195999
submission
UnanimousCoward writes:
The NYT and ABC have articles about the Obama Girl music video, the brainchild of Leah Kauffman who was also behind Box in a Box. Kauffman, who pulls it off because of both her incredible voice and political/cultural savvy, is helping define the political campaign landscape for the 2008 Presidential election. Maybe John Edwards should hire her for his campaign...
158809
submission
UnanimousCoward writes:
A buddy and I had a debate as to how QuickPick (the process with which you let the lottery machine pick your numbers as opposed to picking them yourself) works:
- I thought that QP tries to generate a set of numbers that hasn't been picked (either manually or automatically). The rational here is that it gives the player some assurance that if he/she wins, he won't have to split it with someone else.
- He thought it was just a random number generator that didn't look at the existing set of picks.
So I guess I have two questions:
- Who is right?
- What algorithm do they/would they use for my scenario?
141269
submission
UnanimousCoward writes:
The NYT has an article noting that the Virginia Tech killer shouldn't have been able to purchase firearms because of his mental health record. What astounds me the lack of seeing the forest for the trees: if we had stricter gun control in this country, it wouldn't have been an issue. However, we are debating the lack of coordination of federal and state databases. To me, issue with respect to privacy FAR outweighs my right to bear arms...
123725
submission
UnanimousCoward writes:
Yahoo! is running an article reporting that Second Life has invited the FBI to tour their casinos, and that the FBI has indeed visited but will not comment. With the U.S. crackdown on Internet gambling, visits to Second Life casinos has increased (using Linden dollars that have been exchanged for "real" currency). From TFA:
Most lawyers agree that placing bets with Linden dollars likely violates U.S. anti-gambling statutes, which cover circumstances in which "something of value" is wagered. But the degree of Linden Lab's responsibility, and the likelihood of a any crackdown, is uncertain.
121253
submission
UnanimousCoward writes:
Several sources including this GameSpot article note that the new Grand Theft Auto IV trailer (which depicts "Liberty City" with familiar NYC landmarks) has drawn comments from NYC Mayor Bloomberg ("The mayor does not support any video game where you earn points for injuring or killing police officers") as well as the NYC police commissioner. Couldn't ask for better pub. The trailer can be seen here, and the game doesn't even come out until October!
121041
submission
UnanimousCoward writes:
The BBC has an article that talks about a submission to Nature Biotechnology (not the current issue) in which scientists claim to have discovered a technique to convert all blood into Type O with the discovery of an enzyme that can strip the A and B antigens. This has implications to transform the stored blood supply into transfusable blood for all. It does not address the RH negative issue, though.
119277
submission
UnanimousCoward writes:
The San Francisco Chronicle has a story about Justin.tv that describes the launch and background details very well. He apparently already has product placement sponsors lined up, thus a business model!!! As I type this, the dude is still sleeping...
105486
submission
UnanimousCoward writes:
Wired has an article about Adobe working on a way to detect photograph forgeries. FTFA:
In a speech in Tel Aviv in December and a blog entry, Reuters CEO Tom Glocer said his company is working with Adobe and Canon to create an "audit trail" that would reveal changes made to an image. Neither Reuters nor Canon would provide details on the plan.
Isn't it fairly simple? It seems to me that a combination camera/photographer digital signature would solve this problem easily. News agencies would pay for this custom-camera technology (since the public won't), and any photograph submitted without the digital signature would be captioned as such. I'm not sure where Adobe comes into the picture since it could just be general digital signature software that verifies the photo...
99744
submission
UnanimousCoward writes:
The NYT, NPR, and others have articles about Islamic tile mosaics that seem to display knowledge of a fairly recent branch of mathematics known as quasi-crystalline Penrose patterns. Here is the abstract of the published findings in Science. The end of the NYT article notes a complaint by another scientist that his work from 1992 was not fully-credited/referenced in the Science article. I think this is the original article, but I can't find the body of it anywhere...
72778
submission
UnanimousCoward writes:
The NYT has an article concerning Apple's DRM position in light of the impending iPhone wave. It notes that Apple continues to maintain DRM is necessary at the insistence of the major record labels, but the article cites eMusic which sells independent label (including some big names), DRM-free music (while Apple still sells the same tracks with DRM on iTunes). It also discusses the non-DRM model in Korea that has emerged in light of collapsing CD sales.
51582
submission
24424
submission
UnanimousCoward writes:
Though there were months of pre-release versions of IE7, some plug-ins are still broken in the new browser. One solution is to install the IE Blocker Toolkit, but that requires installation of the Windows Genuine Advantage plug-in if you try to download the toolkit from a browser other than IE. So, here's the dilemma. Do I go ahead and fire up IE6 to download a blocker for IE7, or do I install the GenWinAdv plug-in to install the blocker plug-in?
