Caffeine can improve short-term memory
By LEE BOWMAN
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
This is your brain. This is your brain on a cafe grande. For the first time, researchers have been able to watch distinct areas of the brain -- the ones that relate to short-term memory -- fire up after volunteers ingested the equivalent of two cups of coffee. "Everyone knows coffee makes us more alert, more vigilant, but our study documented how it works in the brain. We were able to show that caffeine modulates a higher brain function through its effects on distinct areas of the brain," said Dr. Florian Koppelstatter, a radiology fellow at the Medical University of Innsbruck in Austria. Koppelstatter presented the findings Wednesday before the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago.
Slicker development techniques like AJAX, a way of building interactive browser-based applications, are fueling a surge in consumer Web applications. These new techniques are even reviving efforts to create what was once considered impractical: online alternatives to Microsoft Office. The launch of high-profile Web services, notably Google Maps, which provided a noticeably better user experience than traditional Web sites, helped publicize the AJAX technique. Now, dozens of start-up companies are using it to create hosted versions of desktop applications, from word processors to project management software. But rather than simply replicate Microsoft Office online, many of these Web applications, sometimes referred to as Web 2.0, focus on publishing and sharing information over the Net.
Perspective: India's next big business?
DOHA, Qatar--Srhi Shankar Aiyar, minister of petroleum for India, knows the idea sounds outlandish, but he believes that India could become a petrodollar state in the 21st century. "If you don't get into the Bay of Bengal now, you will be left back as an Okie," he said during a presentation at the International Petroleum Technology Conference last week. "Unless you step into the breach, you may regret one day dismissing me as a raving lunatic." The optimism is grounded in massive oil deposits, close to 30 billion tons, in Central India. That's twice the size of the deposits in Iraq (13 billion tons, according to the Institute of Petroleum) and just shy of Saudi deposits. With this, India, which imports 70 percent of its oil, could become an exporter, Aiyar hypothesized.
Dozens of Israelis with a background in elite military combat training have been working for private Israeli companies in northern Iraq where they helped the Kurds establish elite anti-terror units, Israel’s leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronot revealed Thursday. According to the report, the Kurdish government contracted Israeli security and communications companies to train Kurdish security forces and provide them with advanced equipment.
Ragdoll Masters - Today's Time Waster
I'm not sure what to make of Ragdoll Masters. It's a fighting game, but unlike any I've played before. Rather than punching, kicking, using weapons, or casting spells, you attack the enemy by, essentially, dragging your ragdoll around by the head. In fact, it's best not to think of your ragdoll as a person at all, but as a weapon. You make its limbs flail at the enemy's, and if you hit your enemy's head or body you cause damage. For a game with a seemingly, well, stupid premise, it's pretty fun. Ragdoll Masters is a Windows or Mac download.
Smart User Interface and Intelligent Storage
Glide Effortless features a Smart User Interface (UI) to help you manage your digital lifestyle. The UI is the same for each Glide environment, and it's a smart UI! No more grayed out buttons or confusing menus here. The UI guides you through only those options and actions that are relevant to the environment.
Glide Effortless provides Intelligent Storage to help you manage your files, keep them safe, and share them with peace of mind.
Story of a guy who got jacked buying something online and the way nasty crap that followed.
PriceRitePhoto: Abusive Bait and Switch Camera Store
Why Heat Pipes?
A few years ago, the prime overclocker's processor was the Celeron 300A. At its stock speed, the processor generated about 18 watts of heat. If you were lucky enough to get one to run at over 500, it would generate about 30 watts. We routinely attached dual-fan heat sinks like the Alpha P125 with its huge dimensions of 4.8 x 2.1 x 2.3 inches (120 x 55 x 60 mm) which did a great job of keeping these puppies cool. Now we have the Thunderbird at 1.2 gigahertz (stock speed) producing up to 66 watts and we are trying to cool it with a heat sink of about half the size of the P125. If you add to this the fact that the contact area of the processor has shrunk to 1/4 of the size of the Celeron's, you'll see that the challenge of keeping the processor cool is becoming more difficult.
ALSO FOR DONI:
Abit’s passively cooled AN8 Ultra and N18 SLI motherboards went down so well with you guys that we could’ve been forgiven for thinking we’d mis-linked our iPod nano review. Needless to say, we knew you eager laddies and lassies would be keen for more. |
Tips for the first VC Meeting
I had a meeting last week where an entrepreneur insisted on showing me a demo first. He was scrambling around asking for wireless keys and looking for ethernet jacks, while I sat there and tried to engage him in conversation. He lost my interest right then and there. As I started to think more about it, I thought it would be helpful to share some of my thoughts on how to make the first VC pitch a better experience for all participants.
A COMPANY BASED ON AN E-INK TECH PIECE:
The company's technology enables new applications by printing electronics on thin, flexible plastic substrates. Plastic Logic plans to license out its technology for use in applications such as flexible e-paper displays. Plastic Logic's backplane technology initial focus is e-readers, such as e-books, e-dictionaries, e-maps, and e-newspapers). These displays will typically be wirelessly connected to cell phones and PDAs, allowing mobile users to access newspapers or blogs more easily than with a laptop. Later on, by 2008 or so, the company envisions video displayed on flexible e-paper.
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