News Blend

Low cost medical device for 3rd world

G:That's probably one of the most exciting news I have read for a while. It fortifies my opinion that what we have computationally is enough to do a lot of more good to rest of the world. Instead of adding useless bells and whistles and hope for instantaneous response, we should concentrate on power (and cost) cutting and miniaturization.

Interesting that all their technology are based on either Ipaq or Palm.. Personally I am not that thrilled of ipaqs.. I guess they are more available (hence cheaper) than a lot of the ARM/Linux solutions eg Sharp. (I sure hope they are using mono display ones!)

Further Reading:
DIMAGI
CA:SH

Firefox/Xul as a platform

I have been playing with XUL for a while. I think right now Microsoft is still hell bent on XAML. I think Firefox is a viable option once the uptake / usage hits 50% or so. Kind of like the QuickTime 3.0 vs WindowsPlayer of yore.

Further Reading:
What is XUL
XAML from Microsoft

Neuron piloting device

One of the "really out there" studies of the week. Using rat's neuron to create a chip that can learn how to fly. The question I have is are all neurons the same? Are they the elemental unit for the brain of all creatures? How does the neurons of a rat compare to something like a human? I guess the difference would be scalability.. I guess I have to hit the library soon.

Further reading:
University of Florida's Press Release

Older Fathers = bigger schizophrenic risks for offspring?

Looks like this study have a few problems. I guess it is hard to really judge the validity of the claim unless someone have the access to the stats and make his/her own interpretation.