Slashdot Mirror

Zothecula writes "Back in 1967, California-based Gyro Transport Systems built a prototype vehicle known as the Gyro-X. The automobile had just two wheels, one in front and one in the back and, as the car's name implies, it utilized a built-in gyroscope to remain upright when not moving. Although its developers hoped to take the Gyro-X into production, the company went bankrupt, and the one-and-only specimen of the car became an orphan. For much of the past 40-plus years, that car has passed from owner to owner, its condition deteriorating along the way. Now, it's about to be restored to its former (weird) glory."

gasmanpopey writes to tell us that sweet potato seeds sent to space as a part of China's Shenzhou VI mission are hitting the streets as a part of special Valentine's day meals. While supporters are trying to claim better flavor and better nutrition there doesn't seem to be anything beyond a pure novelty angle.

AliParr asks: "Having just completed my first degree, BSc Hons Visualization at Teesside University in England, I am considering continuing on to Post-Graduate study. While courses in the United Kingdom are fine, I have always fancied studying abroad, or more specifically, in the states. Finding a course/university seems an overwhelming process however and I'm struggling to know where to start. My interests are Computer Science and Graphics based, with my first degree centering on C++/OpenGL/DirectX and general graphics algorithms. I was wondering if fellow Slashdot readers could give guide me as to the best places to look, and maybe shed some light on their experiences."

RMH101 writes "Was the Mac mini originally designed to have an integrated iPod dock? The Register has an article that appears to suggest it was. This opens up the option of homebrewing your own dock into a mini for yourself..."

mirko writes "So, you wanted a 1,42GHz Mac mini but either because of some distribution woes or because of your tight budget you could just get a 1,25GHz ? Don't worry : Leo Bodnar just found out how to overclock your machine. Of course, you'll have to open it prior to anything else but you already know how to do this."

Leo Bodnar writes "This eMac upgrade proves that with some effort Apple's entry-level consumer models like eMac can be converted into reasonably serious workhorse system at very reasonable cost. Not for everyone, but some find it useful!"

Leo Bodnar writes "This eMac upgrade proves that with some effort Apple's entry-level consumer models like eMac can be converted into reasonably serious workhorse system at very reasonable cost. Not for everyone, but some find it useful!"

cameloid asks: "I'm currently putting together a series of corporate movies, 6-12 minutes each, that each require quite a bit of computer generated animation. Like many others, I quickly found that 3D is the way to go and began using POV-Ray, mainly because it's free and uses a Scene Description Language (SDL) to describe scenes and animations. However, I also quickly found that raytracing can be a bit...slow for doing movie production. After a bit more research, I quickly discovered Renderman. At first glance Renderman can also be programmed from scratch, but doesn't have in-built support for animation. Each scene is complete description which cannot be parameterized using Renderman, alone. Does anyone know of a cross-platform, Renderman-compliant SDL implementation that can connect to any Renderman renderer and supply functionality similar to POV-Ray's SDL?"

"I've found that a couple of things are required: a rendering engine (I think that Aqsis covers everything I need in this regard); and a modeller (I'm currently evaluating K3D as a low cost option, although it has some important limitations at present). However, I've also been looking for something that does for Renderman what POV-Ray's SDL does for POV-Ray. I've found something called, surprisingly enough, 'Animation Language' which seems to do this, however it doesn't seem to be under continuing development. What's important is that the SDL supports general programming language features such as data structures, flow control, re-usable libraries (logos, 3D objects) etc, as well as something like POV-Ray's 'clock' variable for animation."

adelayde writes "You're a wireless network engineer and you work on the run. You need a kit that gives you flexibily yet is light and portable. Style is also important to you. This article (mirrored here) describes just the kit you need, based on modifying the Apple AirPort base station with suggestions for a range of handy antenna attachments and includes component part numbers and prices as well as a complete set of range test results. Just the Jobs for the wireless engineer on the go." Update: 04/08 00:06 GMT by T : Here's another mirror, thanks to the story submitter ;)

adelayde writes "This summer I've been involved in a project to build a community-orientated wireless network in the city of Bristol, England. Recently I published an article ( mirrored here and here) describing what we have achieved so far, including some interesting thoughts on passive repeaters. There is a supporting site (mirrored here) with detailed instructions on how to build antennae, and the main project web site is also available here. A bit of own trumpet blowing perhaps, but I think it'll be of interest to those readers involved in similar projects and be of some help to those thinking of starting their own."

sundance asks: "Despite Wizards of the Coast's Microsoft-like domination of tabletop RPGs there may be a revival under way for some of those old RPG worlds we used to love. Runequest's Glorantha has been back for a while now with a new game system and new products including a computer game: King of Dragon Pass. M.A.R. Barker fans also got a boost recently with the annoucement that Tekumel is to return to print! What does Slashdot think? Is it a good sign that these old friends are returning to print or are they doomed by Wizards domination of the industry? Can an independent game survive in today's market?"

Yet another of the numerous Anonymous Coward asks: "A group of us are hoping to convince a big UK based defence organisation to break away from Microsoft's stranglehold on the workplace and to try out Linux. I am preparing a Q&A style document to be e-mailed to the company which will answer people's worries. What I am trying to do is convince people, either at work or at home that there is a cheaper, more stable alternative to M$. So, I am writing for a general audience." A document describing the advantages of Linux to corporations and small companies can't be a bad thing. I should know: the Ask Slashdot bin is full of them!

"What I am after are examples, facts and figures as to why they should try Linux? For instance, the announcement a few days ago that Linux was running 60%+ of Web servers, plus speed trials etc.

I've broken the document down into the following sections:

1. What is Linux?
2. Why Should I use Linux?
3. But surely Windows is good enough? (this section will include data on emulators, etc.)
4. But I heard there aren't many applications available for Linux?
5. What machines will run Linux?
6. How much does it cost?
7. What technical support is available?
8. What games are available?
9. Why the penguin?

Obviously, I know the answer to most of these but if people want to suggest others, please feel free"

cameloid asks: "I've been ordering stuff from a couple of U.S. Web sites now (I live in the UK), and was a bit dubious about credit card security at first. However, it was always the case that I was worried about getting my details stolen or something. Last night I was browsing an interesting site looking for some anime ("Captain Tylor" out on DVD?), and naturally checked to see if they would deliver internationally. Now, they wanted proof that the credit card details I sent them really belonged to me, in the form of a photo of me and a photo of my credit card (actual size I suppose). Now this doesn't strike me as being of much use to anyone and got me thinking. As I'm already an established customer on a couple of other well known e-commerce sites would it not be possible to get some kind of referral from these sites, saying that I'm a worthy customer? What would the implications of this be?" I've been seeing lots of really pointed questions about e-commerce sites lately (this site being the latest entry on that list) and I'm wondering how much information a company really needs before they can do business with someone and what kind of information a person can legitimately withhold. Would such information sharing between commerce site be something that would benefit consumers or are there privacy issues here that we should be concerned with?

maroberts writes, "Britain's larget supermarket chain, Tesco, called on Warner Home Video to abandon zoning which inflates UK DVD prices, reports The Independent. Apparently sales of Tesco's stock DVD player [Wharefdale DVD-750] skyrocketed after the UK's hi-fi press explained how to make the unit region-free. " Looks like the UK is tired of overpaying for movies.

Roger_Wilco writes "The GNU Web site is announcing that Spacetime Systems will now install GNU/Hurd as well as GNU/Linux. Hurd is Object Oriented, unlike Linux, so it may be a superior system in the long run."

Roger_Wilco writes "The GNU Web site is announcing that Spacetime Systems will now install GNU/Hurd as well as GNU/Linux. Hurd is Object Oriented, unlike Linux, so it may be a superior system in the long run."

Anonymous Coward writes "Space-Time Systems in Malvern, England, is now offering computers with GNU/Hurd pre-installed in parallell with the Debian GNU/Linux system. Please see this page for more information." Warning: the Space-Time Systems site loaded slowly when I checked it this morning. You may want to use the (slightly out-of-date) Google cached version for the moment.

Anonymous Coward writes "Space-Time Systems in Malvern, England, is now offering computers with GNU/Hurd pre-installed in parallell with the Debian GNU/Linux system. Please see this page for more information." Warning: the Space-Time Systems site loaded slowly when I checked it this morning. You may want to use the (slightly out-of-date) Google cached version for the moment.

Samael sent us a link to The Mushroom which sorta looks like The Onion but with a Video Game focus. Stories include FF7 charachters potion overdoses and Lara Croft's coming out. Nowhere near the quality of its inspiration, but hey its saturday, and I'm procrastinating on writing real code and its amusing.

The Redherring is carrying an explosive article about Microsoft's secret memos which discuss how to kill DR-DOS, and in general how to leverage the Windows monopoly. Funily enough, that's the sort of behaviour the Sherman Act prohibits. In related news, a group of people who just don't get it have banded together into the TAAC, an organisation of VARs that claims the DOJ is stiffling innovation. ("s/Innovation/bug count/" ????) David Hart and El contributed the second link, while Adam Radulovic, John Lazzaro, Sunil Gupta, David Price, Matt Francis, David Hart, Phillip Brown, toebee, and I found the first link.

Matt Francis wrote in to tell us that the news on Redwood for June 28 has Id clearing a source code release for Heretic and Hexen (no sound- same thing as with doom). Hopefully we'll have a Linux port fairly soon. I dig those games.