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Submission + - White House 3-D prints Obama presidential portrait (msnbc.com)

PolygamousRanchKid writes: Because 2-D art is so passé, the White House – along with the Smithsonian Institution – has captured and printed the first ever 3-D portrait of President Obama.

A video released by the White House late Tuesday shows what looks like a futuristic photo-booth. Actually, it’s a “mobile light stage,” which includes “50 custom-built LED lights, eight high-resolution sports photography cameras, and an additional six wider-angle cameras,” Paul Debevec of the USC Institute for Creative Technologies explains in the video.

But the project isn’t just about experimenting with 3-D printing technology. Tom Kalil of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy says “it’s also part of a broader trend, and that is the third industrial revolution,” which Kalil describes as “the combination of the digital world and the physical world.”

Comment Re:Single-pixel what? (Score 1) 81

I just cannot wrap my head around how these single-pixel cameras work.

Well, the camera only has a single pixel . . . but . . . they bounce the light off an "array of digital micro-mirrors". And they re-arrange the "array of digital micro-mirrors" and take a new shot 500 times. So just think of them as just taking 500 random pixels samples from the whole picture, and number crunching it, to smooth it out. Note, this is an over-simplification.

Bonus points if you explain why a chicken breast was involved.

The summary mentioned the "candle in the crotch" crew, but TFA also mentioned that the same method was used to detect breast cancer by so-called Victorian "doctors". I think they were just up to the old "hot wax on the boobs" shenanigans, that is featured in finer Internet porn Web sites these days.

So I guess they will try to tout this as a method for detecting breast cancer. Or that is what they will tell their wives, when they get caught with the neighbors' pubescent Girl Scout Cookie selling daughters with their Girl Scout shirts off.

Comment Re:Google votes to break up the EU (Score 1) 237

Actually, it's well within Google's power to break up the EU. The EU is creaking and buckling at its seams in several places. Google would just need to give it a few gentle pushes in the right directions.

For instance, the UK already has one foot out of the EU with its UKIP anti-EU political party, which is eating away at the UK Tories base on the right. Google just needs to dish up the right stories when people in the UK google. Like, the story about how the EU parliament wants to create an EU standard for breakfast: One cup of muddy coffee, and a mushy half-baked croissant. Baked beans before noon will be banned. Bacon and eggs, as well, since they exploit farm animals: the chicken participated, but the pig was committed. If UK folks are constantly bombarded by stories like that when they google, they will all vote "out" in the upcoming UK-in-the-EU referendum.

The economies of the southern EU countries are basket cases, and the northern countries are sick and tired of working hard and paying exorbitant EU taxes to finance those lazy southern folks, who spend their whole day farting around in cafes drinking tiny cups of coffee. Google could put a few drops of napalm on that fire. First Italy. Google could kill the Pope, and reveal a scandalous relationship between the Catholic Church, the Mafia, and the Italian government, and that the whole Italian economy is really just a Ponzi scheme, and that Italy is bankrupt, and needs a mega-Greek bailout. Google could hire Amanda Knox to take out the Pope. She's tanned, rested and ready.

Google could upset Greece's fragile economic recovery, by posting a false story about the Greeks staging a general strike that paralyzes their country. Oh, wait. They did do that. Let Ms. Palin and I get back to you on Greece.

Spain's economy is also on the ropes. So how can Google finish it off? Hmmm . . . a long time back . . . we had this nasty Spanish Flu. Now we have Ebola. Simple. Google can spread rumors of Spanish Ebola Flu that is carried by visitors from Spain. That ought to shut down Spain's economy really fast.

The backbone of the EU is the uneasy France/Germany alliance. But the French are tired of having to do what Germany tells them to do, and the Germans are tired of paying for the French to take early retirement. So Google could post two other stories. First to pay for French early retirement, German citizens will now be required to continue working after their death. In other words, in Germany, you will be allowed to retire two years after your death. That, to finance the folks in France who retire at 45. The second article will detail that, obviously, the French are not listening and doing what the Germans tell them to do. To assist that, all French households will be required to quarter for free vacationing Germans in France. This will provide an informal mechanism for Germans to tell the French what they think what they need to do at the breakfast table. Float these two stories for a bit, and the Germans and the French will love each other like two cats shaken up in a pillow case. End of EU.

So how can Google rattle the EU relationship with the Scandinavian folks? Hmmm . . . let's start with the Norwegians. They are richer than you or I will ever be. They made butt-loads of cash with North Sea oil. But instead of squandering it away in useless Gulf State building projects, the Norwegians invested all their cash very wisely, so generations from now, the folks in Norway will be enjoying the fruits of those investments. Because they did very well for themselves, this is a perfect opportunity Google to foment envy and greed in other EU countries. Oh, and the Norwegians are kinda sorta weird when it comes to festive meals. While Americans like to stuff a turkey in the oven, the Norwegian version is a wee bit different. They stick a pike in the ground in the backyard, and skewer a sheep's head on it. Then they take a blow torch to the head. Medieval-like. Finished. Dinner is served. The eyeballs supposedly taste really good. I wouldn't know. Maybe if Google posted disinformation stating that they blow torched a whole live sheep, other EU countries would get squeamish. Or scared to death of the Norwegians.

Now them Swedes, next door, they put rotten fish in soup cans. The gas generated from the purification process swells the can until it takes the form of a grapefruit. But there is a better way to get the rest of the EU folks riled up against the Swedes. Google should feature a poll: "Who has a Billy bookshelf?" Then, the next week: "Who has another fucking Billy bookshelf?" . . . and then: "Who has another god-damned fucking Billy fucking bookshelf?" People in other EU countries will realize how much time that have spent navigating labyrinths of plastic kitchen crap, which nobody wants, because nobody needs. Sweden gets the boot out of the EU for crimes against humanity, and making me look at spaghetti tongs, instead of a football game, on a Saturday afternoon.

So, yeah, Google . . . don't let that EU parliament annoy you: They are over-payed and under-worked. And that's the one semi-serious statement in this post.

Comment Additional advice for foreign students in the US (Score 1) 186

Find a partner and make a baby fast! Your child will be automatically a US citizen. That will child will be your ticket to legal residency in a few years, if you want it later.

That was the key to one part of the plan that was announced: If you have a child who is a US citizen, you won't be deported.

Submission + - Obama offer to 5m illegal migrants

mrspoonsi writes: Nearly five million people living illegally in the US can escape deportation under sweeping changes to the US immigration system. US President Barack Obama will unveil his plan, which he is enacting without Congress, in a televised address. Republicans have argued the action is beyond his authority and will fight it. There are about 11m illegal immigrants in the US and this year unaccompanied children coming across the Mexico border prompted a humanitarian crisis. "The president is taking an important step to fix our broken immigration system," said a White House statement before Mr Obama's speech, due at 2000EST (0100GMT).

Submission + - Medieval Times: Congress Suggests Moat to Protect White House (nbcnews.com)

PolygamousRanchKid writes: Acting Secret Service director Joseph Clancy on Wednesday faced a number of tough questions from the House Judiciary Committee about the fence jumper who made it deep into the White House. But along with the tough questions, Clancy fielded a couple eyebrow raising suggestions on how to better protect the president’s home.

“Would a moat, water six feet around, be kind of attractive and effective?” Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., asked with trepidation.

What is likely to happen, though, is that the 7 foot 6-inch fence currently circling the White House gets heightened, Clancy said. Renderings of the new fence are expected in the next few months.

Until then, the Secret Service is relying on a low-tech solution.

“We have a bike rack there now, which we know is not going to prevent someone from jumping the fence, but it’s going to allow us to have a little more time to react,” Clancy said.

C'mon Slashdotters . . . surely we have wackier ideas than a moat . . . ?

Submission + - How Facebook Is Shaping Who Will Win The Next Election (forbes.com)

An anonymous reader writes: That leaves Facebook in a peculiar and unenviable position – no matter what its intentions are, even minor decisions will have political impacts.

Every product change it makes leads to a set of winners and losers, and often these have their own unintended effects. A small alteration in deciding what types of stories get promoted, or what types of behaviors are highlighted, could potentially sway the outcome of an election somewhere. There is nothing it can do to make every side happy, and even doing nothing is a decision that has its own consequences.

Submission + - Nokia's N1 Android tablet is actually a Foxconn tablet (itworld.com) 1

sfcrazy writes: Nokia surprised everyone when it announced the N1 Android tablet during the Slush conference in Finland, today. There is a twist in the story though: This is not a Nokia device.

Nokia doesn’t have a device unit anymore: it sold its Devices and Services business to Microsof, in 2013. N1 is made by Chinese contract manufacturing company Foxconn, which also manufactures the iPhone and the iPad.

But Nokia’s relationship with Foxconn is different from Apple’s. You buy iDevices from Apple, not Foxconn; you call Apple for support, not Foxconn. You never deal with Foxconn.

In the case of N1, Nokia will be nowhere in the picture. Foxconn will be handling the sales, distribution and customer care for the device. Nokia is licensing the brand, the industrial design, Z Launcher software layer and IP on a running royalty basis to Foxconn.

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