Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Friday, August 08, 2008

Sylvania's G Netbook Meso toyed with on video

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/359099129/

Filed under: Laptops

We still can't get over the fact that Sylvania is selling a netbook, but all weirdness aside, the unit deserves the same hands-on attention given to most all of its biggest competitors. According to initial reports, the 8.9-inch Sylvania G Netbook Meso sports an atypical (albeit appreciated) matte display, an expectedly cramped keyboard and a smooth-as-butter trackpad. Need proof? Hit up the read link for a smattering of hands-on shots and a brief video.

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Video: Aigo's Patriot MID released, demonstrated inside elevator

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/359198218/

Filed under: Handhelds

Right on schedule, Aigo's 800MHz Atom Z500-powered P8860 MID (aka, the Gigabyte M528 for the US and Europe) is hitting the mean, retail streets of Hong Kong today. With it, we've got a bit of video showing off the new pen+finger-based MIDLinux (aka, Midinux) GUI which looks far better than it did when we went hands-on with the Gigabyte back in March. All in all, this 4.8-inch MID with Bluetooth, WiFi, sliding QWERTY, 4GB SSD, microSD expansion, and GPS and HSDPA data options is looking quite righteous for that $700-ish price tag and early reports coming out of UMPC Fever. Now bust out the xylophone and get ready to play along with the video posted after the break.

[Via Pocketables]

Continue reading Video: Aigo's Patriot MID released, demonstrated inside elevator

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NVIDIA pays Transmeta $25 million for LongRun technology

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/359286975/

Filed under: Gaming

A select bunch of Transmeta investors may not completely agree with how the outfit is being managed, but one thing's for sure: it's bringing in some serious coin on this deal. During a brief timeout from counting those stacks of Benjamins handed over by Intel, it decided to license its Long Run and LongRun 2 technologies (among "other intellectual property") to NVIDIA for a cool $25 million. Additionally, the agreement grants NVIDIA a "non-exclusive and fully paid-up license" to all of Transmeta's patents and patent applications. Unfortunately, it's still unclear how exactly this will end up affecting NVIDIA fanboys (and girls), but we'll go out on a limb and suggest that a mobile GTX 280 with a remarkably low power draw is just around the bend.

[Via SlashGear]

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Thursday, August 07, 2008

Amazing DSI Brain Scanning Visualizes Your Mind's Inner Workings In 3D [This Is Your Brain]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/358678336/amazing-dsi-brain-scanning-visualizes-your-minds-inner-workings-in-3d

What's that monkey thinking about when he's mushing down that banana or tossing feces at you? Well, you're looking at it—this is a map of where a macaque's thoughts live. It's made possible by new 3D visualization algorithms developed by neuroscientists at Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston which render a brain's billions of individual neuron connections in full-color 3D, with each visible strand representing several tens of thousands of the too-small-to-image neural pathways. It's all done by simply applying new processing to existing MRI scan data, and thankfully, it works on human brains too.

The tech, called diffusion spectrum imaging, takes current data from MRI scans and analyzes it for the passage of water molecules along the individual neuron connections in the brain. It then processes it to spit out the 3D maps. It's possible to do on live subjects (like the human brain image above), but more detail can be achieved by scanning non-living samples for up to 24 hours.

Doctors are using the new images to better understand our brain's infinitely complicated wiring, and to avoid important neural nets during surgeries. More including 3D model animations (awesome) at: [Technology Review]

Slow Motion Lightning Video is Mindblowing, Will Sell a Thousand Slo-Mo Cameras [Science]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/358785355/slow-motion-lightning-video-is-mindblowing-will-sell-a-thousand-slo+mo-cameras

Well, this is just about the most amazing thing I've ever seen. It's a lightning bolt that's shooting down from the sky, shot in slow motion. I'm not sure exactly how fast this camera is, but it's got to be shooting at a speed faster than the Casio EX-F1 can shoot at, at least at a resolution this high. Whatever, who cares? Just watch this and prepare to be blown away.