Comment Not humanitarian? (Score 1) 288
Environmental issues may not be humanitarian just yet, but in 50 years or less they certainly will be.
Comment Re:What about Irfanview and Picasa? (Score 2, Informative) 368
KDE's KolourPaint (MS Paint clone) gets it right! Yay KDE!
Comment Re:Old news (and workaround) (Score 1) 368
1. some photos show it more than others (try a sharp photo of a pile of brightly colored plastic toys, showing well-defined edges between the different colors)
2. maybe RAW photos start off with gamma 1.0
Comment not just scaling (Score 1) 368
In what sense is it not a scaling algorithm bug?
This affects alpha blending, including anti-aliased drawing tools.
I think people tolerate it because it's like traditional cartoons: you get a bit of a dark line around everything, more or less. IMHO, that's yucky.
Serious problems happen when you repeat an operation in the same spot. Things like a smudge tool get an odd sort of asymmetry, with black-to-white and white-to-black operations being different.
Comment Re:But where's the fines? (Score 1) 359
The school did not give birth to the student. There is no reason to monitor the student like a parent should.
in loco parentis, dude.
Comment Re:Placebo No Treatment? (Score 1) 507
"In some countries reimbursement is explicitly linked to how well you fare against whatever the current standard of care is"
I think that is because the state (which will refund part of the treatment price) doesn't want to spend possibly
more money to a new drug that isn't any better than existing ones, which may have been used for years,
and are better known.
Comment Re:Java / JVM Wins Again ... (Score 3, Funny) 157
Until recently I thought the same way, I would never endorse a solution that involves java. However
a recently came to the same realization that sun did when they created it. Java is a fantastic
way to over sell gobs of expensive hardware. I am a system administrator so the more hardware it takes to
run a solution the better off I am, more machines, more money and better job security. So I have now
fully jumped on the java bandwagon, java makes me smile.
Looking Back From the 1980s At Computers In Education 269
xzvf writes "As someone who went to high school in the '80s, this newsletter from 1980 (PDF) is a blast from the past. An interview with Microsoft talks up its BASIC language product and predicts voice control of computers in five years. Advertisements for Compute magazine, which was about to go monthly, and an article about a computer 'network' in Minnesota that connects some fax machine-looking terminal to a central computer over telephone lines. Lots of Atari, TI and RadioShack news too. It's a reminder from 30 years ago that we are still not using technology effectively in education."
Interstellar Hydrogen Prevents Light-Speed Travel? 546
garg0yle writes "As if relativity wasn't enough to prevent us traveling at light speed, Professor William Edelstein of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is now claiming that the interstellar hydrogen, compressed in front of the ship, would bring the journey to a shocking end. 'As the spaceship reached 99.999998 per cent of the speed of light, "hydrogen atoms would seem to reach a staggering 7 teraelectron volts," which for the crew "would be like standing in front of the Large Hadron Collider beam."'"
Comment Programmers giving robots social skills? (Score 3, Funny) 92
I think the small part of my brain that handles irony just segfaulted
Comment Already have 50MB through cable (Score 1) 184
Now I have to wait 7 years for 100MB? Ouch.
Police In Britain Arrest Man For Bomb-Threat Joke On Twitter 577
An anonymous reader writes "A British man was arrested under anti-terrorism legislation for making a bomb joke on Twitter. Paul Chambers, 26, was arrested under the provisions of the Terrorism Act (2006). His crime? Frustrated at grounded flights over inclement weather, he made a joke bomb threat on the social networking site Twitter."
Mainstream Press "Cringes" At Win7 Launch Parties 830
lurking_giant writes "Well, Microsoft has done it again with the YouTube Windows 7 launch party video that is turning the stomachs of even the mainstream press with its clueless and campy marketing style. A Washington Post reader was quoted as saying 'If Microsoft had been put in charge of marketing sex, the human race would have ended long ago, because no one would be caught dead doing something that uncool.'" Even the Guardian's resident die-hard Apple hater calls it "the most nauseating advert in history."
Has the Glory Gone Out of Working In IT? 623
An anonymous reader writes to wonder if the glory has gone out of IT. One blogger remembered his first impression upon entering a profession in IT that made it seem like the place to be, with a new shiny around every corner. What experiences have others had? Has a more pervasive technical culture forced our IT gurus into obsolescence?
New Standard For EU-Compliant Electronic Signatures 42
An anonymous reader writes "ETSI has published a multi-part standard that will facilitate secure paperless business transactions throughout Europe, in conformance with European legislation. The standard defines a series of profiles for PAdES — Advanced Electronic Signatures for PDF documents — that meet the requirements of the European Directive on a Community framework for electronic signatures (Directive 1999/93/EC)."
