Bill Gates Backs 'Huggable' Medical Robot

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is throwing Microsoft money at a Belgian company called Anty, which is developing "an intelligent, autonomous HUGGY ROBOT." Gates is quoted in a HealthEurope article as saying, "They are creating a robot called 'Probo' (I don't like the sound of THAT. -Ed.) which will be used as a tele-interface to interact with the children on three different levels: entertainment, communication and medical treatments. The R&MM research group will take care of the mechanical part of the robot, whereas ETRO will focus on the aspects of vision, hearing and speech."

Halo 3 Screens Posted, Game Looks Boring

A month before its September 25 release, new screenshots of the upcoming Xbox game, Halo 3, have been posted. And it looks boring as sh*t. More than a million people have already pre-ordered the game. Were they MISLED?

Microsoft Office Reveals Your Secrets Online

John Ivory, who is director of applied research at a company called Dolphin Technology, plans to demonstrate to attendees of the InfowarCon 2007 (September 19-21 in Bethesda, Maryland) how their documents are loaded with SECRETS. Microsoft Office makes it easy to copy and paste Excel data into PowerPoint, then publish those slides online. But all the data in the spreadsheet file, not just the selected bits, are also published. Edits -- cuts, changes, notes, etc. -- in Word are all retained as well. It's an old problem, but Ivory claims the government, as well as private companies, are still publishing their secrets without knowing it.