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Comment Re:oh hell. (Score 1) 297

by Krondor (#25977605) Attached to: Battlestar Galactica Gets Spinoff Prequel Series

I'm in agreement, but not for your reasons.

To me this sounds uninteresting. Caprica is toast, and any kind of day to day drama will always have this overtone of futility. How much of the day to day drama and plot points will be completely irrelevant given how the future plays out in BSG proper.

I mean the show kind of set itself up as a, oh crap starting over, thing. Do the day to day trials and tribulations of the show's Montague and Capulet equivalents even matter to fans?
Mozilla

Submission + - Firefox 3 Performance Gets a Boost (cybernetnews.com) 1

Submitted by jason
jason writes: Mozilla has been working hard at making Firefox 3 faster than its predecessor, and it looks like they might be succeeding. They've recently added some significant JavaScript performance improvements that beat out all of the competition, including Opera 9.5 Beta. And it comes out to be about ten times faster than Internet Explorer 7! Things are really starting to fall into place for Firefox 3 Beta 4 which should be available in the next week or two.
Science

Fish Can Count to Four 103

Posted by samzenpus from the incredible-mr.-limpet dept.
Khemist writes "Fish can count, according to scientists, who have found that North American mosquito fish have the ability to count up to four. Previously it was known that fish could tell big shoals from small ones, but researchers have now found that they have a limited ability to count how many other fish are nearby. This means that they have similar counting abilities to those observed in apes, monkeys and dolphins and humans with very limited mathematical ability."
Software

Open US GPS Data? 327

Posted by samzenpus from the directions-want-to-be-free dept.
tobiasly writes "I read an article today about a map error on the popular Garmin GPS devices which often leads to truckers in a particular town becoming trapped. From my own experience, every electronic map I've ever seen (Google, Mapquest, my Mio GPS) has the layout of my neighborhood completely and frustratingly wrong. A quick search turned up only one open-source mapping project, but it's for New Zealand only. Why are there no comparable projects in the U.S. or elsewhere? Obviously such a project would need a good peer-review/moderation/trust system but I'd gladly put in the time necessary to drive around town with my GPS in "tracking" mode, then upload, tag, and verify my local data. Has anyone with more technical knowledge in maps and auto-routing looked more into this? Are there technical limitations to such a project? Should the government subsidize a project to create open, free, up-to-date electronic maps? Surely there is a public benefit available from such a project."
Software

New Tools Available for Network-Centric Warfare 70

Posted by samzenpus from the click-and-destroy dept.
Reservoir Hill writes "MIT Technology Review reports that a new map-based application is the latest tool in the military's long-term plan to introduce what is sometimes called "network-centric warfare." The Tactical Ground Reporting System, or TIGR allows patrol leaders in Iraq to learn about city landmarks and past events and more than 1,500 junior officers in Iraq — about a fifth of patrol leaders — are using the map-centric application before going on patrol and adding new data to TIGR upon returning. By clicking on icons and lists, they can see the locations of key buildings, like mosques, schools, and hospitals, and retrieve information such as location data on past attacks, geotagged photos of houses and other buildings (taken with cameras equipped with Global Positioning System technology), and photos of suspected insurgents and neighborhood leaders. They can even listen to civilian interviews and watch videos of past maneuvers. "The ability ... to draw the route ... of your patrol that day and then to access the collective reports, media, analysis of the entire organization, is pretty powerful," says Major Patrick Michaelis. "It is a bit revolutionary from a military perspective when you think about it, using peer-based information to drive the next move. ... Normally we are used to our higher headquarters telling the patrol leader what he needs to think.""
Microsoft

Submission + - FSF may sue Microsoft over GPLv3 (groklaw.net)

Submitted by
mjasay
mjasay writes: "As Groklaw reports, the Free Software Foundation has issued a press release decrying Microsoft's attempts to distance itself from its obligations to abide by GPL Version 3. Citing Microsoft's earlier refusal to abide by GPLv3, the Free Software Foundation declared, "Microsoft cannot by any act of anticipatory repudiation divest itself of its obligation to respect others' copyrights." The press release goes on to imply that the Free Software Foundation may sue Microsoft over the issue."
Television

Submission + - Zap2It Replacement Scheduling Service Goes Online

Submitted by
Krondor
Krondor writes: "Schedules Direct, the TV listing service created to replace the soon to be discontinued Zap2It Labs free listings, is now accepting registrations. This comes in advance of the pending Zap2It TV Listing shutdown and is obviously excellent news for many open source projects, such as MythTV. The service, though no longer free, does intend to reduce pricing as demand increases and exists as a non-profit specifically for the purpose of providing TV listing data to "Free and Open Source Applications". Slashdot has previously covered the Zap2It Labs TV Listing Discontinuation as well as the pricing expectations for Schedules Direct."
User Journal

Journal Journal: Strange

Journal by Billosaur

Ever since I lost my job last month, I find myself Slashdotting a lot less, even though I'm on the computer almost every hour looking for work. I'm beginning to think that Slashdot is a lot less attractive when you have all the time in the world to read it and respond, perhaps because there's no external pressure to type fast and make it look like you're doing actual work.
Graphics

Hitachi Develops New Visual Search 166

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the which-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-other dept.
Tech.Luver writes to tell us that Hitachi has developed a new visual search engine that can supposedly find similar images from within millions of video and picture data entries in around 1 second. "The technology assesses the similarity of images based on image characteristics presented as high-dimensional numeric information. The information is acquired by automatically detecting information regarding the images, such as color distribution and shapes."
Yahoo!

Submission + - Yahoo building open source Map/Reduce and GFS (yahoo.net)

Submitted by
owenomalley
owenomalley writes: "Yahoo is developing Hadoop, which is an open source implementation of key pieces of Google's infrastructure (namely, Map/Reduce and GFS). Hadoop's framework allows you to write applications that reliably process very large datasets (100's of terabytes) efficiently on large (1000+) clusters of computers. Without a framework like Hadoop, writing applications on large clusters requires a lot of duplicated effort as each application deals with distribution, reliability, and reporting. Hadoop handles those parts for you and just requires you to write your application logic.

Hadoop is managed under Apache."

Feed Engadget: Toyota set to test new plug-in hybrid vehicle (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Transportation

Apparently taking a cue from drivers that have already modded their Priuses for plug-in capabilities, Toyota's now gone and created a plug-in version of the Prius itself, and it's set to soon test the vehicle on public roads. Dubbed the Toyota Plug-in HV, the vehicle can be charged simply by plugging it into a standard electrical socket, although you won't get much farther than 8 miles on a single charge (the gasoline engine will kick in after the batts have been exhausted). While Toyota says that a commercialized version will "depend largely on advances in battery technology," the company is planning to test the vehicle in its current state in Japan shortly, with tests in the US and Europe apparently also in the works.

[Via PhysOrg, photo courtesy of Reuters]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Feed Linux.com: Rocket scientist: Outer space exploration should be open (linux.com)

From feed by lcfeed
Space enthusiast and engineer Paul Wooster wants to open the source code for outer space, because, he says, it should be easier for everyone who wants to contribute to human activities in space to do so, not just people with advanced degrees in rocketry. To that end, Wooster has established DevelopSpace, a community based on open source philosophies, designed to attract anyone interested in sharing their skills in order to make more space exploration possible.
Biotech

Submission + - Hitachi develops 'brain-machine interface' (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by
Frosty Piss
Frosty Piss writes: "A new technology from Hitachi could let you control electronic devices without lifting a finger simply by reading brain activity. Underlying Hitachi's brain-machine interface is a technology called optical topography, which sends a small amount of infrared light through the brain's surface to map out changes in blood flow. Hitachi's scientists are set to develop a brain TV remote controller letting users turn a TV on and off or switch channels by only thinking. A key advantage to Hitachi's technology is that sensors don't have to physically enter the brain."
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Hitachi develops brain-machine interface

Submitted by
Gary
Gary writes: "Forget the clicker: A new technology in Japan could let you control electronic devices without lifting a finger simply by reading brain activity. The "brain-machine interface" developed by Hitachi Inc. analyzes slight changes in the brain's blood flow and translates brain motion into electric signals. Underlying Hitachi's brain-machine interface is a technology called optical topography, which sends a small amount of infrared light through the brain's surface to map out changes in blood flow."

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