The town of Riverside, Iowa is host to the annual TrekFest celebration. As the “future birthplace” of Captain James Tiberius Kirk, they have a legitimate claim to fame–who doesn’t love Kirk?
This year, though, Riverside is in a bit of trouble.ย TrekFest XXVII fast approaches (scheduled for June 24-25), and they need funding, fast. The event’s site has set up a donation page with the following promise:
Make a $25.00 donation to save trekfest and receive a thank you gift of a certificate of authenticity with a vial of kirk dirt.
Your donation can help you rest at night knowing you helped save a geek institution, and the Kirk Dirt is kind of just a bonus.
The current practical use of antibiotics to treat infection has created drug-resistant mutations in common bacteria. Amoxicillin and other types of commonly-used antibiotics–which work by affecting the DNA of microorganisms, thereby blocking their ability to multiply–have grown increasingly less effective in the last few decades as their use has become more widespread.
In a recent breakthrough, engineers at IBM have developed a nanoparticle technology that is effective against MRSA, or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, a particularly deadly “super bug” strain of staph in lab studies of MRSA-infected mice.
The nanoparticles are composed of biodegradable plastic which is then charged to attract the bacteria’s opposite charge, which destroysย the cell wall of the bacterium. The cells are incapable of maintaining structure and simply degrade (or “thaw”) before they can continue to multiply or attack healthy human cells.
The results of the study were recently published inย Natureย Chemistry. According to IBM, “The system has yet to be tested on humans, but IBM said the company is currently in talks with major pharmaceutical firms looking at creating a human trial, but declined to publically say which specific firms are involved in talks.”
Kinected Conference is a cool MS Kinect-Based Video-Conferencing System that is currently being developed at MIT.
What we can do if the screen in videoconference rooms can turn into an interactive display? With Kinect camera and sound calibration system, we can easily access the spatially calibrated depth and audio information.
Yep geeks, the first 12 minutes of HBO’s adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones is now available online for your viewing pleasure! Check it out below, and be sure to let us know your thoughts about what you saw in the comments section after!
Time Warner narrowly avoided a lawsuit over including TV channels on an iPad app last week, but has responded by putting a dozen new channels on the service. The stance appears to have inspired at least one cable provider rival to follow suit.
The app involved is considerably more limited that you might expect given the dispute. It’s only available to Time Warner customers, only works on the Wi-Fi network of the customer concerned (and not on that of friends who also subscribe), and only shows live streaming of channels, with on-demand service. Of course, if you are a subscriber and want to watch shows in bed or in the garden without the need for an extra TV set and cable box, or a messy extension lead, it could be very useful.
Last week Time Warner pulled a dozen channels from the app, specifically those controlled by Fox, Discovery, Scripps and Viacom. According to the New York Times, the companies were “minutes away from filing their legal paperwork.”
Time Warner is claiming that the app is completely legal and notes that the channels are only available to subscribers. It argues the iPad streaming is no different to showing a channel on a second TV set. And to show it’s not giving up on the idea, it’s since added another 19 channels including Bravo and CNN.
Meanwhile Cablevision has added its own app, containing both on demand video and getting on for 300 live channels. It’s got a slightly more complex authorization system, with customers allowed to install the app on three iPads but only use two at the same time. ZDnet notes Cablevision has already put forward the argument that it routes the channels via its own cabling and then the customer’s Wi-Fi, meaning it isn’t technically broadcasting the channels via the Internet, which is what channel owners have argued is illegal.
Youtube user Mark Day has shot some pretty awesome video compilations of some of the best costumes he saw during his visit at WonderCon 2011 last week. Check it out!
I just received a little something from [GaS] reader Richard P. that’s just perfect for a Monday morning, so I thought I’d share it with you guys as well. Thanks Richard!
An application was for employment
A program was a TV show
A cursor used profanity
A keyboard was a piano!
Memory was something that you lost with age
A CD was a bank account
And if you had a 3 1/2 inch floppy
You hoped nobody found out!
Compress was something you did to garbage
Not something you did to a file
And if you unzipped anything in public
You’d be in jail for awhile!
Log on was adding wood to a fire
Hard drive was a long trip on the road
A mouse pad was where a mouse lived
And a backup happened to your commode!
Cut – you did with a pocket knife
Paste you did with glue
A web was a spider’s home
And a virus was the flu!
I guess I’ll stick to my pad and paper
And the memory in my head
I hear nobody’s been killed in a computer crash
But when it happens they wish they were dead!
