Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Comment POD printing (Score 1) 178

by a302b (#29117171) Attached to: Advice On Creating an Open Source Textbook?
What about "Print on Demand" (POD) books? Just offer a PDF on your website and have a link for a POD book for those students that prefer a physical book. There are many, many POD publishers out there. and most are pretty good/indistinguishable from "regular" printing. And if you use Amazon's POD publisher, Booksurge, you automatically get listed with them. To me this seems like a "no fail" system that provides both free (ebook) and physical (POD) versions of your book while side-stepping an outdated publishing industry.
Image

Bamboo Taxis In Philippines Screenshot-sm 1

Posted by samzenpus from the unsafe-at-any-speed dept.
19061969 writes "Bucking the trend for heavy-weight SUVs, a mayor in the Philippines has commissioned a range of bamboo vehicles. According to the blurb, the taxis also run on coconut biodiesel, even have a stereo sound system and help the local economy by being largely locally produced. Is this the future of mass transportation?"
Privacy

Emigrating To a Freer Country? 1359

Posted by Soulskill from the all-my-recommendations-require-time-machines dept.
puroresu writes "I currently reside in the UK. In recent years I've seen privacy, free expression and civil liberties steadily eroded, and I can't see anything changing for the better any time soon. With people being banned from the UK for expressing (admittedly reprehensible) opinions, the continuing efforts to implement mandatory ID cards and the prospect of a Conservative government in the near future, I'm seriously considering emigrating to a less restrictive country. Which countries would you recommend in terms of freedom and privacy? Distance is not an issue, though a reasonable level of stability and provision of public services would be a bonus."
Power

Switching To Solar Power, One Year Later 541

Posted by kdawson from the breakeven-curve dept.
ThinSkin writes "Slashdot readers may recall Loyd Case's series of articles illustrating his experiences after switching to solar power for his family home. Loyd shared his one month update, a six month update, and now finally concludes his series after one year of solar power. Despite the $38,000 initial cost for the setup, Loyd is very optimistic after a $3,000 savings in one year, meaning that in about 12 years he will break even — though he suspects ten years is a better estimate considering other factors. Other reasons such as feeling 'green,' increasing the property value of his house, and the 'spousal acceptance factor' all support Loyd's decision on why he'd do it all over again if he had to." The article is spread annoyingly over multiple pages, like everything at the site, and the print version omits the graphs.

Comment What about other uses? (Score 1) 867

by a302b (#28432417) Attached to: Wind Could Provide 100% of World Energy Needs
Besides transmission issues, what about land use? I mean, what will we eat if all our agricultural land is covered by wind turbines? It is a nice mental exercise to cover all the world's non-aquatic, non-forested, non-urban, and non-polar land with wind turbines, but do wind turbines really integrate well with all the other rural land uses (particularly agriculture) that we have?

It seems to me that researching improved transmission efficiencies and putting wind turbines in the ocean and polar regions (and solar in the deserts) would be a better solution. This is particularly the case as population expands, and previously rural areas become more developed.

Comment Mod parent up! (I would if I had mod points) (Score 1) 151

by a302b (#28316707) Attached to: How Should a Constitution Protect Digital Rights?

See if you can get the Nepal government to allow the citizens to use whatever level of encryption they see fit.

+1 insightful

The right to use encryption of any sort should be explicitly mentioned and permitted in the constitution. The right to encrypt one's personal data is fundamental to the right to privacy. Being forced to give up encryption keys should also be mentioned and protected in the same manner as self-incrimination (such as in the US 5th amendment).

The reason the right to encrypt is vital to place in the constitution is that aggressive or controlling/totalitarian governments (and there are varying shades of this) like to have a lot of control over their citizens. Thus, when they come into power, they can become very fearful of encryption amongst their citizens and erode a real right to free speech under various guises (such as monitoring all communications and banning encryption amongst other things).
Image

Teen Diagnoses Her Own Disease In Science Class Screenshot-sm 582

Posted by samzenpus from the be-you-own-best-diagnostician dept.
18-year-old Jessica Terry suffered from stomach pain, diarrhea, vomiting and fever for eight years. She often missed school and her doctors were unable to figure out the cause of her sickness. Then one day in January someone was finally figured out what was wrong with Jessica. That person was her. While looking under a microscope at slides of her own intestinal tissue in her AP science class, Jessica noticed an area of inflamed tissue called a granuloma, which is an indication of Crohn's disease. "It's weird I had to solve my own medical problem," Terry told CNN affiliate KOMO in Seattle, Washington. "There were just no answers anywhere. ... I was always sick."
Education

California To Move To Online Textbooks 468

Posted by timothy from the let's-keep-some-things-written-down-though dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Last year California spent $350m on textbooks so facing a state budget shortfall of $24.3 billion, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has unveiled a plan to save money by phasing out 'antiquated, heavy, expensive textbooks' in favor of internet aids. Schwarzenegger believes internet activities such as Facebook, Twitter and downloading to iPods show that young people are the first to adopt new online technologies and that the internet is the best way to learn in classrooms so from the beginning of the school year in August, math and science students in California's high schools will have access to online texts that have passed an academic standards review. 'It's nonsensical — and expensive — to look to traditional hard-bound books when information today is so readily available in electronic form,' writes Schwarzenegger. 'As the music and newspaper industries will attest, those who adapt quickly to changing consumer and business demands will thrive in our increasingly digital society and worldwide economy. Digital textbooks can help us achieve those goals and ensure that California's students continue to thrive in the global marketplace.'"
Image

Swedish Anti-Piracy Lawyer Gets New Name 'Pirate' Screenshot-sm 178

Posted by samzenpus from the the-power-of-the-prank dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet (in Swedish) reports that Henrik Pontén, a lawyer of Antipiratbyrån, a Swedish organization against file sharing, has received a notification from officials that an application for change of his name has been approved and a new first name 'Pirate' has been added to his name. Authorities do not check the identity of persons applying for name changes. Pirate Pontén now has to apply for another change in order to revert the change."
Music

Software Enables Re-Creation of 'Lost' Instrument 136

Posted by timothy from the but-does-it-run-lituus dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "BBC reports that the Lituus, a 2.4m (8ft) -long trumpet-like instrument, was played in Ancient Rome but fell out of use some 300 years ago. Bach even composed a motet (a choral musical composition) for the Lituus, one of the last pieces of music written for the instrument.. But until now, no one had a clear idea of what this instrument looked or sounded like until researchers at Edinburgh University developed software that enabled them to design the Lituus even though no one alive today has heard, played or even seen a picture of this forgotten instrument." (Continues below.)
Image

Voting Drops 83 Percent In All-Digital Election Screenshot-sm 156

Posted by samzenpus from the people-like-paper dept.
For the first time ever, Oahu residents had to use their phones or computers to vote with some surprising results. 7,300 people voted this year, compared to 44,000 people the previous year, a drop of about 83 percent. "It is disappointing, compared to two years ago. This is the first time there is no paper ballot to speak of. So again, this is a huge change and I know that, and given the budget, this is a best that we could do," said Joan Manke of the city Neighborhood Commission. She added that voters obviously did not know about or did not embrace the changes.
Security

What a Hacked PC Can Be Used For 364

Posted by kdawson from the fifty-ways dept.
An anonymous reader points out that the Security Fix blog is running a feature looking at the different ways hacked/cracked computers can be abused by cyber scammers. "Computer users often dismiss Internet security best practices because they find them inconvenient, or because they think the rules don't apply to them. Many cling to the misguided belief that because they don't bank or shop online, that bad guys won't target them. The next time you hear this claim, please refer the misguided person to this blog post, which attempts to examine some of the more common — yet often overlooked — ways that cyber crooks can put your PC to criminal use."
Transportation

Green GT's All-Electric Supercar Unveiled 196

Posted by kdawson from the hoping-bugatti-picks-up-this-tech dept.
Mike writes "Swiss auto company Green GT recently released the first details on a svelte all-electric supercar that is being heralded as the most powerful electric race car ever built. Designed with the 2011 Le Mans race in mind, the Twenty-4 will boast a sleek carbon fiber chassis and twin 100-kw electric motors totaling 400 hp — enough to push the vehicle from 0-60 mph in 4 seconds flat, and to a top speed of 171 mph. GreenGT's head engineer Christophe Schwartz has stated that 'The GreenGT Twenty-4 design study could become our 2011 Le Mans Prototype electric racer, or it could even become an electric road-going supercar. There is a possibility to do both!'"
Data Storage

Nanotech Memory Could Hold Data For 1 Billion Years 239

Posted by timothy from the is-data-data-when-no-one's-left-to-read-it? dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Digital storage devices have become ubiquitous in our lives but the move to digital storage has raised concerns about the lifetime of the storage media. Now Alex Zettl and his group at the University of California, Berkeley report that they have developed an experimental memory device consisting of a crystalline iron nanoparticle enclosed in a multiwalled carbon nanotube that could have a storage capacity as high as 1 terabyte per square inch and temperature-stability in excess of one billion years. The nanoparticle can be moved through the nanotube by applying a low voltage, writing the device to a binary state represented by the position of the nanoparticle. The state of the device can then be subsequently read by a simple resistance measurement while reversing the nanoparticle's motion allows a memory 'bit' to be rewritten. This creates a programmable memory system that, like a silicon chip, can record digital information and play it back using conventional computer hardware storing data at a high density with a very long lifetime. Details of the process are available at the American Chemical Society for $30."

Slashdot Top Deals

Our OS who art in CPU, UNIX be thy name. Thy programs run, thy syscalls done, In kernel as it is in user!

Close