Robot jockeys to ride Gulf camels. [BBC News | World 4/10/2005; 1:53:39 PM] The United Arab Emirates says it will use robots as jockeys for camel races from next season. Camel racing is one of the UAE's traditional sports and an important part of the region's heritage. The move comes after widespread international criticism of the use of young children to ride camels during the long and often hazardous races. Aid workers say there are up to 40,000 child jockeys working across the Gulf. Many are said to be have been kidnapped and trafficked from South Asia. 4/10/2005 9:17:28 PM    

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Our Ratings, Ourselves [Slashdot: 4/10/2005; 8:52:30 PM] This long New York Times article (10 pages; no registration required) reports on the mismeasure of television (TV). "One of the great contradictions of modern American life is that almost everyone watches TV while almost no one agrees anymore about what it really means to watch television....when it comes to figuring out how many of us are watching these shows, and whether we're paying attention while we're watching and even whether we're actually noticing the advertisements among the shows we may or may not be watching -- well, this is where things get tricky..." 4/10/2005 9:03:38 PM    

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These computer bugs can kill [The Globe And Mail: National 4/10/2005; 6:52:24 PM] Keyboards are easily contaminated with germs, which in hospitals can take the form of antibiotic-resistant pathogens — the so-called superbugs, a study suggests. And once they take up residence, there's almost no getting rid of them. Tests show that bacteria are capable of surviving on keyboards for at least 24 hours. Hospitals often use plastic keyboard covers that can be removed and immersed in cleaning solutions. Even so, more attention has to be paid to the cleanliness of hands — a suggestion no infection-control practitioner would argue against. Any contact with a keyboard in a hospital setting should be followed by hand washing. 4/10/2005 8:57:42 PM    

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Bill Gates 0wns Einstein, Groucho, Freud, Asimov, Fuller, et al. [Cory Doctorow - Boing Boing 4/9/2005; 12:53:27 PM] Rick Prelinger writes: Corbis, the image licensing company owned by Bill Gates, has bought the Roger Richman Agency, who represents, in its words, "a roster of legendary personalities including actors & actresses, comedians, musicians, film directors, sports figures, fictional characters and historical icons. What Richman, and now Corbis/Gates, control includes "full persona usage, consisting of name, voice, signature and image (photo, illustration, animation and/or look-alike)." Dead or alive. This is the first time an image licensing company has integrated with a personality licensing company. And guess whose personas Gates now controls: Isaac Asimov; Leonard Bernstein; George Burns & Gracie Allen; James Cagney; Maria Callas; Andrew Carnegie; Maurice Chevalier; Bobby Darin; Albert Einstein; WC Fields; Sigmund Freud; Mark Foo; Betty Grable; Harry James; Al Jolson; Boris Karloff; Burt Lancaster; Gypsy Rose Lee; Vivien Leigh; Marx Brothers; Walter Matthau; Steve McQueen; Basil Rathbone; Gloria Swanson; Rudolf Valentino; Johnny Weissmuller; Mae West; the Wright brothers 4/10/2005 10:55:02 AM    

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South Korea Considers Using Armed Robots Along DMZ [Slashdot: 4/9/2005; 8:52:29 PM] S. Korea and N. Korea (aka the ROK and DPRK, respectively) share the most heavily fortified border that has ever existed. Now the ROK is considering deployment of armed robots sometime in the 2010s. Hundreds of thousands of combat troops are deployed along the border by both Koreas, which remain technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. The ministry expects it will cost about 20 billion won to set up 250 robots with one every kilometer along the border. Robots with weapons mounted on their frames are each expected to be able to observe from 2 and 1 kilometers during the day and night, respectively, and will have the capability to record voices and take pictures in a 180-degree circle. "The ability to shoot at targets is a matter which needs to be discussed and worked out very carefully." 4/10/2005 10:42:21 AM    

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Fly brains manipulated by remote control. [MSNBC 4/7/2005] "This is a new approach to neuroscience," said Gero Miesenbock from Yale University. "We can not only passively observe but actively control behavior." Using the lasers to stimulate specific brain cells, researchers say they were able to make the flies jump, walk, flap their wings and fly. Even headless flies took flight when researchers stimulated the correct neurons, according to the study, published in the April 7 issue of the journal Cell. Biologists have long known that an electrical stimulus can trigger muscle response, but this approach used focused beams of light to stimulate neurons that would have been impossible to study using electrodes. 4/10/2005 10:14:53 AM    

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Open Source Developers Are Rock Stars. [LinuxWorld 4/7/2005 via Linux Today 4/9/2005] "When I was a kid, all I wanted to be was a rock star. I wanted to play guitar, get up on stage, and have everyone scream while I cranked out some hard rockin' tune..."

Open source developers are the rock stars of the software world. You can say they don't get the money and fame, but I think you're wrong. I've met open source developers who have founded software companies and are doing pretty well financially. As far as fame goes, they may not do quite as well as real rock stars but some do pretty well; Linus Torvalds is fairly famous, but I guess not like Kurt Cobain. They're also usually the most talented developers. Rock stars get where they are in the music world by being great musicians; open source rock stars get where they are by writing great code. Naming their projects is a lot like naming their bands. When you hear people talking about Subversion, Ethereal, or Excalibur (all open source projects), it's hard to tell if they mean software projects or rock bands.

A good friend of mine called me once and went on excitedly for 30 minutes about his patch to the Jakarta Struts project. After he was done telling me about it, he was almost out of breath. I reached in my pocket, pulled out a lighter, and stood there holding it lit in the air.

4/10/2005 9:28:21 AM    

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Music Industry P2P Claims Dismantled [via Slashdot: 4/10/2005; 6:53:17 AM]  Canadian law professor Michael Geist dismantles the recording industry's claims about the peer-to-peer. Using actual data from Canada, Piercing the P2P Myths, demonstrates that the loss claims are greatly exaggerated and that P2P has had little, if any impact on the income of the artists themselves. Other reasons for the decline in CD sales revenue include: the explosive growth of DVD sales; the declining number of hours spent listening to music; the shift in music retail merchandising to big–box retailers which focus on a small number of new releases; Wal-Mart's $10US price cap (which could account for the "loss" all on its own); and the economic slowdown, with similar "losses" in all sectors. The significant decline in new releases over the past six years is probably a factor too - less product results in fewer sales. 4/10/2005 9:19:02 AM    

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