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Sci-Fi

Ask Slashdot: Is It Time For SyFy To Go Premium? 607

Posted by CmdrTaco from the toss-some-cash-in-the-hat dept.
Cutriss writes "Now that Caprica is gone and SG:U has concluded, I see new shows coming in their place such as Alphas and the Red Faction series, and I find myself asking if the fate of Atlantis and SG:U might have gone differently if SyFy had been a paid cable network. I know the Slashdot audience would probably trade a few dollars a month if it meant replacing wrestling and ghost-chasing shows with relicensed classics and more appropriate treatment of original content. Plus, with a paying audience, the ad space would become much more lucrative and SyFy could lose some of the seedier ads it has been saddled with lately, and better fund new original content."
Data Storage

Ask Slashdot: How Do You File Paper Documents At Home? 371

Posted by timothy from the shred-then-reassemble-of-course dept.
swamp boy writes "How do you file paper documents at home? I'm mostly asking about things like monthly paper-based statements that get mailed to you (credit cards, gas cards, medical bills, health insurance explanation of benefits, electricity bill, natural gas bill, water bill, etc.). Do you push to have as many sent electronically as possible? Do you scan the paper documents to store electronically and then shred the paper document? How do you manage and organize the ones stored electronically? I've been doing this the old-fashioned way with manila file folders, but as time goes by I keep thinking that I should opt for digital storage. What works for you?"
Android

Developing Android Apps Visually, In 3 parts 78

Posted by timothy from the build-it-and-they-might-pay dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Dr. Dobb's has a three-part blog (all three parts are up; this is part 1) about using App Inventor. The focus isn't so much on the technology but rather the discussion of 'can visual development let anyone program?' If so, is App Inventor really visual development? And should we be teaching real programmers about visual development. Most of the conclusions are in part 3. As a byproduct, they show you how to put App Inventor output on the Market and there are two games on the market (free) that resulted from the articles." Here's part two, to round out the trilogy.

Comment Re:Online DELIVERY??? (Score 1) 229

by RobDollar (#35918304) Attached to: Wal-Mart Tests Online Grocery Delivery

You'd be surprised how close to the mark you are. A couple of services have been proposed (rather lame link here http://www.tgdaily.com/sustainability-features/52886-team-touts-underground-physical-internet) that would deliver goods to UK homes with a series of tubes (I kid you not).

I would assume that maybe groceries could be delivered to you in less than the time it takes for the preview button to work here.
Mars

Mars Orbiter Finds Buried Dry Ice Lake 96

Posted by timothy from the hip-cocktails-all-around dept.
RedEaredSlider writes "NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has found a giant buried deposit of dry ice, which could be evidence that Mars once had a thicker atmosphere and was able to have more water on its surface. The orbiter's ground-penetrating radar found the dry ice, which is frozen carbon dioxide, near the planet's south pole. The scientists think that when Mars' axial tilt increases, the carbon dioxide turns into a gas, thickening the atmosphere. The result would be more intense dust storms, but also a wider range of areas where liquid water could exist."
AI

Are 625 Pixels Enough To Identify Sex? 143

Posted by timothy from the when-tweet-analysis-fails dept.
mikejuk writes "A Spanish research team have patented a video camera and algorithm that can tell the difference between males and females based on just a 25x25 pixel image. This means that there is enough information in such low resolution images to do the job! They also demonstrate that an old AI method, linear discriminant analysis, is as good and sometimes better than more trendy methods such as Support Vector Machines..."
Shark

US Navy Close To On-Ship Laser Cannons 309

Posted by samzenpus from the warm-up-the-wave-motion-gun dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Office of Naval Research and industry partner Northrop Grumman said they successfully tested for the first time an on-board laser defense system known as the Maritime Laser Demonstrator (MLD), using it to destroy a small target vessel. The test actually accomplished several other benchmarks, including integrating MLD with a ship's radar and navigation system, and firing an electric laser weapon from a moving platform at-sea in a humid environment."
Transportation

New Gasoline Engine Prototype Claims 3X Current Engine Efficiency 377

Posted by Roblimo from the shifting-into-a-higher-gear dept.
erfnet writes "A cool new high-efficiency gasoline engine prototype has no radiator, no pistons, no valves, no transmission, and no fluids (except for the fuel). At first glance it has a few similarities with the Wankel engine, but is more advanced. The engine is only suited for hybrid-electric vehicles, but that's okay. The efficiency they are claiming: is over 3x what today's gasoline engines produce. The developers, a team at Michigan State University, hope to have this engine on the market in the next two/three years."

Comment Re:Computers really do things like that too (Score 2) 1200

by RobDollar (#35460134) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Worst Computer Scene In TV or Movies?

Just to pick up on the fingerprint system idea, they don't make that blip as they search through every file (and good grief am I glad about that). We can get a ping on a hit if we want, as in just about any other software for doing anything ever, but the search gets shifted to my / one of my colleagues screens then anyway, so there's not really much point unless your "afk".

Not a "CSI" btw, just a lowly fingerprint tech, £16k a year if your curious.

It's quite interesting that the blipping in films / tv programs is essentially acceptable and useful as a tool to convey an edgy tech setup. I wonder what will denote this in the future.
Software

Browsers — the Gaming Platform of the Future? 95

Posted by Soulskill from the might-as-well-merge-our-nerd-holy-wars dept.
Trip Hawkins, founder of Electronic Arts, spoke at the recent Game Developers Conference about how he expects game platforms to evolve in the future. Hawkins thinks the role of web browsers as a platform will greatly increase as the explosion of mobile device adoption continues. "For all of the big media companies, this phase of disruption is dramatic and happening fast. Where it's really going to lead is where the function of the browser is going. ... The browser has taken over 2 billion PCs — it's going to be taking over a billion tablets over the next few years, billions of mobile devices. It will end up in my opinion very strong on the television. The browser is the platform of the future."
Power

Mideast Turmoil and the Push For Clean Energy 314

Posted by samzenpus from the no-time-like-the-present dept.
Hugh Pickens writes writes "Adam Werbach writes that in July 2008 oil prices reached $147 a barrel and suddenly energy prices and alternative energy was on everyone's agenda but soon oil prices fell as the economy faltered and people moved on to the more immediate concerns of keeping their jobs and businesses alive. Now with the possibility looming of $200 a barrel oil, the US has a robust field of clean energy technologies that are slowly coming online, from thinfilm solar to fuel cells to cellulosic ethanol — unlike 2008, when it seemed like we were starting our innovation engine from a cold start. 'In the last three years, as oil prices have softened, we've seen stumbles as companies like Applied Materials pulled back from the clean energy space because of operational and market conditions,' writes Werbach. '2012 will be a rich year for equity capitalizations, giving energy entrepreneurs the capital they need to build infrastructure. Even with the draconian austerity measures that are coming into effect across the country, this is a second opportunity for energy innovation.'"
Earth

Meteorites Brought Ingredients of Life To Earth 199

Posted by Roblimo from the we-have-met-the-aliens-and-they-are-us dept.
Meshach writes "A new analysis of a meteorite found in Antarctica is leading scientists to think that life on Earth may have come from outer space. Chemical analysis of the meteorite shows it to be rich in ammonia and containing the element nitrogen. Nitrogen is found in the proteins and DNA that form the basis of life as we know it. The prevailing theory is that our planet may have been seeded by a comet or asteroid because the formative Earth might not have been able to provide the full inventory of simple molecules needed for the processes which led to primitive life."

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