The SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY News Thread

[GDB]

Originally Posted by LoweGear

Not as they are currently. But give them about a decade or so to streamline the technology, add some apps and their civilian popularity would increase. I mean alot of people already adopt hands-free technologies when using phones like using earphones and mics, having the ability to not use your hands in holding up the display would be a godsend.

You think it'll take a decade? Give it 5 years, tops.

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

I'm slightly more concerned about what the above poster said... when they become integrated. At least with a smartphone you can put the damn thing away and you won't get augmented reality ads every time your eyes fall on some piece of corporate product!

You could always... take them off?

Either way, unless they make a prescription version, I know I'll never buy into it. Same reason I didn't buy into 3D. Oh, you want me to wear a pair of glasses over my glasses? How about I don't?

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

EUROCORP has the right to use, without restriction, any or all of the contents of your thoughts, fantasies, and memories, past or future.....

If you're not careful, they can manipulate your memories too...

PopSci: Scientists Hijack Mouse Neurons to Take Control of Their Memories

Originally Posted by GDB

You think it'll take a decade? Give it 5 years, tops.

I'm always optimistic when it comes to tech, but i'm giving myself some room to be wrong

Either way, unless they make a prescription version, I know I'll never buy into it. Same reason I didn't buy into 3D. Oh, you want me to wear a pair of glasses over my glasses? How about I don't?

Until they develop a micro-projector that can turn your existing glasses into one.

[GDB]

Originally Posted by LoweGear

Until they develop a micro-projector that can turn your existing glasses into one.

Also viable.

[AnimeFan188]

"Think twice if you live outside the U.S. and plan to sell your used gaming console.

The Department of Homeland Security has launched a research project to find
ways to hack into gaming consoles to obtain sensitive information about gamers
stored on the devices.

One of the first contracts for the project was awarded last week to Obscure
Technologies, based in California, to devise a forensic tool that will siphon data
from the Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3 and other consoles."

See:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...-console-hack/

[Endless Soul]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

"Think twice if you live outside the U.S. and plan to sell your used gaming console.

Spoiler for tidiness:

The Department of Homeland Security has launched a research project to find
ways to hack into gaming consoles to obtain sensitive information about gamers
stored on the devices.

One of the first contracts for the project was awarded last week to Obscure
Technologies, based in California, to devise a forensic tool that will siphon data
from the Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3 and other consoles."

See:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...-console-hack/

From the article:

The government says it plans to use the forensic tool only on systems owned by foreigners outside the U.S. and that the research is aimed at investigations of pedophiles who target victims through gaming systems, and terrorists, who DHS says may be using gaming consoles to communicate and plan their activities.

Really?

I personally don't have a game console (unless you count my old Sega Genesis, otherwise I'm PC all the way) but I find their desire to do this a bit outrageous. I seriously doubt that, assuming they figure out how to do it, that it won't be non-U.S. only. And what makes it OK to invade the privacy of non-U.S.ers?

Endless "" Soul

[Ithekro]

Well it is illegal for then to do that to US Citizens....but not to Non-Citizens.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

"Think twice if you live outside the U.S. and plan to sell your used gaming console.

The Department of Homeland Security has launched a research project to find
ways to hack into gaming consoles to obtain sensitive information about gamers
stored on the devices.

One of the first contracts for the project was awarded last week to Obscure
Technologies, based in California, to devise a forensic tool that will siphon data
from the Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3 and other consoles."

See:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...-console-hack/

So if *I* hack my console I'm subject to the wrath of Microsoft, Sony, etc.... come on, Corporation "people", how about some wrath at this little project? Fling your lawyers at them....

The really stupid thing is that there are literally *hundreds* of free-to-play MMOs that can be run on third-rate computers and used to transmit information between people of absolutely any stripe... isn't that horrible!!!!!????? (where's that faux horror emoticon and dripping sarcasm font when needed)

[synaesthetic]

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/...hone-theft.ars

It's about damn time we get an IMEI blacklist here.

[Dhomochevsky]

Originally Posted by Vexx

So if *I* hack my console I'm subject to the wrath of Microsoft, Sony, etc.... come on, Corporation "people", how about some wrath at this little project? Fling your lawyers at them....

The really stupid thing is that there are literally *hundreds* of free-to-play MMOs that can be run on third-rate computers and used to transmit information between people of absolutely any stripe... isn't that horrible!!!!!????? (where's that faux horror emoticon and dripping sarcasm font when needed)

Well, the Kinect would make for an awesome room surveillance tool and the box has plenty of space to store the interesting bits.
Just need the knowledge on how to tap into it, which I guess they are working on here. Much easier now, that these things are online all the time.
This is just the extension of what they already have for other computer devices, closing the gap in their toolbox.
Every secret agency worth it's money should be working on that.

[AnimeFan188]

"The USA’s Viking mission found life on Mars, says a new paper that has re-
analysed data collected by the two probes.

Complexity Analysis of the Viking Labeled Release Experiments (PDF), published
yesterday in the International Journal of Aeronautic and Space Sciences, asserts
that a test designed to detect microbial life did so, when re-interpreted in light of
other recent discoveries about the red planet."

See:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04..._on_mars_1976/

[MrTerrorist]

Atari illustrations predicted Wikipedia in 1982

10 Futuristic Places to Shop

[SaintessHeart]

Robo Guard On Patrol In South Korea

RAVEN ON LINE.

[Ithekro]

Next they want a "body searching" robot.

[Dhomochevsky]

"~LOCK ON"
*RATTTATTATTATTATTA*
"~I found a body"

[Endless Soul]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Robo Guard On Patrol In South Korea

RAVEN ON LINE.

Interesting. However I think this guy would be far more effective, so long as it doesn't have to navigate stairs.

Spoiler for ED-209:

Endless "You have 5 seconds to comply" Soul

[TinyRedLeaf]

Google imagines our augmented future...

YouTube

https://youtu.be/9c6W4CCU9M4

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

If you ask me, though, it ain't cool unless such tech makes me a super sniper...

[Dhomochevsky]

Originally Posted by Endless Soul

Interesting. However I think this guy would be far more effective, so long as it doesn't have to navigate stairs.

Spoiler for ED-209:

Endless "You have 5 seconds to comply" Soul

These ones shoot first and ask the questions later:

"~Are you still there?"

[AnimeFan188]

"An elusive particle that is its own antiparticle may have been found, and, if
confirmed, would be the first time a phenomenon predicted decades ago has
been seen in a real system.

Some researchers suggest that in the future, this mysterious particle called a
Majorana fermion could be useful in carrying bits of information in quantum
computers.

In a paper published in the journal Science Thursday, Vincent Mourikand Leo P.
Kouwenhoven said they were able to make the Majorana fermions appear by
exposing a small circuit to a magnetic field."

See:

http://news.yahoo.com/mysterious-par...130005728.html

[ganbaru]

Space shuttle Discovery takes a few victory laps
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...04-17-15-36-42

[SaintessHeart]

Is humanity quietly abandoning a future in space?

WASHINGTON, April 17 - As astronaut Leroy Chiao watches the space shuttles he crewed make their final journeys to become museum pieces, he worries humankind is unthinkingly ditching space exploration and a future beyond Earth.

After flying its last mission into space last year, the shuttle Discovery arrived Tuesday at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., atop a NASA 747 to enter the National Air and Space Museum at its giant Udvar-Hazy facility in suburban Virginia.

Sister ships Endeavour, Atlantis and early prototype shuttle Enterprise will be similarly displayed in Los Angeles, Cape Canaveral and New York respectively.

"It's hard to escape the idea that we are going backwards," Chiao - a veteran of three shuttle missions and a trip to the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz rocket and now a private consultant and adviser to industry group the Space Foundation - told Reuters.

"I struggle to even think of it (the shuttle) in the past tense. It was a great vehicle."

With Russia's commitment to human spaceflight also seen wavering and some observers questioning whether even emerging powerhouse China will stick to its brashly self-confident plans, some begin to suspect the world is simply giving up.

While it hopes to resume manned spaceflight around 2017 once it has re-engineered some of its unmanned rockets, in the short term the United States has been left totally dependent on Russia for transport to and from the International Space Station.

NASA retains the longer term plans to return to the Moon, land people on a near-Earth asteroid and ultimately reach Mars. But veterans of the space program say there is a growing mismatch between resources and ambition.

"If you ask people whether space exploration is important, then eight or nine times out of 10 they will tell you that it is," said the Smithsonian Institution's Roger Launius, senior curator for space.

"The only problem comes when you tie that to funding. No president or congressman is ever going to say that he is putting an end to the human spaceflight program. But they may make decisions that stop you getting the resources to do anything,"

SIMPLY LOSING INTEREST?

After a series of accidents and technical glitches, Russia itself says it is no longer prioritizing manned spaceflight. Some of its experts say they fear the focus on the space station has left its program falling behind on more commercially lucrative ventures such as putting satellites in orbit.

China, which first put a man in space in 2003 and intends to do so again later this year, happily talks of long-term plans leading to Mars. Its space strategy includes its own manned space station by 2020 and a lunar landing by 2030.

That would be almost half a century since the last Apollo Moon landing in 1972. But with China facing its own very particular challenges of a rapidly aging population, some believe appetite there too may wane.

"People have lost interest in spaceflight," says James Lewis, a former U.S. Foreign Service officer and now senior fellow for technology and policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. "You hear complaints even in China that the money would be better spent on the ground on healthcare and social services."

Some experts believe the decisions to be made on spaceflight in the coming decades could determine the fate of the entire human race. Some scientists, such as British physicist Stephen Hawking, have long warned that unless mankind moves beyond a single planet it risks extinction from either nuclear war or a natural catastrophe such as a meteorite impact.

"I think it's essentially a binary choice," says John Logsdon, veteran space historian and now a professor at the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. "In 50 years time, we will either have Antarctica-style research stations elsewhere in the solar system or the era of government-funded manned space exploration will be over for good."

A VERY DIFFERENT FUTURE?

At the National Air and Space Museum, its curator says he doubts many visitors realize that humanity might be quietly turning away from the kind of spacefaring future portrayed in "Star Trek" and countless other science fiction works.

"People very rarely think about that, but if you were to ask them they would say that probably is what they would still expect," says Launius. "Will it really happen that way? Probably not ... it's certainly a lot more complicated."

Some wonder whether the entire focus on national space programs and manned spaceflight may be somewhat misplaced. Like so much else in the aerospace and defense sector, the future might have much more to do with robot drones and an ever increasing role for private companies.

Improvements in information technology, potentially including artificial intelligence, could revolutionize the use of robot probes. Some scientists even suggest intelligent machines, not organic life forms like humans, might be most likely to colonize space.

Private companies too are rapidly expanding their activities, from bidding for contracts to supply the International Space Station to British entrepreneur Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic orbital tourism venture.

For now, many doubt private firms will ever find an economic argument for true deep space travel. But whatever the method, astronaut Chiao remains broadly optimistic.

"At the time of the moon landings, you would have thought we would already be on Mars by now," he says. "I still think we will get there, although it is taking a lot longer. If we did not, it would be a real tragedy."