Relax And Think Like A Rat

Don't feel guilty about the breaks you've been sneaking at work—they could be helping you learn. Neuroscientists at MIT find that rats take a similar pause after exploring an unfamiliar maze. During that break, the animals' brains repeatedly review a backward version of the route they just took, most likely cementing memories of the steps needed to reach the goal.

David Foster and his team zero in on this process by placing tiny wires into the rats' brains and then eavesdropping on individual cells. The neurons that light up during the experiments lie in a region known to form short-term memories. But as those cells play the memory again and again—10 times faster than the original experience—the rest of the brain has lots of opportunities to absorb the information and to place it into long-term storage. "This implies that it's not just during an experience that learning occurs," Foster says. "If we're right, the period after the experience is just as important, maybe more important."

The results may explain previous studies showing that people and animals learn best when given breaks between tasks—and provide a persuasive new justification for office daydreaming.

A Better Energizer

If you've ever had a cell phone suddenly die on you, you know that batteries are the weak link in mobile electronics. That's why MIT electrical engineer Joel Schindall thinks the time is ripe for capacitors. "They are better than batteries in almost every way, except in the amount of energy they store," he says. Schindall and his research group have licked that limitation.

Unlike batteries, which produce voltage from a chemical reaction, capacitors store electricity between a pair of metal plates. The larger the area of the plates, and the smaller the space between them, the more energy a capacitor can hold. Schindall's group had a radical idea: Cover the plates with millions of microscopic filaments known as carbon nanotubes. The tiny tubes vastly expand the surface area, creating a perfect sponge for electricity. "Now we can expect to store an amount of energy that is comparable to what batteries store," he says.

A capacitor-powered cell phone could be charged in minutes or seconds instead of hours. And since capacitors can be reused indefinitely, environmental waste from discarded batteries would become a thing of the past. Schindall says battery-free bliss may be less than five years away.

More Silly Things

Cute and silly, great for everyone!
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/eggsong

Heres an insanly smart bird. You should watch this even if you dont like pet tricks. http://www.killsometime.com/Video/video.asp?ID=103

Marks Hurst's Game picks. http://www.goodexperience.com/games/

Another Addicting Game

GROW CUBE:
In this game you have to drag the icons on the side of the screen into the CUBE in a certain order. If you get the order right you will see this screen:


This is a very simple game yet very hard. If you've played the game and can't get the answer then email me (view my profile then click email on the left side) and I will tell you the answer.

GROW CUBE- http://www.eyezmaze.com/grow/cube/index.html
EYEZMAZE home- http://www.eyezmaze.com/

Free WI-FI For San Francisco

Via Forbes:

By Parmy Olson
Peace, love and Wi-Fi: It must have baffled members of San Francisco's legendary Beat Generation when after decades of gentrification, their city not only became a bastion of billionaires but featured pockets of wealth like Atherton, top of the Forbes list of the most expensive zip codes in the U.S. Surely now that its home to the tech revolution and affluent, hard-nosed eggheads, Frisco doesn't need a warm blanket of free wireless Internet. Or does it? Perhaps we shouldn't underestimate the power of that free-wheeling sentiment, and the will of a city mayor.

In 2004 Mayor Gavin Newsom proposed setting up a free Wi-Fi network for the city before inviting companies like search engine goliath Google, led by Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, internet service provider EarthLink and several others to bid for the honor. Now a panel of his officials have chosen their partners: none other than Google and EarthLink, two companies that had been bidding against each other before deciding it made more sense to work together.

Based on opposite sides of the U.S., the two firms will now pay to build the entire network, expected to cost at least $15 million--one reason why it's not all to be a free ride. San Franciscans will likely either pay $20 a month for the EarthLink service, or put up with a heavy dose of online advertisements if they opt for Google's free but slower service.

According to The Associated Press, the Google component of the service will make Frisco the largest city in the U.S. with free Internet access throughout its borders. There's even been speculation that Google is secretly planning to build a Wi-Fi network across the U.S. to get more people to see its money-spinning ads. But Google says it's only interested in providing free Wi-Fi in San Francisco, where many of its employees live, as well as in Mountain View, Calif. where its headquarters is.

It's hoped the service will be operational by the end of 2006, though one panel member told AP that stumbling blocks in the final negotiations and approval process, could slow things down.

The Computer of tomorrow

Via: The Register

Asus dreams up modular PC of the future

By Tony Smith

23rd February 2006 13:25 GM

Asus has shelved plans to develop the PC of the future - literally. The Taiwanese vendor's Green PC concept computer, shown to Reg Hardware this week, is just that: a shelf. And some clever wireless connectivity and non-contact inductive power source.

Asus' design breaks the computer down into a series of interchangeable modules. It imagines the machine's hard drives, optical units, memory, processor, graphics engine, network interface, Wireless USB adaptor and so on, shipping as a mix of square full-size boxes and half-size units. To build a Green PC, you just stack as many of these as you need on the shelf-like base unit.

The idea is that all the modules communicate wirelessly to discover what capabilities each can offer, and then start exchanging data. The units draw power from the base through induction.

Markus Wierzoch of the company's Asus Design division admitted the concept doesn't yet exist as a working prototype, but he maintained that if technology evolves the way the company expects it to, building such a machine will be feasible in the future. That said, he didn't provide a date when Asus expects that point to be reached.

It's all a bit science fictional, of course, but inductive power transfer is a reality and has been used to re-charge notebooks and other devices wirelessly. A high-frequency oscillating electromagnetic field in the base generates a current in a receiver built into each component unit. It's broadly the same way a power transformer works, with a primary coil generating a current in a secondary coil, the difference between the number of loops in each coil governing the change in voltage.

The wireless connectivity is possible through something like ultrawideband (UWB), but Asus will have to wait for data transfer rates to get significantly faster before wireless technology can be used to, say, send information back and forth between the CPU and memory.

Of course, there's no reason why, in the near term, the units might not connect physically to the base unit through built in power and data connectors.

Asus also showed us a concept notebook which uses many of the modules that might be included in the shelf system. Standardised form factors would ensure your hard drive could be pulled from one and slotted into the other, for example. It could even double-up as an MP3 player, the company suggested.

It also said it foresees a time when new modules - perhaps even ones acquired on a lease rather than bought outright - will be delivered within half an hour of the order going through, rather like pizzas are delivered today.

Addicting Flash Game

After playing this game for 20 minutes I thought that I might want to share it with everyone who reads this. The game is simple. Use the Roboclaw to pick up the blue orb, then drop it in to a hole on the other side of the board, but you have to avoid things and doge moving walls. This game is very fun, but you must read the instructions first.

CLICKY

I would like to thank Mark (www.thisisbroken.com) for giving me the link to this.

DIY Skin Cancer Test

Do you have freckles? Do you think that on of them is changing color? Well now there is an accurate way to test that freckle to see if it is cancerous.

CLICK ME

I read the article and it looks pretty simple, but I don't know where you would get the PCB ring from.

Don't Worry, We Can "Fix" It For You!

Have you ever had your Xbox crash? Have you ever had to pay the $80 after warranty repair fee? If you have, then you probably know how ticked off I am. If you haven't or are about to, then you should read what happened to me before you waste $80.
Three weeks ago I was playing my Xbox when the screen froze. I knew it hadn't over heated because I had only been playing for 5-10 minutes. So I waited for it to unfreeze but it didn't so I turned it off, let it sit for 30 seconds then tried to turn it back on. When I pressed the power button, nothing happened. So I did it again and it did not boot up but the red power ring was solid red. I know this wasn't good so I took my game out, turn the Xbox off then back on again. This time it tried to boot up three times then it turned off and the power ring flashed red and orange.
At this point I was worried so I called the Xbox help line and told them what happened. This took about ten minutes because the person I talked to did not know English well. So I called back to talk to someone who could understand me. This lady said that I should back up all of my game data then pay $80 so they could fix it, and if it could not be fixed then they would transfer all of my games to a new Xbox for free. I thought this was a great deal because a used Xbox is $90. I told the lady on the phone that I could not back up my games the Xbox would not boot up. She said that it was no problem because it is not likely that the hard drive will get erased. So I paid the $80 shipped it off thinking that when I get it back everything will be fine.
I was wrong.
After almost a month of waiting I finale got it back, plugged it in, set the clock, then tried to listen to some music. I was surprised to see that my five C.D.s of music were not there. So I checked the hard drive for any game saves and found none all of my progress was gone, forever!
I was ticked off so I called the Xbox help line and asked why it happened, she said "I'm sorry but we can not guaranty that all of your game saves will be on your hard drive when you get it back" so I said that the other lady I talked to said that my game saves would be fine and they will be careful because I could not back them up. Then I asked her how the games got erased because what I read online said that the problem was in the mother board not in the hard drive. She replayed with the same answer of "I'm sorry but we can not guaranty that all of your game saves will be on your hard drive when you get it back." So I said that I was promised that the saved games will be fine and now the game saves are gone and you failed to keep your end of the promise and that they should offer something to compensate for that. I asked for a $10 coupon for the next game that I buy. And she said that that her supervisor said that they wouldn't give me the coupon. Talk about stingy!
So I said that his is stupid. I spent $80 and waited almost a month to get a blank Xbox. I could of easily of gone on eBay and got a used one for $50.
Any ways, if your Xbox crashes you should just get one off eBay instead of wasting your time with Microsoft.