Der Huhn Teufel - Slashdot User

Chinese Develop Remote Controlled Pigeons 238

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday February 28, 2007 @06:01AM from the better-than-sharks-with-lasers dept.

Many readers sent us links to the story about Chinese scientists developing pigeons whose flight can be controlled remotely. The best coverage may be Wired's, both because they link to the English language version of the original Peoples Daily Online release, and because of the (disturbing) photos. The birds can be commanded to fly left, right, up, or down. Reader KDan writes, "A number of obvious uses jump out to me... the remote-controlled pigeons will finally allow us to create an efficient implementation of RFC 1149 and RFC 2549."

Submission + - Definitive answer to Fermi's Paradox

Submitted by

fiveniner

on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @11:51PM

fiveniner writes: "I have written my definitive answer to Fermi's paradox, which I think is pretty more accurate and fun than the one shown one month ago in slashdot (http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/ 19/1515205) I really belive no one can argument on it. Here it goes: (link to my post: http://logforbuggymind.blogspot.com/2007/02/my-own -response-to-fermis-paradox.html ) So today I came with my own response to Fermi's paradox: As the technology and science knowledge of extraterrestrial civilizations advance, they feel eager to conquer the rest of the universe, but at some point in that way to the universe, they advance in science enough to know how does their brain work, and they realize that being eager to conquer the world is an impulse originated by their desire of power, which ultimately only gives pleasure because some neurotransmitters activate when "power" is achieved. So before they can even go and conquer the universe, they discover a drug which gives that same pleasure, but without conquering the universe, just eating a pill, so then they eat the pill, and dont want to conquer anything, because they are happy, and after that, they discover that disappearing is not such a bad option, so they decide to just disappear, so that's why there's no evidence of extraterrestrial life, it's better to have drugs and disappear. That's the ULTIMATE ANSWER to Life, the Universe and Everything thanks and best regards... (I love karma) elias"

Submission + - Argentina Storm Chase Expedition, Strongest Storms

Submitted by

Jeff Gammons

on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @10:57PM

Jeff Gammons writes: "A group of storm chasers from the United States are currently on a storm expedition in search of the worlds most intense lightning storms. The group is filming with the BBC for a upcoming documentary on National Geographic about these intense thunderstorm convergence area's in Argentina east of the Andes mountains. A NASA study identified these thunderstorms to be the most intense on earth. The strongest of the storms were found to occur east of the Andes Mountains in Argentina, where warm, humid air often collides with cooler, drier air, similar to storms that form east of the Rockies over the Plains in the United States.
http://www.stormvideographer.com/blog/2007/02/27/a rgentina-storm-chase-expedition-exclusive/"

Purdue Unveils a Tricorder 177

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @09:23PM from the beam-me-up dept.

aeoneal writes "According to Science Daily, mass spectrometry is no longer limited to what can be taken to the lab. Purdue researchers have created a device they liken to a tricorder, a handy 20-lb. device that combines mass spectrometry with DESI (desorption electrospray ionization), allowing chemical composition to be determined outside of a vacuum chamber. Purdue suggests this could be useful for everything from detecting explosive substances or cancer to predicting disease. Researcher R. Graham Cooks says, 'We like to compare it to the tricorder because it is truly a hand-held instrument that yields information about the precise chemical composition of samples in a matter of minutes without harming the samples.'"

Submission + - Google Maps for the Brain

Submitted by

azonips

on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @07:06PM

azonips writes: "From EurekAlert: Explore your brain, literally, at the largest online atlast of the brain! BrainMaps.org features the highest resolution whole-brain atlases ever constructed, with over 50 terabytes of brain image data directly accessible online. Users can explore the brains of humans and a variety of other species at an unprecedented level of detail, from a broad view of the brain to the fine details of nerves and connections. The website also includes a suite of free, downloadable tools for navigating and analyzing brain data. The high-resolution maps will enable researchers to use "virtual microscopy" to compare healthy brains with others, looking at structure, gene expression and the distribution of different proteins. They will enable better understanding of the organization of normal brains, and could help researchers in identifying fine morphological and chemical abnormalities underlying Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other neurological diseases."

Submission + - Scientists Expose Weak DNA in HIV

Submitted by

Ace905

on Saturday February 17, 2007 @05:24AM

Ace905 writes: "The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases announced Thursday that they had discovered a very promising, "weak spot" in the HIV Virus. The HIV virus, a progenitor to full blown "Auto-Immune Deficiency Syndrome" or AIDS has eluded all attempts at a vaccine since it was discovered sometime in the 1970's. The major problem with developing a vaccine initially was isolating the virus. Conventional viruses are often defeated with existing drugs, or after being tested against new compounds. HIV has been unique, and staggering in it's ability to resist all attempts at treatment by mutating its' own genetic code. HIV is able to resist, with great effectiveness, any drug or combination drug-therapy that is used against it.

So far, our best efforts have been slowing down progression of the disease — but the number of people infected every year is rising and victims are estimated at 1.4 Million in North American alone, last year. Discovering a chain of vulnerable DNA on the HIV virus gives researchers a very exact target that can not resist damage."

Submission + - Halo 3 Gets Official Fall 2007 Release Date

Submitted by notd665 on Saturday February 17, 2007 @05:19AM

notd665 writes: Developer Bungie released the first in a series of teaser images for its game today, along with one very useful tidbit: Halo 3 is indeed slated for a late 2007 release on the XBOX 360. Next week's major XBOX 360 release, Crackdown, will contain an invitation to the Halo 3 beta, which is expected to launch in the spring.

Submission + - DS wi-fi homebrew ventures where Nintendo doesn't

Submitted by VonSnouty on Saturday February 17, 2007 @04:44AM

VonSnouty writes: Besides garage-coded Wi-Fi games like Omalone and DS Doom, Pocket Gamer's DS Homebrew Review this month gives a heads-up on WFCStatus, a neat app that enables you to check who's playing what on the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Wonder why Nintendo doesn't offer such functionality itself?

Submission + - Comparison of Working at the 3 Big Software Giants

Submitted by

castironwok

on Saturday February 17, 2007 @04:35AM

castironwok writes: "Finally, everything you've ever wanted to know about being an employee at Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Tastyresearch describes his (or her) past few years interning and working at the three companies. Things I didn't know from before: Bill Gates wears old shoes, Google's internal security watches you like a hawk, the office styles of each company, and how to fill your suitcase with Google T-shirts. He calls the few select companies the 'prestigious internship circle', noting "once you have worked at one, it's a lot easier to get into another". But what *I* really want to know now, is who has a more equal male-female ratio?"

Submission + - AMD releases specs of R600 - the last of its kind?

Submitted by uop on Saturday February 17, 2007 @04:10AM

uop writes: AMD released details of their next-generation graphics card (http://www.dailytech.com/AMD+Releases+Final+R600+ Specs/article6138.htm).
Cards are due in 6 weeks, and highlights include:
- 700 million transistors
- Full 512 bit memory interface
- 1GB of memory and vapor chill cooling in the reference configuration

In this round of the battle between the major graphics companies, GPUs have reached transistor counts in the server-CPU range.
Can they keep this battle economical without a major design shift?

Submission + - Microsofts Office 2007 MLK setup annoys customers

Submitted by

lukas84

on Saturday February 17, 2007 @03:26AM

lukas84 writes: "With Office 2007, Microsoft changed the rules for OEM versions again — they're now called MLK. You no longer get media with your MLK License, you will have to order them from Microsoft together with receipts of your new PC.

Not every reseller seems to obey these new rules, as i've written in my article about this particular problem."

Godwin's Law Invoked in Linus/Gnome Spat 828

Posted by Zonk on Saturday February 17, 2007 @03:21AM from the can't-the-nazis-stay-out-of-just-one-internet-argument dept.

lisah writes "The flame wars between Linus Torvalds and the GNOME community continue to burn. Responding to Torvalds' recent claim that GNOME 'seems to be developed by interface Nazis' and that its developers believe their 'users are idiots,' a member of the Linux Foundation's Desktop Architects mailing list suggested that Torvalds use GNOME for a month before making such pronouncements. Torvalds, never one to back down from a challenge, simply turned around and submitted patches to GNOME and then told the list, '...let's see what happens to my patches. I guarantee you that they actually improve the code.' After lobbing that over the fence, Torvalds concluded his comments by saying, 'Now the question is, will people take the patches, or will they keep their heads up their arses and claim that configurability is bad, even when it makes things more logical, and code more readable.'" Linux.com and Slashdot are both owned by OSTG.

Submission + - BSD Stackable Filesystem Series I

Submitted by

jasonrfink00

on Saturday February 17, 2007 @03:19AM

jasonrfink00 writes: "Nice beginning article of a promising BSD series: The nullfs filesystem is a passthrough filesystem. When nullfs is mounted it — literally copies the filesystem transaction. If a file is deleted, nullfs simply transmits the information down to the lower filesystem. Conversely, if a file is created, it does the same and tacks on all of the data needed for the filesystem underneath. Why is that a good thing? Where did nullfs come from and why?. What else, if anything, is it good for? The series focuses on where nullfs comes from, how it can be leveraged, a code walk and a skeloten implementation (nearly a blind copy). link."

Feed What’s Offline: Wireless Codependency (nytimes.com)

From feed by nytfeed on Saturday February 17, 2007 @02:12AM

Constantly talking on your cellphone is making you less independent and less able to experience your life as fully as you should.

Feed After Its Founder’s Return, Many Are Leaving at Dell (nytimes.com)

From feed by nytfeed on Saturday February 17, 2007 @02:12AM

Two weeks after he returned to run the computer company that bears his name, Michael S. Dell is making sweeping senior management changes.

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