oh-oh bam-A-lam
In 1977 you were listening to Led Zep, Deep Purple, but do you remember
Ram Jam singing "Black Betty" (bam-a-lam) ?
A mixed salad of funny (tech/art/smart) things from the past and present.
Hi everyone !
I live in Paris, France. My interests are : vintage computers/audio gear. I listen mostly to jazz and baroque music. I'm a computer network g(r)eek. Yes, I can see the Eiffel tower from my windows, just above my computer screen.
Enjoy.
Stéphane
Unix is simplistic?
Posted Friday 5th February 2010 11:16 GMT
In Google's Android code deleted from Linux kernel
My point was that Linux inherits from UNIX lots of fundamental concepts that aren't really useful in a small embedded system. You're not going to have a hundred different users logged into a smartphone at the same time, and the hardware you need to handle doesn't really fit well into the simplistic open/close/read/write/ioctl driver interface model that worked fine for disks, tapes and terminals. If you designed an OS from scratch specifically for a smartphone, I don't think you'd end up with something that looked much like UNIX or Linux at all. Multitasking is of course a great thing to have on even the simplest embedded device, but you don't need Linux to do that. As for iPhone OS, since it's based on the Darwin kernel, I'm sure it does multitasking just fine - it must be an artificial restriction that stop apps doing it.
Yes! It was about time someone notices it.
Vegetative state patient answering yes or no questions using their brain only
ABSTRACT
Background The differential diagnosis of disorders of consciousness is challenging. The rate of misdiagnosis is approximately 40%, and new methods are required to complement bedside testing, particularly if the patient's capacity to show behavioral signs of awareness is diminished.
Methods At two major referral centers in Cambridge, United Kingdom, and Liege, Belgium, we performed a study involving 54 patients with disorders of consciousness. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to assess each patient's ability to generate willful, neuroanatomically specific, blood-oxygenation-level–dependentresponses during two established mental-imagery tasks. A technique was then developed to determine whether such tasks could be used to communicate yes-or-no answers to simple questions.
Results Of the 54 patients enrolled in the study, 5 were able to willfully modulate their brain activity. In three of these patients, additional bedside testing revealed some sign of awareness, but in the other two patients, no voluntary behavior could be detected by means of clinical assessment. One patient was able to use our technique to answer yes or no to questions during functional MRI; however, it remained impossible to establish any form of communication at the bedside.
Conclusions These results show that a small proportion of patients in a vegetative or minimally conscious state have brain activation reflecting some awareness and cognition. Careful clinical examination will result in reclassification of the state of consciousness in some of these patients. This technique may be useful in establishing basic communication with patients who appear to be unresponsive.
Read the full article at
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMoa0905370 Thanks to Mai Ban for finding this article.
New Google Docs Feature: Upload Any File
You can now upload as many files as you want on google docs, and they can, or not, be converted to Google documents, it's your choice.
You get 1 GB free, then you can upgrade:
20 GB ($5.00 USD per year)
80 GB ($20.00 USD per year)
200 GB ($50.00 USD per year) includes free Eye-Fi card
400 GB ($100.00 USD per year) includes free Eye-Fi card
1 TB ($256.00 USD per year) includes free Eye-Fi card
2 TB ($512.00 USD per year) includes free Eye-Fi card
4 TB ($1,024.00 USD per year) includes free Eye-Fi card
8 TB ($2,048.00 USD per year) includes free Eye-Fi card
16 TB ($4,096.00 USD per year) includes free Eye-Fi card
for more information.
Deep Discount on Space Shuttles - NYTimes.com
Deep Discount on Space Shuttles - NYTimes.com
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Here is a recession bargain: the space shuttle. NASA has slashed the price of the 1970s-era spaceships to $28.8 million apiece from $42 million.
The shuttles are for sale once their flying days are over, which is scheduled to be this fall.
When the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in December 2008 put out the call seeking buyers at museums, schools and elsewhere, the agency received about 20 inquiries. An agency spokesman, Mike Curie, said he expected more interest, especially with the discount.
“We’re confident that we’ll get other takers,” Mr. Curie said Friday.
The Discovery is already promised to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The Atlantis and the Endeavour are up for grabs. It is possible that the Enterprise, a shuttle prototype that never made it to space, will also be available. The Enterprise is currently at the Smithsonian.
Mr. Curie said no decisions would be made before summer.
The lower price is based on NASA’s estimate of the cost for transporting a shuttle from Kennedy Space Center to a major airport, and for displaying it indoors in a climate-controlled building. The travel cost may vary based on location. NASA has moved up the delivery date to the latter half of 2011, instead of 2012.
Potential customers have until Feb. 19 to put in a request.
As for the space shuttle main engines, those are now free. NASA advertised them in December 2008 for $400,000 to $800,000 each, but no one expressed interest. So now the engines are available, along with other shuttle artifacts, for the cost of transportation and handling.
Assembly will be required, however.
via nytimes.com
Lost in translation: french translation for "nice rack!" (from True blood)
This is from True blood, episode 5 I think, metamorph sex scene. Sam says "nice rack!"
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