Cool-O-Rama » General

DNA logic gates calculate square root using 130 different molecules

Staff — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:10:00 +0000

Biological systems have caught the attention of computer scientists, who have been turning everything from RNA molecules to entire bacterial colonies into logic gates. So far, however, these systems have been relatively small-scale, with only a handful of gates linked up in a series. Today’s issue of Science leapfrogs past the small-scale demonstrations, and shows that a form of DNA computing can perform a calculation with up to 130 different types of DNA molecules involved. The system is so flexible that it’s also possible to use compilers and include debugging circuitry.

Before you have visions of DNA controlling Skynet, it’s worth taking a second to consider the system’s limitations: all those molecules were used to simply perform square roots on four-bit numbers, and each calculation took over five hours. Although they’re not especially useful for general purpose calculations, these DNA-based logic gates do have the advantage of being able to integrate into biological systems, taking their input from a cell and feeding the output into biochemical processes.

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DNA logic gates calculate square root using 130 different molecules

‘Worms From Hell’ Unearth Possibilities For Extraterrestrial Life

Staff — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 21:12:00 +0000

an anonymously submitted article says, “For the first time, scientists have found complex,
multi-celled creatures living a mile and more below the planet’s surface, raising new possibilities about the spread of life on Earth and potential subsurface life on other planets and moons.”
More from the article: “The research is likely to trigger scientific challenges and cause some controversy because it places far more complex life in an environment where researchers have generally held it should not, or even cannot, exist.”

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‘Worms From Hell’ Unearth Possibilities For Extraterrestrial Life

NATO Report Threatens To ‘Persecute’ Anonymous

Staff — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:17:00 +0000

Stoobalou writes “NATO leaders have been warned that Wikileaks-loving ‘hacktivist’ collective Anonymous could pose a threat to member states’ security, following recent attacks on the US Chamber of Commerce and defence contractor HBGary — and promise to ‘persecute’ its members.”
From the article: “In a toughly-worded draft report to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, General Rapporteur Lord Jopling claims that the loose-knit, leaderless group is ‘becoming more and more sophisticated.’ and ‘could potentially hack into sensitive government, military, and corporate files.’”

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NATO Report Threatens To ‘Persecute’ Anonymous

A (Lack Of) Programming Note

Staff — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 12:59:34 +0000

I’ve gone ahead and switched the internal blog commenting system back on. The forums will stick around in their current woefully ignored state (I’ll probably need them for something else eventually) but I haven’t had the time to integrate them fully into WordPress as I planned to, so they tend to be more of a hindrance to commenting on things for all save the hardest of core.

“We meant to do better, but it came out as always.” - Viktor Chernomyrdin, typically cheerful Russian politician

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A (Lack Of) Programming Note

This Year’s Sanya Weathers Stalking Update

Staff — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 05:14:10 +0000

All Sanya Weathers stalkers please update your Foursquare apps: she’s no longer a Tera forum moderator. (Did you know she was a Tera forum moderator? Neither did they!)

Apparently she has something new coming up involving hardcore PvP show tunes. (which. um. I’d be all over. Just sayin’.)

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This Year’s Sanya Weathers Stalking Update

Rapid Browser Development Challenges Web Developers

Staff — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 04:39:00 +0000

Esther Schindler writes “Feeling a little overwhelmed by changing web standards and new browser choices? You aren’t the only one. Mozilla is launching development tracks for the next two editions of its Firefox Web browser immediately, with hopes to push both into general release before the end of the year. This while Microsoft previews Internet Explorer 10 on the heels of its IE9 release, and Google projects Chrome 13 just one year after Chrome 7. Meanwhile, HTML5, the next version of the Web’s primary language, appears to have entered a permanent gestation phase. Writes Scott Fulton: All the confusion has prompted Web developers to ask this question: What do we develop our sites against now?”

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Rapid Browser Development Challenges Web Developers

Call Of Booty: We’re So Money

Staff — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 04:22:44 +0000

“I just made $12 million while you were laughing at this picture.”

Modern Warfare 3 to ship with a subscription service called Call of Duty: Elite. Well, then.

This is so industry-asploding money-printing what-were-movies-again big that some news sources you don’t expect to see linked to on my silly little blog dedicated to amusing EA executives commented on this. Such as, oh:

Wall Street Journal:

First of all, it’s important to keep something in mind: People don’t like to give up more of their money. This is just a general rule.

But in addition to the expected “gaming companies are greedy” comments, there is a lot of confusion about exactly what the new service will involve – and just what people will get for their money.

That disconnect is coming in large part because “Call of Duty” maker Activision doesn’t seem to have ironed out all the details yet. Activision executives told The Wall Street Journal’s Nick Wingfield that they haven’t yet figured out how much to charge for the service – although the Journal reports that it will likely be $7.99 or less. They have said parts of the service will be free, but there are conflicting reports about what exactly those free parts will include.

Forbes:

…like yet another company trying to overcapitalize on social networking BS, as I can speak for the majority of Call of Duty players when I say I don’t give a shit about the interests of the people I’m virtually shooting. And how can portions of a monthly paid subscription service be free? That sentence doesn’t even make sense.

The Guardian:

The driving force behind Elite is clear – the desire to gain revenue from the vast numbers of gamers who regularly play Call of Duty titles online for free. According to Activision, 20 million people play Call of Duty online every month – more than seven million every day.

This number represents a vast source of untapped income – and in an era of declining retail sales for games, identifying new streams of digital revenue is becoming vitally important. The problem is, attempting to install a subscription charge on online multiplayer activity would meet with massive resistance from gamers, who have always enjoyed free access to online functionality with shooter games.

Gamasutra (ok, I link to them all the time but it’s a good instanalysis):

While he’s something of a lightning rod among gamers, it’s worth noting that Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter was the first to forecast this service last year. And while he says he’s still sussing out the particulars, he doesn’t expect Activision to shove Elite down players’ throats out of the gate.

“I think Activision hopes to get up to 1 million subscribers this year,” says Pachter. “From there, they hope to get it up to 3 million next year, then up to 5 million. Over time, they’d like to migrate everyone over to it.”

One million subscribers isn’t exactly pocket change, but with a player base of 7 million users, it’s achievable – and it’s something that would be more than a blip on the company’s earnings.

“I think they’re in this for the long run,” he says. “For their next [fiscal] year, 1 million subscribers [to Elite] is about an added 3 cents per share. It’s meaningful, but who knows ultimately if they’ll end up with 1 million or 10 million.”

If those numbers do start to increase, look for the company to expand the Elite model to other notable franchises. And the most obvious places to do so are StarCraft and Bungie’s upcoming title.

So while the mainstream media ties itself up in knots over OMG WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN, those of us who have followed the game industry follies for a while, including Activision treating the people who actually made Call of Duty a billion-dollar franchise with all the gratitude due the indentured servants they clearly believe them to be, this isn’t exactly a surprise. After all, here’s Bobby Kotick from a few years ago:

[The games we passed on] don’t have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million dollar franchises. … I think, generally, our strategy has been to focus… on the products that have those attributes and characteristics, the products that we know [that] if we release them today, we’ll be working on them 10 years from now.

How do you exploit people playing your game online for free? Well, charge them, duh.

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Call Of Booty: We’re So Money

No Moon Needed For Extraterrestrial Life

Staff — Tue, 31 May 2011 23:13:00 +0000

sciencehabit writes “Given the generally accepted idea of how Earth got its big moon — through a dramatic collision with a Mars-sized body that knocked a huge chunk of Earth loose — astronomers estimate that only 1% of all Earth-like planets in the universe might actually have such a hefty companion. That would mean planets harboring complex life might be relatively rare. But researchers have now carried out large numbers of detailed numerical simulations of ‘moon-less Earths,’ which show that the consequences are less dire than is generally assumed. According to the simulations, these planets would have ample time for advanced land life to evolve. As a result, the number of Earth-like extrasolar planets suitable for harboring advanced life could be 10 times higher than has been assumed until now.”

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No Moon Needed For Extraterrestrial Life

G.R.O.W. 5/31/11: A Lot Of Random Games This Week

Staff — Tue, 31 May 2011 17:34:05 +0000

Welcome gaming bastards to another edition of G.R.O.W. This is NerdBastards weekly game release of the week list, where we give y’all a heads up on what has come out for the consoles and PC/Mac. We also cover downloadable titles as well.

As the title says, this weeks release features a lot of random games for various of consoles that I guess you could say there is a little bit of something for everyone. As for the Downloadable Games goes, it’s all about the Nintendo consoles getting some love this week.

Click on the Read More Button to check out some of these titles and see which one of these games will be taking up most of your time until next weeks batch of video games.

Hunted: The Demon’s Forge

Set in a dark fantasy world, Hunted: The Demon’s Forge™ is an unforgettable cooperative action game, pitting you and your partner against waves of vicious enemies. Taking control of either E’lara, a ranged weapon expert, or Caddoc, a master swordsman, you must use a variety of weapons, powerful spells, and cover tactics to battle your way through menacing dungeons, overgrown ruins, and downtrodden towns. Discover secrets and complete co-op-based puzzles whilst exploring the sinister world to discover answers to the game’s deep, dark mysteries.

Here we are with another co-op action game but inXile Entertainment wants you to know that this games co-op is not like any others as the two playable characters have different play style in that you and a friend must think ahead and work well together. Either way, if you’ve been looking for something new maybe this “Gears of Warcraft” game may be it.

Available: PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360

The Sims 3 – Generations Expansion Pack

The Sims 3: Generations is the fourth expansion pack for popular single player Life Simulation game The Sims 3.* Through it players can dramatically expand The Sims 3 gameplay with a generationally oriented focus on new activities, celebrations, and opportunities for drama and creativity. With this new expansion players’ Sims can experience the gameworld from multiple perspectives, including childhood, the teenage years, young adult to adult, and the senior years. Each of these has a different general focus that players can of course alter as they see fit.

Here we are with the 4th expansion for the Sims 3 game and this one is all about your sims life and memories. The expansion adds new activities and such that helps you live through a sims life from child to adulthood while having opportunities to change your sims main goal. If anything, this will be another way to extend the shelf life for this game.

Available: PC/Mac

BlazBlue Continuum Shift II

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II is an enhanced port of the critically acclaimed BlazBlue: Continuum Shift. Now available for play on the Nintendo 3DS, this next installment in the popular BlazBlue fighting game series is a unique handheld gaming experience that combines the best features of the Japanese arcade fighting series with the advanced features that only the 3DS can provide.

Here we are with an updated version of BlazBlue: Continuum Shift that features gameplay balance and 4 characters. If the 3DS has proved anything is that fighting games work pretty well on the portable device.

Available: Nintendo 3DS

Other Notable Release:

Playstation 3 160 GB Call of Duty: Black Ops Bundle

Downloadable Games Worth Checking Out:

BIT.TRIP VOID (WiiWare)
House M.D. Globetrotting (DSiWare)

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G.R.O.W. 5/31/11: A Lot Of Random Games This Week

What’s Your College Major Worth?

Staff — Tue, 31 May 2011 00:07:00 +0000

Hugh Pickens writes writes “The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that with tuition rising and a weak job market everyone seems to be debating the value of a college degree, but Anthony P. Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, says talking about the bachelor’s degree in general doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, because its financial payoff is heavily affected by what that degree is in and which college it is from. For the first time, researchers analyzed earnings based on 171 college majors and the differences are striking: For workers whose highest degree is a bachelor’s, median incomes ranged from $29,000 for counseling-psychology majors to $120,000 for petroleum-engineering majors but the data also revealed earnings differences within groups of similar majors. Within the category of business majors, for instance, business-economics majors had the highest median pay, $75,000 while business-hospitality management earned $50,000. The study concludes that while there is a lot of variation in earnings over a lifetime, all undergraduate majors are worth it, even taking into account the cost of college and lost earnings with the lifetime advantage ranging from $1,090,000 for Engineering majors to $241,000 for Education majors. ‘The bottom line is that getting a degree matters, but what you take matters more,’ (PDF) concludes Carnevale,” Last week we learned that dropping out of college could earn you $100,000 start-up money for your business.

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