Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Science

Blind Man Navigates Obstacle Maze Unaided 191

Posted by samzenpus from the matthew-murdock dept.
iammani writes "The NYTimes runs a story about a blind man (blind because of a damaged visual cortex) successfully navigating an obstacle maze, unaided. Scientists have shown for the first time that it is possible for people who are blinded because of damage to the visual (striate) cortex can navigate by 'blindsight,' through which they can detect things in their vicinity without being aware of seeing them."
Education

ACM Urges Obama To Include CS In K-12 Core 474

Posted by kdawson from the little-algol-and-less-fortran dept.
jmcbain writes "The ACM issued a set of recommendations supporting Barack Obama's stated goal of making science and mathematics education a national priority at the K-12 level. The ACM is urging the new administration to include Computer Science as an integral part of the nation's education system. 'The new Administration can play an important role in strengthening middle school education, where action can really make a difference, to introduce these students to computer science,' said ACM CEO John White." Is CS such a basic subject, at the level of science or math, that it makes sense to (try to) teach its principles to every elementary school child?
Programming

Rails and Merb Ruby Web Frameworks Merge 80

Posted by kdawson from the flattened-red-gem dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Merb and Rails Core Teams today announced a major merger; the two projects will become one, and be released some time in Q2 of 2009 as Rails 3. This is great news for lots of folks who worried about the potential community fracture, as well as great news for all the developers who will now have an all-around better option for programming Ruby. Read more about the details in Yehuda's blog post, or at the Ruby on Rails blog."
Windows

Microsoft Extends XP To May 2009 For OEMs 605

Posted by timothy from the that-pesky-reality-again dept.
beuges writes "Microsoft has announced over the weekend that it would allow computer manufacturers to receive copies of XP until the end of May 2009, shortly before Windows 7 is expected to hit the market. This should allow users to skip Vista entirely and move straight to 7, which has been receiving cautiously favorable reviews of pre-release and leaked alphas."

Comment Re:so? (Score 1) 369

by sveard (#25719259) Attached to: Windows 7 Benchmarks Show Little Improvement On Vista

I'm having a hard time figuring out what the point of your post is (language barrier on my end). Are you implying that I do not know what hardware I use? Because I do. I'm not looking to flame or start an argument, I genuinly do not understand.

In any case, such a restore disc becomes useless when you install a newer version of your operating system (xp -> vista for example, although why would you do that? ;)).
Space

Submission + - Hot gas in space mimics life (space.com)

Submitted by sveard
sveard writes: From a space.com article:

Electrically charged specks of interstellar dust organize into DNA-like double helixes and display properties normally attributed to living systems, such as evolving and reproducing, new computer simulations show.

Studies on Earth have shown that if enough particles are injected into a low-temperature plasma, they will spontaneously organize into crystal-like structures. Computer simulations suggest that these plasma particles will bead together to form string-like filaments that then twist into helical strands resembling DNA. The computer-modeled plasma particles can also divide to form two copies of the original structure and even "evolve" into more stable structures that are better able to survive in the plasma.

"These complex, self-organized plasma structures exhibit all the necessary properties to qualify them as candidates for inorganic living matter," said V.N. Tsytovich of the Russian Academy of Science.
Power

Submission + - USB BATTERY

Submitted by
nycheetah
nycheetah writes: "http://www.usbcell.com/ With over 15 billion batteries needlessly thrown away each year, and with the increasing demand for portable power by modern electronic devices — the battery has simply not caught up with the needs of modern life. Traditional rechargeable batteries have never been truly portable as they are dependent on chargers or adpators, and so most consumers prefer single use alkaline cells. With USBCELL we aim to change this balance by enabling consumers to Recharge Anywhere, without needing or carrying an external charger. With over 2 billion USB ports on modern computers and devices USBCELL can be charged easily at work, On the Go, or at home."
Unix

Submission + - OS X Leopard is Unix Certified (damonjustisntfunny.com)

Submitted by
thornomad
thornomad writes: "At least Intel-based Macs will have something to hang on their monitors: Unix 03 Certification:

Apple's forthcoming release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is the first BSD-based operating system to receive the UNIX 03 certification, placing the Mac maker among an elite group of official UNIX 03 vendors ... From a developer standpoint, UNIX 03 certification means that Leopard conforms to the Single UNIX Specification Version 3 (SUS), which outlines how components like the shell, compiler, and C APIs should function ... In becoming the first BSD-based OS to receive the UNIX 03 certification, Leopard also adds Apple to an extremely short list of official UNIX 03 OS vendors that include IBM, Sun, and HP.
"
Security

Submission + - Unhacking a G-Mail account?

Submitted by
TokyoShoe
TokyoShoe writes: "I have recently had my G-Mail account hacked, most probably for no reasons beyond my own stupidity. That being said, I am trying to find ways to get this account back from out of the Hacker's hands. They have changed the password for the account, and G-Mail will not bring up my security questions to force a password reset until after 5 days of inactivity. This means as long as the Hacker keeps using my account, I can never get it back! I have filled out Security Submission forms for Gmail Tech Support, documenting my account's details and a request to help me reclaim it. The G-Mail discussion forums are repleat with stories of folks with hacked G-Mail accounts and how they have been waiting months to no avail, never getting even an answer from the Gmail Support Team. Are there any other methods of getting my account back, or better yet getting in touch with Gmail Tech Support?"
PlayStation (Games)

Submission + - Sony sued for patent infringement with Cell (informationweek.com)

Submitted by
sveard
sveard writes: "Parallel Processing Corporation is asking a federal judge to order Sony to destroy its remaining Playstation 3 videogame consoles, which PPC claims infringes on its patents for microprocessor technology. The lawsuit, filed last week, claims that the Cell processor developed by Sony, Toshiba and IBM, violates PPC's patent for "synchronized parallel processing with shared memory.""
Security

Submission + - Fingerprints at School 2

Submitted by
Inda
Inda writes: "My daughter, 7, is about to start at a new school that likes to think they excel in technology. They use an interesting system for checking out library books using a single thumb print. When I first heard this, alarm bells rang. The way I understand it, once a fingerprint is compromised, it is compromised forever.

I'm told the children enjoy using the fingerprint system and I would not want to single my daughter out as being different. The alternative to fingerprints are library cards, with barcodes, that are scanned manually.

I am not confident that the school's security is up to scratch. Their website is poorly written in FrontPage by the headmaster, all the staff use the Comic Sans MS font; I'm sure you get the picture. At the end of the day, they're teachers, not security experts. Security is not my field of expertise either.

Should I be concerned? Have I been reading Slashdot too long? Should I put the tinfoil hat down?"

Slashdot Top Deals

To restore a sense of reality, I think Walt Disney should have a Hardluckland. -- Jack Paar

Close