scum-e-bag - Slashdot User

Submission + - Bdale Garbee gives beard for Tasmanian Devils (ostatic.com) 2

Submitted by

polar_bear`

on Thursday January 22, 2009 @11:35PM

polar_bear` writes: "Linus Torvalds took garden shears to Bdale Garbee today to help save the Tasmanian Devil. Garbee's beard went up for auction at Linux.conf.au 2009 Wednesday night, and he went under the razor right after lunch today to entertain the LCA crowd and raise awareness about the plight of the endangered Tasmanian Devil."

Submission + - Linus shaves Bdale's beard to save species

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 22, 2009 @11:04PM

An anonymous reader writes: Linus Torvalds shaved Bdale Garbee's beard at linux.conf.au to save money for the tasmanian devil which has a deadly disease and faces extinction. Photos at twitter: http://twitpic.com/161kc

Submission + - Bdale to lose beard at linux.conf.au

Submitted by rwmTinkyWinky on Wednesday January 21, 2009 @08:57AM

rwmTinkyWinky writes: Linux Journal is reporting the outcome of tonight's Penguin Dinner at linux.conf.au — where Bdale Garbee has pledged to have his beard shaved by Linus — all for a worthy cause. Expect to see Bdale-sans-beard photos hitting the net in the next few days!

Comment Re:Nice guys finish last (often) (Score 3, Insightful) 613

by scum-e-bag on Monday January 19, 2009 @06:42PM (#26521529) Attached to: Do Nice Engineers Finish Last In Tough Times?

It's been working for me for years...

I also find that it helps to think of simple harmonic motion and differential equations when doing the dance of romance:

1) You can't be an asshole all the time.
2) You need to work out how to sync your nice/nasty streaks with her moods and harmoniously move from one to the other.

Optical Fiber With a Silicon Core 60

Posted by timothy on Wednesday October 29, 2008 @03:43PM from the now-that-ain't-in-leviticus dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "According to the Optical Society of America, U.S. researchers have been able to create a practical optical fiber with a silicon core. As they were able to use the same commercial methods that are used to develop all-glass fibers, this might pave the way for future silicon fibers as viable alternatives to glass fibers. The scientists note that this should help increase efficiency and decrease power consumption in computers and other systems that integrate photonic and electronic devices. Here is a good summary by the lead researcher: 'In the past, we've needed one structure to process light and another to carry it. With a silicon fiber, for the first time, we have the ability to greatly enhance the functionality in one fiber.'"

National Debt Clock Overflowed, Extended By a Digit 696

Posted by timothy on Sunday October 12, 2008 @10:51PM from the but-don't-worry-balanced-budget's-a-crazy-idea dept.

hackingbear writes "The National Debt Counter, erected in 1989 when the US debt was 'merely' a tiny $2.7 trillion, has been moving so much that it recently ran out of digits to display the ballooning figure: $10,150,603,734,720, or roughly $10.2 trillion, as of Saturday afternoon. To accommodate the extra '1,' the clock was hacked: the '1' from "$10.2" has been moved left to the LCD square once occupied solely by the digital dollar sign. A non-digital, improvised dollar sign has been pasted next to the '1.' It will be replaced in 2009 with a new clock able to track debt up to a quadrillion dollars, which is a '1' followed by 15 zeros. That should be good enough for a few more months at least, I believe." Adds reader MarkusQ, "I know Dick Cheney has assured us that 'Deficits don't matter' but I can't help wondering if we should be fixing the problem rather than the sign."

All Your Coffee Are Belong To Us 354

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday June 18, 2008 @02:19AM from the pouring-over-it dept.

Wolf nipple chips writes "Craig Wright discovered that the Jura F90 Coffee maker, with its honest-to-God Jura Internet Connection Kit, can be taken over by a remote attacker, who can cause the coffee to be weaker or stronger; change the amount of water per cup; or cause the machine to require service (call this one a DDoC). 'Best yet, the software allows a remote attacker to gain access to the Windows XP system it is running on at the level of the user.' An Internet-enabled, remote-controlled coffee-machine and XP backdoor — what more could a hacker ask for?"

Pimp My Datacenter 117

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @09:32PM from the rack-and-cable-porn dept.

snydeq writes "InfoWorld has put together an in-depth, hands-on feature detailing the complete pimp-out makeover of Hawaii Institute of Geophysics' 1950s-era server room into a bona-fide 21st century datacenter equipped with 'some of the glitziest and most functional gear known to datacenter-building man.' The project — completed neither on time nor on budget — resulted in improved rack and cable management, more efficient cooling, higher security, and a wealth of remote management functionality to keep University of Hawaii IT staff from having to leave the beach to service glitches. Editorial coverage includes essential tips for completing a datacenter overhaul, video interviews, and deep-dive coverage of the technologies implemented, including state-of-the-art datacenter-planning software, power and cooling equipment, out-of-band management systems, physical security solutions, remote rebooting capabilities, and more."

The Accidental Astrophysicists 97

Posted by kdawson on Monday June 16, 2008 @10:23PM from the all-math-to-me dept.

An anonymous reader recommends a ScienceNews story that begins: "Dmitry Khavinson and Genevra Neumann didn't know anything about astrophysics. They were just doing mathematics, like they always do, following their curiosity. But five days after they posted one of their results on a preprint server, they got an email that said 'Congratulations! You've proven Sun Hong Rhie's astrophysics conjecture on gravitational lensing!'... Turns out that when gravity causes light rays to bend, it can make one star look like many. But until Khavinson and Nuemann's work, astrophysicists weren't sure just how many. Their proof in mathematics settled the question."

Multicolored Keyless Entry System 126

Posted by timothy on Friday June 13, 2008 @03:18AM from the simon-says-open-up dept.

mollyhackit writes "Here's a how-to guide for building a keyless entry that uses color identification instead of numbers. All eight buttons are initially blue; as you press the individual buttons they change color. Cycle the colors to your particular pattern, and you're in. This lock obviously wasn't designed for high security use since anyone in the same room would be able to see you and your amazing technicolor dream lock's pattern; it's just a fun project and will keep the youngins out of your workshop (timer prevents brute forcing). The RGB buttons are monome clones from hobby shop Sparkfun."

Chuck Norris Backs Down On Lawsuit 76

Posted by kdawson on Monday June 09, 2008 @11:47PM from the tears-cure-cancer dept.

DeathElk writes "Perhaps Chuck Norris has found a soft spot. He just dropped a lawsuit against university student Ian Spector and Spector's publisher, Penguin Group Ltd. Spector had previously penned a compilation of well known 'Facts' about Chuck Norris. We discussed the suit when it was filed last year."

Submission + - SPAM: Can FBI geeks identify legal/illegal images? 2

Submitted by

destinyland

on Friday June 06, 2008 @01:53AM

destinyland writes: "The FBI's geeks admitted they were nervous over computer-generated images at a recent forensics conference. In court they're now arguing that a jury "can tell" if an image is real or computer-generated — which marks the current boundary between legal and illegal. But reporter Debbie Nathan argues that that distinction is getting fuzzy, and that geeks will inevitably make it obsolete."
Link to Original Source

Rubik's Cube Algorithm Cut Again, Down to 23 Moves 202

Posted by timothy on Thursday June 05, 2008 @07:08PM from the at-this-rate-one-will-soon-be-enough dept.

Bryan writes "The number of moves necessary to solve an arbitrary Rubik's cube configuration has been cut down to 23 moves, according to an update on Tomas Rokicki's homepage (and here). As reported in March, Rokicki developed a very efficient strategy for studying cube solvability, which he used it to show that 25 moves are sufficient to solve any (solvable) Rubik's cube. Since then, he's upgraded from 8GB of memory and a Q6600 CPU, to the supercomputers at Sony Pictures Imageworks (his latest result was produced during idle-time between productions). Combined with some of Rokicki's earlier work, this new result implies that for any arbitrary cube configuration, a solution exists in either 21, 22, or 23 moves. This is in agreement with informal group-theoretic arguments (see Hofstadter 1996, ch. 14) suggesting that the necessary and sufficient number of moves should be in the low 20s. From the producers of Spiderman 3 and Surf's Up, we bring you: 2 steps closer to God's Algorithm!"

DataStorm V1.0, a Full-Auto Floppy Disk Cannon 153

Posted by kdawson on Monday May 12, 2008 @12:46AM from the tres-bouchee dept.

Bob Loblaw writes "I ran across a huge stash of floppies at our office, and after some discussion, it became clear that rather than throw them away, we should build a gun that fires floppies. I had just bought a welder so this was a challenging first project. After about a month of work in my garage at night the DataStorm was born. It was constructed of scrap metal, a kid's bike, a weed-eater motor, and an electric screwdriver. The most difficult task ended up being how to add spin to the disk without significantly reducing its velocity. After a week and a half of trying different options, a stack of zip ties was found to work best. Since we had so much time in it we elected to shoot an infomercial showcasing the device, and had to learn to shoot & edit video as we went. It was basically an office joke that spiraled out of control. My wife is not amused. At all. I hope you like it."

Hans Reiser Guilty of First Degree Murder 1395

Posted by kdawson on Monday April 28, 2008 @07:32PM from the so-much-for-the-geek-defense dept.

Anonymous Meoward writes "Today Hans Reiser was found guilty of first degree murder in Oakland, California. Quoting Wired: 'In a murder case with no body, no crime scene, no reliable eyewitness and virtually no physical evidence, the prosecution began the trial last November with a daunting task ahead... The turning point in the trial came when Reiser took the stand in his own defense March 3.' Whether he really did it or not, Hans basically just didn't know when to shut up."

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