The-Bus - Slashdot User

Submission + - Black Xbox 360 Confirmed

Submitted by

scott666

on Tuesday March 20, 2007 @01:28PM

scott666 writes: "Kotaku.com has a story repeating the April issue of Game Informer magazine confirming the existance of the Black Xbox 360. The new console with retail for $479, and include a HDMI port, HDMI cable and 120GB hard drive. It does not include an HD-DVD drive, as has been rumored because the "format's not proven.""

Submission + - Prius more environmentally damaging than a Hummer

Submitted by on Tuesday March 20, 2007 @12:32PM

An anonymous reader writes: According to this story from Central Connecticut State University the Prius takes more energy to manufacture than a Hummer, requiring 50% more energy to produce. In addition, they calculate that the Prius costs $3.25 per mile over it's expected lifespan of 100,000 miles compared to $1.95 per mile for the hummer.

Submission + - ISPs Fighting To Keep Broadband Gaps A Mystery

Submitted by Aaron on Tuesday March 20, 2007 @12:16PM

Aaron writes: Broadband Reports notes how Maryland was working on a law that would force ISPs to show exactly where they offer service and at what speed. The goal was to help map coverage gaps, since FCC broadband data traditionally isn't accurate. Cable and phone company lobbyists have scuttled the plan, convincing state leaders the plan would bring "competitive harm," "stifle innovation," and even close local coffee shops. Of course the real reason is they don't want the public to know what criteria they use to determine the financial viability of your neighborhood — as they roll out next-generation services to only the most lucrative areas (aka cherry pick). The Center for Public Integrity is trying to obtain the unreleased raw FCC penetration data, but these companies are also fighting this tooth and nail.

Submission + - FoxTrot moving to Sundays only.

Submitted by

Randolpho

on Tuesday December 19, 2006 @11:33AM

Randolpho writes: "Every day, I visit one of my favorite comic strips on the web, Bill Amend's FoxTrot. It's most likely one of your favorites, too. Imagine my surprise when I learned this morning that FoxTrot will be moving to a Sunday-only format! I am saddened by this, as I look forward to FoxTrot every day, and now I have to wait a week for my FoxTrot fix! But there is hope. From the article:
"In addition to Sunday newspapers, we may see FoxTrot entertaining us in other kinds of media platforms," says Lee Salem, president and editor of Universal Press Syndicate.
Perhaps a FoxTrot cartoon series similar to PvP's upcoming PvP: The Series?"

Submission + - Effective operations of a small helpdesk system

Submitted by

El Presidente

on Tuesday December 19, 2006 @11:04AM

El Presidente writes: "I'm the department head of a small IT helpdesk in a not-quite-so-small business. The department's small in the sense that (a) there's only three people (including me), and (b) not only do we do helpdesk, but develop all the in-house systems, build our own servers, etc.

We're supposed to log every helpdesk call that comes in (we've previously developed our own software for this), log notes on each call, and log the resolution. However, although I do set a good example by logging (most!) of my calls, the other two don't, even though I've talked to them numerous times.

Although they do the job well, this is the one area that is letting the department down, and now management want full stats on what we do every day, so obviously a full helpdesk log for each day would go a long way to prove what we do (or don't do!!)

I don't want to come down on them with the Big Iron Fist (tm) and check up on them every few minutes (because I've got better things to do with my time, like real work) how can I actually get them to buy into logging calls, and not "forget" or be "too busy to log properly""

Submission + - World's Simplest Electric Motor

Submitted by

haos

on Tuesday December 19, 2006 @09:57AM

haos writes: "This video shows us how to construct the world's simplest electric motor, using just a battery, magnet and copper wire. http://nonk.nonk.info/pages2/motor.php"

Submission + - Wiimote cracked open

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 19, 2006 @09:56AM

An anonymous reader writes: The guys at Sparkfun just did what everybody secretly wants to do with their new electronic gadgets: voiding the warranty to take a sneek peek at their internals! Here is the link to a very explicit naked wiimote along with many usefull remarks on it's electronics

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/present.php?p=Wii -Internals

"It features an 8051 core and RAM/ROM memory featuring the HID bluetooth profile and stack. Any chance they used a flash part that we can hack instead of the masked ROM (un-changeable) version? Highly unlikely. But lemme know if someone figures out how to get into the core. The small crystal is 24MHz. They make it look so easy don't they?"

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