Comment Re:I thought this was settled science! (Score 1) 436
Yeah. I don't agree with this 'gravity' consensus either. These so-called 'scientists' think they know everything.
Comment Re:Obligatory (Score 1, Informative) 330
Sarcasm went waaay over the moderator's head.
English Wikipedia Reaches 3 Million Articles 192
FunPika writes "It has taken more than eight years and the work of vast numbers of people around the world, but the English version of Wikipedia has finally amassed more than three million articles.
The site broke through the 3 million barrier early on Monday morning UK time, with the honors taken by a short article about Norwegian actor Beate Eriksen — a 48-year-old cast member of a popular local soap opera."
World's First Formally-Proven OS Kernel 517
An anonymous reader writes "Operating systems usually have bugs — the 'blue screen of death,' the Amiga Hand, and so forth are known by almost everyone. NICTA's team of researchers has managed to prove that a particular OS kernel is guaranteed to meet its specification. It is fully, formally verified, and as such it exceeds the Common Criteria's highest level of assurance. The researchers used an executable specification written in Haskell, C code that mapped to Haskell, and the Isabelle theorem prover to generate a machine-checked proof that the C code in the kernel matches the executable and the formal specification of the system."
Does it run Linux? "We're pleased to say that it does. Presently, we have a para-virtualized version of Linux running on top of the (unverified) x86 port of seL4. There are plans to port Linux to the verified ARM version of seL4 as well." Further technical details are available from NICTA's website.
Comment Re:Foruc on different parts of game (Score 1) 167
*keeps
Comment Re:Foruc on different parts of game (Score 2) 167
Did this research notice if there were any deaths caused by getting discracted when you jumped and the camera got into such position that you tried to get a nippleslip or see the panties?
Just what we need... surround ourselves with ourselves. That will challenge us and cause us to grow into intelligent, tolerant and well rounded individuals.
/. just keep getting weirder and weirder.
Comment Re:Does it take nudity into account? (Score 3, Funny) 167
How about the naked Lara Croft modders? Which slot do they fall into?
Tricky question, don't you think?
(Insert 'you must be new here' joke now)
Comment Re:Things like this will never change (Score 1) 225
I just noticed I said the exact same thing you already said. Damn, sorry.
Comment Re:Things like this will never change (Score 1) 225
I think the most reasonable solution is an eletronic device that prints the vote so the user can cast it on a ballot. You can still count the votes in a fast way, but when any doubt is risen, you can double-check it with the paper votes.
Submission + - Copyright wars: everyone is wrong (spiked-online.com)
An anonymous reader writes: British website Spiked says both the media industry and its critics are wrong when it comes to the copyright wars.
"Everyone and their dog knows that the media is being torn asunder by the forces unleashed by the internet. Almost every movie ever made is available on BitTorrent, half of television's history is easily accessible worldwide courtesy of copyright-flouting Chinese video websites and, despite the success of legitimate services such as iTunes and Spotify, illegal downloads continue to dwarf online music sales."
The article argues that it's not illegal downloads that are destroying the media but instead it's the fault of industry as a whole retreating from production.
Interesting comparison to free and open source software. Slashdot gets a mention also.
"Everyone and their dog knows that the media is being torn asunder by the forces unleashed by the internet. Almost every movie ever made is available on BitTorrent, half of television's history is easily accessible worldwide courtesy of copyright-flouting Chinese video websites and, despite the success of legitimate services such as iTunes and Spotify, illegal downloads continue to dwarf online music sales."
The article argues that it's not illegal downloads that are destroying the media but instead it's the fault of industry as a whole retreating from production.
Interesting comparison to free and open source software. Slashdot gets a mention also.
Comment Re:Also, when you don't find... (Score 5, Funny) 103
Now, we just need to find an online activity that balances cuddling and sex.
I'd say 'posting in
Comment Not classifiable (Score 2, Funny) 103
...the author talks about how smart people need to find a certain amount of intellectual challenge from day to day. If they don't find it in their workplace, they'll end up playing complex, 'smart' games, like Civilization IV or Chess
Well, I always try to find challenging games during work hours, so I don't think I classify in either category.
Comment Re:Ideally... (Score 1) 756
Homo sapiens may not be the ideal kind of advanced life form either.
I'm a little late, but Neil deGrasse has already made that point in a very funny way. After all, we breath and swallow through the same hole!
Submission + - The Future of Farming (popsci.com)
eldavojohn writes: With hunger being a major problem in the world, PopSci offers eight innovations in farming that are currently being tested and implemented. They are: farming the desert, soil sensors to cut fertilizer/water waste, genetically engineering rice, using nitrogen collecting microbes in place of fertilizer, gathering extensive data on land to improve usage, robot labor, biochar (nutrients for plants while sequestering carbon) and supercrops like a super resistant, super nutritious bioengineered cassava (also known as yucca). While some of the estimates on these things are five or six years into the future, many are already in place and available.
Earth's Period of Habitability Is Nearly Over 756
xp65 writes "Scientists at this year's XXVIIth General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil agree that we do not yet know how ubiquitous or how fragile life is, but that: 'The Earth's period of habitability is nearly over on a cosmological timescale. In a half to one billion years the Sun will start to be too luminous and warm for water to exist in liquid form on Earth, leading to a runaway greenhouse effect in less than 2 billion years.' Other surprising claims from this conference: that the Sun may not be the ideal kind of star to nurture life, and that the Earth may not be the ideal size."
