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Mapping damaged connections in Phineas Gage’s brainIn 1848, Phineas Gage, the supervisor for the Rutland and Burlington Railroad in Vermont was using a 13-pound, 3-foot-7-inch rod to pack blasting powder into a rock when he triggered an explosion that drove the rod through his left cheek and out of the top of his head. Miraculously, Gage lived, becoming the most famous case [...]
kurzweilai.net | 18-May-2012 12:01
Four short links: 18 May 2012
Overlapping S-Curves of Various Products (PNG) -- product adoption speed over time. (via Beta Knowledge) High School Makerspaces Q&A with Dale Dougherty (Radioshack) -- Experimentation is one of the things we’re trying to promote. If you do experiments, a number of them fail and you learn from that failure and say, “Gee, I could have done that differently.” It’s...
O'Reilly Radar | 18-May-2012 12:00
Cognitive software captures experts’ performance on flight simulators
Navy pilots and other flight specialists soon will have a new “smart machine” installed in training simulators that learns from expert instructors to more efficiently train their students. Sandia National Laboratories’ Automated Expert Modeling & Student Evaluation (AEMASE, pronounced “amaze”) is being provided to the Navy as a component of flight simulators. Components are now [...]
kurzweilai.net | 18-May-2012 11:27
A mind to walk again
Dr. José Contreras-Vidal of the University of Houston has designed a pair of bionic legs that respond directly to signals from the brain. The problem with the current brain-computer interface approach — implanting electrodes into a brain, as in the BrainGate2 system, is that it’s a dangerous procedure and can also lead to infections. It also requires [...]
kurzweilai.net | 18-May-2012 11:14
MIT creates amazing UI from levitating orbs
In The Avengers, Tony Stark manipulates objects in thin air. MIT Media Lab researchers Jinha Lee and Rehmi Post have actually created a similar tactile user interface for manipulating real floating objects in 3D space, called the ZeroN. It’s essentially a small field in which gravity doesn’t overcome an object. Through the efforts of finely tuned electromagnetism, a user can place a [...]
kurzweilai.net | 18-May-2012 10:34
Enhanced cosmetics
Growing demand for “enhanced cosmetics” is fostering research on micro-capsules and other technology to package those ingredients in creams, lotions and other products to take advantage of a global market valued at $425 billion in 2011. To meet that demand, chemical companies are looking for better ways to encapsulate these additives — which can reduce inflammation, repair [...]
kurzweilai.net | 18-May-2012 10:20
3-telescope interferometry allows astrophysicists to observe how black holes are fueled
By combining the light of three powerful infrared telescopes, an international research team has observed the active accretion phase of a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy tens of millions of light years away, yielding an unprecedented amount of data for such observations. The resolution at which they were able to observe [...]
kurzweilai.net | 18-May-2012 09:22
Comcast ditches data caps, but charges heavy users overage fees
Comcast said Thursday it plans to make changes to its pricing structure to start billing for the amount of data customers use, versus the capped method in place today. The cable company will test two different pricing structures in some markets, while hard enforcement of the 250GB cap put into place in 2008 would end. Both piloted pricing structures give users 300GB of data at a flat rate. Where they differ is in how this allotment is treated: one solution places this cap across all of Comcast's tiers, while the other carries the 300GB allotment for the Internet Essentials, Economy,… [Continue Reading]
betanews.com | 18-May-2012 00:32
Windows Phone reaches for the bottom
Sometimes, BetaNews readers really amaze me. Three days ago I posted "The measure of Windows Phone failure is..." based on comScore US smartphone OS market share data. To me, it was a trivial story, because I was days late writing about the numbers and posted it more as filler, being short writers (because of holidays and emergencies). More than 220 comments later, Windows Phone is hot-topic of debate among you. Yesterday, Gartner released first-quarter global phone sales data that puts to end any real debate about Windows Phone's present: Combined smartphone OS share with Windows Mobile was 1.9 percent, down… [Continue Reading]
betanews.com | 18-May-2012 00:11
Trackerbird launches, lets you collect user analytics in your .NET apps
Cloud-based desktop software analytics platform Trackerbird completed its beta phase and launched to general availability on Thursday. The platform lets .NET software developers and vendors embed tracking mechanisms in their software to watch installations, trends in feature usage, user behaviour, demographics, and license conversions. It's similar in concept to Concerity Analytics, which we launched here on BetaNews two years ago. By integrating Trackerbird's SDK into a desktop application, developers can collect anonymized reports and detailed conversion funnel analysis in real time. All software usage metrics collected by Trackerbird are totally anonymous and no IP addresses are stored. Developers can make… [Continue Reading]
betanews.com | 17-May-2012 20:48
4G LTE: 1 billion served by 2017
Unsurprisingly, 4G LTE is the fastest growing cellular network technology, in part for what it delivers and deployment's timing. Strategy Analytics forecasts that 4G LTE will reach 1 billion connections, or 15 percent of all, by 2017. That compares to 12 years for GSM and about 11 years for WCDMA to reach as many. But LTE isn't gain without pain. In the United States, Verizon by far and large has the most expansive 4G network, reaching 250 metro areas and 200 million Americans compared to 38 metros and 75 million people for AT&T. Adoption still is fairly low, perhaps because… [Continue Reading]
betanews.com | 17-May-2012 20:23
Earthlink debuts hosted desktop services, adds cloud expert to executive team
Earthlink this week strengthened its cloud services offerings, debuting a hosted desktop solution that allows customers access regardless of device and via both the Internet and secure MPLS connections. Over 250 applications are supported, and customers may also install their own custom applications. Since the middle of last year, EarthLink has been transforming its business from an ISP to cloud services provider. In July, the company promoted Brian Fink to executive vice president of managed and cloud services. Fink brought with him two decades of experience in managed services. Since then, the company has continued to make some high profile… [Continue Reading]
betanews.com | 17-May-2012 18:03
Commerce Weekly: Another mobile wallet is on the way
Isis announces Mobile Wallet partners and a rollout plan, Rogers Communication and CIBC partner to bring a mobile wallet to Canada, and a look at the theoretical benefits of NFC. (Commerce Weekly is produced as part of a partnership between O'Reilly and PayPal.)
O'Reilly Radar | 17-May-2012 18:00
FeedDemon 4.1 drops Google Reader sharing features
It’s a strange day when some of the biggest news about the latest release of an application is a feature's removal, but this is the case with the latest version of FeedDemon. Some months ago, Google announced plans to make changes to its Reader service and this has ultimately led to FeedDemon removing the sharing features that relied on this particular service, but Google+ mostly been picks up the slack. The most recent version of FeedDemon also has a number of other changes and additions that are worth mentioning. The program has long featured a recommendation engine that can point you… [Continue Reading]
betanews.com | 17-May-2012 17:45
Blackbaud CRM for nonprofits gets major feature upgrade, Web interface
Catering to the special marketing needs of nonprofit organizations, Blackbaud Inc. on Thursday released a new version of its Blackbaud CRM software which expands the software's functionality with a new browser-based dashboard, new fundraising and membership management functionality, and improved overall data management. The major addition to Blackbaud CRM 2.93 is its Web dashboard. Previously, the software was only available as a Windows application, but now it can be accessed through Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, Safari for iOS, and Android. The dashboard features a new, streamlined user interface and new batch commit functionality. The membership processing functionality has… [Continue Reading]
betanews.com | 17-May-2012 17:35
Flipboard 1.9 for iOS lets you listen while you look
iOS app Flipboard has already earned itself something of a name as a great way to aggregate multiple social networks and news media into a single, more easily managed stream. The latest version of the iPhone and iPad app sees the introduction of support for audio as well as the more usual text and image based content. Audio content can be scanned through just as you would the rest of your feeds, but it can also be played in the background while you continue with your browsing. There is support for SoundCloud, NPR (National Public Radio) and PRI (Public Radio International), which… [Continue Reading]
betanews.com | 17-May-2012 17:20
Auslogic BoostSpeed 5.3 and Disk Defrag 3.4.3 are big upgrades
Australian software developer Auslogics has released major updates for two of its Windows performance tools. Auslogics BoostSpeed 5.3.0.0 is the company’s flagship tool, an all-in-one performance manager, whileAuslogics Disk Defrag 3.4.3.0 - whose functionality is included in BoostSpeed -- provides a free (for personal use) hard drive optimization tool. The latest build includes numerous feature additions, performance improvements and bug fixes, plus introduces “partial” compatibility with Windows 8, with full compatibility promised for version 5.4. Both BoostSpeed and Disk Defrag introduce a new free space availability check before the user creates a Rescue Center backup, allowing them to either abort the entire operation… [Continue Reading]
betanews.com | 17-May-2012 16:49
Strata Week: Google unveils its Knowledge Graph
In this week's data news, Google updates its search features with a Knowledge Graph, while the U.S. House of Representatives de-funds surveys that helped businesses construct theirs.
O'Reilly Radar | 17-May-2012 15:45
Secure your connections with HTTPS Everywhere
When browsing the Internet you may well have noticed that some of sites you visit are secure, while others are not. While HTTPS is most often used for secure shopping and banking web sites, there is no reason that connections to other pages should not be encrypted to help improve privacy and security. If this is something that has concerned you, HTTPS Everywhere could be just what you have been looking for. This free browser extension can be used to ensure that a secure connection is used whenever available. There are a huge number of websites that offer support for encrypted HTTPS… [Continue Reading]
betanews.com | 17-May-2012 15:24
Graphite enters different states of matter in ultrafast experiment
For the first time, scientists have seen an X-ray-irradiated mineral go to two different states of matter in about 40 femtoseconds (a femtosecond is one quadrillionth of a second). Using the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray Free-Electron Laser (XFEL) at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford, Stefan Hau-Riege of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and [...]
kurzweilai.net | 17-May-2012 14:58
‘Grexit’: Are Greece’s euro fears causing a $1-billion bank run?
Greek officials are cobbling together an emergency plan after talks to form a coalition government disintegrated Tuesday. In the meantime, Greeks have withdrawn $900 million from local banks. With Greece in deep political turmoil (some are even talking apocalyptically of civil war) after voters backed an incoherent constellation of anti-austerity parties, European central bankers and finance ministers have been warning it [...]
kurzweilai.net | 17-May-2012 14:45
Rapid-fire single photons for quantum information processing
Researchers at Georgia Tech have used lasers to reliably and individually produce single photons from individual atoms in a cloud of ultra-cooled rubidium gas. Single photons are an essential element for guaranteed secure communications in quantum cryptography — where an attacker can use extra or stray photons to eavesdrop on a message — and to address individual [...]
kurzweilai.net | 17-May-2012 14:35
Introducing Google’s Knowledge Graph
Google has launched the Knowledge Graph, which it says will help you discover new information quickly and easily, according to the Official Google Blog. Think of it as Google + Wikipedia + Wolfram Alpha + Bing. Take a query like [taj mahal]. For more than four decades, search has essentially been about matching keywords to [...]
kurzweilai.net | 17-May-2012 14:23
Ditch Windows Explorer, go retro with XFile
If you used PCs back in the 1980s then you’ll probably remember that file management was, well, a little basic. To put it politely. But that all changed in 1985 with the arrival of XTree, a powerful file manager that came packed with functionality: the geeks of the day loved its feature set, speed and extensive list of keyboard shortcuts. It didn’t last, of course -- the program was essentially killed off by the arrival of Windows Explorer. Which, while nothing like as powerful as XTree, was free and included with every PC. But if you still have fond memories… [Continue Reading]
betanews.com | 17-May-2012 14:06
New microscopy method visualizes microtubules in cells of living fish
A new hybrid method to visualize cell structures in living fish larvae has been developed by researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz, and the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). “The zebrafish is perfectly suited for genetic studies of cells, as its larvae are completely transparent,” explains [...]
kurzweilai.net | 17-May-2012 13:48
People with paralysis control robotic arms using brain-computer interface
On April 12, 2011, nearly 15 years after she became paralyzed and unable to speak, a woman controlled a robotic arm by thinking about moving her arm and hand to lift a bottle of coffee to her mouth and take a drink, using the BrainGate neural interface system. That achievement is one of the advances [...]
kurzweilai.net | 17-May-2012 12:41
Four short links: 17 May 2012
The Mythology of Big Data (PDF) -- slides from a Strata keynote by Mark R. Madsen. A lovely explanation of the social impediments to the rational use of data. (via Hamish MacEwan) Scamworld -- amazing deconstruction of the online "get rich quick" scam business. (via Andy Baio) Ceres: Solving Complex Problems with Computing Muscle -- Johnny Lee Chung explains...
O'Reilly Radar | 17-May-2012 12:00
JavaScript and Dart: Can we do better?
O'Reilly editor Simon St. Laurent talked with Google's Seth Ladd about the challenges of improving the web. How can we build on JavaScript's ubiquity while addressing performance, team, and scale issues?
O'Reilly Radar | 17-May-2012 10:00
Samsung accounts for 40% of Android smartphone sales
The figure is so important, I'm breaking it out from the long analysis posted mid-afternoon about the smartphone market consolidating around Apple and Samsung. The South Korean electronics giant is doing to Android on smartphones what Amazon does on tablets: Hugely fragment the market around a forked operating system. I warned about this three weeks ago in post "Google has lost control of Android". Now there is sales data to back it up. Earlier today, Gartner released first quarter sales data for global handsets. Not shipments into the channel, but actual sales to end users. Market leader Samsung accounted for… [Continue Reading]
betanews.com | 17-May-2012 00:26
LG actually did some cool stuff with its new Android UI
There are many manufacturer-created user interfaces for Android, and sadly, most of them are unpleasant. Some are polluted with unremovable bloatware, some are sluggish performers, and some are just badly designed. For as many different versions of the Android user experience as there are, there are very few major builds that add remarkable innovations on top of the Android platform. Wednesday, South Korean consumer electronics maker LG officially launched its new Android UI built on the Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) framework called LG Optimus UI 3.0. Though LG has not yet established itself as a power player in the… [Continue Reading]
betanews.com | 16-May-2012 22:26
Enterprise IT turns to cloud storage to fight data loss
If you're worried about data loss, turn to the cloud. That's what a new survey commissioned by CA suggests. Fifty-five percent of all US businesses expect usage of the cloud to increase to meet continuity objectives. That's an important statistic considering every one of the 300 businesses participating in the study experienced some type of data loss event in the past year. Among the most common reasons for data loss are IT system failures (76 percent); human error (41 percent); and external threats and attacks (35 percent). An earlier CA study suggests that data loss events cost companies an average… [Continue Reading]
betanews.com | 16-May-2012 22:02
Smartphone market consolidates around Apple and Samsung
Today, Gartner put to end weeks of cellular handset debate. Apple apologists disputed Samsung's smartphone success over iPhone -- the presumption that the South Korean electronics giant benefits from greater shipments vs actual sales. Make no mistake: Samsung is the global leader overall and in the smartphone category, based on actual sales. Apologist arguments be damned. That said, Apple's position is solid. Together, Apple and Samsung combined smartphone sales market share approaches 50 percent. Contrary to speculation that Windows Phone might appear as a third dominant mobile OS, the market is set to largely split between two vendors. As I… [Continue Reading]
betanews.com | 16-May-2012 21:47
Get autotext and autocorrect in any app
Anyone who’s tapped into Microsoft Word’s autotext and autocorrect features will know how useful they can be, but what happens when you need that kind of automation in another program? The answer lies with a free-for-personal-use tool called PhraseExpress 8.0151. This clever and powerful text replacement tool, also available as a portable build, gives you Autotext and Autocorrect functionality – plus a heck of a lot more – across your entire desktop, letting you speed up the way you enter and manipulate text in any program you have installed on your computer, not just Microsoft Word. PhraseExpress’s Autotext feature – the Text… [Continue Reading]
betanews.com | 16-May-2012 19:35
Apple patents block HTC One X and EVO 4G LTE from U.S. market
"The US availability of the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed due to a standard U.S. Customs review of shipments that is required after an ITC exclusion order," a boilerplate statement from Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC said on Wednesday. The company's flagship smartphones are being held up in customs as a result of patent litigation with Apple, and their availability to consumers is currently on hold. Though it only launched on May 6, AT&T currently lists the One X as "sold out," and Sprint's EVO 4G LTE which was slated to launch on Friday, May… [Continue Reading]
betanews.com | 16-May-2012 19:08
Get ready for Commerce-as-a-Service: NetSuite takes selling to the cloud
You've heard of Platform-as-a-Service, and Infrastructure-as-a-Service; maybe even Gaming-as-a-Service, too, from BetaNews' reporting on Tuesday. Get ready for the latest X-as-a-Service, thanks to a new Commerce-as-a-Service (CaaS) initiative from NetSuite. The company debuted the initiative on Wednesday, saying CaaS will help partners manage both business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions regardless of device. CaaS uses NetSuite's Enterprise Resource Planning as its backbone, built upon a new platform called SuiteCommerce. SuiteCommerce manages all aspects of the sales process from developing the e-commerce site itself to process management. The platform can even run the POS systems in retail stores themselves, which may explain why… [Continue Reading]
betanews.com | 16-May-2012 17:25
Velocity Profile: Justin Huff
A profile of web operations and performance expert Justin Huff, software engineer at PicMonkey and formerly of Google/Picnik.
O'Reilly Radar | 16-May-2012 17:00
A federal judge learned to code
The judge presiding over the Oracle/Google case learned Java, and that skill came in handy when coding specifics arose during the trial. It's proof that coding is a part of cultural competence, even if you never do it professionally.
O'Reilly Radar | 16-May-2012 16:30
How to start a successful business in health care at Health 2.0 conference
Great piles of cash are descending on entrepreneurs who develop health care apps, but that doesn't make it any easier to create a useful one that your audience will adopt. About the Spring Fling conference, enterpreneurship, and open data.
O'Reilly Radar | 16-May-2012 16:10
The chicken and egg of big data solutions
So, here we are with all of this disruptive big data technology, but we seem to have lost the institutional wherewithal to do anything with it in a lot of large companies, at least until package solutions come along.
O'Reilly Radar | 16-May-2012 16:00
When WHOIS isn't enough, there's DomainHostingView
When you need to know more about a web domain, then your first instinct will probably be to visit your favorite WHOIS site. But while that’s quick and easy, there could be an even more convenient solution in NirSoft’s DomainHostingView. As ever with NirSoft tools, the program is portable and extremely small (just 219KB including documentation), and it’s very straightforward to use: just type the name in question in the Domain box, click Go, then wait as DomainHostingView uses a variety of DNS and WHOIS queries to assemble the data you need. The report starts with a detailed summary which covers… [Continue Reading]
betanews.com | 16-May-2012 15:45
Nvidia flaunts Kepler’s GPU power in video demos
Nvidia is flexing its graphics muscle at the 2012 GPU Technology Conference, and the videos below show off Kepler’s new visual tricks:real-time ray tracing, simulation of physical bodies, and cloud gaming powered by its new GeForce Grid system.
kurzweilai.net | 16-May-2012 14:11
Protein synthesis at synapses
Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Brain Research researchers have used new-generation sequencing to directly identify a very large number (more than 2500) of mRNA molecules present in axons and dendrites. The finding my help explain how proteins establish long-term memories. During learning, information is stored at the synapses, the junctions connecting nerve cells. Synapses also require new proteins [...]
kurzweilai.net | 16-May-2012 14:02
Key genes for schizophrenia identified
An Indiana University-led research team and collaborators have identified and prioritized a comprehensive group of genes most associated with schizophrenia and that can generate a score indicating whether an individual is at higher or lower risk of developing the disease. They used a convergent functional genomics approach that incorporates a variety of experimental techniques. The scientists [...]
kurzweilai.net | 16-May-2012 13:39
NASA trains astronauts for asteroid mission
NASA is training a team of astronauts to land on an asteroid to explore its surface, search for minerals, and even learn the skills they may need to destroy it should one pose a threat to the Earth. NASA hopes to launch an unmanned spacecraft that will use a robotic arm to collect samples from [...]
kurzweilai.net | 16-May-2012 13:30
Gene therapy for aging-associated decline tested
Mouse lifespan was extended up to 24 percent with a single gene treatment in research at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), using gene therapy, a strategy never before employed to combat aging. Mice treated at the age of one lived longer by 24% on average, and those treated at the age of two, by 13%. The [...]
kurzweilai.net | 16-May-2012 13:27
Ultrasensitive biosensor promising for medical diagnostics
An ultrasensitive biosensor that could allow for early detection of cancer and for personalized medicine tailored to the specific biochemistry of individual patients has been developed by Purdue University researchers. The Flexure-FET biosensor combines a mechanical sensor, which identifies a biomolecule based on its mass or size, with an electrical sensor that identifies molecules based on their [...]
kurzweilai.net | 16-May-2012 13:18