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Intel

The Big Technical Mistakes of History 244

Posted by kdawson from the seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time dept.
An anonymous reader tips a PC Authority review of some of the biggest technical goofs of all time. "As any computer programmer will tell you, some of the most confusing and complex issues can stem from the simplest of errors. This article looking back at history's big technical mistakes includes some interesting trivia, such as NASA's failure to convert measurements to metric, resulting in the Mars Climate Orbiter being torn apart by the Martian atmosphere. Then there is the infamous Intel Pentium floating point fiasco, which cost the company $450m in direct costs, a battering on the world's stock exchanges, and a huge black mark on its reputation. Also on the list is Iridium, the global satellite phone network that promised to make phones work anywhere on the planet, but required 77 satellites to be launched into space."

Comment uc santa cruz rules (Score 0) 502

by idioto (#31268864) Attached to: Triumph of the Cyborg Composer

i went there, and while i'd love to dork out with you and drop street cred. if you went to uc santa cruz you'd also be exposed to gamelan music and all sorts of ear raping sounds.

anyhow, i can pick out composers with startling accuracy. and i don't listen to classical music with the exception of when i dated a girl who was studying classical music. yeah, it's just formulaic. but whatever, i'm also a really good musician and have a kind of perfect pitch, it doesn't matter.

all music is a formula, and it's about looking cool. and part of that is dropping my slashdot karma way down so mod it for me you frickin nerds
Encryption

How To Replace FileVault With EncFS 65

Posted by timothy from the for-secretive-tweakers dept.
agoston.horvath writes "I've written a HOWTO on replacing Mac OS X's built-in encryption (FileVault) with the well-known FUSE-based EncFS. It worked well for me, and most importantly: it is a lot handier than what Apple has put together. This is especially useful if you are using a backup solution like Time Machine. Includes Whys, Why Nots, and step-by-step instructions."
Music

Grateful Dead Percussionist Makes Music From Supernovas 57

Posted by kdawson from the music-of-the-exploding-spheres dept.
At the "Cosmology At the Beach" conference earlier this month, Grammy-award winning percussionist Mickey Hart performed a composition inspired by the eruptions of supernovae. "Keith Jackson, a Berkeley Lab computer scientist who is also a musician, lent his talents to the project, starting with gathering data from astrophysicists like those at the Berkeley Lab’s Nearby Supernova Factory, which collects data from telescopes in space and on earth to quickly detect and analyze short-lived supernovas. 'If you think about it, it's all electromagnetic data — but with a very high frequency,' Jackson said of the raw data. "What we did is turn it into sound by slowing down the frequency and "stretching" it into an audio form. Both light and sound are all wave forms — just at different frequencies. Our goal was to turn the electromagnetic data into audio data while still preserving the science.'"
Image

Facebook Master Password Was "Chuck Norris" 319

Posted by samzenpus from the ad-nauseum-roundhouse dept.
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "A Facebook employee has given a tell-all interview with some very interesting things about Facebook's internals. Especially interesting are all the things relating to Facebook privacy. Basically, you don't have any. Nearly everything you've ever done on the site is recorded into a database. While they fire employees for snooping, more than a few have done it. There's an internal system to let them log into anyone's profile, though they have to be able to defend their reason for doing so. And they used to have a master password that could log into any Facebook profile: 'Chuck Norris.' Bruce Schneier might be jealous of that one."

Comment Amazon's prices Legal Precedent (Score 1) 282

by idioto (#30660288) Attached to: Does Cheap Tech Undermine Legal Privacy Protections?

this is so retarded. don't even imply that as an argument. oh no, someone in the neighborhood might be growing pot let's conduct sweeps aim cheap sensors at them. you can't use that reasoning in such a sweeping way. it's a god damn pandora's box you fascists.

anyhow, general use, does not equal cheap either. do you have a thermal image scanner? if you do... wtf?

are you trying to be like the predator or something? get a life nerd!
Cellphones

Duke Nukem 3D Ported To Nokia N900 95

Posted by Soulskill from the all-outta-gum dept.
andylim writes "It looks as if Duke Nukem isn't completely 'nuked' after all. Someone has ported the 90s classic on to a Nokia N900. As you'll see in the video, you control Duke using the Qwerty keypad and shoot using the touchscreen. I'm wondering how long it will take for this to get on other mobile platforms." In other Duke news, reader Jupix points out that 3D Realms' CEO Scott Miller recently said, "There are numerous other Duke games in various stages of development, several due out this year. We are definitely looking to bring Duke into casual gaming spaces, plus there are other major Duke games in production."

Comment CHILD PLEASE!!! Eywa, their god,was supercomputer! (Score 1) 870

by idioto (#30576894) Attached to: Anti-Technology Themes in James Cameron's <em>Avatar</em>

This movie is not anti-technology, the technology of the native is people is simply more naturalistic. It is a tale of two different technologies, and different biologies. The native people in this movie, further, all living life on the Pandora planet are equipped with network ports, although to the untrained eye it may appear to be bestial rape! Despite some of the technological advantages of the Na'vi and their environment, it seems as if one disadvantage they face over their Earth counterparts is the lack of wireless technology.

If this movie is anti-tech, it is anti-wireless. Need more evidence that the Na'vi despite their tribal appearance were actually addicted to their own brand of internet? Here's what I care to say:

  They preserve their memories in organic computers, hence the type of double damage when the humans destroy their environment. When the humans take out their sacred watchamacallit it's like if the genealogy.com servers exploded. Oh my!

Seriously, there are tons of examples of this throughout the movie. Of course, there is no monetary system on the planet. Eywa controls the balance of life. Oh wait, Eywa = Ebay. On Pandora, life provides infrastructure and infrastructure adds value. hey-yo!!!

Hopefully I've reached someone who gets it: this movie is convoluted in its themes. I'm not going to analyze it beyond 3-D effects in any depth. It borrows and clusterfux weird analogies from all over the place and if you try to add it all up (assuming you can pick up on it) and apply its message to the world we live in you need to find a new moral compass.
Earth

Yellowstone Supervolcano Larger Than First Thought 451

Posted by timothy from the even-superer dept.
drewtheman writes "New studies of the plumbing that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park shows the plume and the magma chamber under the volcano are larger than first thought and contradicts claims that only shallow hot rock exists. University of Utah research professor of geophysics Robert Smith led four separate studies that verify a plume of hot and molten rock at least 410 miles deep that rises at an angle from the northwest."

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It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster. - Voltaire

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