Cody Taylor

AndreV writes “A University of Waterloo in Ontario engineering research team has developed the world’s first flying micro-robot capable of manipulating objects for micro-scale applications, which include micro-assembly of mechanical components, handling of biological samples and even microsurgery. It moves around and manipulates objects with micro-grippers, remotely controlled by a laser-focusing beam (heating the pincers with a laser opens them; when the laser is turned off, they cool and close). Its magnetic drive mechanism controls the field using continuous feedback from positioning sensors in order to position the ‘bot. ‘It can enter virtually any space and can be operated in a sealed enclosure by a person outside,’ the project leaders says, ‘which makes it useful for handling bio-hazardous materials or working in vacuum chambers and clean rooms.’ The video of the contraption shows it floating in mid-air.”

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Crazzaper writes “There’s a lot of controversy over ISP capping with Time Warner leading the charge. Tom’s Hardware has an interesting article about how capping is the new form of DRM at the ISP level. The author draws some comparison to business practices by large cable operators and their efforts to protect cable TV programming. While this is understandable from the cable operator’s perspective, the article points out how capping will affect popular services such as Steam for game content publishing and distribution, cloud-computing and online media services. Apparently this is also an effective way of going after casual piracy.”

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Eurogamer has an article which takes a look at how various game companies deal with gold spammers in their games. Some, like Mythic, take a hard stance, literally telling farmers and sellers to “go to hell.” Others engage in an arms race to block such behavior, sometimes to the detriment of normal users. “In fact, a former Jagex source tells me that when Jagex banned all IPs connected to gold selling, ‘they lost 10 per cent of their membership, and still haven’t recovered in terms of numbers since they did it two years ago. Even though they have almost stopped gold selling in RuneScape, it has cost them two million active accounts; i.e. there were four million players, there are now two million players, of which less than one million actually subscribe.'” Still more companies are experimenting with real money trading (RMT) to at least establish some control and security over the situation.

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