Paolo DF - Slashdot User

Submission + - Inexpensive inertial navigation hardware?

Submitted by spooper on Sunday October 25, 2009 @09:14PM

spooper writes: Trying to identify inexpensive, inertial navigation hardware that can be used to track movement in indoor environments with good accuracy of a couple of feet & link to PC via USB. Does anyone have suggestions on good options to consider? Ideally looking for something with a decent software interface that gives readouts of movements.

Comment Re:I'll ask it again (Score 3, Interesting) 367

by Paolo DF on Thursday October 22, 2009 @01:43PM (#29837647) Attached to: Nokia Sues Apple For Patent Infringement In iPhone

I don't know... If you read the quote (copy&paste from BBC website):
"The basic principle in the mobile industry is that those companies who contribute in technology development to establish standards create intellectual property, which others then need to compensate for," said Ilkka Rahnasto, vice president of Legal & Intellectual Property at Nokia.
"Apple is also expected to follow this principle."

It seems that is more of a 'gentlemen agreement' thing.
I am not a native English speaker, though.

Submission + - BART Web App Capability

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 12, 2009 @01:28PM

An anonymous reader writes: Not so much a story as it is a gripe.

I sent this to the tech support at BART.

"I would like to suggest that the option to have a daily report sent to my email address be made available to EZRider card holders.

It would be helpful to know the balance on my account daily and have a report to give to my employer."

And they replied with the following.

We do not have this capability. You can access your account online and receive and print all this information on your own.
-EZ Rider

I have some experience with PHP based web apps, but my weapon of choice is Linux System Administration. So I may be way off here, but how hard could it be to do this? Just a bunch of lazy admins maybe?

Comment Re:until you CLONE THEM! - Nope (Score 1) 226

by Paolo DF on Tuesday June 02, 2009 @05:25PM (#28188129) Attached to: Dinosaur Posture Still Wrong, Says Study

also, it is Jigowatts :-)

Comment Re:Wireless Mighty Mouse (Score 2, Informative) 519

by Paolo DF on Thursday April 30, 2009 @08:26AM (#27771091) Attached to: Bluetooth Versus Wireless Mice

Of course you can lift and drag!
Read the instruction manual: you'll find that you just have to hold the mouse by those two lateral buttons (not squeezing them, just holding) and you'll be fine!

Comment Re:Instant Karma... (Score 1) 757

by Paolo DF on Friday April 17, 2009 @06:23AM (#27609065) Attached to: Zombie Macs Launch DoS Attack

yet, yesterday there was this discussion on Slashdot, saying nobody wants to use CLI (as usually Linux users do), hence everybody uses Windows...
weird...

Comment Re:I have a feeling.... (Score 1, Insightful) 1010

by Paolo DF on Tuesday April 14, 2009 @06:37PM (#27578881) Attached to: Vista Post-SP2 Is the Safest OS On the Planet

...[citation needed]

Comment Re:Bad Science (Score 1) 485

by Paolo DF on Tuesday April 07, 2009 @02:01PM (#27492807) Attached to: Scientist Forced To Remove Earthquake Prediction

you can see in the images that lots of buildings are the "bricks" kind, and others are the "concrete" kind.
However, many buidings made in the '50s are meda with a concrete that is quite bad for today's standards, where the irons show oxidation and their seismic "capability" is not even near modern constructions.

Comment Re:Bad Science (Score 1) 485

by Paolo DF on Monday April 06, 2009 @07:49PM (#27482985) Attached to: Scientist Forced To Remove Earthquake Prediction

I have to tell you that most of the buildings in those towns are very *very* old buildings, not concrete-seismic-proof structures. Thatt is because central Italy has still got a lot of its medieval towns up and running.

Banned Words List Carries Its First Emoticon 333

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday December 31, 2008 @12:08PM from the bet-they-have-power-in-the-upper-penninsula dept.

DynaSoar writes "Lake Superior State University in Michigan's Upper Peninsula ('The land of four seasons: June, July, August and Winter') has just published its 34th annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. Besides such unsurprising inclusions such as 'green' corporations being 'game changing' due to concern with their 'carbon foot print,' this year's list contains an emoticon for the first time — not a smiley face or variant, but the 'heart' symbol made from the characters 'less than' and 'three.' It's perhaps a sign of the evolution of language, or at least of this volunteer linguistic watchdog group, that a symbol compounded of two characters, neither of them a letter, is considered not only a word, but a particularly egregious one."

Comment Re:What astonishes me... (Score 1) 475

by Paolo DF on Tuesday July 22, 2008 @07:03AM (#24286941) Attached to: Firefox's Effect On Other Browsers

That is *exactly* what I did with my parents.
I also did it with Thunderbird/outlook by adding a skin.

Submission + - Music on the road, literally! (youtube.com)

Submitted by Paolo DF on Tuesday November 13, 2007 @02:51PM

Paolo DF writes: The Guardian is reporting a story about three Japan test roads with grooves in them organized in a way that a car produces music while travelling on them. A youtube video clarifies all.

Submission + - Visit Leonardo's Last Supper online

Submitted by Paolo DF on Saturday October 27, 2007 @10:55AM

Paolo DF writes: In yesterday's news, we discovered that Leonardo's Last Supper, displayed in Milan, is at risk because of the pollution powder carried inside Santa Maria delle Grazie by visitors. This risk led the authorities to limit admittance to the masterpiece.
Now, however, anyone can appreciate the beauty of this masterpiece online, by visiting www.haltadefinizione.com
This is a *huge* 16 billion pixels image made from 1677 separate images.
Although this can not replace the real deal, you can see details unavailable to 'in person' visitors.

Submission + - Italy: be reimbursed if you don't want Windows (corriere.it)

Submitted by Paolo DF on Thursday October 25, 2007 @07:00PM

Paolo DF writes: An italian user asked for a reimbursement after buying a Compaq Computer which came with Windows XP and Works 8 preinstalled. HP tried to avoid the EULA agreement that -more or less- states: "If the user doesn't agree with these terms, he shall contact the manifacturer in order to return the software and receive a reimbursment".
The court ruled in fovour of the user, who received back 90 euros for XP and 50 for Works.
This ruling is particularly important in Italy, since it is one of those countries where computer=Microsoft Windows. Corriere della sera has a report (italian), and here is the ruling (PDF, Italian).

Submission + - New currency on its way (more than worldwide)

Submitted by Paolo DF on Friday October 05, 2007 @02:48PM

Paolo DF writes: Foreign exchange company Travelex by scientists from the National Space Centre and the University of Leicester came up with a new currency, and new coins, too!
The QUID BBC reports is perfect for deep space usage, and it exchanges at nearly 10 euros. Be sure to take a few QUIDs with you on your next trip to the Moon!

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