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Submission + - Asus Unveils $599 Home Robot 'Zenbo' (computerworld.com)

An anonymous reader writes: In addition to the razor thin ZenBook 3, Asus unveiled a cute talking robot for the home at this week's Computex trade show in Taipei. The robot, called Zenbo, is priced at $599 and is pitched as a personal assistant that can help look after elderly relatives or read stories to the kids. It's about two feet tall and rolls around on wheels, with a display that can show animated faces or be used for making video calls and streaming movies. When asked, "Hey Zenbo, is it true you can take pictures?" by Asus Chairman Jonney Shih, the robot replied with, "Yes, I can take photographs." Zenbo took a photo of him on stage with the audience in the background when Shih told it to. The robot doesn't have an official release date yet, but developers can sign up for a software kit to build applications for it.
Government

Innocent Until Predicted Guilty 430

theodp writes "Gizmodo has an angry piece on IBM helping Florida to predict how delinquent your child's going to be. The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice has decided to start using IBM predictive analytics software to help them determine which of the 85,000 kids who enter their system each year poses the biggest future threat. From IBM's sales pitch: 'Predictive analytics gives government organizations worldwide a highly-sophisticated and intelligent source to create safer communities by identifying, predicting, responding to and preventing criminal activities. It gives the criminal justice system the ability to draw upon the wealth of data available to detect patterns, make reliable projections and then take the appropriate action in real time to combat crime and protect citizens.'"
Robotics

Submission + - Telefactoring - are Waldoes getting closer?

ferd_farkle writes: Science Daily has an article about engineering advances to help steady the hands of surgeons working in really cramped spaces like eyes and throats.

From the article:
"The tools include a snakelike robot that could enable surgeons, operating in the narrow throat region, to make incisions and tie sutures with greater dexterity and precision. Another robot, the steady-hand, may curb a surgeon's natural tremor and allow the doctor to inject drugs into tiny blood vessels in the eye, dissolving clots that can damage vision."
User Journal

Journal Journal: [Z80] Pre-Xmas Lunch Meddlings

So before I amble up to my Dad's for Christmas, I decided to continue to try and work out why the keypad isn't working as behaved.

Once the keypad is working, well, I have then made a real computer - input (keypad) and output (LCD).

Christmas Cheer

Journal Journal: G_dless Commie Hippy Global Warming Freaks 1

Saw this stupidity in the 'fire hose'.

Really not sure how to express what I read over there, but will give it a try or you can just go peek.

Somehow the original article writer is convinced that no inhabited delta island has ever disappeared before and his written assertion that this can only be caused by 'global warming' convinced the journal owner too.

Science

Inhabited Island Vanishes Forever Underwater 408

PhreakOfTime writes "For the first time the rising ocean levels have washed away an inhabited island. Lohachara island was at one point home to some 10,000 people. It, along with several other spits of land near the Indian mainland, is now permanently underwater. From the article: ' As the seas continue to swell, they will swallow whole island nations, from the Maldives to the Marshall Islands, inundate vast areas of countries from Bangladesh to Egypt, and submerge parts of scores of coastal cities. Eight years ago ... the first uninhabited islands - in the Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati - vanished beneath the waves. The people of low-lying islands in Vanuatu, also in the Pacific, have been evacuated as a precaution, but the land still juts above the sea. The disappearance of Lohachara, once home to 10,000 people, is unprecedented.'"
User Journal

Journal Journal: LINUX: Flash Player 9 (Really) 2

So there I was trying to get my fix of crappy American television via www.abc.com. What's this new "Ugly Betty" show all about I wondered? I hit the site and I get a message saying that I need to update my Flash 9 player. So I click the link and where do I go? To the same old download that Adobe has had for Linux users for the past 20 years. Dead as a parrot from a Monty Python sketch, only deader. Bah. Well, luckily someone recently informed me of a beta release program for Adobe's upcom
User Journal

Journal Journal: Highly Secret Open Source Projects 7

Nothing in this world will ever be more confusing than projects that are:
  1. Released as Open Source on public web sites
  2. Bragged about extensively on those websites - especially their Open Sourceness
  3. Never to be mentioned or referenced in any way, shape or form by anyone else
User Journal

Journal Journal: CIA Instructions to Media Assets : Assassination of Kennedy

105984, CIA Instructions to Media Assets re: Assassination of President Kennedy
Posted by Octafish on Mon Aug-07-06 08:12 PM

For those who wonder why things are the way they are in America,



an original CIA memo, thanks to Webcom.com:

CIA Instructions to Media Assets

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