Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Americans Support Mandatory Labeling of Food That Contains DNA

HughPickens.com writes: Jennifer Abel writes at the LA times that according to a recent survey over 80% of Americans says they support “mandatory labels on foods containing DNA,” roughly the same number that support the mandatory labeling of GMO foods “produced with genetic engineering.” Ilya Somin, writing about the survey at the Washington Post, suggested that a mandatory label for foods containing DNA might sound like this: "WARNING: This product contains deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The Surgeon General has determined that DNA is linked to a variety of diseases in both animals and humans. In some configurations, it is a risk factor for cancer and heart disease. Pregnant women are at very high risk of passing on DNA to their children."

The report echoes a well-known joke/prank wherein people discuss the dangers of the chemical “dihydrogen monoxide" also known as hydrogen oxide and hydrogen hydroxide. Search online for information about dihydrogen monoxide, and you'll find a long list of scary-sounding and absolutely true warnings about it: the nuclear power industry uses enormous quantities of it every year. Dihydrogen monoxide is used in the production of many highly toxic pesticides, and chemical weapons banned by the Geneva Conventions. Dihydrogen monoxide is found in all tumors removed from cancer patients, and is guaranteed fatal to humans in large quantities and even small quantities can kill you, if it enters your respiratory system. In 2006, in Louisville, Kentucky, David Karem, executive director of the Waterfront Development Corporation, a public body that operates Waterfront Park, wished to deter bathers from using a large public fountain. "Counting on a lack of understanding about water's chemical makeup," he arranged for signs reading: "DANGER! – WATER CONTAINS HIGH LEVELS OF HYDROGEN – KEEP OUT" to be posted on the fountain at public expense

Comment Re:Save to PDF (Score 1) 302

Creating a PDF sounds very static. How do you generate dynamic pages? Even a small change like displaying the time would require a new PDF generation. While it's doble to automatically generate PDFs on the fly, doing so for all clients is likely to be a slow, resource eater process. Even for static pages, some browsers/configurations do save the PDF as a file / download, or open the doc in a separate tab/window. Pretty inconvenient for the end user.

Comment CSS (Score 2) 302

Using a framework would really make sense for the client side, imo - ie CSS, Javascript, HTML, to cope with browsers differences and other language peculiarities, the result is usually immediately visible, tangible. The server side otoh may require more attention to detail if data from client is checked / analyzed / processed / stored - leaving that responsability to a framework will likely produce a lot of spaghetti code doing only approximately what you want, and any manual maintenance (ie modify the resulting code directly) is hard and cut the consistency links with the FM.

Submission + - Microsoft reveals Windows 10 will be a free upgrade (mashable.com)

mpicpp writes: Microsoft just took another big step toward the release of Windows 10 and revealed it will be free for many current Windows users.

The company unveiled the Windows 10 consumer preview on Wednesday, showcasing some of the new features in the latest version of the operating system that powers the vast majority of the world's desktop PCs. The developer preview has been available since Microsoft first announced Windows 10 in the fall, but it was buggy, limited in scope and very light on new features.

Importantly, Windows 10 will be free for existing Windows users running versions of Windows back to Windows 7. That includes Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and Windows Phone. Microsoft specified it would only be free for the first year, indicating Windows would be software that users subscribe to, rather than buy outright.

Microsoft Corporate Vice President of the Operating Systems Group Joe Belfiore showed off some of the new features in Windows 10. While Microsoft had already announced it would bring back the much-missed Start Menu, Belfiore revealed it would also have a full-screen mode that includes more of the Windows 8 Start screen. He said Windows machines would go back and forth between to two menus in a way that wouldn't confuse people.

Belfiore also showed a new notification center for Windows, which puts a user's notifications in an Action Center menu that can appear along the right side, similar to how notifications work in Apple OS X.

Microsoft Executive Vice President of Operating Systems Terry Myerson revealed that 1.7 million people had downloaded the Windows 10 developer preview, giving Microsoft over 800,000 individual piece of feedback.

Myerson explained that Windows 10 has several main intents: the give users a mobility of experience from device to device, instill a sense of trust in users, and provide the most natural ways to interact with devices.

Submission + - France's Hollande sees popularity jump after attacks

hcs_$reboot writes: French President Francois Hollande's popularity has surged to its highest level in nearly a year and a half after the deadly Islamist attacks in Paris. Hollande's ratings have leapt by a record 21 percentage points to 40 per cent, according to an opinion poll published on Monday. Hollande rushed to the site of the first attack, and then a few days later he led a march with other world leaders in Paris. Prior to the attacks, Mr Hollande's ratings had fallen to historic lows in the face of record French unemployment and sluggish growth.

Submission + - Microsoft researchers use light beams to charge smartphones (computerworld.com.au) 1

angry tapir writes: A group of Microsoft researchers has built a prototype charger for smartphones that can scan a room until it locates a mobile device compatible with the system and then charge the handset using a light beam. The researchers say they can achieve efficiency comparable to conventional wired phone chargers. The biggest barrier? Smartphones don't (yet) come with solar panels attached.

Slashdot Top Deals

"The most important thing in a man is not what he knows, but what he is." -- Narciso Yepes

Working...