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Comment Re:Nerds will be nerds (Score 1) 240

by svunt (#25827971) Attached to: American Nerd
In general, I agree with your comment...but low female numbers in math, engineering etc are unavoidable in any society where people are free to choose their careers. The reality is that not nearly as many girls as boys are interested in engineering, math and so on. Call me whatever name you like, but the evidence is there in bucketloads.
Censorship

Submission + - Apple Offering 'Fake Steve' Cash to Close Shop (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Daniel Lyons, a.k.a. Fake Steve Jobs, made a post earlier today about how Apple was apparently offering him some money (in the wake of the ThinkSecret shutdown) to end his blog 'The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs', and that he was interested in taking it. A few hours later, Lyons made another post, saying that Apple's lawyers had contacted him angrily, saying the details of the deal were supposed to remain private. Could this be the end of the blog which has entertained us with the egomaniac rantings of "Steve" for the past year?
The Internet

Survey Shows More Women Blogging Than Men 181

Posted by CowboyNeal from the ladies-choice dept.
thefickler writes "The blogosphere has hit the mainstream, according to a new survey, which reveals that 80% of Americans know what a blog is, 50% regularly visit blogs, and 8% publish their own blog. The survey also reveals that more women than men are bloggers, with 20% of American women who have visited blogs having their own versus 14% of men."
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Star Wars fan creates security scare in Melbourne

Submitted by
svunt
svunt writes: "A Star Wars fan in costume (blaster included) was swooped on by a number of police today in a Melbourne shopping centre. From the article

"The replica gun appeared to have what resembled a battery pack connected to the gun by a coiled wire, while boots and a laptop were also in the bag. The man was clad in black with unusual logos on his sleeve and breast pocket, and had what appeared to be a hands-free mobile phone earphone in one ear.
The man was later charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm. It appears that he was en route to a photo shoot to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of Star Wars."
Censorship

Digg.com Attempts To Suppress HD-DVD Revolt 1142

Posted by kdawson from the toothpaste-back-in-the-tube dept.
fieryprophet writes "An astonishing number of stories related to HD-DVD encryption keys have gone missing in action from digg.com, in many cases along with the account of the diggers who submitted them. Diggers are in open revolt against the moderators and are retaliating in clever and inventive ways. At one point, the entire front page comprised only stories that in one way or another were related to the hex number. Digg users quickly pointed to the HD DVD sponsorship of Diggnation, the Digg podcast show. Search digg for HD-DVD song lyrics, coffee mugs, shirts, and more for a small taste of the rebellion." Search Google for a broader picture; at this writing, about 283,000 pages contain the number with hyphens, and just under 10,000 without hyphens. There's a song. Several domain names including variations of the number have been reserved. Update: 05/02 05:44 GMT by J : New blog post from Kevin Rose of Digg to its users: "We hear you."
Biotech

Cloning the Smell of the Sea 143

Posted by CowboyNeal from the more-than-just-dead-fish dept.
An anonymous reader wrote in with an article that opens: "Scientists from the University of East Anglia have discovered exactly what makes the seaside smell like the seaside — and bottled it. The age-old mystery was unlocked thanks to some novel bacteria plucked from the North Norfolk coast." The responsible substance, dimethyl sulfide, in addition to smelling like the coast, also acts as a homing scent for birds looking to feast on plankton.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft retracts Patent

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "Here is something you don't see very often, if ever, and it was done by Microsoft, nonetheless: they have retracted a patent application. The story was first brought to light by Slashdot on Saturday. Today, Jane Prey of Microsoft announced on the SIGCSE (Special Interest in Computer Science Education) mailing list: "Many thanks to the members of the community that brought this to my attention — and here's the latest. The patent application was a mistake and one that should not have happened. To fix this, Microsoft will be removing the patent application. Our sincere apologies to Michael Kölling and the BlueJ community. Jane Prey.""
Handhelds

Submission + - Nokia developing diamond-like gadget casing

Submitted by space_pingu
space_pingu writes: In the future, all gadgets could be coated with tough, diamond-like material. A patent from Nokia — featured in the latest patent round-up from New Scientist — describes a way of infusing plastic cases with a material, structurally similar to diamond, made from coal. Not only is it more scratch and grime-resistant, but it's also cheap and biodegradable. Apparently it also shines like a metal. Nice.

Diebold Disks May Have Been For Testers 182

Posted by Zonk from the concientious-tester dept.
opencity writes "The Washington Post reports on the two Diebold source disks that were anonymously sent to a Maryland election official this past week. Further investigation has lead individuals involved to believe the disks came from a security check demanded by the Maryland legislature sometime in 2003." From the article: "Critics of electronic voting said the most recent incident in Maryland casts doubt on Lamone's claim that Maryland has the nation's most secure voting system. "There now may be numerous copies of the Diebold software floating around in unauthorized hands," said Linda Schade, co-founder of TrueVoteMD, which has pressed for a system that provides a verifiable paper record of each vote."
Slashdot.org

Journal Journal: Who did I piss off? 2

Journal by svunt
As far as I can remember, /. usually asks me to metamod about 8,000 mods a day...until a couple of weeks ago, when I suddenly seemed to be cut out of the loop, no mod points for weeks, no metamod links, nothing. I haven't accused editors of anything, I haven't had a single down-mod in months, I contribute comments regularly, moderate carefully, etc.

weird.

Handheld Device Reads Printed Words to the Blind 110

Posted by samzenpus from the too-busy-to-read dept.
geekotourist writes "3,000 people in Dallas this week for the National Federation of the Blind convention are getting a demonstration of what life is like when you can read printed menus, mail, business cards and memos," reports the Dallas Morning News. The NFB spent two million dollars developing the $3,495 Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader, which weighs 15 ounces and combines text-to-speech with sophisticated OCR. The device 'gives the user an initial "situation report," describing what it can see. The user then makes a decision about whether to take a picture. After a few seconds to process the image, the contents of the document are read aloud.' Beta testers describe the joys of reading receipts, CDs, food labels, bulletin boards, conference printouts, or of simply reading books with privacy, without another person's help."

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