Comment How much do slashdot readers earn? (Score 5, Insightful) 118
I'd be curious to see a poll of how much slashdot readers earn. Then we'll know how many people actually find this new article interesting/useful.
Comment Re:Is it still Windows only? (Score 1) 179
Nope, works great on any OS/browser with Flash
Matt Hazard Returns 31
D3Publisher has announced Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard, bringing everyone's favorite gun-toting superstar back to the forefront of gaming culture. Or at least, that's what they tell us. Nobody's actually ever seen or played a Matt Hazard title before; it's just a clever marketing campaign for what is essentially a parody game based on popular shooter standards. They've even made a fake history of Matt Hazard games. "Eat Lead parodies some of our fondest memories in classic gaming and pop culture, so gamers will have a laugh out loud experience everytime they pick-up the controller," said Pete Andrew, a D3P exec.
Comment I reported this on slashdot months ago (Score 1) 438
I reported this to Google back in March, and then again in April. Neither times did I get a reply, so I tried posting it to bugtrap, that got no reply, so I posted it on my blog and on Slashdot. My comment on slashdot was voted down out of existence.... now the news is on the front page of Slashdot... grrr!
Google Open Sources Browser Sync 113
Dan Berlin writes "After announcing that Browser Sync was being discontinued, a lot of people asked for Google to open source the code so development could continue.
Well, they've done just that.
The code for browser sync is now available on code.google.com, and a blog post about the release can be found on the Google open source blog"
Submission + - Google opens up their infrastructure
bramp writes: Google have just announced Google App Engine, a way for developers to run their web applications on Google's infrastructure.
"With Google App Engine, developers can write web applications based on the same building blocks that Google uses, like GFS and Bigtable. Google App Engine packages those building blocks and provides access to scalable infrastructure that we hope will make it easier for developers to scale their applications automatically as they grow"
"With Google App Engine, developers can write web applications based on the same building blocks that Google uses, like GFS and Bigtable. Google App Engine packages those building blocks and provides access to scalable infrastructure that we hope will make it easier for developers to scale their applications automatically as they grow"
Submission + - SPAM: Beware the 802.11n power play
alphadogg writes: Next-generation 802.11n systems promise to considerably improve WLAN performance. But the processing required for the boost sucks up more power than the older 802.11a/b/g networks. Still, many enterprise-class Wi-Fi vendors claim to deliver full 802.11n capabilities without enterprise customers having to touch their power infrastructures. So what gives?
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Submission + - Where's my flying car? eBay! (google.com)
StCredZero writes: I got this via Boing Boing The thing looks like a speeder that right out of Mos Eisley in Star Wars. 'A concept Sky Commuter aircraft that absorbed $6 mil in startup capital is for sale on eBay. The seller appears to be one of the engineers, and the long description associated with the listing is a heartbreaking (and eccentrically punctuated) story of a beautiful, dashed dream...In a brief description of the ship: It has a operational electric gas assisted lexan bubble canopy. Electric controled directional driving and landing lights. Electric Joystick and two foot pedals on both side and the craft was meant to be controlled from either seat. Advanced front dash shell made of Carbonfiber and Kevlar. Rear engine and electronics bay accessible by tilting seats forward and removing the back panel. (3) huge 3 foot lifting fans CCW/CW rotation. This was made to take off in vertical fight and land. It can be landed on water and float like a boat and take off of water. The targeted dream was to lift above it all and not deal with the daily gridlock traffic. Nearly at the finish line it all came to a abrupt stop and all the years and investment and R&D and production, Remains in this one craft shown here.'
Now, it's on eBay.
Now, it's on eBay.
Submission + - KDE 4.0 is out!
bball99 writes: "It's official! KDE 4.0 is here! You can read more about the newest version of one of the most popular desktop environments at http://dot.kde.org/1200050369/
More detailed info is at the KDE announcments page: http://www.kde.org/announcements/4.0/
Upgrades to KDE libs, applications, the desktop, but most apparent — the artwork! Ooh La La!"
More detailed info is at the KDE announcments page: http://www.kde.org/announcements/4.0/
Upgrades to KDE libs, applications, the desktop, but most apparent — the artwork! Ooh La La!"
Feed New Scientist: 'Painkiller' gene turned off in mice (pheedo.com)
Feed The Register: Do composting toilet worms get the blues? (theregister.com)
Feed The Register: Sony posts PS3 DivX firmware update (theregister.com)
Better Blu-ray support too
Sony has formally announced the firmware update that will bring support for the DivX video format and for the Blu-ray Disc Profile 1.1 - aka Bonus View - to the PlayStation 3.
Submission + - Has anyone gotten the GPL code for the Samsung TVs 2
Daniel Lamblin writes: When I got my Samsung LN-T3242H 32" 720P LCD HD TV It came with a copy of the GPL, and a statement saying that some software used in the product is covered by the GPL and other software by LGPL. There was also a USB port on the back from which new firmware could be loaded. This excited me and I emailed the address specified with a request for the code, and anything they were willing to give as documentation with it. I believe the GPL specifies that there must be a usable way to build the source too. Well, two requests later, I had no reply. I emailed a Samsung engineer formerly involved in GPL related work, and he forwarded my request to the right people. It seemed. The last I heard, and they did try to keep me updated, was that they're getting it together for me, I should have it soon, and they need to talk to people in Monta Vista. This was in October. I got the TV in June and made requests starting then.
Apparently several, if not all, Samsung TV models have a reference to using some GPL code. This goes back about to 2005, maybe more. Has anyone's request for the source been honored? I understand maybe my TV has slightly different code, and they may be using a VCS to find the right branch, but it would make me feel better knowing that this isn't a black-hole and that someone's actually gotten some code out of Samsung regarding their TV using GPL & LGPL.
PS edit as needed.
Apparently several, if not all, Samsung TV models have a reference to using some GPL code. This goes back about to 2005, maybe more. Has anyone's request for the source been honored? I understand maybe my TV has slightly different code, and they may be using a VCS to find the right branch, but it would make me feel better knowing that this isn't a black-hole and that someone's actually gotten some code out of Samsung regarding their TV using GPL & LGPL.
PS edit as needed.
Submission + - New 4-quark particle discovered in Japan (www.kek.jp)
mu22le writes: "An international team of researchers at the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) in Tsukuba, Japan, the "Belle collaboration"*1, recently announced the discovery of an exotic new sub-atomic particle with non-zero electric charge. This particle, which the researchers have named the Z(4430)*2, does not fit into the usual scheme of "mesons", combinations of a quark*3and an antiquark that are held together by the force of the strong interaction.
The Z(4430) particle was found in the decay products of B-mesons (mesons containing a "bottom" quark) that are produced in large numbers at the KEKB "B-factory", an electron-positron collider at the KEK laboratory. While investigating various decays of the B meson in a data sample containing about 660 million pairs of B and anti-B mesons, the Belle team observed 120 B mesons that decay into a Z(4430) and a K-meson. The Z(4430) then instantly decays into a "Psi-prime" (Psi-prime) particle and a pi-meson (see Figure-1). The Belle team found that this particle has the same electric charge as the electron and a mass about 4.7 times that of the proton.
In the past few years, a number of peculiar new particles, including the so-called X(3872), Y(4260), X(3940), Y(3940), have been found by the Belle and also by the BaBar experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). These new particles lie in the mass region from 4 to 4.5 times the proton mass, and decay into "J/psi" or "Psi-prime" particles and pi-mesons. Here J/psi and Psi-prime particles are examples of so-called "charmonium" mesons, bound states of a charm quark and its anti-particle (an anti-charm quark). Since the masses and the decay properties of these new particles do not match theoretical expectations for quark-antiquark combinations, theorists around the world have proposed other potential explanations, which include the possibility that some are made up of four quarks (for example, a combination of a charm quark, an anti-charm quark, an up quark and an anti-up quark). However, since all of these new particles are electrically neutral, it was not experimentally possible to rule out alternative explanations of the new states as excited charmonium mesons.
On the other hand, the newly discovered Z(4430) state has non-zero electric charge, a characteristic that clearly distinguishes this particle from normal quark-antiquark mesons; it, therefore, must have a charm quark, an anti-charm quark and at least two more quarks (for example, an up quark and an anti-down quark). Thus, the Z(4430) does not fit into the framework of known mesons. As a result it has attracted a considerable amount of attention from the world's physics community (Figures 2 and 3).
Single quarks cannot be isolated. Instead, quarks are confined in composite particles such as mesons. This is a characteristic feature of the strong force, described by a mathematical theory called "Quantum Chromo-Dynamics (QCD)". The discoveries of sub-atomic particles at the KEK B-factory provide an experimental foundation for better understanding of the phenomena of quark confinement as well as the formation of matter in QCD.
The discovery of the Z(4430) is described in a paper submitted on October 22 to Physical Review Letters, a leading physics research journal."
The Z(4430) particle was found in the decay products of B-mesons (mesons containing a "bottom" quark) that are produced in large numbers at the KEKB "B-factory", an electron-positron collider at the KEK laboratory. While investigating various decays of the B meson in a data sample containing about 660 million pairs of B and anti-B mesons, the Belle team observed 120 B mesons that decay into a Z(4430) and a K-meson. The Z(4430) then instantly decays into a "Psi-prime" (Psi-prime) particle and a pi-meson (see Figure-1). The Belle team found that this particle has the same electric charge as the electron and a mass about 4.7 times that of the proton.
In the past few years, a number of peculiar new particles, including the so-called X(3872), Y(4260), X(3940), Y(3940), have been found by the Belle and also by the BaBar experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). These new particles lie in the mass region from 4 to 4.5 times the proton mass, and decay into "J/psi" or "Psi-prime" particles and pi-mesons. Here J/psi and Psi-prime particles are examples of so-called "charmonium" mesons, bound states of a charm quark and its anti-particle (an anti-charm quark). Since the masses and the decay properties of these new particles do not match theoretical expectations for quark-antiquark combinations, theorists around the world have proposed other potential explanations, which include the possibility that some are made up of four quarks (for example, a combination of a charm quark, an anti-charm quark, an up quark and an anti-up quark). However, since all of these new particles are electrically neutral, it was not experimentally possible to rule out alternative explanations of the new states as excited charmonium mesons.
On the other hand, the newly discovered Z(4430) state has non-zero electric charge, a characteristic that clearly distinguishes this particle from normal quark-antiquark mesons; it, therefore, must have a charm quark, an anti-charm quark and at least two more quarks (for example, an up quark and an anti-down quark). Thus, the Z(4430) does not fit into the framework of known mesons. As a result it has attracted a considerable amount of attention from the world's physics community (Figures 2 and 3).
Single quarks cannot be isolated. Instead, quarks are confined in composite particles such as mesons. This is a characteristic feature of the strong force, described by a mathematical theory called "Quantum Chromo-Dynamics (QCD)". The discoveries of sub-atomic particles at the KEK B-factory provide an experimental foundation for better understanding of the phenomena of quark confinement as well as the formation of matter in QCD.
The discovery of the Z(4430) is described in a paper submitted on October 22 to Physical Review Letters, a leading physics research journal."
Carnegie Mellon Wins Urban Challenge 153
ThinkingInBinary writes "The results from the Urban Challenge are in! Carnegie Mellon's Tartan Racing team came in first (earning a $2 million prize), followed by Stanford's Stanford Racing team in second (earning $1 mil) and Virginia Tech's Victor Tango in third (earning $500k). Cornell's Team Cornell, University of Pennsylvania and Lehigh University's Ben Franklin Racing Team, and MIT, also finished the race in that order."
