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HP

HP Officially Out of TouchPads 127

Posted by timothy from the now-you'll-have-to-touch-different dept.
First time accepted submitter AtomicAdam writes "I guess all that waiting and hoping was in vain. HP just sent out an email officially claiming to be out of TouchPads. 'Dear Valued Customer: Making sure customers have a positive experience when they purchase our products is a priority for us. In some cases, limited inventory makes it challenging to fulfill all customer orders. As you signed up for updates on the HP TouchPad, we wanted you to know that we are officially out of stock. Some retailers will have some stock available, but our online inventory is depleted.'"
Programming

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Best EEPROM Programmer for a Hobbyis 1

Submitted by BigSes
BigSes writes: I had been in the amusement repair industry (video gaming, pinball, jukeboxes, etc) for more than a decade, but have recently taken a new career path. I still greatly enjoy tinkering with all the electronics, and collect many arcade games and pinball machines for my home. I always had access to EEPROM / PROM / PIC / GAL programmers on the job, but never owned one personally. I'm finding it difficult to work within my chosen hobby without one, and ordering pre-programmed chips can be cost prohibitive for some projects. I would love it if some of you professionals or other hobbyists out there could recommend a great programmer that supports a large number of chip formats for me to use. Id like it to be something USB, more modern than Serial or Parallel port (usually what we had in the old days) and preferably sub-$300, new or used. There are tons of Chinese import types on eBay, but I'd hate to spend $80+ if I am unsure of the quality. I appreciate it in advance guys!
Censorship

Blue Coat Concedes Its Devices Operating in Syria 90

Posted by timothy from the hat-tip-to-jake dept.
A few weeks ago, in reaction to claims that Blue Coat systems were being used to track internet use in Syria, a company spokesman denied the charges here, saying "To our knowledge, we do not have any customers in Syria," and that the company followed the web of regulations that would prohibit sale to certain countries, Syria among them. In response to the logs on which the claims were based, he said "it appears that these logs came from an appliance in a country where there are no trade restrictions." A report at the Wall Street Journal says that the company has now acknowledged that Blue Coat devices are being used in Syria after all; the paper reports that at least 13 of the censorware boxes are in use there, and cites an unnamed source who says "as many as 25 appliances have made their way into Syria since the mid-2000s, with most sold through Dubai-based middlemen."
Android

Submission + - Dolphin, a 3rd Party Android Browser, relays visit (androidpolice.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "As it turns out, Dolphin HD, one of the top browsers the Android platform has to offer, sends pretty much every web page url you visit, including those that start with https, to a remote server en.mywebzines.com, which belongs to the company. In fact, the WebZines feature was introduced only recently back in June with version 6.0, so it's safe to say this tracking started around the same time."

Dolphin's team says a fix is coming shortly.
Open Source

Submission + - $25 PC Prototype gets award at ARM TechCon (raspberrypi.org)

Submitted by
gbl08ma
gbl08ma writes: "The Raspberry Pi project, which aims to create a $25 Linux box, won a award for the category "Best in Show for Hardware Design", at ARM TechCon, even though they haven't yet released any final product (the release will be sometime in late November).
The director of the Raspberry Pi foundation, Eben Upton, shown at the event, demonstrating the capabilities of one of the prototypes that have been built. From advanced graphics at 1080p HD resolution to simple web browsing and desktop productivity, the small boards with ARM-based processors and PoP SDRAM have proven to be very versatile, fast and durable.
The whole Raspberry Pi team and community are very happy for this prize and they all hope this results in big success for the project. Lets just wait for the final boards to be released."
Medicine

Stanford's Open Source Human Motion Software 15

Posted by Soulskill from the defining-the-mathematically-perfect-swagger dept.
eldavojohn writes "Stanford's OpenSim software is a human motion modeling package that is currently making the rounds at museums where 'visitors walk across a pressure-sensitive floor and are presented at the other side with color-coded print outs of their weight distribution, identifying even slight imbalances that might be putting undue stress on their limbs and joints.' This project can also help with planning surgery (video). The work has been published in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering (note that this is a different effort from the virtual world of the same name). Although Stanford's press release says it is now open source, I cannot find what license they are using, nor can I access their SVN browser after registering."
Cellphones

Submission + - Nokia Unveils OLED Phone You Control by Bending (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by jldailey618
jldailey618 writes: Nokia just unveiled an OLED smartphone that is controlled by flexing the device with both hands. By bending corners and pushing the sides inward and outward, the user can scroll, zoom, and select. Researchers would not discuss exactly how the processor behind the twisty screen functioned, but they did say that it would be compatible with most current operating systems.

Comment Re:Australia - more backwards than the US (Score 1) 103

by donak (#37228272) Attached to: Controversial Cybercrime Bill Introduced In Australia

" ... Conroy's internet filter springs to mind - it never had a hope of getting through Parliament and being enacted ... "
Have I got bad news for you! Although the legislation never made it off the blocks, three of the biggest ISPs (Telstra, Optus & Primus) implemented it anyway.
I'm with Optus, and thankfully, I haven't noticed any major drop in my connection speed ... mostly ... yet.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/fractious-isps-may-fumble-their-chance-on-internet-filter/story-e6frgakx-1225890925760

Comment Drunken Lorikeets (Score 1) 250

by donak (#34674446) Attached to: The Animal World Has Its Junkies, Too

In the Australian city where I live, the local lorikeets (a kind of parrot) go absolutely wild over the flowers of the "Pepper" tree in the middle of our summer,
because the nectar in the flowers ferments in the heat ... and they get totally legless, wingless ... anything you can call it.

I've seen one flutter to the ground in front of me, land on it's back ... with it's wings still flapping like mad, trying to fly upside down.
After 20 seconds of going nowhere, it stopped, shook itself to it's feet and finally managed to take off. I didn't see it hit anything as it went,
but I'm glad it went the other way ...

Comment Difference between Mathematics and Arithmetic? (Score 1) 1153

by donak (#34091564) Attached to: How Much Math Do We Really Need?

Some years ago, I helped a colleague at work, who was attending a night-school accounting course, who had no idea how to calculate a simple proportion sum.

(If 5 apples cost $4.00, how much do 12 apples cost? 12 apples cost more than 5, so it's 12 / 5 x 4.00 / 1 = 48.00 / 5 = where's my calculator? ummm $9.60)
He'd passed senior high-school and been accepted into the course on his results.

I don't think things that "simple" are taught any more, as a simple stand-alone arithmetic tool ... something I learnt in primary school (elementary school).
So maybe, to keep it useful and relevant to daily life, more Arithmetic to a higher level needs to be taught (possibly in the simplistic repetitive rote manner it always was taught) and perhaps a greater level of interest in higher Mathematics will result.

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