Space tourist Charles Simonyi

On April 9, from a remote launchpad in Kazakhstan, a Soyuz rocket will carry Charles Simonyi into space.

He will share his experiences at a webpage: Nerd in Space

Space tourist and billionaire programmer Charles Simonyi is the former chief architect of Microsoft and has designed Microsoft Office. He was also part of the Xerox team that invented personal computing...

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Brain Facts ebook

Brain Facts is a 64-page primer on the brain and nervous system, published by the Society for Neuroscience. In addition to serving as a starting point for a lay audience interested in neuroscience, the book is used at the annual Brain Bee, which is held in conjunction with Brain Awareness Week.

PDF Document

Request a complimentary, printed copy of Brain Facts

Windows CE 4.x Emulator on Windows XP SP2 with DEP Hardware

If you are developing embedded applications (such as embedded Visual C++) on a relatively new computer you might get frustrated; it won't work. I received the same messages on Windows Vista. (See here for Windows Vista, Visual Studio 2005 and smart devices) I switched back to XP from Vista after the errors. Then, I discovered that XP didn't help but the following fixed the problem. I didn't try it on Vista but probably would help.

SYMPTOMS

You install Microsoft Windows CE 4.x Emulator on a computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). The computer has Data Execution Prevention (DEP) hardware. You receive the following error message when you restart your computer:

Devices or applications disabled 'Virtual PC/Windows CE Emulator' will cause Windows to become unstable.

Windows has prevented these drivers from loading.

You may also receive the following error message when you try to start Windows CE 4.x Emulator:

Emulator for Windows CE

One or more files from the Emulator for Windows CE installation is missing. Please reinstall Emulator for Windows CE and try again.


Solution: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;891667

Mobile Mod Challenge

Check out the mobile device idea contest at Intel

Mobile Mod Challenge

Robosapiens

An interesting documentary about robot research

New laptop battery lasts for a month

Samsung has developed a new fuel cell based laptop battery that can power a laptop for a month before a recharge is required. This is a giant step from 2-4 hours of battery-operation-time in current technology. It's just what we need in this time of mobile computing :)

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Image-based Search

A start-up, Polar Rose says it can search images on the Web to find pictures of people, delivering better results than today's text-based search engines. Polar Rose claims they can make photos searchable by analyzing their content and recognizing the people in them.

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Do-it-yourself Web

Teqlo, Inc., a Silicon Valley company at the forefront of user assembled application technology that makes it possible for the non-developers in small through large enterprises to assemble and publish their own applications, then invite others to use them. Jeff Nolan, the CEO Teqlo Inc., previously led the Apollo Strategy Group for SAP. Teqlo the company is committed to the vision that users should be able to assemble functional web applications without having to know how to program.

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Hakia.com

Hakia.com is a semantic (meaning-based) search engine that promises better search results. The company's motto is "You should never search after searching." Here's a message from the CEO of Hakia.com; Dr. Riza Beran. The message has good points and venture capitals thinks same way because Hakia.com could raise $5 million recently. The New York and Istanbul based company will kick-off at New Year's Eve at Times Square, New York.

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Direct brain control of humanoid robot

Researchers have demonstrated a proof-of-concept EEG based BCI that allows control of a humanoid robot. The BCI allows a human subject to command the robot, via brain activity, to pick up a desired object and bring it to a desired location. BCI uses 32 electrodoes and preliminary results show 94% accuracy.

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