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Comment Re:Cheap Polysomnograph? (Score 2, Interesting) 66

There might be all sorts of interesting bio-feedback applications. I was involved with a similar project about ten years ago, and one of our more interesting sessions involved connecting a number of sensors (primarily muscle tension sensors tracking electrical differentials across the skin) to the face of a trombone player who had some nerve damage on one side of his face. He couldn't really feel the "bad" side of his face, but kept adjusting until the readings looked the same as the "good" side, enabling him to play his instrument with somewhat closer to the technique he'd had before his injury/illness.

Comment Re:d'oh. (Score 1) 266

First, sorry - I did come across as a troll.

It bothers me to see generalized objections like this thrown up in front of a promising technology & line of pursuit, because it may throw up an artificial objection if enough people latch on. I think it's wrong to assume that the people working on this are idiots and won't apply disciplined engineering, testing, etc., as is done other critical systems.

Sure, there is the potential for bad things to happen, but there is also the potential for very, very good things to happen (e.g. respiroctyes), which I think can easily outweigh the bad (e.g. nano-based viruses) even if they do come to be.

To de-troll my first comment: software engineering isn't perfect. But it's benefits have far outweighed the drawbacks in today's world, and the consequences of failures are not less catastrophic than when put inside the body. Systems software on an airliner comes to mind. Current medical technologies already being put into human bodies also comes to mind.

Comment Re:you want VCs and an exit strategy, basically (Score 3, Informative) 165

Yes, in principal. But that's not pragmatic - this sounds way too small to interest VCs these days. Speaking from experience, they aren't going to give you the time of day unless you're asking for at least $3M, and ideally more like $5-10M.

I'd suggest local angels (individuals, not angel groups which often think they are VCs and act similarly) if you want, say, $100K-$1M, and friends-and-family or revenue (can be from random consulting while the product ramps up) for less than that.

Comment Re:Be smart (Score 4, Insightful) 485

Which is how any real developer on the job worth his salt would code! I don't want any of my developers wasting their time writing code that they could find that easily on the web. Their job is to integrate and polish that code (same thing they did for the interview) and to write only code that is really unique and proprietary.

(Obviously in practice there are a lot of cases where its just faster to write something that to find the exact right code scavenging the web, but I think the theory stands)

It's funny.  Laugh.

Texas Lawmaker Wants To Let the Blind Hunt 647

IHC Navistar writes with a story from Reuters Oddly Enough. A Texas lawmaker has introduced a measure that would allow blind people to hunt any game that sighted people can currently pursue. The article notes that the bill may have clear sailing in the hunting-besotted state of Texas. An education outreach person from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department explained it this way: "A blind person can shoot a rifle by mounting an offset pistol scope on the side of the rifle instead of on top. This allows their companion behind them to peer over their shoulder and help them sight it, but the blind person can pull the trigger."

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