Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:Wrong (Score 1) 85

The VideoLan website still says VLC for Android is a beta at version 0.9.10.

Someone is talking bollocks and, this time, it's not me...

It's listed at 1.1.0 at the Google Play Store, which might be considered more authoritative that what it says on a web page someone forgot to update.

F-Droid was a 1.0.1 a month ago, so same argument. F-Droid lags a bit behind with their releases, so I suspect they will be updating to 1.1.0 soon.

https://f-droid.org/repository...

Medicine

Surgeon: First Human Head Transplant May Be Just Two Years Away 210

HughPickens.com (3830033) writes "Michelle Star writes at C/net that Surgeon Sergio Canavero, director of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group in Italy, believes he has developed a technique to remove the head from a non-functioning body and transplant it onto the healthy body. According to Canavero's paper published in Surgical Neurology International, first, both the transplant head and the donor body need to be cooled in order to slow cell death. Then, the neck of both would be cut and the major blood vessels linked with tubes. Finally, the spinal cords would be severed, with as clean a cut as possible. Joining the spinal cords, with the tightly packed nerves inside, is key. The plan involves flushing the area with polyethylene glycol, followed by several hours of injections of the same, a chemical that encourages the fat in cell membranes to mesh. The blood vessels, muscles and skin would then be sutured and the patient would be induced into a coma for several weeks to keep them from moving around; meanwhile, electrodes would stimulate the spine with electricity in an attempt to strengthen the new nerve connections.

Head transplants has been tried before. In 1970, Robert White led a team at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, US, that tried to transplant the head of one monkey on to the body of another. The surgeons stopped short of a full spinal cord transfer, so the monkey could not move its body. Despite Canavero's enthusiasm, many surgeons and neuroscientists believe massive technical hurdles push full body transplants into the distant future. The starkest problem is that no one knows how to reconnect spinal nerves and make them work again. "This is such an overwhelming project, the possibility of it happening is very unlikely," says Harry Goldsmith."

Comment Re:terminal illness (Score 1) 698

If this is what you consider "stuff that matters" I would suggest getting a copy of the obituaries. Newspapers put them out daily, and there are literally millions of them.

You know, you could have typed your message, enjoyed the cathartic effect of a little bit of snark, then clicked "Cancel". But no.

Since I'm dignifying you with a response, I'll point out that once the obituary is published, it's too late. You missed the point entirely.

Comment Re:So? (Score 1) 520

Rust, on the other hand, is something genuinely new: it provides completely memory safety without a requiring a garbage collector at all.

The only way to provide memory safety in a language without a garbage collector is to severely limit semantics. So, either the Rust designers are ignorant or the language is severely limited. In the case of Rust, Rust makes trivial memory allocation, the kind other languages simply optimize quietly for you, unnecessary complex, while failing to work in complex scenarios.

Rust is a badly designed language.

CItation needed. Please give examples to support your assertion, along with alternatives of better design.

Comment Re: Nim's community is very toxic. (Score 1) 520

Is that because it was named after a great hunter, or because it was named after the leader of the people that built the Tower of Babel - leading to the multitude of languages? Or are you going the Bugs Bunny route?

Because it has been a well known slur for a long time. Bugs' use of it only reflects society.

According to Wikipedia, citing the Dictionary of Jewish Usage, the use of nimrod as slang for dimwitted was first recorded in 1932, but was indeed actually popularized by Bugs Bunny in the 1940s. And apparently nobody knows *why* it became popular as an insult, because there's no real connection between the original meaning and the slang meaning.

Nimrod: The Story of a Name

Comment Re:Often the comments *are* better (Score 1) 267

[...] I penalize "funny" posts and really wish I could do the same on Reddit.

That's certainly your prerogative, but I have to wonder why? Do you have something against humor? Must every discussion be nothing but dead serious utterances of grave import? Some "funny" comments are certainly childish or base, but quite a lot of them are quite clever and they add a little fun to the atmosphere of the conversation(s).

Comment Re:Not underwhelms, a little off predicted target. (Score 1) 397

S.E. Connecticut here. 5 hours clearing the driveway (twice since more snow fell after my first round), shoveling the back deck clear of the 3.5 ft. drifts, clearing the front walk and porch, and most importantly, carving some paths into the back yard so the dog can take care of business without bounding around like a deer. Based on the average height in the open areas where drifting was less, and the part of the driveway away from the house, I'd say we got a about 20 inches. And everyone should experience the joy of hacking through the nearly 5 ft mound at the top of the driveway left by the snow ploughs.

I agree with rjejr - we got the blizzard.

Space

Kepler Discovers Solar System's Ancient 'Twin' 67

astroengine writes: Astronomers have found a star system that bears a striking resemblance to our inner solar system. It's a sun-like star that plays host to a system of five small exoplanets — from the size of Mercury to the size of Venus. But there's something very alien about this compact 'solar system'; it formed when the universe was only 20 percent the age it is now, making it the most ancient star system playing host to terrestrial sized worlds discovered to date.

Comment Re:Good (Score 1) 392

It's a hell of a lot harder to bug every man, woman, and child in the west than it is to intercept and crawl their communications.

Oh really? Nest, Kinect, Smart TV and the Internet of Things suggest otherwise. Not to mention remotely monitoring the ambient surroundings of a smart phone, tablet or laptop with microphone/webcam. It may be difficult to bug everyone, but we're bringing the bugs into our homes willingly (though mostly unknowingly, I think), so it's more concievable than you think.

Comment Re:It's just moving your trust to someone else (Score 1) 83

And it gets even better, because if you end up choosing the best shitty compromise that actually kind of works, you flag yourself for extra scrutiny because you are using an effective solution. FML.

This part I have no solution for. : (

I gave you one: Step away from the computer, walk past the smartphone, leash up the dog and head for the woods (or nearest park/nature preserve/whatever). When that becomes illegal it's game over.

Comment Re:It's just moving your trust to someone else (Score 5, Interesting) 83

So now you are placing your trust in those who wrote the code that runs your server or encrypts your data (or did you write it yourself?). Better than believing "trust us - we don't track you/log you/etc" (looking at you, Startpage and DuckDuckGo), but you have to trust someone unless you do it all yourself from scratch. That's not possible for most people, including myself. So most of us are left with choosing amongst Faustian bargains. That fucking sucks, but seems to be the reality in modern times. And it gets even better, because if you end up choosing the best shitty compromise that actually kind of works, you flag yourself for extra scrutiny because you are using an effective solution. FML. I'm going for a hike in the woods with my dog. Ahhhh. That's better.

Slashdot Top Deals

"May your future be limited only by your dreams." -- Christa McAuliffe

Working...