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Comment Re:why has every f***ng RC car to be called robot? (Score 1) 79

Not necessarily. The term "waldo" is generally restricted to anthropomorphic robots which are controlled by the same part of a human they imitate, such as a robotic hand being controlled by a sensing glove worn by a human. It can also be used to refer to a control mechanism that is a direct extension of an existing control mechanism that is meant to interface with a human, such as recreating a set of full-size controls for a car, and remotely linking them to an actual car.
Security

UK Can't Read Its Own ID Cards 205

An anonymous reader writes "Despite the introduction of ID cards last November, it has emerged that Britain has no readers that are able to read the cards' microchips, which contain the person's fingerprints and other biometric information. With cops and border guards unable to use the cards to check a person's identity, critics are calling the £4.7bn scheme 'farcical' and a 'waste of time.'"

Comment Re:Hookay... damage control? Paid by MS? (Score 1) 864

5 - The only view I ever want to use in Explorer is Details. So like every other version of Windows, the first thing I did was to set the view to Details for a folder, go into the Folder Options, and tell Windows not to use unique views for each folder. Despite doing this many times, Vista will still randomly pick other views that it thinks are better (even though they're worse) for some folders some of the time. It also refuses to remember the sort order I choose for my Documents folder, and every time I go into it, it's sorted by Type, not Name.

Oh dear god yes. This has got to be my #1 annoyance with Vista.

Here, let me google that for you.

In all seriousness though, I agree it's a pretty horrible "feature". Here's a more concise guide that fixes just what you're talking about: http://www.askvg.com/how-to-fix-annoying-folder-view-type-problem-in-windows-vista/

Data Storage

Samsung Mass Produces Fast 256GB SSDs 280

Lucas123 writes "Samsung said it's now mass producing a 256GB solid state disk that it says has sequential read/write rates of 220MB/sec and 200/MBsec, respectively. Samsung said it focused on narrowing the disparity of read/write rates on its SSD drive with this model by interleaving NAND flash chips using eight channels, the same way Intel boosts its X25 SSD. The drive doubles the performance of Samsung's previous 64GB and 128GB SSDs. 'The 256GB SSD launches applications 10 times faster than the fastest 7200rpm notebook HDD,' Samsung said in a statement."

Comment Re:Not all that surprising (Score 1) 244

Personally what I want to see is an MMO that is really good that isn't trying to be WoW. I'd really like a more PvP oriented MMO.

It doesn't look like it's been mentioned on slashdot in a while, so I might suggest checking out Darkfall. It's true that it has been in development for a long time, but it's currently in a sort of public-invitation-beta, and it's due to be released by the end of the year.

From everything I've read about it, it seems to be a lot like UO. PvP can take place anywhere, and it's full loot on death, but you're held accountable for your actions by a reputation system and there are NPC guards to protect you in the main cities (this is all exactly like EVE online too). It's also classless and level-less; your character is defined by what skills you choose (and your race to some extent), and there's a max number of points you can have for all your skills, which you can train and un-train at will. Players can make their own cities with their own NPC guards even who can be instructed on who to attack. Most items will be player created. The list of fun stuff goes on, but the biggest problem I foresee is in the area of polish, as it's made by a relatively small and new company. Then again they have been working on it for something like 7 years, so one can hope.

Slashdot.org

Submission + - How the Web Almost Never Was

An anonymous reader writes: I remember in the early 1990's when the web was being developed; Yahoo! was only 1 page, and there was believed to be only 100 web pages (not sites) in the whole world. The web had no ad banners, no PPC, and no commercial use. Domain name registration was free. Everyone believed the Internet was primarily used by college students. Some groups, like the RIAA, claimed the web & FTP sites were primarily used to transfer illegal music and therefor the world wide web should be shut down. This true story parallels the RIAA's current campaign against P2P sites, and explains why P2P technology (such as DNS) is necessary for the future of the web.
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Simple computation using dominos

An anonymous reader writes: When silicon fails to beat Moores law, maybe dominos can help. This guy has created a half adder in dominos as a proof of concept for domino computation. If he intends to make a full domino computer he's going to need an awful lot of dominos...
It's funny.  Laugh.

Submission + - Boston Bomb-Squad Strikes Again

Brian writes: Boston Police discover (and destroy) the latest pseudo-threat. This time it's not an animated LED sign, but something far, far more nasty — A Traffic Counter. You know, the little boxes that the city (!) places on a roadside to measure the number of cars that pass in a given amount of time. Wow.

Link
via BoingBoing.

DRM Protest in Hazmat Suits 385

johnsu01 writes "The Free Software Foundation launched a new anti-DRM initiative today with a flash protest at Bill Gates's keynote speech to Microsoft developers in Seattle. They're calling the new campaign 'Defective by Design' and have named Big Media, device manufacturers and proprietary software companies as targets. CivicActions is participating as a coalition partner in the campaign. Protesters donned HazMat suits, apparently to emphasize the hazard Digital Restrictions Management poses to their rights." There are also a few pictures available over at Defectivebydesign.org.

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