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Slashback: Simpsons, Buyouts, Droid

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the how-is-south-america-this-time-of-year dept.

Slashback tonight with another notch up for Virginia Tech's Big Mac, another downloadable robot design for the Mini-ITX crowd, updates (both in the negative) regarding two recently speculated-upon business mergers, and more. Read on for the details.

Shooting down those trial balloons. Glitch Tybalt writes with an update to the report that German ISP T-Online might acquire AOL: "This just in from The Register: apparently the buyout wasn't really going to be a buyout, only 70%, and there haven't been any confirmed reports on this. One spokesman for T-Online said '[Such a deal] is more unlikely than likely,'"

On a similar note, gletham writes "A flurry of reports [like this one] over the past day indicated that Nokia was talking with Psion and was seeking to buy the company. This latest piece from Reuters confirms that the topic was merely a rumor and speculation gone rampant. Mind you, with Psion's stock jumping 10% and discussion on Nokia lists and forums quite brisk, you can't help but speculate that Nokia may in fact consider this in the future. The timing is very good, particularly considering Motorola's recent selloff of Symbian ownership. I can't wait to here an official report from Nokia on this one! If all works out, we may even witness a rebirth of the Psion handheld using Series 90!"

Hey, maybe they just hadn't thought of it yet ... wo1verin3 writes "Previously reported was that Fox News Considered Suing Fox's 'The Simpsons' for using a news ticker spoofing the news service. Apparently this was only satire and an apology has been issued.

'Nonetheless, "The Simpsons" (the show, not the characters) issued an apology yesterday: "Matt was being satirical and certainly there was never any issue between the show and Fox News. We regret any confusion.'"

At this rate, it'll be #1 by March! An anonymous reader writes "According to the latest round of leaked information to reach The Register, the Virginia Tech Big Mac has reached 10.28 teraflops. A solid #3 win, 'This places it behind the 5,120 processor Earth Simulator system - 35.9 teraflops - and the 8,160 processor ASCI Q system - 13.8 teraflops.'"

Hold tight, though: Elysdir points to a AP article, pointing out that "the Top 500 list will be officially announced Nov. 18, so it's not clear to me whether the #3 ranking is official or not."

A Droid You Can Build From Downloadable Plans. In this article, LinuxDevices checks out OAP, an open source droid. OAP shares the same VIA Mini-ITX mainboard as the VIA-Roboteq "PC-bot" featured in an earlier Slashdot story, but OAP's project goals seem a little more ambitious. According to the FAQ, OAP will eventually be able to 'Read your favourite news web pages or blogs aloud to you.' A personal droid that reads Slashdot aloud to you -- what more could you ask for?"

(A girlfriend?)

7 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. Fox who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Previously reported was that Fox News Considered Suing Fox's 'The Simpsons' for using a news ticker spoofing the news service. Apparently this was only satire and an apology has been issued.

    I live in the UK, and until I started watching The Simpsons, I had never even heard of Fox. Advertisers would pay good money for this sort of publicity.

    Sueing them? Only in America!

  2. I want clarification! by John+Harrison · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So Fox didn't threaten to sue itself, but is the new rule against fake news crawls real, or was it part of the joke as well?

    --
    Lasers Controlled Games!
  3. Re:Nice backslap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Just wait for the robots that are both!

    What? Don't you think that us geeks are capable of using science to solve our problems?

    My only question it is patented already, although you have to wonder if the patent examiner who gets the patent for "Device and method for sex robot capable of (insert most of kama sutra here)" will be able to stop giggling long enough to rubber stamp it...

  4. Re:Nice backslap by gabba_gabba_hey · · Score: 2, Interesting
    ok, the only thing i find more disturbing than the RealDoll site is this site that they're advertising. ok, maybe it's just funny, but, um, WTF?!

  5. Formula 1 by rixstep · · Score: 2, Interesting

    the Virginia Tech Big Mac has reached 10.28 teraflops

    This is a bit like Formula 1 - great PR for the company. Except Ferrari and the rest pay for their supercars.

  6. FOX Cartoon News by LuYu · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "Now Fox has a new rule that we can't do those little fake news crawls on the bottom of the screen in a cartoon because it might confuse the viewers into thinking it's real news," [Groening] said.

    Nonetheless, "The Simpsons" (the show, not the characters) issued an apology yesterday: "Matt was being satirical and certainly there was never any issue between the show and Fox News. We regret any confusion.'"
    Gee, I did not realize I was stupid enough to believe a news ticker on a humorous cartoon was real. I guess I am too stupid to know how stupid I am. However, it looks like censorship has come to my rescue again! No more confusing cartoons with real life for me. Thank you FOX.

    Might this not be FOX News' problem for issuing news that might be confused with a satyrical cartoon? Maybe FOX News' content is about as believeable as "Study: 92 per cent of Democrats are gay... JFK posthumously joins Republican Party... Oil slicks found to keep seals young, supple... Do Democrats Cause Cancer?" (from the Yahoo! article). Well, if they are anything like CNN, that sounds about right.

    --
    All data is speech. All speech is Free.
  7. New rule... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Now Fox has a new rule that we can't do those little fake news crawls on the bottom of the screen in a cartoon because it might confuse the viewers into thinking it's real news.

    People THAT confused should stay away from "The Simpsons" in the first place. It might change the way they see their american south.