Thursday, April 27, 2006
Aperture future in question as Apple axes bulk of team
Sources familiar with Apple's professional software strategy said they were not surprised by the move, describing Aperture's development as a "mess" and the worst they had witnessed at Apple.
Aperture's problems stem not from any particular area that can be easily remedied but rather from the application's entire underlying architecture. In the run-up to Aperture's November release last year, for example, sources report that responsibility for the application's image processing pipeline was taken away from the Aperture team and given to the Shake and Motion team "to fix as best they can." Some of those enhancements emerged in the recently released Aperture 1.1 update, which saw its release delayed for about two weeks as a result of the extra work needed to bring it up to spec.
In tandem with the 1.1 update, Apple dropped Aperture's price tag from $499 to $299 and offered owners of version 1.0 a $200 coupon for the Apple Store. Industry watchers and users alike have viewed the price cut as a maneuver to stave off competition from Adobe's forthcoming LightRoom software, a beta of which is available for Mac OS X users, and see the Apple Store coupon as a concession for early adopters who collectively appear to have been expecting more from Apple.
Perhaps the greatest hope for Aperture's future is that the application's problems are said to be so extensive that any version 2.0 would require major portions of code to be entirely rewritten. With that in mind, the bell may not yet be tolling for Aperture; an entirely new engineering team could salvage the software and bring it up to Apple's usual standards.
source:http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0604aperture.html
Medtronic to Pursue Major Clinical Trial of Deep Brain Stimulation as Depression Treatment
MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 25, 2006--
Results of physician-sponsored studies presented at neurosurgery
conference show promise of DBS therapy's positive effect on patients
with intractable psychiatric disorders, including OCD
Based in part on promising study results presented this week at an international neurosurgical meeting,
Preliminary plans for the trial, which will involve teams of neurosurgeons and psychiatrists from multiple medical centers, were announced at the
The announcement follows two AANS presentations about DBS therapy in the treatment of intractable depression and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) that were made by
"While not a cure, DBS has allowed these patients to return to much more functional and happy lives," said Dr. Rezai, who represented an international working group of physicians that has been studying the application of DBS therapy in the treatment of intractable depression and OCD in collaboration with Medtronic. (The group includes neurosurgeons and psychiatrists from the
"These encouraging results will likely lead to further use of DBS in patients with both OCD and depression," added Dr. Rezai.
The pioneer and leader of neurostimulation therapies for movement disorders and chronic pain, Medtronic holds several patents specifically related to the treatment of psychiatric disorders, including depression and OCD. In addition, no other company has a commercially available DBS system approved by the
More than 30,000 people worldwide have received DBS therapy with a Medtronic Kinetra(R) or Soletra(R) neurostimulation system. More than 50 of these people have taken part in several separate "pilot" studies of DBS therapy as a potential treatment for severely disabling psychiatric disorders, including depression and OCD.
"We are in the process of finalizing our plans for a major clinical trial of DBS therapy as a treatment for chronically severe depression that has not responded to conventional treatments," said Dr. Richard E. Kuntz, M.D., senior vice president of Medtronic and former chief scientific officer of the
The results of Dr. Rezai's AANS presentations are summarized online at http://www.aans.org/Library/Article.aspx?ArticleId=38034.
About Medtronic
Any forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties such as those described in Medtronic's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended January 27, 2006. Actual results may differ materially from anticipated results.
source:http://www.alphatradefn.com/story/2006-04-25/BIZ/200604251500BIZWIRE_USPR_____BW6007.html
'Bloodless' surgery avoids risks of transfusion
Techniques first used for Jehovah's Witnesses gaining popularity
PHILADELPHIA - When Irv Shapiro found out he needed surgery to fix a ruptured heart valve, one of the first questions he asked his doctor was whether he should donate his own blood.
He hoped to avoid being transfused with someone else's blood, but wasn't thrilled with the idea of spending weeks before surgery having pints of his own blood drawn and put in storage. So when he found out that Pennsylvania Hospital offered a third option — once only available to Jehovah's Witnesses — it was a relief.
"Not needing a blood transfusion, not having to get blood taken out of me, and a fast recovery time — I was OK with all of that," said Shapiro, 60, a founding partner of an architectural firm and heavy traveler.
Pennsylvania Hospital is now able to offer so-called "bloodless surgery" to 90 percent of its patients who want it, joining a small but growing number of bloodless medicine programs around the country that also serve the general public. Advocates put the number at about 120.
Many states have bloodless surgery centers or hospitals that perform no-transfusion surgery for Jehovah's Witnesses, who believe the Bible forbids transfusions, but not for the general public.
Some hospitals are now providing no-transfusion surgery to more patients because of advances in equipment and changes in protocols.
Bloodless surgery techniques vary depending on the type of operation, but can include efficient heart-lung bypass machines that circulate a patient's blood during surgery; using high-tech scalpels that clot the blood as they cut tissue; or freezing tissue before it's excised.
There is also pre-surgery planning. Doctors start seeing patients weeks before surgery to prepare.
Among the benefits are reductions in recovery time, hospital stay, cost and complications — as well as an estimated $20,000 in savings per patient, said Dr. Charles Bridges, the Pennsylvania Hospital cardiologist who performed Shapiro's surgery.
The general consensus in the medical community is that it is best to avoid donor blood transfusions whenever possible, but that transfusions remain an important lifesaving strategy. The American Medical Association endorses "autologous" blood transfusion — giving a patient his own blood — but takes no specific stance on no-transfusion surgery.
Pennsylvania Hospital has for at least a decade performed all kinds of no-transfusion surgery on Jehovah's Witnesses, Bridges said. In the year that no-transfusion heart surgery has been offered to patients, Bridges estimated that he has performed between 50 and 75 — up from about 10 just a few years earlier.
Heart surgery, because it is associated with extensive blood loss, is more difficult to do "bloodless" than other operations. In traditional open-heart surgery, a patient may need up to six units of red blood cells, four units of plasma and 10 units of platelets, according to the American Red Cross.
"People used to think of open-heart surgery as this draconian thing," Bridges said. "Now we have what really is a kinder, gentler open-heart surgery."
The best no-transfusion candidates typically are those needing only one procedure _ repair of a single heart valve or a single bypass, for example. It also can be done in more complex operations, however.
About six weeks after Shapiro's surgery to fix his damaged mitral valve, he was back at work part time.
"I feel very lucky that I was told about the transfusion-free option and that I was a perfect candidate for it," he said.
From pre- to post-surgery, the goal is conserving the patient's own blood, Bridges said.
"There's no downside to it that we can see, and there's certainly no downside that's been documented," Bridges said.
About a month before no-transfusion surgery, blood tests are conducted. Anemic patients receive weekly injections of medications, as well as intravenous iron supplements, to increase their red-blood-cell count.
During surgery, blood that gets suctioned or sponged out of the body cavity is salvaged, and highly efficient pumps keep blood circulating while the heart and lungs are stopped. After surgery, less blood is taken for post-operation tests.
"You have to be meticulous, you have to be organized, and you have to really work as a team before, during and after surgery," Bridges said.
Patients who choose the no-transfusion option eliminate the risk of blood-borne infection and complications from clerical errors. They also get out of the hospital an average of one day earlier and avoid potential transfusion-related complications including immune system suppression, inflammatory response, and renal or respiratory failure, Bridges said.
Bloodless surgery is also preferable to having patients transfused with their own blood, Bridges said. Blood that has been stored degrades and deforms outside the body and doesn't flow through blood vessels or carry oxygen as well when it goes back in.
The trend toward avoiding transfusions is gaining momentum among doctors and patients, said Dr. Patricia Ford, director of Pennsylvania Hospital's Center for Bloodless Medicine & Surgery. Transfusions are lifesavers during emergencies, but they can be avoided in most elective operations, she said.
"There is a movement that, for a lot of us, started as part of caring for Jehovah's Witnesses and learning about blood conservation and management," said Ford, who also is president-elect of the Society for the Advancement of Blood Management, a Wisconsin-based advocacy group.
The group said that the number of bloodless medicine programs nationwide has risen from 100 to about 120 in the past six years. The American College of Surgeons, a division of the American Medical Association, said it does not keep statistics on bloodless surgery.
"Transfusions are like getting a transplant; they can be risky and should be a last resort," Ford said. "Frankly, all of the things we use are available to every hospital. ... The hope is that every hospital will do this eventually."
source:http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12466831/from/ET/
Micro-pump is cool idea for future computer chips
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Engineers at Purdue University have developed a tiny "micro-pump" cooling device small enough to fit on a computer chip that circulates coolant through channels etched into the chip.
Suresh Garimellaand Brian D. Iverson
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Innovative cooling systems will be needed for future computer chips that will generate more heat than current technology, and this extra heating could damage electronic devices or hinder performance, said Suresh Garimella, a professor of mechanical engineering.
The new device has been integrated onto a silicon chip that is about 1 centimeter square, or roughly one-sixth of a square inch. The technology is an example of a microelectromechanical system, or MEMS, a tiny mechanical device fabricated using methods generally associated with microelectronics.
"Because it's a MEMS pump, we were able to integrate the entire cooling system right onto a chip," Garimella said. "The most innovative part of the technology is the micro-pump."
Brian D. Iverson holds disk containing "micro-pump"cooling devices
Download photo
caption below
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An article about the cooling device will appear in the May issue of Electronics Cooling magazine. The article was written by doctoral student Brian D. Iverson, Garimella and former doctoral student Vishal Singhal, who recently graduated and co-founded Thorrn Micro Technologies Inc., in Redwood City, Calif.
Chips in today's computers are cooled primarily with an assembly containing conventional fans and "heat sinks," or metal plates containing fins to dissipate heat. But because chips a decade from now will likely contain upwards of 100 times more transistors and other devices, they will generate far more heat than chips currently in use, Garimella said.
"Our goal is to develop advanced cooling systems that are self-contained on chips and are capable of handling the more extreme heating in future chips," said Garimella, director of Purdue's Cooling Technologies Research Center. The center, supported by the National Science Foundation, industry and Purdue, was formed to help corporations develop miniature cooling technologies for a wide range of applications, from electronics and computers to telecommunications and advanced aircraft.
The prototype chip contains numerous water-filled micro-channels, grooves about 100 microns wide, or about the width of a human hair. The channels are covered with a series of hundreds of electrodes, electronic devices that receive varying voltage pulses in such a way that a traveling electric field is created in each channel. The traveling field creates ions, or electrically charged atoms and molecules, which are dragged along by the moving field.
"Say every sixth electrode receives the same voltage, these varying voltages from one electrode to the next produce a traveling electrical field that pulls the ions forward, causing the water to flow and inducing a cooling action," Garimella said. "Essentially, you are pumping fluid forward."
This pumping action is created by a phenomenon called electrohydrodynamics, which uses the interactions of ions and electric fields to cause fluid to flow.
"Engineers have been using electrohydrodynamics to move fluids with electric fields for a long time, but it's unusual to be able to do this on the micro-scale as we have demonstrated," Garimella said.
The researchers also have added a feature to boost the force of the pumping action. A thin sheet of piezoelectric material, which expands and contracts in response to an electric current, was glued on top of the cover of the liquid-filled channels.
"This material acts as a diaphragm that deforms up and down when you give it a voltage, causing it to push additional flow through the channels," Garimella said. "We have developed mathematical models that show this piezo action enhances the electrohydrodynamic performance."
The diaphragm has enhanced the pumping action by 13 percent in the current prototype, but the modeling indicates a possible enhancement of 100 percent or greater, he said.
"Although electrohydrodynamics has generally not been considered practical for pumping applications due to the assumption that it requires a large amount of energy and does not produce enough motive force for thrust, the method has been shown to be far more efficient for micro-cooling applications," Garimella said. "We have shown that the power input required is in the microwatts, but you can get milliwatts of cooling. In other words, the cooling effect is more than a thousand times greater than the energy needed to drive the system. That's because all we need to do is create enough of a flow to induce cooling."
However, several major challenges remain.
"One big challenge is further developing mathematical models that are comprehensive and accurate because this is a very complicated, dynamic system," Garimella said. "You've got fluid flow on a micro-scale, you've got electrohydrodynamic effects, electrical fields and a moving diaphragm."
Other challenges include sealing the tiny channels to prevent water leakage and designing the system so that it could be manufactured under the same conditions as semiconductor chips.
The work has been funded by the Indiana 21st Century Research and Technology Fund. Garimella is a member of the Birck Nanotechnology Center at Purdue's Discovery Park.
source:http://suvalleynews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=664
Open Source Moving in on the Data Storage World
source:http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/26/2039224
Schwartz replaces McNealy: A tough comedy act to follow?
News that Sun co-founder and long-serving CEO, Scott McNealy is stepping aside, heaps a load of pressure on incoming CEO Jonathan Schwartz - he will have to get working on his anti-Microsoft gags quick-sharp.
Aside from Sun's strategy and his execution of it, McNealy's tenure as CEO will be remembered for his constant Microsoft sniping. Anyone who saw him speak knows he always had a quiver of anti-Microsoft jokes up his sleeve. "I don't want my kids growing up in a world of control-alt-delete," was one of my favourites, or, "The bear is pretty strong in the computer business ... but we are outrunning the other hikers.”
As we reported in our full coverage of McNealy's decision to hand over to Schwartz here, McNealy said that, "When you start a company, you always wonder who you are going to hand it off to. You can't run it forever."
"I wasn't going to hand it off when we were growing too fast," he continued, "I wasn't going to hand if off after the bubble burst. The time is right to do it now. All the demand indicators are strong. For 22 years, I have been running this joint, and I have had a lot of fun with it." He certainly has.
McNealy has been a constant source of amusement in what might otherwise have been a far less interesting sector. He, and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, have taken it upon themselves to poke constant fun at Microsoft, and in so doing have helped in their own ways to ensure that consumers have retained that little bit of cynicism about the world's most powerful software company.
In his capacity as CEO McNealy was bright, witty, straight talking, and often with us hacks, more than a little belligerent. Perhaps that's unsurprising - McNealy once said in an interview with CBR that if he had not ended up running an IT company, he would have chosen instead to pass his time thwacking pucks and heads on an ice rink instead. I hear ice hockey is something of a contact sport. At times McNealy got pretty close to turning being a tech firm CEO into a contact sport, too.
I remember one press roundtable in London a couple of years ago, where a journalist from the Financial Times found himself on the wrong end of McNealy's ire. When the journalist asked a question about comments that Sun’s channel had made to him about the soundness of Sun’s business model, McNealy retorted sharply: “I’m not going to comment on made-up quotes.”
Though the journalist insisted the quotes came straight from Sun’s own resellers, McNealy snapped, “Like I say, I will not comment on made-up quotes.” As us press began to leave the room McNealy again accosted the FT journalist, saying he was furious with his paper's editor for stories that had apparently said that McNealy's remuneration had been the cause of a board-room argument. "We haven't even discussed that - it's just been made up," McNealy said furiously.
Anyway like I say if you want the low-down on McNealy's departure and his replacement, Jonathan Schwartz, simply visit our coverage of the news here. I chose instead to assemble a few of the best Scott McNealy quotes from over the years. I warn you though - he could never have given up his day job to become a comedian. Ice hockey, perhaps.
A selection of the best Scott McNealy quotes:
“When Steve Ballmer calls me wacko, I consider that a compliment.”
“The only thing that I'd rather own than Windows is English, because then I could charge you two hundred and forty-nine dollars for the right to speak it.”
"Shut down some of the bullshit the government is spending money on and use it to buy all the Microsoft stock. Then put all their intellectual property in the public domain. Free Windows for everyone! Then we could just bronze Gates, turn him into a statue and stick him in front of the Commerce Department."
"Microsoft is now talking about the digital nervous system... I guess I would be nervous if my system was built on their technology too.”
"It's the good guys versus the bad guys, and the good guys are winning."
“W2K (Windows 2000) will be a bigger disaster than Y2K.”
“A giant hairball." [About Windows NT]
“The Evil Empire." [guess who]
“The beast from Redmond." [yup]
"Anyone heard any good monopolist jokes lately?”
"Ballmer and Butthead" [Ballmer and you-know-who]
".Not, .Not Yet and .Nut" [Microsoft's .Net strategy]
Some of these are thanks to quotefinder thinkexist.com. Others aren't.
Robotic Legs Instead of Wheelchairs
source:http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/26/148233
