Slashdot Mirror

Modellismo writes "Last May a Japanese hobbyist revealed a DIY, real-life Transformer Robot Car that received lots of feedback. Now Kenji Ishida is back with a new version that will be officially presented next weekend at the Maker Faire Tokyo 2012. This new 1/12 scale autobot is made using a custom 3D printer (build by Kenji himself), and finally Transformers fans around the world will be able to buy it. The official price has not been disclosed. For now the production is limited to 10 pieces. It's possible to choose the color of the robot that comes built and programmed, complete with a wireless controller in a numbered case."

GMGruman writes "Ted Samson reports on a new Web application dubbed ifttt.com that mashes up all those Web services we routinely use. Today's Web is brimming with a staggering number of services where users can speak their mind (Twitter), grab vital information (any news or blog source), store important files (Dropbox or Box.net), collaborate with peers (Facebook or Google+), and much more. The dream has long been to devise ways to get these often disparate and siloed services to interact with one another, creating something greater than the sum of its parts. It serves as a measure of how far we've come from the early days of specialized, single-purpose mashups, or more complicated SOAs where services were cobbled together with complex tools and the coding equivalent of duct tape."

Spanner Spencer writes "Talk to iPhone games developers, and the feature they're most excited about in the new iPhone 3.0 software is the ability to do in-game micro-transactions. And while you might wonder if this is just an excuse to get iPhone gamers to dip into their wallets even more often, it's actually a hugely positive thing for several reasons. Downloadable content, virtual items, subscription billing and fast-track social advancement are some of them, so Pocket Gamer looks into a bit more depth about what you can expect on the micro-payments side once iPhone 3.0 debuts."

MacRonin recommends a press release over at the EFF on their recent court victory affirming that cell phone location data is protected by the Fourth Amendment. Here is the decision (PDF). "In an unprecedented victory for cell phone privacy, a federal court has affirmed that cell phone location information stored by a mobile phone provider is protected by the Fourth Amendment and that the government must obtain a warrant based on probable cause before seizing such records. EFF has successfully argued before other courts that the government needs a warrant before it can track a cell phones location in real-time. However, this is the first known case where a court has found that the government must also obtain a warrant when obtaining stored records about a cell phones location from the mobile phone provider."

djvaselaar sends along an article from The New Atlantis that summarizes recent research indicating that multitasking may be detrimental to work and learning. It begins, "In one of the many letters he wrote to his son in the 1740s, Lord Chesterfield offered the following advice: 'There is time enough for everything in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once, but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.' To Chesterfield, singular focus was not merely a practical way to structure one's time; it was a mark of intelligence... E-mails pouring in, cell phones ringing, televisions blaring, podcasts streaming--all this may become background noise, like the 'din of a foundry or factory' that [William] James observed workers could scarcely avoid at first, but which eventually became just another part of their daily routine. For the younger generation of multitaskers, the great electronic din is an expected part of everyday life. And given what neuroscience and anecdotal evidence have shown us, this state of constant intentional self-distraction could well be of profound detriment to individual and cultural well-being."

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA threw in the towel, all right, but was only doing it in preparation for throwing a sucker punch. After dropping its 'making available' case, Warner v. Cassin, before Judge Robinson could decide whether to dismiss or not, it was only trying to do an 'end run' (if I may mix my sports metaphors) around the judge's deciding the motion and freezing discovery. The RIAA immediately, and secretly, filed a new case against the family, calling this one 'Warner v. Does 1-4.' In their papers the lawyers 'forgot' to mention that the new case was related. As a result, Does 1-4 was assigned to another judge, who knew nothing about the old case. The RIAA lawyers also may have forgotten that they couldn't bring any more cases over this same claim, since they'd already dismissed it twice before. Not to worry, NYCL wrote letters to both judges, reminding them of what the RIAA lawyers had forgotten."

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "As first reported by p2pnet, the motion to quash the RIAA's subpoena seeking identities of Boston University students has been granted, at least for the moment. In a 52-page opinion (pdf) the Judge concluded that she could not decide whether or not to quash until she had seen the college's 'Terms of Service Agreement' for internet service. It was only then she could decide what 'expectation of privacy' the students had. She quashed the subpoena calling for the student identities, and told them they could go ahead with a subpoena just for the terms of service agreement. Interestingly the decision was issued on the very same day as the judge in Elektra v. Barker came to some of the same conclusions."

James Hardine writes Wikileaks, the website for whistleblowers, has broken one of the world's biggest corruption stories in the international press (Guardian, BBC, Forbes, Sydney Morning Herald). The site has leaked a secret report on looting by ex-president Moi of Kenya — and possibly altered the outcome of an impending national election. Moi has become a key player in political life in Kenya, and is now an essential pillar in President Kibaki's campaign for re-election in December 2007. From the Wikileaks page: 'The suppressed auditor's report reveals that currency worth billions of US dollars was looted from Kenya by President Moi and his associates. The money was laundered across the world and includes properties and shell companies in London, New York and South Africa and even a 10,000 hectare ranch in Australia.'"

An anonymous reader writes "Julian Murdoch over at Gamers With Jobs posits that the recently released Lord of the Rings Online, for all it's flaws, is a new kind of game — the Destiny-Locked RPG: 'The reason that Story sets LOTRO apart is because you know how it ends. This is a luxury World of Warcraft simply can never have. There is no logical end to WoW, where the evil WoW faction of the Horde is victorious, and every member of the good-aligned Alliance dies. The viciously PvP nature of EVE Online means that the story can only sit on the sidelines and inform, not take center stage. But in LOTRO, the game is the story. In this, the game has far more in common with Oblivion than it does with WoW.' The argument here is that a game in which the outcome is known is fundamentally a different (and possibly better) form of gameplay than that the current rage of emergent-gameplay sandbox weak storied games. A challenging idea." It's not so much that the game's ending is already known, as that there is an ending.

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "A Texas judge has refused to allow the RIAA untrammelled access to the defendant's hard drive in SONY v. Arellanes. The court ruled that only a mutually agreeable, neutral computer forensics expert may examine the hard drive, at the RIAA's expense, and that the parties must agree on mutually acceptable provisions for confidentiality."

beebopdebop writes, "The Irish Times notes that Europe goes intergalactic tonight with the broadcast of a program conceived for aliens and broadcast towards a point 45 light years away in the direction of the Big Dipper. The two naked hosts will present their own unclothed bodies as examples of our physical embodiments, and will tell about daily human existence. Music, art, and our own personal messages will be transmitted as well as discussions from sociologists, scientists, and space experts. This project is the brainchild of the French-based Centre National D'etudes Spatiales and is rooted in seriousness as a natural extension of the gold-plated ambassador disks of Pioneer 10. Those of us wishing to be included can still post messages to be sent into space via a CNES antenna. We will have to wait 90 years to learn whether or not some lifeform was listening."

SonicSpike writes to mention that the House is set to vote on an act designed to choke off the U.S. money flow to internet gambling. Though illegal here in the states, overseas operators are getting a good deal of business from individuals with U.S. bank accounts and credit cards. From the article: "The legislation would make it illegal for banks and credit card companies to make payments to these sites. It also allows law enforcement officials to force Internet service providers to remove links to the websites. Many major credit card companies already refuse to process such payments. Opponents of the bill, including online gambling sites and a new group representing U.S. poker players, noted the growing popularity of Internet gambling and predicted that people would continue to sidestep laws."

mollten writes "According to BBC News, the world's oldest noodles have been found at the Lajia site in China. Carbon Dating has found the remains to be over 4000 years old." From the article: "Prior to the discovery of noodles at Lajia, the earliest written record of noodles is traced to a book written during the East Han Dynasty sometime between AD 25 and 220, although it remained a subject of debate whether the Chinese, the Italians, or the Arabs invented it first ... Our discovery indicates that noodles were first produced in China."

Lilmuckers writes "I have just completed a project to build a Mac mini into the wall of my kitchen. It is hidden and everything works perfectly."

Tim Grube writes "Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a model at E3? The process is long and very tiring. Just think, what if you had to prepare to be a character from a videogame on stage that involves a sword fight. Professional stuntman and actor Ilram Choi has been in multiple commercials for Nike and Mountain Dew. At this year's E3 Ilram was cast as Soul Calibur III's Mitsurugi. Ilram wrote a diary on the days leading up to E3."

opencity writes "A team of scientists at UW-Madison has successfully used single bacterial cells to make tiny bio-electronic circuits. Slipping between the electrodes, the microbes, in effect, become electrical "junctions," giving researchers the ability to capture, interrogate and release bacterial cells one by one. Built into a sensor, such a capability would enable real-time detection of dangerous biological agents, including anthrax and other microbial pathogens. Two mpegs -- 11MB and 35MB -- available here. Related by scale and buzzwords: physorg.com reports scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a way to sneak nano-sized probes inside cell nuclei, where they can track life's fundamental processes, such as DNA repair, for hours on end. Related cool pictures and strange font choices on Nano-Bio Interface Center."

Lucas.clemente writes "According to The Register, the Huygens probe has been given a clean bill of health and is ready for separation. The probe will enter the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan sometime around Christmas, and is expected to give us some of the most Alien landscape pictures ever taken."

Ant writes "ModAsylum.com has an article on how to make your own extra-large homemade keyboard." Or, if you're handy with tweezers, extra-small.

teambpsi writes "BusinesWeek Online has an opt-ed piece on the trend in offshore programming pricing going up, with domestic rates going down. As a contractor, I've seen the downward pressure on contract gigs now to rates lower than what I was charging over five years ago. Dell Computers recently announced that it was bringing its customer service back on-shore, I wonder if this might be the start of some bigger trend -- maybe 'buy american' could be our new battle cry ;)"

chrisbw writes "Want to put that old VT100 terminal to use? Mac OS X Hits has a story on how to make a couple simple changes in OS X to enable login on a serial terminal (even over a USB serial adapter if you're on a newer mac). Cool trick for adding a text-based web surfing or email terminal in another room, or remote iTunes control!"

Embedded Geek writes: "Scientific American has an interesting article about how a pair of students at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology registered "microsoft.com" with Verisign, using the Russian Cyrillic letters "c" and "o". Even though it is a completely different domain, the two display identically (the article uses the term "homograph"). The work was done for a paper in the Communications of the ACM (the paper itself is not online). The article characterizes attacks using this spoof as "scary, if not entirely probable," assuming that a hacker would have to first take over a page at another site. I disagree: sending out a mail message with the URL waiting to be clicked ("Bill Gates will send you ten dollars!") is just one alternate technique. While security problems with Unicode have been noted here before, this might be a new twist."

hax0r writes: "You might be asking yourself: What can I do with 5 months, 10000 christmas lights, a 14 story library, and a Linux box? Why not play Tetris? And they say there are no good games for Linux." There's some QT movies on the site, as well as pictures. The site was slow to respond for me, but if you're patient you should get through.Thanks to Blue Draco for the pix on a fast server.

O'Reilly's FreeBSD DevCenter is currently running an interview with Keith Bostic, one of the principal architects of 4.4 and 4.4-lite BSD, and a co-founder of BSDI. In it he discusses the genesis of BSDI, the merits of the BSD and Linux development models, marketing open source software, and more.

I'd like to take a quick moment to welcome Duncan Lawie to our expanding list of book reviewers. Duncan comes from a background of professional book review, and has choosen one of the grand-dames of science fiction novels, Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination. Click below to learn more about one of the most important works in modern science fiction. The Stars My Destination (also published as Tiger! Tiger! ) author Alfred Bester pages 220 publisher Vintage Books rating 8/10 reviewer Duncan Lawie ISBN 067976780 summary A strong novel which is fresh, readable and relevant over forty years after publication. Alfred Bester was first published in the S.F. pulps in 1939, moved into the comics industry, principally with DC (he created the "Green Lantern Oath"), and went on to radio, television and magazines. Through much of his life, he retained a part-time career in science fiction. He is widely considered part of the S.F. pantheon, with The Stars My Destination, published in 1956, being one of the works to confirm that position.

When the future of the future changes so rapidly it may seem surprising that this book is still in print. In fact, it has recently been republished in Britain with an introduction in which Neil Gaiman claims it as the perfect cyberpunk novel. It also fulfils H.G. Wells recommendation that the science fiction author one particular advance in science and chronicle what follows. In this novel, Bester accepts that faster than light spaceships are impossible and posits a future where individuals can "jaunt" i.e. teleport the self through the power of the mind. The discovery of this possibility as teachable to all, at a greater or lesser level, transforms the society of Earth. With a maximum jaunt in the region of 1000 miles, however, exploration and colonisation of the Solar System occurs in the "old fashioned way". Naturally enough, in the old fashioned way, war breaks out between the outer and inner planets.

So far, The Stars My Destination sits amidst the mainstream of fifties science fiction. John W. Campbell, the influential editor of Astounding (now Analog), felt that accentuated mental and psychic powers would mark the future of humanity; almost every science fiction reader believed that we would occupy the solar system in the near centuries; many in North America felt it inevitable that the history of Earth and her colonies would reflect that of Britain and her American colonies. What makes the book exceptional is the central character, Gully Foyle, "a man of physical strength and intellectual potential stunted by lack of ambition".

The story would not be possible without jaunting and interplanetary conflict but, while these are essential to the structure of the tale, character is the subject. Gully Foyle is a dull creature when the novel begins, who has reacted to life rather than taking part. When the Vorga leaves him to die he begins a transformation, powered by fear, anger and thirst for revenge. He studies the manuals and saves himself, developing into a convincing thug in his first attempts to destroy the Vorga. From this, via despair and continuing desire for revenge, he becomes a master criminal and, perhaps, the saviour of the human race. His actions are counterpointed by Central Intelligence and a radioactive private investigator. Foyle's associates become enemies and his victims become assistants. He is shaped and tempered by blows and adversity.

The book is full of ideas but Bester keeps tight control over them. He displays the broad canvas in the prelude and proceeds to fill it with telling detail - there is no point in putting fences around a spaceport, for example, when anyone can jaunt five miles. The elements of plot are exposed carefully, drawing the reader on as Foyle's fantasy of revenge grows so hugely that the possibility of planetary destruction is well within the bounds. The final revelations telescope the sense of the novel yet again.

There are a few pointers to the age of the book. The language is more formal than most writing today. Sex is implicit and implied rather than explicitly described. Nevertheless, Gully Foyle, unlike so many heroes of S.F.'s first decades, has not dated. He is archetype and individual and he has a tale which demands to be read.

Purchase this book at Amazon.

Related Links

• Analog
• Interzone
• More on Alfred Bester

Rise is hoping to deliver its mP6 socket 7, PII-level clones by Christmas. Given that their first silicon worked (not usual) they may be well on track. In related news, Cyrix and IBM will no longer work together. There will be no more Cyrix chips manufactured by IBM. Instead IBM will use ST's Metaflow design. ST (previously SGS Thomson) is another ex-Cyrix licensee.