dforsey - Slashdot User

Submission + - Nissan turns to high-tech to stop drink driving

Submitted by StonyandCher on Friday August 03, 2007 @02:57AM

StonyandCher writes: As part of its drive to reduce road deaths and injuries, Nissan Motor has installed in a car three prototype high-tech systems designed to stop drink driving.

The first attempts to directly detect alcohol in the driver's sweat and gear shift lever. A second system in the car uses a camera mounted in front of the driver to monitor eye movement. If the driver is drowsy it triggers the seat belt to tighten and this movement will hopefully snap the driver out of their drowsiness or prompt them to take a rest. A third system monitors the path of the vehicle to ensure it's traveling in a straight line and not weaving about the road, as is common with a drunken driver.

Submission + - GOP Preparing to Steal the 2008 Election (newyorker.com)

Submitted by on Friday August 03, 2007 @02:37AM

An anonymous reader writes: Hendrik Hertzberg of The New Yorker reports that Californians vote next year on a radical change to the allotment of their state's electoral college votes. Republican sponsors call themselves Californians for Equal Representation, but if their measure passes, it's more likely than ever that a Republican will win the Presidency without winning the popular vote.

Submission + - Music Protection Racket in Australia (news.com.au) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 11, 2007 @12:37AM

An anonymous reader writes: The "Phonographic Performance Company of Australia" (PPCA) has just won the right to start charging all venues playing music $1.05 per person — based on the capacity of the venue, not the attendance. Dance party's will be charged $3.07 per person. This represents an increase of over 1000% in both cases. Full story at http://theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,22053835 -16947,00.html.

Submission + - New FICO Rules May Affect Millions (aaacreditguide.com)

Submitted by

crazychane

on Wednesday July 11, 2007 @12:30AM

crazychane writes: "About 60 million consumers are authorized users on someone else's credit card. But, that's all about to change...In September, the FICO credit-scoring system is set to undergo a major overhaul. Fair Isaac Corp., the Minneapolis company that creates the formula used to calculate the score, is downplaying the change, saying it won't have much of an effect."

Submission + - Nethack Recover Utility for OS X?

Submitted by

brentyl2

on Tuesday April 24, 2007 @11:19PM

brentyl2 writes: "I fear you've been there with me... cruising through the Dungeons of Doom, slaying critters left and right, cleaning out Ludios and the castle and getting ready for Gehemmon. Your Wizard is level 16 and counting, Magicbane is at +2 and Mjollnir is at +7, and things are looking good. And then... Nethack crashes. Help!

I have poked around online, and I cannot find a Recover utility for Nethack 3.4.3 on Mac OS X. Any ideas? I have all the character files in the Nethack folder, so it may be recoverable. A cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor for any useful links. Thanks!"

Submission + - Sheryl Crow, Carl Rove, and global warming

Submitted by

teeto

on Tuesday April 24, 2007 @11:05PM

teeto writes: "Monsters and Critics is reporting that Republican strategist and often referred to as the brain behind the Bush throne, Karl Rove, had a run-in with Sheryl Crow and Laurie David, at the Correspondents' dinner. When the songstress was introduced to Rove, she asked him about Global warming issues, and according to Crow and David on their posted Huffington Blog, "he immediately got combative. And it went downhill from there.""

Submission + - Articles of Impeachment Submitted Against Cheney

Submitted by Watson Ladd on Tuesday April 24, 2007 @11:05PM

Watson Ladd writes: Dennis Kucinich has reveled his articles of impeachment for Cheney. They are for lying about Iraq's prewar nuclear abilities, lying about the relationship between Saddam and Osama, and for trying to do the same to Iran. The text of the charges and a ton of supporting material are available here.

Submission + - New Fuel Cell Technology Cuts Emisions by 90%

Submitted by imamac on Tuesday April 24, 2007 @10:27PM

imamac writes: A new fuel cell technology promises to reduce caol emissions by 90%. This staggering number is even more important when you realize that about 83% of CO2 emissions came from burning coal. Whether you believe in man-made global warming or not, this technology certainly can't hurt.

Submission + - Encouraging Students to Drop Mathematics

Submitted by

Coryoth

on Tuesday April 24, 2007 @10:08PM

Coryoth writes: "The BBC is reporting that students in the UK are being encouraged to drop math at the senior levels. It seems that schools are seeking to boost their standing on league tables by encouraging students not to take "hard" subjects like mathematics, in favour of easier subjects in which they are assured good grades. The result is Universities being forced to provide remedial math classes for science students who haven't done math for two years. The BBC provides a comparison between Chinese and UK university entrance tests — a comparison that makes the UK look woefully behind. Is the UK slipping behind in science education?"

Submission + - Using Google Earth to see destruction

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 12, 2007 @09:58PM

An anonymous reader writes: On Monday, an environmental advocacy group [Appalachian Voices] joined with Google to deliver a special interactive layer for Google Earth. This new layer will tell "the stories of over 470 mountains that have been destroyed from coal mining, and its impact on nearby ecosystems. Separately, the World Wildlife Fund has added the ability to visit its 150 project sites using Google Earth.

Submission + - How Conservapedia helps Wikipedia

Submitted by xtex on Monday March 12, 2007 @09:57PM

xtex writes: Wikipedia is under attack by a conservative lobby group that says it presents "anti-American" and "anti-Christian" views. But who is attacking? And are they really that much better?

Submission + - Study Indicates Autism is Mostly Genetic

Submitted by Old Man Kensey on Monday February 19, 2007 @02:28PM

Old Man Kensey writes: A study funded by the National Institutes of Health and the nonprofit foundation Autism Speaks has found multiple verifiable genetic links to the development of autism, including a gene involved in glutamate metabolism, a process implicated in other childhood neurological disorders like epilepsy. One researcher went so far as to say the findings indicate that autism may be as much as 90% genetic.

Submission + - Google developing AI

Submitted by

chonny69

on Monday February 19, 2007 @01:16PM

chonny69 writes: "Developers at search engine giant Google "are really trying to build artificial intelligence and to do it on a large scale," Google co-founder Larry Page said at the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science conference Saturday. "It's not as far off as people think," he said. Page also said that in the programming language of humans the brain's algorithms weren't all that complicated and could be approximated, eventually, with a lot of computational power."

Submission + - Canadian Quantum Computer Demonstration

Submitted by

lost eden

on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @07:35PM

lost eden writes: ""D-Wave of British Columbia has promised to demonstrate a quantum computer next Tuesday, which can carry out 64,000 calculations simultaneously, thanks to a new technique, which rethinks the already-uncanny world of quantum computing."

Does this yet have any 'real world' implications, or is it merely a scientific milestone to simply document & brag about?"

Submission + - World's First Commercial Quantum Computer Demonstr

Submitted by

Menno Jong

on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @07:19PM

Menno Jong writes: "February 13, 2007
World's First Commercial Quantum Computer Demonstrated
New System Aims at Breakthroughs in Medicine, Business Applications and Expanded Use of Digital Computers

Venture-funded Canadian company shows new product applied to pattern-matching database search

VANCOUVER, B.C. or MT. VIEW, CA — February 13, 2007 — The world's first commercially viable quantum computer was unveiled and demonstrated today in Silicon Valley by D-Wave Systems, Inc., a privately-held Canadian firm headquartered near Vancouver.

Quantum computing offers the potential to create value in areas where problems or requirements exceed the capability of digital computing, the company said. But D-Wave explains that its new device is intended as a complement to conventional computers, to augment existing machines and their market, not as a replacement for them.

Company officials formally announced the technology at the Computer History Museum, in the heart of Silicon Valley, in a demonstration intended to show how the machine can run commercial applications and is better suited to the types of problems that have stymied conventional (digital) computers.

"D-Wave's breakthrough in quantum technology represents a substantial step forward in solving commercial and scientific problems which, until now, were considered intractable. Digital technology stands to reap the benefits of enhanced performance and broader application," said Herb Martin, chief executive officer.

Quantum-computer technology can solve what is known as "NP-complete" problems. These are the problems where the sheer volume of complex data and variables prevent digital computers from achieving results in a reasonable amount of time. Such problems are associated with life sciences, biometrics, logistics, parametric database search and quantitative finance, among many other commercial and scientific areas.

About D-Wave Systems Inc.
D-Wave Systems is a privately held company focused on building commercially viable quantum computer systems designed to solve complex problems that lie beyond the capabilities of conventional computing technology. For more information, please visit www.dwavesys.com."

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