I think I need to just continually post this, and send it (or more "respectable" transcripts, to all my congressional representatives. We don't need new laws for the internet! Our current ones work just fine, thank you.
http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2508#comic
(Sorry for the double-post, I forgot to log in)
That's great, and it looks nice and (thankfully) loads faster... but this is the first time I've actually *visited* Slashdot in almost a year. It's a key part of my Google Reader feeds, though! It also looks nice when read via FlipBoard on my iPad.
That system already exists. It's called the Ransom Model, and one of my favorite authors, Greg Stolze, has been using it quite extensively.
http://arcdream.livejournal.com/4645.html
I recently met Pete Coffey, the lead scientist on this effort (he collaborates with scientists in a research group across the hall from mine), and attended his technical talk on this procedure. You are correct, they're transplanting retinal pigment epithelium. However, they've done experiments with both wet AMD and some preliminary work with reviving dry AMD.
Very promising work; but yes, very involved surgery with a success rate of 75% even for ideal patients.
I recommend having them build a Theremin ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin ).
Several students did this at CU Boulder, and the results were both informative and amusing.
I know there's a lot of Spore love around (heck, I'm excited, too), but the only way to let companies know that this kind of stuff is going too far is by voting with your wallet-- if enough people don't buy the game, or buy it and return it to major retailers saying it's defective because they don't have a home internet connection, then something will change.
If your "shiny new game" lust overwhelms your outrage, then don't bitch about it here. You have a choice whether you play the game, and your money is how businesses judge their actions.
You should check out PortalMaps.net. They've already hacked the SDK together and are building new Portal maps.
I've already played the map por_facility_v100, and it's quite good-- a complex map, with lots of puzzles to solve, while introducing new elements (such as buttons that are too heavy for you to open-- only a block will do). Give it a try!
Buy them a Nintendo Wii and download Opera for it.
* It works on any TV they have, so no need to purchase a computer, find a place for a desk, etc.
* It is a easy browsing experience, with built in zoom (helpful for older eyes).
* It can do web-based e-mail, can surf the web, and view videos, etc.
* It has a built in Weather and News channels service that are intuitive and fun
* Plus, the included game (Wii Sports) might be very enjoyable and useful for maintaining activity (particularly Bowling and Golf, which don't require quick reflexes).
I loved Ubuntu when I tried it, but I still use windows a lot, why? Because of some pieces of software that lock me into it and WINE being essentially unable to run them.
I recently switched my home box from dual-partition to Kubuntu only, so I'm genuinely curious what applications are holding you back. In my experience, there were a few troubling cases, and their resolution:
Photoshop. I've tried to like the Gimp, but it's just not there. Luckily, Photoshop 5.0 runs perfectly (and is very responsive) under WINE. If you needed the latest and greatest Photoshop (which I don't, I just use it for simple image processing for academia), it might be a problem, I guess.
Games like Oblivion or Halflife. Games held me back for a long time, but WINE has come a long way-- Oblivion runs under normal WINE as good as on windows (except the water is purple instead of blue, huh), and Halflife runs great under Cedega WINE (and maybe under normal WINE, though I haven't tried it). Most games just work with modern WINE.
iTunes. I'll admit, I loved iTunes, and I still miss it sometimes. But Amarok manages my music fine, updates my iPod fine, and keeps my podcasts organized fine. If only I could buy iTunes music through Amarok, I'd be set.
Lack of applications used to be a problem with linux, but with modern applications like Amarok, a wonderfully complete (and always getting better) WINE project, and the polished experience and integration of suites like KDE... well, I just don't buy the "my apps aren't there!" anti-Linux argument.
I've had this problem, too, but there's an incredibly easy fix: black electrical tape (or other colors, I suppose, but most of my electronics are black). Cut out a small square, afix it over the light, and viola! If you cut the smallest necessary piece and press it down well, it blends in very seamlessly and keeps you from going crazy from lights.
I've covered my monitor lights, speaker lights, printer lights, case power light, and the light on my bluetooth mouse dongle. Sheesh! Too many LEDs that convey nothing other than "powered on", which is easy to see other ways on most of the devices.
Digg actually posted a reply to the community on their blog here.
What I'm honestly curious about is this: Is this numeric string code copyrighted? Where is the copyright filed, if so? Or is it a trade secret? Do trade secrets need to be filed or declared somehow? Is a trade secret intellectual property that must be removed when a theatening (maybe DMCA) notice is sent?
I'm nowhere near understanding the complexities of the current intellectual property legal codes in the USA, let alone how they actually apply in this situation. All I see is hysteria.
Hardware pre-loaded with Linux and guaranteed to work has been available from smaller vendors for years now. About a year ago, I bought a mac-mini clone with Ubuntu pre-loaded from System76, and it's been a faithful entertainment hub and file server ever since. Plus, System76 is very responsive to support requests (they participate in the official Ubuntu forums), regularly offer updates to make sure the new Ubuntu releases work perfectly with their hardware, and more.
So while it's nice to see a major retailer opening up to Linux, they aren't the first "guaranteed hardware" solution for Linux by far.
Is it possible to create "playlists" of TV Shows? Say I wanted to rip all my futurama DVDs to a Myth box and play them at random. Could I do that?
I don't know about MythTV, but I have all my Futurama DVDs ripped to my Linux box, and have a "Random episode" icon on my desktop that runs this bash script:
#!/bin/bash
count=`ls/home/paradox/media_drive/Media/Futurama |wc -l`
let "pick = $RANDOM % $count"
let "pick += 1"
kaffeine "/home/paradox/media_drive/Media/Futurama/`ls/home/paradox/media_drive/Media/Futurama |sed -n "$pick"p`"
I suppose I was unclear. What I meant was that the article summary was a piece of crap. Why did they leave the annoying "the person who was familiar with the matter", rather than cite the source? Ah well, my bad.
Sounds like a reliable source of information to me. No, I didn't read the article. But how did that make it onto the front page? It's not news, it's gossip.
I'm not a designer, but my suggestion would be to somehow incorporate the improvements found in the Slashdotter Firefox extension (formerly, greasemonkey script).
The ability to load comments without refreshing the page (and losing my place in the overall thread) is wonderful, as is the ability to seamlessly Hide replies to an off-topic discussion that has gotten highly Modded.
That added flexibility does more for the design than anything else I can think of adding.
I agree wholeheartedly. I tried Digg, and still get useful links from their sometimes, but it's lacking a soul. There's no community beyond framers and a brazen competition for frontpage stories. There's no interesting discussion of links.
That said, Slashdot could learn a lesson or two from Digg:
Better integration with other websites. Digg's "Blog this" and other tools really allow people with a web presence to link seemlessly with Digg, making it easy on them and reinforcing the popularity of Digg by easily spreading it.
The "didn't make it" stories Often, I find more interesting links in Digg when digging through new links, and ignoring the front-page entirely. Slashdot could have a "stories that didn't make the cut" section, and I'd be very interested.
I'm watching the flash-based Zimbra demo right now, and they're bragging about innovations like "conversation view" and "tags" on messages. Which gmail has had for a long time. Yes, I know gmail is essentialy AJAX, but this is the demo for the Zimbra collaboration suite.
Why would anyone think Zimbra was innovative based on this demo?
I only took 3 materials science classes in Undergrad, so this won't be a full answer, but it might get you started on the right track.
I recall that some crystalline materials exhibit very different refractive and reflective properties when put under mechanical strain. Materials that do this but with electricity are how we make accelerometers these days. So a crystal that either transmits the light or refracts it off into a random direction depending on strain may be what you're looking for. No clue what rate you could achieve, though.
Just wanted to point out, most of the latest crop of games use both of these approaches extensively.
I only have personal experience with City of Heroes (great game, btw, and no, I'm not affiliated). It is, all general spawns are area spawns-- whose size and level is dependent on the level and number of players in the area, and whether they are on teams.
Most content, though, is in instanced dungeons, which are also dynamically spawned (if another team member joins midway through, the later floors of the dungeon will have more monsters, etc).
Then again, City of Heroes has no equipment to fight over at all, so it's less of an issue. That's smart design, if you ask me.
Slashdot Mirror
I think I need to just continually post this, and send it (or more "respectable" transcripts, to all my congressional representatives. We don't need new laws for the internet! Our current ones work just fine, thank you. http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2508#comic (Sorry for the double-post, I forgot to log in)
That's great, and it looks nice and (thankfully) loads faster... but this is the first time I've actually *visited* Slashdot in almost a year. It's a key part of my Google Reader feeds, though! It also looks nice when read via FlipBoard on my iPad.
That system already exists. It's called the Ransom Model, and one of my favorite authors, Greg Stolze, has been using it quite extensively. http://arcdream.livejournal.com/4645.html
I recently met Pete Coffey, the lead scientist on this effort (he collaborates with scientists in a research group across the hall from mine), and attended his technical talk on this procedure. You are correct, they're transplanting retinal pigment epithelium. However, they've done experiments with both wet AMD and some preliminary work with reviving dry AMD. Very promising work; but yes, very involved surgery with a success rate of 75% even for ideal patients.
I recommend having them build a Theremin ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin ). Several students did this at CU Boulder, and the results were both informative and amusing.
I know there's a lot of Spore love around (heck, I'm excited, too), but the only way to let companies know that this kind of stuff is going too far is by voting with your wallet-- if enough people don't buy the game, or buy it and return it to major retailers saying it's defective because they don't have a home internet connection, then something will change.
If your "shiny new game" lust overwhelms your outrage, then don't bitch about it here. You have a choice whether you play the game, and your money is how businesses judge their actions.
Can he come up with a program that does the boring parts of my life while I'm out having fun?
... you mean, hire a Maid?
I can't remember where I first heard it, but the phrase, "The Internet sees censorship as damage and routes around it" seems applicable here.
You should check out PortalMaps.net. They've already hacked the SDK together and are building new Portal maps.
I've already played the map por_facility_v100, and it's quite good-- a complex map, with lots of puzzles to solve, while introducing new elements (such as buttons that are too heavy for you to open-- only a block will do). Give it a try!
Buy them a Nintendo Wii and download Opera for it.
* It works on any TV they have, so no need to purchase a computer, find a place for a desk, etc.
* It is a easy browsing experience, with built in zoom (helpful for older eyes).
* It can do web-based e-mail, can surf the web, and view videos, etc.
* It has a built in Weather and News channels service that are intuitive and fun
* Plus, the included game (Wii Sports) might be very enjoyable and useful for maintaining activity (particularly Bowling and Golf, which don't require quick reflexes).
I recently switched my home box from dual-partition to Kubuntu only, so I'm genuinely curious what applications are holding you back. In my experience, there were a few troubling cases, and their resolution:
Lack of applications used to be a problem with linux, but with modern applications like Amarok, a wonderfully complete (and always getting better) WINE project, and the polished experience and integration of suites like KDE... well, I just don't buy the "my apps aren't there!" anti-Linux argument.
I've had this problem, too, but there's an incredibly easy fix: black electrical tape (or other colors, I suppose, but most of my electronics are black). Cut out a small square, afix it over the light, and viola! If you cut the smallest necessary piece and press it down well, it blends in very seamlessly and keeps you from going crazy from lights.
I've covered my monitor lights, speaker lights, printer lights, case power light, and the light on my bluetooth mouse dongle. Sheesh! Too many LEDs that convey nothing other than "powered on", which is easy to see other ways on most of the devices.
Digg actually posted a reply to the community on their blog here.
What I'm honestly curious about is this: Is this numeric string code copyrighted? Where is the copyright filed, if so? Or is it a trade secret? Do trade secrets need to be filed or declared somehow? Is a trade secret intellectual property that must be removed when a theatening (maybe DMCA) notice is sent?
I'm nowhere near understanding the complexities of the current intellectual property legal codes in the USA, let alone how they actually apply in this situation. All I see is hysteria.
Hardware pre-loaded with Linux and guaranteed to work has been available from smaller vendors for years now. About a year ago, I bought a mac-mini clone with Ubuntu pre-loaded from System76, and it's been a faithful entertainment hub and file server ever since. Plus, System76 is very responsive to support requests (they participate in the official Ubuntu forums), regularly offer updates to make sure the new Ubuntu releases work perfectly with their hardware, and more.
So while it's nice to see a major retailer opening up to Linux, they aren't the first "guaranteed hardware" solution for Linux by far.
Yes, I have, in fact. I regularly transfer music to my iPod from Amarok, and it works flawlessly. Next question!
I suppose I was unclear. What I meant was that the article summary was a piece of crap. Why did they leave the annoying "the person who was familiar with the matter", rather than cite the source? Ah well, my bad.
I'm not a designer, but my suggestion would be to somehow incorporate the improvements found in the Slashdotter Firefox extension (formerly, greasemonkey script).
The ability to load comments without refreshing the page (and losing my place in the overall thread) is wonderful, as is the ability to seamlessly Hide replies to an off-topic discussion that has gotten highly Modded.
That added flexibility does more for the design than anything else I can think of adding.
What you needed was the Koala Mini from System76.
It's the exact same size as a Mac mini, just as stylish, and the same price.
But lots of upgradable options and uses Ubuntu (or Kubuntu) Linux as the OS.
I just ordered one myself after a friend recommended their laptops (she loves the one she got from them).
In regard to your question:
Define a custom page stylesheet (userChrome stuff in Mozilla), with
a {
color: black;
text-decoration: none;
}
Then, you can go to View -> PageStyle and switch between the original page style and your new style.
I agree wholeheartedly. I tried Digg, and still get useful links from their sometimes, but it's lacking a soul. There's no community beyond framers and a brazen competition for frontpage stories. There's no interesting discussion of links.
That said, Slashdot could learn a lesson or two from Digg:
Digg's "Blog this" and other tools really allow people with a web presence to link seemlessly with Digg, making it easy on them and reinforcing the popularity of Digg by easily spreading it.
Often, I find more interesting links in Digg when digging through new links, and ignoring the front-page entirely. Slashdot could have a "stories that didn't make the cut" section, and I'd be very interested.
I'm watching the flash-based Zimbra demo right now, and they're bragging about innovations like "conversation view" and "tags" on messages. Which gmail has had for a long time. Yes, I know gmail is essentialy AJAX, but this is the demo for the Zimbra collaboration suite.
Why would anyone think Zimbra was innovative based on this demo?
I only took 3 materials science classes in Undergrad, so this won't be a full answer, but it might get you started on the right track.
I recall that some crystalline materials exhibit very different refractive and reflective properties when put under mechanical strain. Materials that do this but with electricity are how we make accelerometers these days. So a crystal that either transmits the light or refracts it off into a random direction depending on strain may be what you're looking for. No clue what rate you could achieve, though.
Just wanted to point out, most of the latest crop of games use both of these approaches extensively.
I only have personal experience with City of Heroes (great game, btw, and no, I'm not affiliated). It is, all general spawns are area spawns-- whose size and level is dependent on the level and number of players in the area, and whether they are on teams.
Most content, though, is in instanced dungeons, which are also dynamically spawned (if another team member joins midway through, the later floors of the dungeon will have more monsters, etc).
Then again, City of Heroes has no equipment to fight over at all, so it's less of an issue. That's smart design, if you ask me.