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Submission + - Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore Business Machines, dies at age 83 (forbes.com)

Submitted by LoTonah
LoTonah writes: Jack Tramiel, the founder of Commodore Business Machines and later, the owner of Atari, died Easter Sunday. He was 83. He undoubtedly changed the computing landscape by bringing low cost computers to millions of people, and he started a price war that saw dozens of large companies leave the market. He also took a bankrupt Atari and managed to wring almost another decade out of it. The 6502 microprocessor would have withered on the vine if it weren't for Tramiel's support. Could anyone else have done all of that?
Censorship

Submission + - The 28 Corporations that support CISPA

Submitted by bs0d3
bs0d3 writes: activepolitic has compiled a list of corporations that support CISPA. This list contains 28 large US companies (including At&t and IBM), and it can be viewed here.
Role Playing (Games)

Submission + - Developer Turns Gaming Into Novel Writing (techzwn.com)

Submitted by jjp9999
jjp9999 writes: Anyone who ever weaved an epic tale with a tabletop RPG should appreciate a new project to create a Web-based collective story-telling game by U.K. game developer Simon Fox. The game is played by two or more people, the Narrator and the Hero. The game could be the tabletop RPG crowd’s answer to MMORPG movement, taking the art of storytelling to the Web. The Narrator works like the DM and lays out the story, while the the Hero plays out the story—and they have a written book when they’re done playing.
Security

Submission + - TSA: Cupcakes are Potential Threat (thenewamerican.com)

Submitted by smitty777
smitty777 writes: Rebecca Haines was stopped at McCarran International Airport for attempting to carry two cupcakes on board an airliner, while seeming to overlook a sword on a different flight. Meanwhile, CNJ Online is reporting on the expanding responsibility of this agency beyond airports to include subways, buses and other forms of transportation. FTA: "“TSA teams are increasingly conducting searches and screenings at train stations, subways, ferry terminals and other mass-transit locations around the country,” the Los Angeles Times reported. Ray Dineen, the air marshal in charge of the TSA office in Charlotte, N.C., told the paper, “We are not the Airport Security Administration. We take that transportation part seriously.”" Hopefully, they will avoid some of these unusual events when they do.
The Military

Submission + - What War in the Hormuz Strait Would Look Like

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The high stakes standoff between Iran and the US over the Strait of Hormuz, the passageway for one-fifth of the world's oil, escalated this week as Iran's navy claimed to have recorded video of a US aircraft carrier entering the Port of Oman and the deputy chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Hossein Salami rejected US claims that it could prevent Iran from closing the strait. To drive the point home, Iran has started a 10-day naval exercise in the Persian Gulf to show off how it could use small speedboats and a barrage of missiles to combat America's naval armada while in a report for the Naval War College, US Navy Commander Daniel Dolan wrote that Iran has acquired “thousands of sea mines, wake homing torpedoes, hundreds of advanced cruise missiles (PDF) and possibly more than one thousand small Fast Attack Craft and Fast Inshore Attack Craft. The heart of the Iran's arsenal is its 200 small potential-suicide boats — fiberglass motorboats with a heavy machine gun, a multiple rocket-launcher, or a mine — and may also carry heavy explosives, rigged to ram and blow a hole in the hull of a larger ship. These boats will likely employ a strategy of “swarming”—coming out of nowhere to ambush merchant convoys and American warships in narrow shipping lanes. But the US Navy is not defenseless against kamikaze warfare. The US has put more machine guns and 25-millimeter gyro-stabilized guns on the decks of warships, modified the 5-inch gun to make it more capable of dealing with high-speed boats, and improved the sensor suit of the Aegis computer-integrated combat system aboard destroyers and cruisers. “We have been preparing for it for a number of years with changes in training and equipment,” says Vice Admiral (ret.) Kevin Cosgriff, former commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command."
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Do You Really Need a Smart Phone? (techtarget.com)

Submitted by
Roblimo
Roblimo writes: "My phone is as stupid as a phone can be, but you can drop it or get it wet and it will still work. My cellular cost per month is about $4, on average. I've had a cellular phone longer than most people, and I assure you that a smart phone would not improve my life one bit. You, too, might find that you are just as happy with a stupid phone as with a smart one. If nothing else, you'll save money by dumbing down your phone."
The Internet

Submission + - Average web page is now almost 1MB (extremetech.com)

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "According to new research from HTTP Archive, which regularly scans the internet’s most popular destinations, the average size of a single web page is now 965 kilobytes (KB), up more than 30% from last year’s average of 702KB. This rapid growth is fairly normal for the internet — the average web page was 14KB in 1995, 93KB by 2003, and 300KB in 2008 — but by burrowing a little deeper into HTTP Archive’s recent data, we can discern some interesting trends. Between 2010 and 2011, the average amount of Flash content downloaded stayed exactly the same — 90KB — but JavaScript experienced massive growth from 113KB to 172KB. The amount of HTML, CSS, and images on websites also showed a significant increase year over year. There is absolutely no doubt that these trends are attributable to the death throes of Flash and emergence of HTML5 and its open web cohorts."

Submission + - Lost Metal Ball Drops from Sky in Namibia (timeslive.co.za)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A metallic ball weighing six kilograms fell out of the sky and landed in north-east Namibia, the National Forensic Science Institute (NFCI) said Thursday, adding that it was conducting tests in order to find out what it was. Should anyone have lost the said ball, please contact the Namibian Police

Comment So what? (Score 0) 495

by dusanv (#37718834) Attached to: Samsung Lawyer Fails To Differentiate iPad and Galaxy Tab In Court

I can't tell apart my toaster from my neighbour's at any distance. I don't think the fact that Samsung blatantly copied the look of the iPad package is illegal. It speaks of a total lack of imagination and flattery but is it really illegal? A look isn't patentable, AFAIK. The Galaxy doesn't say "iPad" and "Designed by Apple in California" on the back. That would be a trademark violation.

Maybe if we have a lawyer or two here, they can chime in on this?

Comment Simpler solution (Score 1) 8

by dusanv (#37352770) Attached to: Fixing /. Troll Moderation Problem

Don't allow down moderation. Start everyone at 0 (maybe 1 for good karma) and then let them be moderated up. Normal users would browse at +2 or +3 (to avoid real trolls), moderators at 0. That way you'd see all manner of points of view.

Comment Re:It couldn't be... (Score 1) 23

by dusanv (#37320506) Attached to: Terrible

are guilty of a variety of logical and rhetorical fallacies

Hear that Roman? The Inquisition had found you guilty of logical *and* rhetorical fallacies. Pretty damning stuff.

Ran out of modpoints before I reached your latest rant.

This is why Slashdot has been going down the tubes lately. Buddy, he's got a right to rant. That's why the comments are there. If you think he's ranting, reply and prove him wrong. Don't shut him up.

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