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The INQ has gotten its hands on an Xbox360, yes, there is a Wal-Mart near us, and was completely underwhelmed by the quality of the games. Graphics quality was poor, and pixels were showing up blocky, ruining the wow-factor of the new console.

Every new machine has a nasty first set of games as the programmers work up to speed on the hardware. In this case, the up side is that there is about 6x the CPU power available and coming to a console near you in the second generation of games.

The scary part is that everyone tells me that the PS3 is harder to program for than the Xbox360, and the tools are nowhere near the quality of Microsoft’s. That means that even with an extra six months of design time, the initial PS3 games may be worse.

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By CHUCK BROWN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

OMAHA, Neb. — Small robots designed by University of Nebraska researchers may allow doctors on Earth to help perform surgery on patients in space.

The tiny, wheeled robots, which are about 3 inches tall and as wide as a lipstick case, can be slipped into small incisions and computer-controlled by surgeons in different locations.

Some robots are equipped with cameras and lights and can send back images to surgeons. Others have surgical tools attached that can be controlled remotely.

“We think this is going to replace open surgery,” Dr. Dmitry Oleynikov said at a Wednesday news conference. Oleynikov is a specialist in minimally invasive and computer-assisted surgery at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

Officials hope that next spring, NASA will teach astronauts to use the robots so that surgeries could one day be performed in space. Delays in communication because of the distance to space would mean surgeons on earth would have tell astronauts what commands to give the robots, Oleynikov said.

However on earth, the surgeons can control the robots themselves from other locations, Oleynikov said.

On battlefields, the robots could enable surgeons in other places to work on injured soldiers on the front line, said Shane Farritor, a university engineering professor who helped design them.

Researchers plan to seek federal regulatory approval early next year. Tests on animals have been successful, Oleynikov said, and tests on humans in England will begin in the spring.

The camera-carrying robots can provide views of affected areas and the ones with surgical tools will be able to maneuver inside the body in ways surgeons’ hands can’t, Oleynikov said.
Because several robots can be inserted through one incision, they could reduce the amount and size of cuts needed for surgery, which would decrease recovery time, Oleynikov said.

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“Hollywood is in a panic over digital entertainment on the Internet. With a host of lawsuits and regulatory actions–from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to the Grokster case–movie studios are doing everything they can to shut down file sharing. They say they’re fighting piracy. But Hollywood has more to fear than pirates: you.”

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