jrau - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Great research, but still only research! (Score 1) 99

by jrau on Sunday March 23, 2008 @10:12AM (#22836202) Attached to: Doctors To Control Robot Surgeon With Their Eyes

I recently had an OB/GYN professor (I'm a medical student) give us a lecture on using the Da Vinci for post-menopausal hysterectomies. Apparently he makes only 5 small incisions superior and lateral to the umbilicus (hence the post-menopausal, it can't be covered with a bikini). He said he uses it quite frequently, and that when hiring new physicians heavily considers whether they have been trained in robotic procedures during their residency/fellowship.

He also said that they expected to have force feedback versions pretty soon.

... anyway, interesting stuff. The radiologists are already practicing interstate and intercontinental, sounds like the surgeons might not be far off.

VeriChip Implants 222 People With RFID 306

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @11:43AM from the i-trust-my-ass-chip-to-linux dept.

cnet-declan writes "Anyone remember VeriChip, a company that came up with the idea of implanting chips in humans for tracking them? They've been behind ideas like RFID tagging immigrant and guest workers at the border, and they've persuaded a former Bush Health Secretary to get himself chipped. In this CNET News.com article, we offer an update on how successful the idea has been. It turns out that, according to IPO documents, 222 people have been implanted, with sales revenue of $100,000."

Allergy-Free Kittens Produced 276

Posted by Zonk on Saturday June 10, 2006 @12:41AM from the nothing-about-these-cats-is-free dept.

An anonymous reader writes "San Diego-based company, Allerca, said that using a technique known as genetic divergence, it has 'bred the world's first hypoallergenic kitten, opening the doors and arms of millions of pet lovers for whom cuddling a cat has, until now, been a curse ... After identifying the genes of kittens with proteins that provide less of a reaction in humans, they selectively bred litters over several generations to end up with an allergy-friendly super cat.' The company says its customers are expected to take delivery of their $4,000 hypoallergenic kittens in early 2007."

RIAA Targets LAN Filesharing at Universities 608

Posted by samzenpus on Monday May 01, 2006 @09:56PM from the stop-sharing dept.

segphault writes "The RIAA has sent letters to 40 university presidents in 25 separate states informing them that students are engaging in filesharing on their campuses using the local network. Apparently, the RIAA wants to get universities to use filtering software on their networks to detect student filesharing. The RIAA did not disclose the methodology they used to determine that filesharing is occuring on those local networks, but it probably didn't involve asking permission. The article goes on to predict that the RIAA will eventually try to get the government to require use of anti-filesharing filtering technologies at universities."

Digital Music Downloads Too Expensive? 274

Posted by Zonk on Thursday April 27, 2006 @11:33AM from the suspect-the-source dept.

threeofnine writes "The Sydney Morning Herald has an article written by a copyright and technology lawyer asking if we are paying too much for digital downloads. From the article: 'Parallel imports are unavailable in the Australian digital market, however. Australian consumers cannot purchase downloads from iTunes or Wal-Mart in the US, which are often cheaper than downloads available here, without a US-issued credit card. And restrictive licensing conditions imposed by copyright owners also limit the sale of digital downloads across international borders. For both reasons Australian consumers miss out. And retailers cannot buy downloads from overseas and resell them here, even if it is worthwhile for them to do so. In a recent analysis, the prices of Australian-made CDs of artists such as Bon Jovi, REM and Robbie Williams were compared to those of legal parallel imports. It was found that the local product was as much as 300 per cent more expensive.'"

New Battlestar Galactica Spin-off Series Announced 473

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday April 26, 2006 @11:59PM from the baby-boomer dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Sci-Fi Channel's hit series Battlestar Galactica may soon be joined by a 50-year-prior prequel series, called Caprica. To be co-exec produced by Ron Moore and David Eick, the new series will follow the tale of the creation of the Cylons."

IE The Great Microsoft Blunder? 643

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Tuesday April 25, 2006 @03:38PM from the not-a-shining-example-of-engineering dept.

JordanL writes "Hot on the heels of the beta rollouts of IE 7, comes an editorial from John Dvorak declaring IE the biggest mistake Microsoft has ever made. From the article: 'All the work that has to go into keeping the browser afloat is time that could have been better spent on making Vista work as first advertised [...] If you were to put together a comprehensive profit-and-loss statement for IE, there would be a zero in the profits column and billions in the losses column--billions.'"

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