Ralconte - Slashdot User

Submission + - OnStar Service: poof-gone for older vehicles

Submitted by

ClogHammer

on Thursday February 22, 2007 @08:58PM

ClogHammer writes: "Seems like GM is going to drop the analog OnStar service and is using the FCC as the blame catcher. According to "Click2Houston.com "Attention all GM drivers — that friendly voice helping you get around town and dispatch police in emergencies may be saying goodbye soon.""

Submission + - Cars windows washer

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Thursday February 22, 2007 @08:57PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "You are sure that you have the right job? If you watch this video I think that your next job should be Cars windows washer"

Submission + - A History Department Bans Citing Wikipedia

Submitted by

odyaws

on Thursday February 22, 2007 @08:57PM

odyaws writes: "The New York Times has an article about the history department at Middlebury College banning Wikipedia citations as a research source, which came after a professor noticed half a dozen students making the same factual error on an exam. I'm as big a fan of Wikipedia as anyone, but as an academic I find the notion of citing it absurd. Does anyone think Wikipedia (or any encyclopedia) suitable for anything but casual information gathering or as a place to find links to source material?"

Journal Journal: Extremism is mainstream on the internets. 1

Journal by yoder on Thursday February 22, 2007 @08:49PM

The web is a great place for free political speech. It is also a beautiful informational tool. But if you are looking for total anonymity, the internet is not great. It does, however, give people the feeling of total anonymity and that is the perfect environment to see people as unfettered, morally unrestrained, emotionally spastic versions of their public face.

Submission + - Pirate Bay permanantly quits plans for own nation

Submitted by

Jared

on Thursday February 22, 2007 @08:38PM

Jared writes: "The world's most famous BitTorrent pirates decide to permanently drop anchor in their home country of Sweden, saying the whole affair was really for them to be able to "look on Google Maps and find ourselves there." In a response from an ADMIN over at The Free Nation Foundation, which split from BuySealand to form a group of the truly committed, he writes that "Personally, I'd like to say I 'saw it coming', but truthfully, I can't. What I can say, though, is that I'm not all that surprised, especially after the roller coaster ride their forums took." — Now I just wonder what the guys who donated a share of the $25,000 bucks The Pirate Bay has in collected in donations so far think about the fact that their money was simply a big Google Earth ad. Refunds anyone?"

Submission + - Google Losing Its Favourite Game?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22, 2007 @08:34PM

An anonymous reader writes: Data sources are not reliable at all but early results from Alexa and Compete show that Google is significantly impacted by Microsoft's new Vista — Live initiative. Vista pushing Live, the question is will the average user Joe come back to his old good Google or will he sacrifice a little search quality difference for uninterrupted and frictionless experience?

Submission + - Patent Trouble for Xbox Live?

Submitted by

bcaulfield

on Thursday February 22, 2007 @08:20PM

bcaulfield writes: "Google's $23 million deal to acquire Adscape — first reported by Red Herring last week — gives the search giant a patent that could mean trouble for Microsoft's Xbox Live online gaming service."

Submission + - Australian Open Source Survey responses sought

Submitted by

Sigurd

on Thursday February 22, 2007 @08:17PM

Sigurd writes: "Australian academics have formed a survey to learn why we love open source. Also, to look at correlations between being a participant of the open source community and outlook on life, happiness, and careers. Lara Thynne, PhD candidate at Deakin University Australia is asking for 1500+ responses to provide an adequate sample population.

Heading an open source project myself, filling out this survey reiterated to me how diverse the open source community is, and that it's ambitious to survey on large unfamiliar topics. I'm trusting a net gain will be made, despite this being akin to asking parliamentarians through to your neighbour's dog about politics."

Feed IPTV Service Coming to Xbox 360 (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed on Thursday February 22, 2007 @08:12PM

Microsoft plans to show off its new internet TV initiative, which will let consumers use an Xbox 360 like a TiVo box, next month. In Game|Life.

Feed Google Apps: Should You Switch? (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed on Thursday February 22, 2007 @08:12PM

Five reasons to make the jump to Google's web-based office software, and five reasons to stay on the Microsoft desktop. By Michael Calore.

Submission + - Twitter with a twist

Submitted by

retrocode64

on Thursday February 22, 2007 @08:11PM

retrocode64 writes: "Let people know how you are feeling at every moment of the day. Join a community where people will send you messages to help you to feel better when ever you are having a bad day."

Submission + - Old islamic tile patterns show modern math insight

Submitted by

arbitraryaardvark

on Thursday February 22, 2007 @08:06PM

arbitraryaardvark writes: "Reuters reports Medieval Muslims made mega math marvel.
Tile patterns on middle eastern mosques display a kind of quasicrystalline effect that was unknown in the west until rediscovered by Penrose in the 1970s.
"Quasicrystalline patterns comprise a set of interlocking units whose pattern never repeats, even when extended infinitely in all directions, and possess a special form of symmetry."
It isn't known if the mosque designers understood the math behind the patterns.
page 2 of story."

Submission + - Gamers perform better on surgical skill test

Submitted by Blindside on Monday February 19, 2007 @06:33PM

Blindside writes: Are surgeons who are also gamers at an advantage in the operating room? A new study showed that gamers had a distinct advantage in a surgical skills test. 'Neither years of training nor number of surgeries performed would predict performance on the laparoscopy skills test. Past gaming and current skills, in contrast, would. Those who had never gamed took significantly longer to complete the skills test, and had an error rate of roughly 1.5 times that of regular gamers. Similar correlations also held when gaming skills were tested: those scoring in the top third made nearly 50 percent fewer errors, and and performed the drill nearly 40 percent faster. For those keeping score at home, Super Monkey Ball 2 had the best correlation with surgical skills, Star Wars Racer Revenge the worst.'

Submission + - HD DVD on-the-fly copy tool announced

Submitted by tronicum on Monday February 19, 2007 @06:30PM

tronicum writes: Heise reports that Antigua based SlySoft announced a tool called "AnyDVD HD" which ripps AACS on-the-fly from HD DVD discs. It also allows to watch movies on a computer without HDCP equipment and comes with built-in UDF 2.5 for Windows XP. It ships for 79 US$.

Submission + - Why should I care about global warming?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 19, 2007 @06:30PM

An anonymous reader writes: Everyday, I hear about global warming/climate change. But no one ever states why I should care. Can someone give me a compelling reason in a single sentence why I should care about global warming? Really, what is the big fuss about? Is it because you are concerned that the human race will die out? I do not find this concern compelling enough for me to stop driving a SUV, flying in a jumbo jet, using the A/C or keeping the heater on in the winter. Ultimately, our planet will die anyway when our sun dies. I just wish someone could give me a very simple reason why I should care personally about global warming.... a reason compelling enough for me to want to keep the A/C off and be less comfortable.

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