Building a digital clock with the 8008 microprocessor

Ever wondered how to design and build a clock on a Intel 8008 8 bit microprocessor? What logic is required? See Building an Intel 8008 Computer "Clock" for details on design, software, and hardware involved. My logic design skills are a bit rusty, maybe yours are better, so you will fully appreciate the insights.

Using Sound Waves in Brain Surgery

A breakthrough approach to brain surgery that uses sound waves to destroy diseased tissues in your brain, thus avoiding opening the skull. From the article:

"The groundbreaking finding here is that you can make lesions deep in the brain--through the intact skull and skin--with extreme precision and accuracy and safety ... The ultrasound beams are focused on a specific point in the brain--the exact location depends on the condition being treated--that absorbs the energy and converts it to heat. This raises the temperature to about 130 degrees Fahrenheit and kills the cells in a region approximately 10 cubic millimeters in volume. The entire system is integrated with a magnetic resonance scanner, which allows neurosurgeons to make sure they target the correct piece of brain tissue"

Future tests will involve patients with Parkinson's disease.

You can read more details in the Technology Review.

Scripting in Android

Damon Kohler released last month the Android Scripting Environment (ASE), which enables running Python scripts in Android. Access to location and sensors, activities and intents, phone calls and text messaging, are just a few examples of the APIs available to scripts.

A more detailed article on this topic can be found on the Motorola developer blog.

Google Chrome OS

Back in December of 2008, I wrote about browsers replacing OSes. Google introduced the Chrome OS yesterday, "an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks".

The OS targets speed, simplicity, and security. "We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds". It will run on x86 and ARM, and will run on a new windowing system on top of the Linux kernel.

In addition, Chrome OS is separate from Android; while Android was designed to run on mobile phones and set top boxes, Chrome OS was designed "for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems".