fruity_pebbles - Slashdot User

Comment Re:strangely, without my intervention (Score 1) 344

by fruity_pebbles on Monday November 07, 2011 @05:16PM (#37977936) Attached to: Setting the various household clocks ...

I have about half a dozen "atomic" (actually WWVB) clocks. Most of them change correctly for DST. One or two of them change the hour correctly, but for some reason also adjust the minutes ahead by one. And they're ahead by exactly 60 seconds. In a day or two they figure it out and set themselves to the correct time.

Comment Re:Mr Cynic here (Score 1) 126

by fruity_pebbles on Wednesday September 21, 2011 @03:41PM (#37471732) Attached to: Amazon To Offer Kindle ebooks Via Public Libraries

Overdrive offers library e-books in several formats. All the books I browsed through at my library today were offered in Kindle, ePub, and PDF.

Comment Re:Do you have any evidence to support that claim? (Score 2) 262

by fruity_pebbles on Monday March 07, 2011 @05:49PM (#35411702) Attached to: Facebook May Bust Up the SMS Profit Cartel

I'm skeptical too. None of the Google Talk messages on my phone have been billed as SMS.

Comment Watch (Score 1) 334

by fruity_pebbles on Tuesday February 22, 2011 @12:10PM (#35280080) Attached to: How Many Solar Powered Devices Do You Own?

My Casio G-Shock Waveceptor is low maintenance: Solar powered; no batteries to wear out. Set time by WWVB; no manual adjustments needed for DST, and no worries about the watch running fast or slow.

I answered 0-1, but I do have a second solar powered device: a Casio scientific calculator. The calculator still works great, but I haven't used it in at least 15 years.

Comment Re:WTF ? (Score 1) 762

by fruity_pebbles on Monday October 19, 2009 @04:48PM (#29799873) Attached to: Car Glass Rules Could Impair Cell, GPS and Radio Signals In CA

I think "glazed glass" means literally glass that's installed in some sort of frame (i.e. the panes of glass in a typical house window are glazed into the window frame). TFA says "advanced window glazing". I think we have a Bad Submitter - perhaps his eyes were glazed over when he RTFA.

Comment Why isn't this headline PINK? (Score 4, Insightful) 283

by fruity_pebbles on Tuesday March 31, 2009 @05:16PM (#27408029) Attached to: IE 8.1 Supports Firefox Plugins, Rendering Engine

April Fool's deserves the full color treatment!

Comment Re:Horde! (Score 1) 485

by fruity_pebbles on Wednesday January 07, 2009 @01:12PM (#26359395) Attached to: How Do You Manage Your SD Card Library?

My keys, phone, wallet, etc. are always either with me or on top of the tall cabinet that my toddlers can't reach. Fortunately I don't have any pets to worry about (at the moment).

Submission + - Recovering computers after house fire? (neulinger.org)

Submitted by

Nathan Neulinger

on Tuesday June 26, 2007 @12:54AM

Nathan Neulinger writes: "Today, my family and I experienced (after the fact — we were not home) a house fire that completely destroyed our kitchen, and caused significant smoke and heat damage throughout the rest of the house. I believe that the two more important computer systems in the house shut themselves down automatically when the power was cut, but I don't know how much smoke and soot was pulled into them.

I'm not terribly concerned about the machines themselves, but I'd like to pull the data off onto new media. I'm a long time unix admin, so recovery tools themselves are not an issue, but I am concerned about the hardware itself. Are there any things to watch out for in terms of powering the drives back up on another machine, or is this a "don't touch it, leave it to the pros" type of thing? I have not been able to look at the drives up close yet — waiting on insurance adjuster to approve messing with house's contents first."

Submission + - Two top Google engineers leave (venturebeat.com)

Submitted by

linumax

on Friday June 22, 2007 @08:20AM

linumax writes: "Two more high-level Google engineers have left the Googleplex — this time to join well-known venture capital firm Benchmark Capital. According to a story on VentureBeat, Bret Taylor and Jim Norris, two of the masterminds behind Google Maps and several other Google products, have joined the firm as "Entrepreneurs in Residence." This gives them paid positions to hang out at Benchmark's offices on Silicon Valley's Sand Hill Road and think through starting a business. They have a specific idea in mind, but are secretive about it, telling VentureBeat only that it's a "consumer Internet" company. Is the final days of Google coming?"

Submission + - Xerox Develops New Way to Print Invisible Ink

Submitted by

scott3778

on Wednesday May 30, 2007 @03:11AM

scott3778 writes: "Xerox said on Wednesday that its scientists have perfected a new method for printing hidden fluorescent wording using standard digital printing equipment. According to the company, the discovery paves the way for customers and businesses alike to add an additional layer of security to commonly printed materials such as checks, tickets, coupons, and other high-value documents. The hidden fluorescent words and letters show up only under ultraviolet light, said Reiner Eschbach, a research fellow in the Xerox Innovation Group, and the co-inventor of the patented process. What's more, the method for printing them doesn't require the use of special fluorescent inks. http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2138431 ,00.asp"

Submission + - Why outsourcing is fading away

Submitted by operator_root2 on Thursday May 24, 2007 @08:56AM

operator_root2 writes: This article on outsourcing to India details several reasons as to why the outsourcing boom is no longer turning attractive. The main reasons being cited are 'puffed up projections by consultants', 'high rates of attrition and low productivity', and 'operational problems'. The article further notes that most companies are predicted to go slow on expansion plans and eventually exit. Further more, the article notes that some other locations are emerging as outsourcing centres. ""Russia is where India was a few years ago. At that time, Indians worked harder, for more hours, and at low salaries. Today, Indians think they can command any price."

Submission + - Nintendo posts record profits

Submitted by mrneutron2004 on Monday April 09, 2007 @06:15PM

mrneutron2004 writes: Does a 62 percent rise year-on-year in profit sound pretty darn sweet? How about beating 17 top analysts expectations, or beating your own corporate forecast by 24%? It sounds very sweet to anyone owning shares in Nintendo Corporation, because they posted a record $2.2 Billion Dollars in earnings for the year ended March 31. http://www.fastsilicon.com/latest-news/nintendo-po sts-record-profits.html?Itemid=60

Submission + - End of Red VS Blue

Submitted by

UberHoser

on Tuesday April 03, 2007 @09:28AM

UberHoser writes: "Now I am not sure if this is an April Fool's joke or not, but it seems that the series Red vs Blue is coming to an end.

Taked directly from the post that Bernie made:

"That's why we wanted to let you all know first that Episode 100 is going to be the last installment of The Blood Gulch Chronicles. One hundred is a great number, and it seems like the perfect place to call it a show."

You can read the whole post here: http://rvb.roosterteeth.com/forum/viewTopic.php?id =2205248"

Submission + - Jumping from kindergarten to the 3rd grade

Submitted by mountainman on Monday April 02, 2007 @09:58AM

mountainman writes: I just got an e-mail from my brother proudly announcing that my nephew's public school is recommending that he skip the first and second grades and go from kindergarten directly into the third grade. My nephew is pretty smart but has average social skills and I think this is a perfectly horrible idea. Skipping one grade might work but, in my opinion, skipping two will do little but guarantee that he'll have no friends until a few years past college when he can start drinking legally.

Does anyone on Slashdot have experience, either personally or as a parent, on skipping two grades like this?

Submission + - Computationally Cheap Ray Tracing

Submitted by Xocet_00 on Monday March 19, 2007 @10:10PM

Xocet_00 writes: BBC News has an article discussing a new algorithm for generating ray-traced graphics using only high end PC graphics cards. The algorithms were developed by a research group at the University of Saarland, in Germany. Apparently the technique has already been applied to Quakes 3 and 4, so hopefully this isn't Duke Nuke'em style vapourware.

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