In high school, my brother won some kind of award, basically it was about $400, which he and his science teacher could use to buy stuff of their choosing for the school. They chose to buy a GPS handset. I thought this was kind of silly, until I thought about it for a while. GPS is going to be an important technology in the future, embedded in a lot of other devices from cars (cool!) to DVD players (not cool!). Now kids at his school can use the unit (used by both science classes and the Camping Club) and learn about the rather advanced concepts behind its function - astronomy, geography and electronics.
Anyway, my point is that if they're available, "toys" can be really benefit students, and excite them about science. Too many underfunded schools cannot afford them, it's true. That's why good science teachers are usually extremely creative individuals (my H.S. physics teacher showed us action/reaction with a wagon and a fire extinguisher from the hallway. He got in a little trouble for that, but nobody in that class will ever forget how a rocket works.)
Yes, I can see the NSA allowing a bunch of freelance anarchists, Libertarians, conspiracy theorists and potential hacktivists write mission-critical code for them. If you don't trust THEM to produce honest kernel code for your use, why should they (who potentially have more to lose) trust YOU? And why would the results of this scheme be (for practical purposes) different or better than if they wrote it and submitted it to the Kernel Gods for rigorous inspection?
I'm not sure I understand why the patent office allows applications with such vague specs to be viable. Traditionally, patents have had pretty drawings and diagrams *specifically* laying out the unique and special features of a new invention. This was straightforward with a horseless carriage or steam-powered boot brush or whatever but for something like this I suppose a schematic diagram explaining how the different parts of the hardware fit together (ie "this is the CPU, it connects to memory, screen, input" etc.) could be considered ok if specific enough. Does this patent feature such a spec which was obviously ripped off by the Palm and Visor (while not being so general as to cover all portable computing devices)? I'll have to check, but I'm guessing not.
It's just stupid to allow a patent on a concept like "small portable computing and note-taking device" - sh_t, I could write that and I'm not an engineer... Now if Palm and Visor stole their specific designs, they'd have a case, regardless of their reasons for bringing it up at this time.
Too bad about the whole suspension/police part of this story, but I think this guy learned a valuable thing: small coding errors can have drastic consequences. Usually they're not this drastic, granted, but at least it doesn't sound like he was charged with anything. And it's nice to hear that the CS teacher was an ally, instead of the ill-informed today-we'll-learn-MS-Office type we hear about often here on/.
By the way, I "fit the profile of a potential killer": I'm human:-)
The "glowing" jellyfish protein they are introducing into these insects is probably Green (or Red, or Yellow) Fluorescent Protein. It is NOT a "glow-in-the-dark" gene! In fact, this would only allow analysis of a captured sample of the insects to determine easily which ones were the released ones. You illuminate them with one wavelength of light, and the protein flouresces back with another wavelength. This kind of technology also allows avoidance of things like antibiotic-resistance markers to determine which cells have been transformed in the original cloning experiment. That's a good thing. I don't think there's any way for this protein to harm anybody or anything.
Indy labels in Napster are like the little CD in the bin next to the 500 copies of something popular. You might grab the little CD because it looks interesting, but you never would've come to the store if the 500 copies of something popular weren't there.
I disagree! Any damn mall chain shit record store has 500 copies of Britney Spears or Puff Daddy. I don't tend to rush there for that reason. I WANT a record store that can supply me with "that little CD" - and not for the $25 the mall chain might charge for their _one_ available copy because it's not on the hit racks. Screw the big, sucky music chains, and screw the big, sucky record companies they pander to!
I can't imagine (though like everyone else here IANAL) that this strategy is legitimate. I would think that if somebody does something illegal on my behalf in another country (where it is legal), yielding "evidence", that that "evidence" would be inadmissible in court. Allowing it would open the system up to all sorts of abuses, since it's clearly done in the spirit of violating the law. Numerous judges' decisions remind us that often, the intent of the law is as important as the exact wording (especially when deciding whether to allow the use of evidence). The police themselves are sometimes dinged by this when they have been a little too devious in a sting operation or whatever.
Well, I'm sad to say that unixsex is completely Slashdotted! I am gravely disappointed, I was looking forward to those pasty-unix-boy money shots.
Does anybody have a site mirror URL?
Ah yes, MAX. I did quite like that game, but my brain was too little to really make the most of the "strategic" chess-like nature of the game. It really is a finely-tuned ballet of weapons ranges, counting your shots, and evaluating your opponents' abilities based on realistic evidence (eg. "hey, my scout bike just got walloped from somewhere in _those 6 squares_"). I am bad at chess, unfortunately I was bad at MAX too. But at least the computer never tank-rushed me!
If you have a full-duplex audio card, what's to stop you running that cable from the speaker-out port to the line-in port on THE SAME CARD? That's about as low-tech as you can get. No new gadget required:-) And quality loss would be low-to-almost-none if you used a good cable with good plugs.
Launching a Saturn V in front of thousands of in-person witnesses is pretty hard to fake. And once you've built and launched a Saturn V (have you seen one of these suckers? They're huge!) you might as well fly to the moon, because you're already halfway there! And NASA launched how many of them? Um, yeah, I thought so. Pretty pointless to fake the moon at that point I think.
Argument #2: if the moon landings had been faked, the Soviets would have known, just like they knew most of the USA's major secrets at the time (and vice versa of course). You think they would have kept quiet about it? Of course not! The best they did was to land a rover on the moon (which is still nothing to sneeze at) - if the human landing had been a fake they would have loved to let the world know about it.
I caught a few minutes of this program when it was on and my first thought was "Oh look, a sequel to "Alien Autopsy: Truth or Hoax?". Because that's basically all it was. You can get an "expert" on just about anything to go on camera all bearded and expert-looking and say whatever you want. Too bad the general public doesn't quite get that concept yet...:^(
What a good idea. After all, most people who are wealthy and successful in our society got there by their own merits and by performing useful tasks, not by inheriting it from their family or by being stock/currency speculators, corporate lawyers, and so on.
Oh wait, that's not true! However, since you're most likely just a troll, I won't bother with an extensive rebuttal. Idiot.
I recommend that you have 5 people present for the plastering of the model. 1 as the model, 2 as the Plasterbandage Wetters and 2 more to lay the bandages on the subject.
Not only would I be very leery of casting a human being in plaster, or working with toxic, smelly thermosetting resins, I don't think I know 4 (or even 2) other people who would even think of helping me with such a project. This is why the Stormtroopers will forever be the costume-geek-elite at SF conventions. There are lots of other interesting costumes the rest of us can do instead. Anyone with some decent sewing skills (or a friend with same) and the willingness to spend a little money can become a Fremen, Dana Scully, Mad Max, Kyle Katarn, a Sandperson, Rebel Endor commando or the ever elusive "Slave Leia";-) With all the possibilities, why be a 'trooper?
"Hip and postmodern" isn't in a company's vocabulary unless it's part of a carefully planned, tested, marketing campaign. "Marketing", while the results often seem stupid, has got every big-ass company to where it is today.
By allowing a pair of shoes that said "Sweatshop" on them, Nike would de facto be close to admitting that they are in fact operating sweatshops. Why? Because every company guards its "brand" very carefully. If they allow the word on the shoes (right below the Swoosh), it in effect becomes part of their brand. Your name? Fine - if you want to be part of their brand. "Joe, by Nike." But "Sweatshop"? I don't think so.
Mr. Anonymous Coward, you are correct. And I think the first to point this out. Any celebrity "endorser" who shills for a company like Nike is in part culpable for all the harm that company does through its labour practices. You think Michael Jordan hasn't heard somewhere that Nike runs sweatshops? Of course he has. Everybody has. But while the checks keep rolling in, he probably won't care.
When you think about it, many celebrity "role models" are in reality unsavoury. But they're usually a lot prettier than the people who volunteer at the local food bank, or walk the dogs from the pound, or work as doctors in developing nations for nothing when they could be making six figures doing nose jobs on vain North Americans.
Um, NO! At least this advisor gave his students a project he (apparently) cared about, and that had the possibility of being a "big thing". After all, their research has now reached people outside of their field of interest, which is more than many/most scientists can boast of. Grad student life can be hell, but this isn't a good example of why. After all, at least the students got their names mentioned in the story, instead of just the prof getting all the credit!
S'okay, Dragon. I submitted it and mine got rejected too. So you're in good company:-) Yeah, I guess it wasn't "geeky" enough, but I've griped about/. being "off-topic" in the past so I cannot complain.
Though the original AC poster was partly just engaging in M$-bashing, they have a point. 4.7 GB is a lot of space. It's more space than my larger hard drive (I have an older computer). On one removable disk. After all, most people still use 1.44 MB floppies which hold ~1/10000x as much as a 15 GB hard drive. So compared to a 60 GB hard drive, this is a LOT of space for a removable medium (~1/13x the capacity). Of course, technology marches on, this too will seem lame one day.
This product seems like a dream - for MEN WHO CAN'T EVEN BE BOTHERED TO PUT 1/100th OF AN INCH OF LATEX ON THEIR COCK! Having experienced both "clad" and "unclad" intercourse (disclosure: I'm male), I can honestly say there's not enough of a sensation difference to matter, when the alternative is exposure to god-knows-what, or unwanted pregnancy. That said, I don't think this product is worthless - I see it working best WITH a condom, as a backup method (and an alternative to smelly, foul-tasting foam or jelly!).
Anne Marie's idea about this having an effect as the worldwide AIDS situation has merit. It allows women some control, when the men simply WON'T wear a condom. But it's not perfect. In parts of Africa, men (claim to) prefer sex with a woman whose vagina is very dry. Women go so far as to actually *wipe* dry (ouch) their vaginas before sex to avoid displeasing their husbands. I don't see this slippery solution working very well for them.
I can't imagine my local college station (CFRC, Queen's University radio) being equipped for this scheme any time soon. It seems like a big-media-franchise station thing, and as others have said already... lots o' Britney, Boyzone, classic rock. Not exactly too hard to buy those CD's now - they're at every Wal-mart and tiny mall music store.
Hot or Not? Ratings skewed?!
on
Quickie Twister
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· Score: 1
OK, I was pretty grossed out by this page. Not because somebody linked to goatse.cx, but because, uh, the voters are obviously predominantly male chauvinist 12-year-old boys! I mean, after seeing picture after picture of symmetrically-proportioned, pleasant-looking young women, whom I would consider "reasonably hot", I despaired of seeing them voted as 1.5 or 2 out of 10 just because they're not Jenna Jameson. I didn't check the guys' pictures, so I dunno if they got undervoted too.
But then, the whole website is a f**ked idea anyway. Um, hello, it's the 21st century, not 1950! A true geek should appreciate women (or men!) for their minds, not their looks.
The first line of defense in this case would seem to be physical security. why was somebody able to walk into this executive's office and walk out with a ~large object, unnoticed? Was this a nighttime B&E? Was it a daytime wander-in-and-grab? Both are preventable. I would think a video surveillance system (at least for common areas, not neccessarily into peoples' offices), locked doors, and an alert receptionist would help immensely. Install an alarm system on doors to rooms containing sensitive equipment/files.
Of course, for the truly paranoid, there's always surplus TEMPEST equipment available for a price...
Pretty good job getting your cat to sit on your shoulder, even if it didn't look at the camera. Mine just sit on the keyboard and my papers, and dig in when I try to move them. Shoulder would be a big improvement.
I'm in Jeff Dawson's department here at Queen's University. It's nice to see his side-project has got some publicity. I ran into him testing the thing in the hallway one night and it kind of freaked me out, whirring across the floor like some kind of wheeled bug-Borg...
The "Myo-Electric Locust" (MEL) is presumably named after his academic supervisor, Dr. Mel Robertson. Their lab studies the neural control of insect flight using locusts as a model. IANAE(xpert) but it seems like this sort of thing would be of interest to the automation and robotics community.
Slashdot Mirror
Anyway, my point is that if they're available, "toys" can be really benefit students, and excite them about science. Too many underfunded schools cannot afford them, it's true. That's why good science teachers are usually extremely creative individuals (my H.S. physics teacher showed us action/reaction with a wagon and a fire extinguisher from the hallway. He got in a little trouble for that, but nobody in that class will ever forget how a rocket works.)
It's just stupid to allow a patent on a concept like "small portable computing and note-taking device" - sh_t, I could write that and I'm not an engineer... Now if Palm and Visor stole their specific designs, they'd have a case, regardless of their reasons for bringing it up at this time.
By the way, I "fit the profile of a potential killer": I'm human :-)
The "glowing" jellyfish protein they are introducing into these insects is probably Green (or Red, or Yellow) Fluorescent Protein. It is NOT a "glow-in-the-dark" gene! In fact, this would only allow analysis of a captured sample of the insects to determine easily which ones were the released ones. You illuminate them with one wavelength of light, and the protein flouresces back with another wavelength. This kind of technology also allows avoidance of things like antibiotic-resistance markers to determine which cells have been transformed in the original cloning experiment. That's a good thing. I don't think there's any way for this protein to harm anybody or anything.
I disagree! Any damn mall chain shit record store has 500 copies of Britney Spears or Puff Daddy. I don't tend to rush there for that reason. I WANT a record store that can supply me with "that little CD" - and not for the $25 the mall chain might charge for their _one_ available copy because it's not on the hit racks. Screw the big, sucky music chains, and screw the big, sucky record companies they pander to!
I can't imagine (though like everyone else here IANAL) that this strategy is legitimate. I would think that if somebody does something illegal on my behalf in another country (where it is legal), yielding "evidence", that that "evidence" would be inadmissible in court. Allowing it would open the system up to all sorts of abuses, since it's clearly done in the spirit of violating the law. Numerous judges' decisions remind us that often, the intent of the law is as important as the exact wording (especially when deciding whether to allow the use of evidence). The police themselves are sometimes dinged by this when they have been a little too devious in a sting operation or whatever.
Ah yes, MAX. I did quite like that game, but my brain was too little to really make the most of the "strategic" chess-like nature of the game. It really is a finely-tuned ballet of weapons ranges, counting your shots, and evaluating your opponents' abilities based on realistic evidence (eg. "hey, my scout bike just got walloped from somewhere in _those 6 squares_"). I am bad at chess, unfortunately I was bad at MAX too. But at least the computer never tank-rushed me!
If you have a full-duplex audio card, what's to stop you running that cable from the speaker-out port to the line-in port on THE SAME CARD? That's about as low-tech as you can get. No new gadget required :-) And quality loss would be low-to-almost-none if you used a good cable with good plugs.
See title. But, props for being informed about the history of space flight :-)
Argument #2: if the moon landings had been faked, the Soviets would have known, just like they knew most of the USA's major secrets at the time (and vice versa of course). You think they would have kept quiet about it? Of course not! The best they did was to land a rover on the moon (which is still nothing to sneeze at) - if the human landing had been a fake they would have loved to let the world know about it.
I caught a few minutes of this program when it was on and my first thought was "Oh look, a sequel to "Alien Autopsy: Truth or Hoax?". Because that's basically all it was. You can get an "expert" on just about anything to go on camera all bearded and expert-looking and say whatever you want. Too bad the general public doesn't quite get that concept yet... :^(
Oh wait, that's not true! However, since you're most likely just a troll, I won't bother with an extensive rebuttal. Idiot.
Not only would I be very leery of casting a human being in plaster, or working with toxic, smelly thermosetting resins, I don't think I know 4 (or even 2) other people who would even think of helping me with such a project. This is why the Stormtroopers will forever be the costume-geek-elite at SF conventions. There are lots of other interesting costumes the rest of us can do instead. Anyone with some decent sewing skills (or a friend with same) and the willingness to spend a little money can become a Fremen, Dana Scully, Mad Max, Kyle Katarn, a Sandperson, Rebel Endor commando or the ever elusive "Slave Leia" ;-) With all the possibilities, why be a 'trooper?
By allowing a pair of shoes that said "Sweatshop" on them, Nike would de facto be close to admitting that they are in fact operating sweatshops. Why? Because every company guards its "brand" very carefully. If they allow the word on the shoes (right below the Swoosh), it in effect becomes part of their brand. Your name? Fine - if you want to be part of their brand. "Joe, by Nike." But "Sweatshop"? I don't think so.
When you think about it, many celebrity "role models" are in reality unsavoury. But they're usually a lot prettier than the people who volunteer at the local food bank, or walk the dogs from the pound, or work as doctors in developing nations for nothing when they could be making six figures doing nose jobs on vain North Americans.
Anne Marie's idea about this having an effect as the worldwide AIDS situation has merit. It allows women some control, when the men simply WON'T wear a condom. But it's not perfect. In parts of Africa, men (claim to) prefer sex with a woman whose vagina is very dry. Women go so far as to actually *wipe* dry (ouch) their vaginas before sex to avoid displeasing their husbands. I don't see this slippery solution working very well for them.
But then, the whole website is a f**ked idea anyway. Um, hello, it's the 21st century, not 1950! A true geek should appreciate women (or men!) for their minds, not their looks.
Of course, for the truly paranoid, there's always surplus TEMPEST equipment available for a price...
The "Myo-Electric Locust" (MEL) is presumably named after his academic supervisor, Dr. Mel Robertson. Their lab studies the neural control of insect flight using locusts as a model. IANAE(xpert) but it seems like this sort of thing would be of interest to the automation and robotics community.