideas, from skateboards to guitars to new ways of enjoying photography. (Credit: James Martin/CNET) STANFORD, Calif. -- Finding a new product idea is never easy. You have to understand your target audience and test the market.

Scientists spot 'signature' of physical pain using fMRI

Scientists say that short-term pain in healthy people leaves a distinct neurological trace -- one they were able to catch via fMRI. Pain has long been thought to be at least somewhat subjective, making it difficult to measure consistently from one person to the next.

Intel's mysterious TV device sparks industry chatter

17:50, Electronics/Hardware Buzz is building over Intel's secretive TV set-top box due out later this year, which the chipmaker claims will provide live and other content via the Internet, is easy to use, and boasts face-recognition technology so it can tell whose watching it and recommend programs they like.

Roborobo! A Fast Robot Swarm Simulator



Looking for a multi-platform, portable, and fast simulator for large-scale robot swarm and collective projects? Lo

Ambilight-alike

Watch the video first. We'll talk about it under the jump. So, then. Philips have this lovely (and expensive) technology called Ambilight, which extends the lighting environment of what you're watching on TV into your living room. It's better watched than described, so if you haven't hit play on the video above yet, please do!

The Power of Patents in Humanitarian Applications

Every day, Microsoft researchers push the envelope of computer science in research labs around the world. Their inventions tackle complex questions such as "How do we make uncertain information useful and infer valuable insights from shifting and expanding data as it streams in from devices, sensors and new technology?"

See-through brain lets scientists spot the connections

Stanford researchers discover a way to make the brain completely transparent so they can study its structure without the need for slicing. (Credit: Karl Deisseroth and Kwanghun Chung) Studying the brain can be a tricky business. The interesting stuff, such as neurons and how they communicate, is obscured by things like fatty tissue.

Living side by side with robots

The Robot Block Party at Stanford University celebrates all things robotics -- from startups pitching their businesses to home-brew builders looking to have some fun. (Credit: James Martin/CNET) STANFORD, Calif.--When I walked onto the Stanford University campus this week and into the Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Lab, I was greeted by a short, gray robot waving his two long arms -- he was looking for a high-five.

Biggest solar flare of the year knocks out radio transmissions

NASA on alert for more after-effects of geomagnetic storm to satellites and spacecraft. (Credit: NASA/SDO) Early this morning the sun erupted, sending billions of solar particles into space at over 600 miles per second, raising the prospect of solar radiation storms above the Earth, according to NASA.

Accelerate cool app development with the Coding4Fun Toolkit

Eric Dishman: Health care should be a team sport - (watch video)

When Eric Dishman was in college, doctors told him he had 2 to 3 years to live. That was a long time ago. One rectified diagnosis and a transplant later, Dishman puts his personal experience and his expertise as a leading medical tech specialist together to suggest some bold ideas for reinventing healthcare -- by putting the patient at the center of a treatment team.

Task Based APIs for Service Bus

Editor's Note: This post comes from Scott Seely, Developer on the Windows Azure Service Bus Team. We recently released a new version of the Windows Azure Service Bus Client SDK via NuGet. Currently marked as v2.0.0-beta, the SDK APIs have improved to offer System.Threading.Tasks.Task based versions of all asynchronous APIs.

NASA Invites Media to View Orion, Speak With Kennedy Space Center Director

NASA is offering media representatives at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida an opportunity on Monday, April 15, to see Orion, the spacecraft that could take astronauts on a sample collection mission

Project Codename GeoFlow Unveiled

The Office team has unveiled something really special today ? a Microsoft Research project codenamed GeoFlow that lets you plot geographic and temporal data visually, analyze that data in 3D, and c

Node v0.10.4 (Stable)

0bebde7d5d698e93fd96ad1b5d223166cd0c5892 node-v0.10.4-darwin-x64.tar.gz 8d847a68f8178b102c72c3f35861f496e12fe455 node-v0.10.4-darwin-x86.tar.gz 28e3a4d2702a13454a3c1d9e1035ee07ef8764bc ...

NASA Imaging Sensor Prepares for Western Wildfire Season

Airborne imaging technology developed at NASA and transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service (USFS) in 2012 is being tested to prepare for this year's wildfire season in the we

NASA, Air Force Seek Next Generation Space Processor Program

NASA and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory in Albuquerque, N.M., are requesting research and development proposals to define the type of spacecraft computing needed for future missions.

Node v0.8.23 (Legacy)

64cf0081e4d5d7ac528ce938007f9a7d3d952896 node-v0.8.23-darwin-x64.tar.gz 698b9dd9ece94cde200c25d881700a23a510883e node-v0.8.23-darwin-x86.tar.gz 94ea21cb5425d712b92289a82e0f48541d163fef ...

What did the Big Bang sound like? Take a listen

Physicist at University of Washington remasters the sound which accompanied the origin of the universe 13.8 billion years ago. John Cramer, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Washington in Seattle, has created a high-fidelity rendition of the sound of the `Big Bang' which is generally believed to have accompanied the early development of the universe.

Stone tools helped shape human hands

AROUND 1.7 million years ago, our ancestors' tools went from basic rocks banged together to chipped hand axes. The strength and dexterity needed to make and use the latter quickly shaped our hands into what they are today - judging by a fossil that belongs to the oldest known anatomically modern hand.

Connector/Net 6.7

Connector/Net 6.7 (6.7.1 alpha, published on Thursday, 11 Apr 2013)

Google, Twitter, and AngularJS

50,000 Lessons on How to Read: a Relation Extraction Corpus

Posted by Dave Orr, Product Manager, Google Research



One of the most difficult tasks in NLP is called relation extraction. It?s an example of information extraction, one o

Uber clears up San Francisco taxi ownership concerns

Car-summoning app Uber has issued a statement to quash rumors the startup operates taxi cabs in San Francisco. Just to clear things up once and for all -- Uber does not own vehicles, the company merely connects you to those who do.

Virtual traveller: Beam a live, 3D you into the world

Thanks to a virtual reality and telepresence mashup, you no longer have to travel the globe to visit friends or wander around ancient ruins ONE day, I'll play hide and seek with my niece. I'll turn around while she hides, and later, a flash of purple cotton will make me peer over the log she's hiding behind.

Code Sprint for Symfony 2.3

Symfony - Open-Source PHP web framework

Save the Date: May 27

What's on May 27, you ask? May 27, 2013 is the 10th anniversary of the first WordPress release! We think this is worth celebrating, and we want WordPress fans all over the world to celebrate with us by throwing their own parties.

500,000 Pis in Wales

As you?ll know if you?re a regular reader of this website, production of the Raspberry Pi started in China back at the start of 2012, but has been gradually moving to Wales since last September. On

New in Symfony 2.3: New Debug Component



<a href="https://connect.sensiolab

Research | Experimental Videogame Teaches Kids How to Program Java

Research | Experimental Videogame Teaches Kids How to Program Java
Many videogames le

PHP 5.4.14 and PHP 5.3.24 released!


The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.4.14 and PHP 5.3.24. These releases fix about 10 bugs aswell as upgrading the bundled PCRE library. All users of PH

Visual Studio Add-In 1.2.1 for Qt 5 Released


It has been a busy week ? today we are releasing Visual Studio Add-in 1.2.1 for Qt 5. This is mainly a bug fix release targeting problems found in previous releases. In addition to

PHP 5.5 beta3 is available



The PHP development team announces the release of the 3rd beta of PHP 5.5.0.
This release fixes some bugs against beta 2.



THIS IS A DEVELOPMENT P

Arduino goes to Shenzen: the Hollywood of hardware products

<img alt="Shenzen 4/2013" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8104/8635406472_11a9ed2770

Wikipedia can help give news junkies their fix

WITHIN minutes of Michael Jackson's death in June 2009, Wikipedia's editors were updating his page. The hive of activity, as editors changed tenses, timings and circumstances of the pop star's demise, caused server load "spikes" on Wikipedia's network. Such spikes could alert us to breaking news.

Qt Developer Day China 2013


<img src="http://blog.qt.digia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/DevDays13_banner980x350_Ch

Txtspk is a stimulating force in language evolution

IS OUR language in jeopardy? It's a rare day that passes without a jeremiad from some eminent figure warning that digital messaging is leading to the demise of "proper English". But those who focus on the shortcomings of texts or tweets overlook their advantages.

BlackBerry Jam Unplugged: Adobe AIR SDK

Check out the latest episode in our BlackBerry Jam Unplugged video series!


Hot on the heels of our last episode, which covered <a href="http://devblog.blackberry.com/2013/04/blackberry-jam-u