Slashdot Mirror

CgiJobs writes "The critics aren't much impressed with the new Star trek: "The 10th entry in the Star Trek movie franchise ... is the dullest and drabbest of the lot"; "this ship-bound and lackluster entry tells a rather harebrained story"; "suffers from a nasty case of the cutes"; More at Google News. Of course, I'll still be going to see it." Calling this movie the worst of the series is a pretty harsh criticism...

Reader NCC1701E submitted a short write-up on the movie:

"First, the executive summary: wait for the video. Now, the Gory Details, in all their splendor. I somehow received an email invitation to an advance screening to the Paramount Theater in Times Square, here in NYC. I had to wait in line for 30 minutes, and there was some confusion in swapping my email print out for a pass. But they didn't even check names against a list; it was basically first-come, first served among those who had been inveigled there through various means. In the end, there were even some empty seats. The movie itself? Basically disappointing. IMHO, the weakest entry yet in the series. Production values and special effects were excellent. And it was great to see the movie in a big theater with Dolby sound. But NEMESIS is little more than a Western type "shoot out" movie. The bad guys attack. The good guys fight back, Then, there's more attacking and more fighting back. Then it happens again. And again. You get the idea. I'm a sucker for the hokey humanism that was the hallmark of Star Trek at its best. There was very little of that on display here. In fact, there was very little in the way of a plot. Just some mildly amusing cutesy scenes, plus some murky musings about the nature vs. nuture debate re: a Picard clone. So I didn't much care for the movie. And judging by the subdued response in the theater, neither did the audience. BTW, NY audiences can be cruel. This one snickered at corny lines that weren't supposed to be funny. The phrase "derisive laughter" leaps to mind. I predict NEMESIS will be a huge box office hit. But long-time fans may be as disappointed as I was."

EvilAlien writes "The Privacy Commissioner of Canada has commented on the federal Government's Lawful Access proposal calling the proposed legislation "a grave, needless and unjustifiable deterioration of privacy rights in our country". Canadian news sources have covered the comments, bringing the issue to the forefront of public awareness. For discussion on the Lawful Access Consultation, see the earlier Slashdot story in YRO."

Kathy Miles writes "The Leonid meteor shower is promising to be a 'once in a lifetime event.' It's not hard to photograph meteors, a simple 35mm camera that you can lock open the shutter on works fine. Here's complete instructions for 35mm, video and digital cameras.And, on the same site is information such as lore and myth, best way to watch meteors and times and skymaps for all US timezones. Happy Meteor watching!" And Geert Barentsen writes "As the adrenaline for the final Leonid meteor storm (November 19th) rises, one site seems to do a call to everybody to count the meteor activity and help science. With a few thousand meteors predicted per hour, it's going to be a busy night for true geeks :-)" Kevin Smolkowski writes "For the second year in a row, NASA will have Live Coverage of the 2002 Leonid meteor storm on Monday. Perfect for those of you surrounded by city lights. The all night show is hosted by NASA astronomers. They'll offer observing tips, answer phone calls from sky watchers, and tour the skies with a video camera located at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama." Update: 11/18 22:40 GMT by T : McGravin writes "Everyone should also keep an ear on the extraplanetary visitors, too. I'm going to go add some ear-flaps to the tin foil helmet that protects my brain from them, so I can hear the meteors."

Cecil writes "Just saw this story on the City of Ottawa's website: 'The Software maker Corel Corp. is cutting 220 jobs - more than a fifth of its workforce - in a bid to reduce costs and return to profitability amid weak technology spending.'" Of course, this stinks for those who are laid off, but hopefully Corel can turn things around.

LadyCatra writes "A serious shortage of world-class computing power in Canada prompted University of Alberta scientists to create the next best thing -- a countrywide, virtual supercomputer. On Nov. 4, thousands of computers from research centres across the country will be strung together by a U of A effort to create the most powerful computer in this country. The full story is here"

dlek writes "Bowing to pressure from Utah's Myriad Genetics, the government of British Columbia has stopped offering a test for hereditary breast cancer. The price of the test, which looks at two genes responsible for the cancer, has tripled to $3500US. Our public health care system can't afford to pay so we're sending people to Ontario, which is ignoring the patent. People are disappointed we're not doing the same... previous Slashdot mentions are on their original claim and on the Curie Institute's challenge to the patent."

bluemug writes "The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's popular science radio show Quirks and Quarks aired a piece this weekend about Ray Kurzweil's ideas on downloading human minds to silicon. (The interview is available in MP3 or OGG.) Kurzweil figures we'll have strong AI by 2029 and be able to copy a human mind about a decade after that. Book your appointment now!"

An anonymous submitter writes "I saw this article in the paper today. Not only is it lighter than a comparable diesel engine, it should burn the fuel more completely and be a bit better for the environment. Not to mention it is much faster. They should make more of a point that the North American railway system needs a major overhaul in order to support faster trains." The Department of Transportation has some information about next-generation trains, including a design incorporating a flywheel to improve acceleration.

prostoalex writes "The definitive study on bellybutton lint, a dog-to-person translation device and an inquiry into what arouses ostriches were recognized at 2002 Ig Nobel awards. The telecast of the event in RealMedia format is available from Harvard University server, there's also an Associated Press story. Ig Nobel awards typically recognize the most dubious contributions to the world of science and research."

randomErr writes "Canada.com has an article about Frank Robinson, an man who is into Lego WAY more than the average builder. Frank said "I still get Lego for my birthday and at Christmas, too. So do my kids." At last count the Robinson family's Lego inventory was nearing 100,000 pieces, a majority of which were tallied and itemized by type and colour on a computer spreadsheet." No Lego story would be complete without a link to something large and useless, say, a Lego harpsichord. Okay, it plays, so it's not actually useless. But the Lego Star Destroyer is.

randomErr writes "Canada.com has an article about Frank Robinson, an man who is into Lego WAY more than the average builder. Frank said "I still get Lego for my birthday and at Christmas, too. So do my kids." At last count the Robinson family's Lego inventory was nearing 100,000 pieces, a majority of which were tallied and itemized by type and colour on a computer spreadsheet." No Lego story would be complete without a link to something large and useless, say, a Lego harpsichord. Okay, it plays, so it's not actually useless. But the Lego Star Destroyer is.

smashr writes "GRACE, the robot mentioned earlier on slashdot, has succeeded in the AAAI challenge at the conference in Canada. Her creators are saying that GRACE exceeded their expectations. The entire competition went well with only several minor hiccups (GRACE cut in front of a judge in line to register, and then demanded a conference badge several times). The team is looking forward towards refining GRACE for the competition in Mexico. Stories at: CNN.com, Yahoo, and the Edmonton Journal."

So we get a number of case mods submitted in any one week, and while they are very cool and fun and we like to post them, they don't really warrant a whole story of their own, so I decided to do a recently submitted case-mod round up. Anyhow, if you are interested, in this first set we have a beautifully engineered mailbox among others. If you are interested in such things, read on.... First, ViceClown writes: "I thought I'de seen it all but here's another in what seems like a never ending barage of weird and out-there case mods. this guy took a regular old aluminum mailbox and turned it into a computer. Guess it gives new meaning to that old phraze, "You've got mail!""

BeoR writes "Modding is extremely popular nowadays... with the exception of some, a lot of mods end up in disappointment. Some mods just don't look right... This article is aimed at making "Case Modding" easy... as well as letting you try out any kinds of mods on your case without even scratching it... Check it out"

smallstepforman sent in a link to the aquatank, featuring very real, and probably unhappy, fish! That said, you'd think a computer case would be a happy place for a lizard or snake that would like a little bit on warmth.

We also ran a sectional story which I thought would be interesting for the round-up: PC Cases with Side or Top Mounted Drive Bays?

And, finally, JoeD writes "For my sins, I was emailed the following link: The Pink Hello Kitty Laptop. I struggled to find the adjectives to adequately describe this case mod, but decided that words are inadequate for some things." I think this might be the first custom modded laptop that we've featured on slashdot. Hope the next one won't be as disturbing.

addie writes "The Ottawa Citizen among others is running a story about how NASA determines what colors to paint their latest Hubble pictures. I'm personally happier looking at a dramatic doctored image, especially when the B&W originals are available."

khendron writes "In this article in Wired the most awesome past time is described. Comet Hunting. On you computer. No more cold nights outside with the telescope. Sit back with a cola, fire up the broadband, and start looking." From the article: "Amateurs looking at the SOHO images on the Web have found 76 percent of the 428 new comets that have turned up in SOHO images. Of the 31 people who have discovered comets, 21 of them are amateurs. They come from 10 different countries, including Australia, Great Britain, Germany and China. "

addie writes "Scientific American has a great, extensive article about Pluto and the possibilities of exploring it in the near future. Neat descriptions of Kuiper Belt and what we can learn about solar system birth and growth from the tiny planet."

Garin writes: "The Vancouver Sun is reporting that NASA scientists have discovered vast quantities of hydrogen stored in the Earth's crust while they were trying to explain the presence of living bacteria. Could this be the beginning of the end for our dependence on oil? I hope so."

Covant was among several to note that Fox is going to air a 2 1/2 minute trailer for Star Wars Episode II tonight, in between Malcolm and The X-Files. I've seen the trailers released so far, and really hope that this one can convince me that Clones isn't going to continue to follow the path to the dark side like Menace did.

Gonzago writes: "God knows how many hours I spent mining or chopping down trees while playing Ultima Online. The dedication (spelled a-d-d-i-c-t-i-o-n) I had to that game would have made me some serious cash if I applied it to a real life job. Now I can have my cake and eat it too! At least that's what the people behind Project Entropia would have me believe. Not only does the premise behind the game look cool, but players will trade amongst one another with real money. Anyone want to buy some armor?" There's an article on CNN which briefly covers the game's premise: pay the company for all the equipment you need in-game, and it all slowly degrades - Entropia, get it?

javacowboy asks: "I'm a Canadian citizen who recently emailed the Electronic Frontier Foundation to ask about the tax-deductibility of donations to that organization. They replied telling me that they have no presence in Canada and that they can't issue a Canadian tax receipt. What I would like to know is if there is a similar organization in Canada, working towards the same goals, that I can donate to as well as writing off the donations on my tax form."

Erebus42 writes "Canada has done something neat. Apparently researchers at the University of British Columbia have created supernova in their ISAC (Isotope Seperator and Accelerator), transmuting sodium 21 into magnesium 22. Spiffy."

antarctican writes: "In their first intelligent move, the new government of British Columbia has scrapped the mandatory video game rating system which was brought into effect last year. At last some sanity in this attempt to rid youth of these e-v-i-l influences.... *smirk* We can only hope others in positions of authority come to their senses too." But we must protect the children!

axis-techno-geek writes: "Ballard Power Systems of Vancouver, BC (in Canada, eh), has stated that it will start production this friday of their consumer level Nexa(tm) hydrogen fuel cell (article here). The power module generates up to 1200 watts of unregulated DC electrical power that can keep going as long as it is supplied with hydrogen, and produces no toxic by-products (i.e. you can use it in your home). They also have plans for a 250kW unit. No price as of yet."

halo8 writes: "There is a story on the Ottawa Citizen about Rebel.Com - how they were private, went public during the tech boom, made millons, spent millons (buying james dean logo and rebel.com address). See part I and part II.

halo8 writes: "There is a story on the Ottawa Citizen about Rebel.Com - how they were private, went public during the tech boom, made millons, spent millons (buying james dean logo and rebel.com address). See part I and part II.

More details below in tonight's Slashback on the sale of Corel's Linux division, the public posting of the encryption scheme some bright young Irish whippersnapper has come up with, fun details on those toys you can roll around with your computer, and winners of another contest.

That's a lot of Molsen. Bigger R writes contributes this link to a story in the Calgary Herald with more detail on the sale of Corel's Linux division which was mentioned in vague terms the other day. It's going to a company called Xandros, in exchange for cash and equity, so Corel will still have at least some interest in the continued success of Linux, or at least its distro. A snippet: "Xandros Corp. president Michael Bego, who started the Ottawa company recently in preparation for the deal announced Wednesday, is also a shareowner in Linux Global Partners, a privately held New York venture firm that put up $10 million US to start Xandros."

Small, cheap and fun are all good words. An Anonymous Coward writes "There's an announcement of the winners of the embedded linux journal's design contest over at linuxdevices.com. Cool projects -- voting system, digital audio workstation, solar racing vehicle, GizmoCopter Project, and Hacking BigMouth Billy Bass. Follow the urls for the projects which are given in the announcement to learn about each project. Oh, and the prize for winning each category? An all expense paid trip to Costa Rica. Dang, why didn't I enter?"

Stuff that's hard to read. John Sokol writes with an update on the Cayley-Purser Algorithm mentioned here before.

"This story went through some time back about a 16-year-old girl outdoing RSA, but it lacked any discussion of the actual algorithm. This link is her paper that she now has posted on the net. It seems reasonable. Maybe someone here can find a flaw in it?"

Roll 'em. Slide100 writes: "It seems that there is more to the desktop rover that was posted about on Tuesday.

The marketing manager sent me a PDF file that explains some more - apparently, they just don't have the time to update the website.

Each rover comes with a cable that plugs into the transmitter and software to allow control of the rover from your computer (or through TCP/IP).

Additionally, each rover has 'Laser Tag' as an integral part of the vehicle. 10 hits (including sound effects) and your rover is disabled 'till the next match See it here. BTW - I have nothing to do with the company, I just think its very cool."

SubtleNuance writes: "This story on Canada.com describes the mission and results of NASA's recent flight to map Earth. The Shuttle trip has provided the most detailed 3D photos of Earth ever released." Some of the images are just astounding. Too bad most of the data isn't available yet.

SubtleNuance writes: "This story on Canada.com describes the mission and results of NASA's recent flight to map Earth. The Shuttle trip has provided the most detailed 3D photos of Earth ever released." Some of the images are just astounding. Too bad most of the data isn't available yet.

sexykitty writes "What exactly is it that we do to invite unsolicited email to our inboxes? CNET contributor Matt Lake opened 12 free email accounts online in an experiment aimed at determining just that, and here are the results. See the risks involved in disclosing your email address through various methods. " Yeah, running a relatively well known website with your e-mail address all over doesn't exactly help out in the spam avoidance department either.

Soko writes: "Just browsing through the winners of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest on Canada.com, and got a real chuckle. Look for the Sci-Fi winner -- it's a really lame BSOD joke. Any one want to fess up? ;-) Background: Mr. Bulwer-Lytton is famous for starting one of his novels, "Paul Clifford", with the immortal line 'It was a dark and stormy night ...' The contest homepage is here, and the official contest results are here -- but Canada.com can weather a Slashdot generated 'dark and stormy night' better than these two links, I would guess."

SnowSquirrel asks: "My second year university comp sci class is using Eiffel as the programming language. I won't start the class for a couple of days yet, so I don't know much about the language, other than the fact that I had never heard of it until a month ago. I wouldn't mind some opinions from the relevant masses on whether Eiffel is a good language to use for 2nd year college courses (the 1st year we used Java)."

RabidMonkey asks: "As an employee at a high speed wireless ISP which has gone into receivership (Maxlink communications Inc), I've begun to wonder: Is there actually a big enough market for Wireless Internet access? After reading that Look Communications is cutting 300 of its staff and looking for a buyer, I'm a little skeptical. I'm wondering if there are any other big wireless service providers that are doing well out there, and if they are, what are they doing differently? What are the different technologies in use? Why do these ventures seem to be failing?" With the majority of users still connecting to the internet via phone lines and cable modems and DSL finally catching on, is it too soon to expect wireless systems to be successful in anything more than niche markets?

"I think that the technology and the need are there for this, but why does it fail? I know that our rates are very competitive, installation is the industry standard (free) and our customer service is good. And the same goes for Look. Two companies with good technology that failed. Is it just not the right time?"

walnut writes: "There is an interesting story on CNET about the future of cell phones, how the major players Erricson, Motorola and Nokia are beginning to have to face the realization that new sales are quickly tapering off. How they will entice people to buy new phones is becoming a big question."

Nerftoe writes "ZDTV an article about automated phone calls to promote its Friday lineup of shows. The odd thing is, ABC doesn't want to talk to humans. They just want to leave their message on your answering machine. What if I real person answers the phone, you ask? That's right, the automated system simply hangs up." I'm not in one of the markets that is doing this, but I have a personal policy of boycotting any business that tele-solicits me. (course the only show on ABC I actually watch is Who's Line is it Anyway, but since Comedy Central airs the much funnier sans-drew English version several times a day anyway, I don't consider that a huge loss either).

ari{Dal} writes "New IBM wearable PCs with eraser sized mice should be released by the end of the next year. " With viewable-equivalent 14" screens, speech-recognition software and probable cost of 2000$, I think my carry-on bags for flying just dropped by another one.

ari{Dal} writes "Sony has revealed plans for a new digital walkman for the Japanese market. " Not quite a Rio or Nomad, it will take Sony's Memory Flash Stiks, like the Vaio and Aibo. It can play the Sony proprietary musical format, as well as encrypt and play MP3s or Wavs.

ari{Dal} writes "Brutus.1 will challenge humans in a contest to write the best short story on the theme of betrayal. It took six years to develop at a cost of about 2 million dollars US, and writes stories based on logic, AI, math, and grammar structures. The judges will be challenged, not only to pick the best story, but also to spot the computer written one. The contest runners don't believe they'll be able to tell the difference. "

Foxman writes "It's got no case and no hard drive. Still, a computer handmade by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs could fetch the most money ever paid for a personal computer. The very first Apple computer is going on the auction block. "

Foxman writes "Due to failures in coping with the overwhelming response from volunteers, the SETI@home project has been erroneously sending the same packets of radio data to its 500,000 participants." The scariest comment is the estimate that SETI@Home is using 8 tons of fossil fuel per hour.

Dozer writes "TerraLogic's new Janus-based HDTV cards allows a PC user to get some excellent HDTV without draining the wallet. The cards will do line doubling and handle AC3 audio, all for less than 10% of the cost of an HDTV set..." So I want that, Linux support, and then HDTV broadcasts of every sci fi movie ever.