Comment What are the best computer science podcasts (Score 1) 37
I enjoy "The Real Python Podcast", "Code Comments", "Software at Scale", "Python for Everybody", "Command Line Heroes"
Submission + - Here comes the first release of Plasma 5 (themukt.com)
sfcrazy writes: The KDE Community has announced the first release of Plasma 5. It’s a release candidate so it’s meant for testing and preview purpose, like the developer preview of Android L. The final release will be announced next week so this is the last chance for testers and developers to find issues and get them fixed before the release.
Submission + - Mapping a monster volcano (nature.com)
bmahersciwriter writes: In one of the biggest-ever seismology deployments at an active volcano, researchers are peppering Mount St Helens in Washington state with equipment to study the intricate system of chambers and pipes that fed the most devastating eruption in US history. This month, they plan to set off 24 explosions — each equivalent to a magnitude-2 earthquake — around around the slumbering beast in an effort to map the its interior with unprecedented depth and clarity.
Submission + - SCOTUS to weigh smartphone searches by police (yahoo.com)
schwit1 writes: The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether police can search an arrested criminal suspect's cell phone without a warrant in two cases that showcase how the courts are wrestling to keep up with rapid technological advances.
Taking up cases from California and Massachusetts arising from criminal prosecutions that used evidence obtained without a warrant, the high court will wade into how to apply older court precedent, which allows police to search items carried by a defendant at the time of arrest, to cell phones.
Taking up cases from California and Massachusetts arising from criminal prosecutions that used evidence obtained without a warrant, the high court will wade into how to apply older court precedent, which allows police to search items carried by a defendant at the time of arrest, to cell phones.
Submission + - How to Play Quake III on iPad - A Step by Step Guide
SlappingOysters writes: I thought those veteran gamers amongst you might like this one. Quake III Arena by legendary developer id Software isn't available on the App Store, but there is a way that you can get it to work on your iPad all the same. You can also get Open Arena and Quake III Shareware to work on Apple's tablet. The process is reasonably straightforward for anyone who wants to give it a ago, and Grab It Magazine has provided a step-by step guide, with pictures and necessary links, to help the interested through it.
Submission + - Mystery Rock 'Appears' in Front of Mars Rover (discovery.com)
astroengine writes: After a decade of exploring the Martian surface, the scientists overseeing veteran rover Opportunity thought they’d seen it all. That was until a rock mysteriously “appeared” a few feet in front of the six wheeled rover a few days ago. News of the errant rock was announced by NASA Mars Exploration Rover lead scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University at a special NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory “10 years of roving Mars” event at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, Calif., on Thursday night. The rock, about "the size of a jelly doughnut" according to Squyres, is thought to have either come from a freak "flipping" event or a very recent meteorite impact. However, the latter isn't thought to be very likely. Although they are still working on the rock's origin, the rover team believe it was "tiddlywinked" by Opportunity's broken wheel; as the rover was turning on the spot, the rock was kicked from place under the wheel and flipped a few feet away from the rover. Neve missing a science opportunity, Squyres told Discovery News, “It obligingly turned upside down, so we’re seeing a side that hasn’t seen the Martian atmosphere in billions of years and there it is for us to investigate. It’s just a stroke of luck.”
Submission + - Of Her and Humanoids: The Year in Robotics (popsci.com)
malachiorion writes: From Google's emergence as a robotics giant to Gypsy Danger's emergence as a giant robot (we can root for), here's my attempt (for Popular Science) to round up the biggest trends in robotics in 2013. Comments are enabled—they usually aren't, on Pop Sci's site—to point out all the stuff that's more important than my picks.
Submission + - Robot Snake To The Rescue! (i-programmer.info)
mikejuk writes: In these days of drones and robot soldiers it is nice to be reminded that robots can do good. A recent video from Carnegie Mellon University Biorobotics Lab demonstrates how the snakelike robots developed by the lab can aid search and rescue operations in collapsed buildings. The video appear more or less at the same time as the current real disaster in Dhaka, Bangladesh where an 8-storey building collapsed on April 24th, the same day the video was posted on You Tube, trapping some three thousand people, of whom at least 362 are now know to have died.
In Bangladesh rescue teams, helped by members of the community, have so far worked with small tools and their bare hands to bring out survivors. After five day the next phase will be to use heavy equipment. Having a snake robot that could provide pictures from within the building would certainly aid both phases of the operation, leading to speedier and more effective rescue operations.
It raises the question of why this technology is still a research project and not deployed?
It could be deployed and developed at the same time.
In Bangladesh rescue teams, helped by members of the community, have so far worked with small tools and their bare hands to bring out survivors. After five day the next phase will be to use heavy equipment. Having a snake robot that could provide pictures from within the building would certainly aid both phases of the operation, leading to speedier and more effective rescue operations.
It raises the question of why this technology is still a research project and not deployed?
It could be deployed and developed at the same time.
Television Network Embeds Android Device In Magazine Ads 115
Revotron writes "Readers of Entertainment Weekly might be shocked to find their magazine is a good bit heavier than normal this week. US-based broadcaster CW placed an ad in Entertainment Weekly which uses a fully-functional 3G Android device, a T-Mobile SIM card, and a specialized app to display short video advertisements along with the CW Twitter feed. Writers at Mashable were willing to geek out with a Swiss Army knife and a video camera to give us all the gory details as they tore it down piece-by-piece to discover the inner workings of CW's new ad."
Comment Re:How big of a rocket? (Score 1) 96
To load ballast, just open a vent and let air rush into the balloon.
Comment Re:Chip? (Score 1) 96
We can call them layships ( as in Lay's potato chips, could be a Canadian only thing...)
Comment Monetary reasons (Score 1) 2
I'd love to spend all of my time attending user group meetings all over the world. Unfortunately I have to work for a living and have $0 discretionary funds available for such things.
Submission + - Next Generation Banking Malware Emerges After Zeus (thecavernforum.com)
wmain writes: A new version of banking malware which apparently merges two previous programs, Zeus and SpyEye, is now in circulation.
Comment Poll: Would you receive a cyborg implant? (Score 1) 1
a) I'd sign up as one of the earliest testers
We already use devices in our everyday life to supplement our senses. For example glasses for correcting eye sight, hearing aids for correcting hearing loss. You could even argue that the automobile is an augmentation that we wear to provide a more efficient method of transporting ourselves. Have these augments internalized is the next natural step in my opinion. Just because something is not biological does not make it wrong to have inside the body if it provides a definite advantage which out ways any detractors.
Submission + - Poll: Would you receive a cyborg implant? 1
oldspewey writes: .
If cranial implants could provide digital communication, enhance memory, afford "super vision" etc.:
a) I'd sign up as one of the earliest testers
b) I'd wait a few years until the bugs are worked out
c) I'd consider some modest enhancement as a "trial"
d) My decision would be based purely on cost/benefit
e) There's no way in hell I'd get one
f) I'll figure out how to hack the system and create my own army of zombies
If cranial implants could provide digital communication, enhance memory, afford "super vision" etc.:
a) I'd sign up as one of the earliest testers
b) I'd wait a few years until the bugs are worked out
c) I'd consider some modest enhancement as a "trial"
d) My decision would be based purely on cost/benefit
e) There's no way in hell I'd get one
f) I'll figure out how to hack the system and create my own army of zombies
