Robot Performs Heart Surgery, Will Surgeons' Union Go On Strike?

from the scalpel-please dept
Contributed by Joe
Monday, May 22nd, 2006 @ 02:32PM

Score one for medical technology. The first heart surgery performed solely by a robot took place in Italy this week, while doctors in the US monitored its progress. The robot already had experience from 10,000 human-guided surgeries, data from which it can now reference on its own. In this way, the machine is like an advanced chess computer, onto which trainers can load millions of games for it to reference in game situations. Though doctors are among the biggest costs in healthcare, and technology like this could certainly help save money, we can expect surgeons to fight tooth and nail from letting robots encroach on their territory. They'll claim, much like top chess players do, that surgery is part art and that a robot could never match the performance of a human. Of course, robots don't get tired after a long day, stressed out, lose concentration, or have any of the other human traits that affect the quality of surgery. And while doctors make mistakes all the time, robots will be held to a higher standard; after one mistake, there will be calls to curtail their use in medicine. With all due respect, many surgeons are like plumbers who work on an extremely complicated system of pumps and valves -- in both cases, technology is reducing the value of their labor.

Source: techdirt

Random Games 5-15-06

Monkey Lander [via lancelord and Totebo Online Games]
^^^ "Collect all the objects and land on the landing pad."
Orbox [via SpikedHumor]
^^^ "Make your way to the red dot. It's simple and fun, but will get harder as you advance in levels."
Pendulumeca [via lancerlord and www.yarukinoki.net]
^^^ "Swing from point to point." (Place the cursor wherever you want to fire the grapple and hold left-click until you want to release it)
Base Jumping [via SpikedHumor]
^^^ "A very simple, but addictive game. All you really need to do is press spacebar at the right time."
All Hallow's Eve [via SpikedHumor]
^^^ "Stand your ground and defend your house from hordes of invading zombies."

Halo 3 Announced

Bungie Shocks World with Surprise Game Announcement
Posted by Achronos at 5/9/2006 10:28 AM PDT

Bungie announces Halo 3, the third and final game in the Halo Trilogy. Halo 3 will be released for Microsoft's Xbox 360 in 2007.

The game was revealed to the world at the Microsoft press conference at Grauman's Chinese Theater, in Hollywood, CA. By the time you read this, the announcement trailer should be available for download on bungie.net and directly to your Xbox 360, in full HD glory from Xbox Live Marketplace. Read no further if you want to avoid spoilers.

Nobody saw it coming. Halo 3! Who knew? For the last year or two, people have speculated about what our next project was and surprisingly, in all that time, not a single person guessed that it would be Halo 3. Not one.

We declare it the best kept secret ever.

View: Halo 3 E32006 Announcement Trailer | Halo 3 Desktop Wallpaper
Source and full story: bungie.net

The second coming of Intel's Core Duo

Coming soon to a PC store near you: Core Duo, the sequel.
By Tom Krazit
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: May 7, 2006, 12:00 PM PDT

Intel has decided to borrow the sequential naming scheme it used for its famous Pentium brand and apply it to the new Core line of chips, the company is expected to announce Sunday. Earlier this year, Intel released the Core Duo processor, and in a few months it will unveil Core 2 Duo processors. The Core 2 Duo name will be used for desktop chips based on the Conroe chip, as well as for notebook chips based on the Merom chip. Merom processors consume less power than Conroe chips, but they're otherwise very similar.

... The end appears nigh for the Pentium brand, which has carried Intel for 13 years. Intel is expected to rapidly shift its factories to cranking out Core processors by the end of the year.

Last week, Intel announced plans to bring out the Conroe and Merom chips in July and August, respectively, which is earlier than expected.

Source and full story: CNET News.com

New group to standardize digital music data

By Candace Lombardi
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Last modified: May 4, 2006, 11:53 AM PDT

In an effort to better track digital music sales, several big-name record companies, digital music services and music rights agencies have founded a consortium called Digital Data Exchange.

The purpose of DDEX (pronounced "dee-dex") is to establish standards for the meta-data in digital music files, mainly for sales and rights-tracking purposes.

Founding members of the consortium include artists' rights group ASCAP, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and EMI Music, as well as several other music rights societies and agencies from the U.S., U.K. and Europe. Apple Computer, Microsoft and RealNetworks, which all provide digital music services, are also charter members.

I found this at: neowin.net
Full story: CNET News.com

Google accused of profiting from child porn

New York lawmaker sues; search giant denies allegations
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:38 p.m. ET May 4, 2006

NEW YORK - A Long Island politician sued Google Inc. on Thursday claiming the search engine leader is profiting from illegal child pornography.

Jeffrey Toback, a member of the Nassau County Legislature, said Google has paid links to Web sites containing pornography involving minors.

"This case is about a multi-billion dollar company that promotes and profits from child pornography," said the complaint filed in state Supreme Court in Mineola.

A Google spokesman denied the allegations and said the Mountain View, Calif.-based company takes numerous steps to prevent access to child pornography.

I found this at: neowin.net
Full story: MSNBC.com

Gates: Microsoft will keep Google honest

By Ina Fried
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: May 3, 2006, 5:40 PM PDT

REDMOND, Wash.--While Google has grabbed an early lead in search and Internet advertising, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates pledged on Wednesday that his company would "keep them honest."

Speaking to a crowd of MSN's largest advertisers, Gates said that Microsoft would prefer not to be coming from behind.

"For Microsoft, we always want to be in the lead, making the breakthroughs," Gates said. But, in an onstage interview with ad executives and talk show host Donny Deutsch, Gates conceded that the company has made mistakes, including in some cases picking the wrong people to lead certain efforts.

He also gave credit to his rival, saying Google has "done a great job on search and what they've done with advertising." But, he reiterated his position that search today is still too much of a treasure hunt and promised that better things are in store.

"We will keep them honest, in the sense of being able to do better in a number of areas," Gates said.

I found this at: neowin.net
Full story: CNET News.com

Transplant patient feels new face

Associated Press
Monday, May 1, 2006; Posted: 12:49 p.m. EDT (16:49 GMT)

PARIS, France (AP) -- The French woman who received the world's first partial face transplant has complete feeling in the new tissue five months after the operation, she told a Sunday newspaper.

"The scars have considerably healed. The doctors are confident. In addition, I have recovered total feeling," Isabelle Dinoire told the newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.

... During the 15 hours of surgery, a team of doctors replaced a gaping hole from a dog mauling with a partial face that included a new nose, mouth and chin.

Source and full story: CNN

RIAA nails family with no computer

(Monday 24th April 2006)

In their latest sue 'em all mess, the owners of the RIAA have subpoenaed a Georgia family for allegedly sharing files online, says the Rockmark Journal.

Targeted by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is Carma Walls and the subpoena states:

"Plaintiffs are informed and believe that Defendant, without the permission or consent of Plaintiffs, has used, and continues to use, an online media distribution system to download the copyrighted recordings, to distribute the copyrighted recordings to the public, and/or to make the copyrighted recordings available for distribution to others'."

Interesting: "has used, and continues to use". However, the Walls don't even own a computer.

I found this at: neowin.net
Full story: p2pnet.net