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Comment Fail Poll (Score 1, Informative) 206

by BonquiquiShiquavius (#30613096) Attached to: Until I remember to write '2010' instead of '2009':
Fail Poll...if you delete the comments, you should also delete the poll responses. The deleted comments would provide insight into the fact the poll is probably widely inaccurate given that the original question left out half the question.

Actually, sorry, scratch that. I see now that all polls on /. are widely inaccurate. Just another day at the office.
Science

Submission + - Sceptical climate researcher withholds code (newscientist.com) 1

Submitted by xav_jones
xav_jones writes: New Scientist is reporting that Nicola Scafetta, a physicist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina — whose work is often highlighted by climate-change sceptics, including US senator James Inhofe — is refusing to provide the software he used to other climate researchers attempting to replicate his results. Emails between Rasmus Benestad of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute in Oslo and Scafetta over the past week had Scaffetta repeatedly refusing to provide the code. "If you just disclose your code and data, then we will manage to get to the bottom of this," Benestad writes in one email. "I really do not understand why you are not able to write your own program to reproduce the calculations," responds Scafetta.
Science

Aussie Scientists Find Coconut-Carrying Octopus 205

Posted by timothy from the concealed-carry-in-australian-waters dept.
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from an AP report: "Australian scientists have discovered an octopus in Indonesia that collects coconut shells for shelter — unusually sophisticated behavior that the researchers believe is the first evidence of tool use in an invertebrate animal. The scientists filmed the veined octopus, Amphioctopus marginatus, selecting halved coconut shells from the sea floor, emptying them out, carrying them under their bodies up to 65 feet (20 meters), and assembling two shells together to make a spherical hiding spot. ... 'I was gobsmacked,' said Finn, a research biologist at the museum who specializes in cephalopods. 'I mean, I've seen a lot of octopuses hiding in shells, but I've never seen one that grabs it up and jogs across the sea floor. I was trying hard not to laugh.'"
Hardware

The Ultimate Geek Christmas Card 122

Posted by samzenpus from the when-you-care-to-send-the-geekiest dept.
An anonymous reader writes "CNET reports on the world's most geeky Christmas card, and also the most expensive. The card is made out of a 1st gen iPhone, hacked into a Christmas card using cardboard, paper and glue. The card includes a virtual 'bauble' which uses the iPhone's accelerometer to recreate Christmas decorations that bounce and move with the card. The makers of the card say that because of the iPhone's battery life 'you probably don't want to post it anywhere it will take more than 3 days to arrive.'"

Comment Re:$700,000 (Score 2, Funny) 571

by BonquiquiShiquavius (#30241162) Attached to: Hacker McKinnon To Be Extradited To US

My analogy would be that it's like the owner of a stolen car having to spend $700,000 on a secure garage after realizing that keeping the car on the street with the keys in the ignition is inadequate.

Sorry it took so long for the fix...I got on it as soon as I realized the anguish a non-car analogy would cause on /.

Comment Re:60 Minutes (Score 1) 560

by BonquiquiShiquavius (#29956778) Attached to: Pirate Bay Closure Sparked P2P Explosion
Bullshit. The media companies are only interested in viewership/copies sold. Ideology / world view has nothing to do with it. News has been viewed as entertainment rather education for a long time now. Sensationalist reporting gets much more attention than ensuring their stories are fair and unbiased. Imagine the average American - what do you think will get their attention - "Piracy Strongly Linked to Child Prostitution" or "Potential Link Found between File Sharing and Child Pornography (Maybe)"?

Comment Re:Saudi Arabia tried that (Score 1) 429

by BonquiquiShiquavius (#29828303) Attached to: 125 Years of Longitude 0 0' 00" At Greenwich
I agree with abolishing the daylight savings time, but not with using UTC. The vast majority of our activities are based on solar time. Everyone instantly recognizes what getting up at 4:00 AM means. You can only recognize what getting up at 12:00 UTC (or GMT) means if you also know the location of the person doing the action, and where that location is in relation to the central time zone. Can you imagine what this would do to story telling - not just published works, but also the daily anecdotes we tell each other? It would require either significantly more mental math, or two time standards as suggested by the original poster - both of which I would find more of a pain in the ass than the need to deal with occasionally convert time from another zone to current time.
Space

Australian Student Balloon Rises 100,000 Feet, With a Digital Camera 174

Posted by timothy from the shame-about-the-iso-setting dept.
hype7 writes "An Australian student at Deakin University had a fascinating idea for a final project — to send a balloon up 100,000ft (~30,000 metres) into the stratosphere with a digital camera attached. The university was supportive, and the project took shape. Although there were some serious hitches along the way, the project was successful, and he managed to retrieve the balloon — with the pictures. What's really amazing is that the total cost was so low; the most expensive part was buying the helium gas for approximately AUD$250 (~USD$200)."
Transportation

California Requests Stimulus Funding For Bullet Train 567

Posted by Soulskill from the does-it-come-with-a-silencer dept.
marquinhocb writes "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger requested $4.7 billion in federal stimulus money Friday to help build an 800-mile bullet train system from San Diego to San Francisco. 'We're traveling on our trains at the same speed as 100 years ago,' the governor said. 'That is inexcusable. America must catch up.' Planners said the train would be able to travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco in two hours and 40 minutes, traveling at speeds of more than 200 miles per hour. About time! There comes a point when 'let's add another lane' is no longer a viable option!"
Power

Sony Prototype Sends Electricity Through the Air 240

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the efficiency-is-overrated dept.
itwbennett writes "Sony announced Friday that it has developed a prototype power system based on magnetic resonance that can send 'a conventional 100 volt electricity supply over a distance of 50 centimeters to power a 22-inch LCD television.' Unfortunately, Sony's prototype wasted 1/5 of the power fed into it and additional losses 'occurred in circuitry connected to the secondary coil so the original 80 watts of power was cut by roughly a quarter to 60 watts once it had made its way through the system.'"

Comment Re:Winter-to-Winfly (Score 1) 451

by BonquiquiShiquavius (#29433757) Attached to: Favorite seasonal transition?
So I have to ask...it's completely off topic (but how often do you get to pose a question to someone stationed at McMurdo?)...how common are inter-personnel affairs down there? I can only imagine that they are inevitable given the inhospitable climate, the cramped quarters and long isolation periods. Actually, it kinda sounds like a nerd's paradise...just like the basement but actual women are forced to stay down there with you as well!?!
Businesses

Appropriate Interviewing For a Worldwide Search? 440

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the can't-please-everyone-so-i-choose-to-please-no-one dept.
jellomizer writes 'I am a manager of a small Software Development department, looking to hire some more developers. By edict of the CEO, the search must be made globally, so we are dealing with different cultures and different ideas of truth and embellishment, etc. To try to counteract this, we give the potential employees tests where I watch what they do, to see if they actually know what they say they know. However, it seems a lot of applicants drop out when I mention that this test is mandatory. Is this a sign that we caught them in a lie, or are we weeding out good people where we shouldn't be? Would you be willing to take a test as part of an interview? If so, is there any type of heads up you would like to know beforehand to make the decision of whether to take the test easier?' What other difficulties have people seen while trying to hire from many different cultures?

Comment Not Blizzard Fan = Not a Gamer? (Score 1) 452

by BonquiquiShiquavius (#29182367) Attached to: Blizzard Game You're Most Looking Forward To?
Seriously how could you miss the option of "Not a Blizzard Fan" or something to that effect? Although I'm always impressed with the quality of the games Blizzard produces, the entire genre they produce carries little to no interest to me. I'm sure I'm not the only gamer that looks forward to the release of certain new games, just not the type Blizzard produces. Even though I spend an average of 5 - 10 hrs a week playing PC games, does not liking/looking forward to upcoming Blizzard titles classify me as a non-gamer?

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