andolyne - Slashdot User

Submission + - Supreme Court Hearing on Monsanto Alfalfa (medicalnewstoday.com)

Submitted by Darkfell on Wednesday March 10, 2010 @06:11PM

Darkfell writes: "The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether a lower court acted hastily and incorrectly by banning the cultivation of biotech alfalfa despite extensive scientific evidence documenting the safety of the crop. A coalition of agricultural organizations filed on March 8 a joint friend-of-the-court brief to the Supreme Court in support of the petitioners in "Monsanto Co. v. Geertson Seed Farms." "

Submission + - Usage of BCC in emails

Submitted by foyles on Wednesday December 16, 2009 @09:46PM

foyles writes: I'm wondering if there is some best practice or etiquette regarding the usage of bcc in the emails. My only usage is when I'm distributing something to a lot of people, maybe unrelated and of course for privacy I do nont want to disclosure email addresses. So, I'm thinking in my contacts privacy concerns. But in the work environment you can use it for gossiping. I have to admit that I used but stopped with the practice: didn't like it the taste afterwards. Besides, is there any way to know if you receive an email, it it has been bcc to someone else? may it would be good practice to ask email server programs to inform that there are bcc recipients? (not disclosing the addresses, but at least you are informed of that). Of course that will not limit gossiping, still you can forward or print and handle, but it will limit somewhat the practice

Submission + - BBC Lowers HDTV bitrate, users notice

Submitted by aws910 on Wednesday December 16, 2009 @08:21PM

aws910 writes: According to an article on the bbc website, BBC HD lowered the bitrate of their broadcasts by almost 50% and are surprised that users noticed. From the article: "The replacement encoders work at a bitrate of 9.7Mbps (megabits per second), while their predecessors worked at 16Mbps, the standard for other broadcasters". The BBC claims "We did extensive testing on the new encoders which showed that they could produce pictures at the same or even better quality than the old encoders..." I got a good laugh off of this, but is it really possible to get better quality from a lower bitrate?

Submission + - Monkey Bruce Lee Bests His Master (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by lazylocomotives on Wednesday December 16, 2009 @07:18PM

lazylocomotives writes: Lo Wung, 42, trains monkeys to entertain people near a mall in China. Said monkeys bested their surprised master in front of an amused crowd in Nshi, China. "I saw one punch him in the eye — he grabbed another by the ear and it responded by grabbing his nose. They were leaping and jumping all over the place. It was better than a Bruce Lee film," said Hu Luang, a photographer. RTFA is recommended — there's a particularly funny photo included.

Submission + - Australian internet filtering going ahead? (yahoo.com)

Submitted by andolyne on Tuesday December 15, 2009 @01:41AM

andolyne writes: With the release of the ISP filtering trial today (http://www.dbcde.gov.au/funding_and_programs/cybersafety_plan/internet_service_provider_isp_filtering/isp_filtering_live_pilot) it looks like the Australian Government is moving ahead with their plans to force ISP to filter the internet for all users.

Submission + - Australian Net Filtering To Proceed (theaustralian.com.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 15, 2009 @01:40AM

An anonymous reader writes: The first nail in the coffin of democracy in Australia has begun.."THE federal government has green-lighted its highly controversial censorship plan to introduce a mandatory internet filter that will block refused classification content from being accessed on Australian soil. "

Submission + - Australia to get mandatory Internet filtering (abc.net.au)

Submitted by porjo on Tuesday December 15, 2009 @01:21AM

porjo writes: The Australian Federal Government will introduce compulsory internet filtering to block overseas sites which contain criminal content, including child sex abuse and sexual violence. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy announced the changes today following a controversial trial to filter the internet which was conducted earlier this year.

Submission + - AU Government Will Introduce Mandatory Filtering (itnews.com.au) 2

Submitted by bennyboy64 on Tuesday December 15, 2009 @12:56AM

bennyboy64 writes: iTnews reports that the Australian Government has announced its intention to introduce legislation that will make ISP-level filtering mandatory for all refused classification material hosted overseas. The Government intends to amend the Broadcasting Services Act in August 2010 to enforce the filter, and expects the filter to be operational within a further twelve months. 'The report into the pilot trial of ISP-level filtering demonstrates that blocking RC-rated material can be done with 100 percent accuracy and negligible impact on internet speed' Senator Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy said.

Submission + - Internet slower than rat, horse, rabbit, and dog. (cnet.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 13, 2009 @05:11AM

An anonymous reader writes: CNET demonstrates that the internet is "actually slower than every major animal. It's even slower than the apocryphal tortoise over a mile." In order to prove this they "pitted the world's top animals against the Web over a one-mile course, transferring 32GB of data.". The results of the experiment showed the Internet to be the worst way to transfer data over short distances. "If you put 32GB of data on a bite-proof USB key and strapped it to a cheetah, for example, it would be available to read at the destination 11 times faster than the Internet. The cheetah takes 30.9 minutes, the Internet over 6 hours!" Pigeon, horse and dog also perform very well at transferring 32GB of data, and even the lowly rat is over 8 times faster than the internet. CNET suggests the internet "should hang its head in shame over its ranking in the one-mile speed test."

Sophisticated Balloons Could Help Steer Spacecraft 96

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday April 16, 2009 @11:32AM from the 51%-of-turns-are-right dept.

coondoggie writes "Getting spacecraft traveling at hypersonic speeds to slow down and land or achieve a particular orbit on a dime is no easy feat. But researchers are developing a tool that will let engineers model and ultimately build advanced flight control systems that meld balloon and parachute technologies known as a ballute (BALLoon-parachUTE). Basically a ballute is a large, inflatable device that takes advantage of atmospheric drag to decelerate and capture a spacecraft into orbit around a planet, according to NASA who is funding Global Aerospace to build such a tool."

The Real Story Behind Gaming Addiction 300

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday April 16, 2009 @06:03AM from the spotlight-on-black-tar-warcraft dept.

Gamespot is running a feature looking into the facts behind gaming addiction: what it is, whether it exists, and why the need still exists for objective research into the issue. Quoting: "[Richard M. Ryan, a psychologist and professor of psychology, psychiatry, and education at the University of Rochester in New York] thinks the lack of quality research into video game overuse will be rectified with time as games become more sophisticated in the ways they satisfy people's psychological needs. 'We have a lot of people, some in the media and some in the sciences, who are too ready to make very strong claims about video games, whether we are talking about aggression, addiction, or cultural estrangement, based on very little evidence. I think that is especially how the media often sells stories. Some commentators exaggerate risks, and on the other hand there are defenders of games who deny any and all problems and attack any perceived bad news. Games are relatively new in our culture, and such vacillation between hysteria and denial I suspect often greets any new phenomenon, from hip-hop to the Internet to video games. Both sides usually have some part of the truth, but it may be a while before at least we as scientists, much less as a society, have a coherent understanding.'"

Submission + - Australian Govt. to build 100Mbit FTTH network (dbcde.gov.au)

Submitted by PhysicsPhil on Monday April 06, 2009 @09:57PM

PhysicsPhil writes: According to whirlpool, the Australian federal government is going to build a national fibre to the home network to serve 90% of the population, with 3rd generation satellite connections to serve the remainder. The project is to be a public-private partnership, with 51% government control. The project will begin in Tasmania, with work on the mainland to begin in 2010. The official announcement is here.

Submission + - Australia to get $43bn fibre-to-home network (apcmag.com)

Submitted by

KrispyConroy

on Monday April 06, 2009 @08:21PM

KrispyConroy writes: "The Australian Government has announced a $43 billion fibre-to-the-home network that will provide 100Mbit/s Ethernet to 90% of premises in the country. It will be one of the largest FTTH rollouts in the world because of Australia's vast geographic size. Despite many private companies bidding to build smaller-scale fibre networks, the Australian government decided to go it alone, because it didn't believe any of them could actually stump up the cash in the global financial crisis. The network will be supplemented by a wireless (probably WiMax) and satellite network to reach the remaining 10% of far-flung premises."

Submission + - $1b electric car network being set up in Australia (itwire.com)

Submitted by

gadgetopia

on Thursday October 23, 2008 @12:16AM

gadgetopia writes: "The man once touted as the next CEO of SAP Shai Agassi has forged agreements between his company, Better Place, Australian utility heavyweight AGL Energy and the financial advisory arm of Macquarie Group, to launch a AUD$1 billion electric car infrastructure project in Australia."

A Look At Successful Game Mods 287

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday October 22, 2008 @04:30PM from the what-no-rocket-arena? dept.

Parz writes "Mods have been an important part of gaming for well over 15 years. Not only have they provided plenty of additional free gaming to players, but they've acted as a launch pad for independent and amateur programmers to show off their skills to potential employers. This Gameplayer article highlights the programmers who are doing it best, and what mods have made biggest and most enjoyable impact on gaming. The article not only provides details for each game, but also links to the downloads, and is a great resource for those interesting in getting up-to-date with this exciting scene." Obviously, this list will seem incomplete to anyone whose favorite mod was omitted. What mods contributed most to your enjoyment?

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