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Comment Re:Risk vs. Reward? (Score 1) 249

by j3p0 (#43727387) Attached to: Drones: Coming Soon To the New Jersey Turnpike?

  We live under an approach to Logan Airport (BOS), about 20 years ago a British Ariways flight loses a chunk of its flap, which is a flat- ish piece of wing-shaped aluminum that weighed maybe 100 lbs. Tumbles down a few thousand feet and bounces off the roof of a house about 300 feet away from mine. bounces again off the family car and lands on the driveway. Family is inside having a holiday dinner, family includes a couple of attorneys BTW. You can probably guess how this turned out for them.

My wife asks me if we're insured for that sort of thing, I say "Sweetie...we only need insurance if our house hits their plane."
The Courts

Prison Bans D&D For Mimicking Gang Structure 496

Posted by kdawson from the step-away-from-the-polyhedral-dice dept.
Trepidity writes "In a case that has been winding its way through the courts for a while now, a Wisconsin prison banned inmates from playing Dungeons & Dragons, using the justification that 'one player is denoted the Dungeon Master... [who] is tasked with giving directions to other players... [which] mimics the organization of a gang.' The prison also cited some sparse evidence that a handful of non-inmate D&D players once committed some crimes that allegedly were related to their D&D playing. On Monday the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the regulation (PDF) against challenges from inmates. The court appeared skeptical of the ban, sarcastically referring to it as the 'war on D&D,' but upheld it nonetheless as having a 'rational basis.' Law professor Ilya Somin suggests that the court may have had no choice, given how deferential rational-basis review usually is."
Medicine

Interview With the Founder of a Video Game Rehab Clinic 59

Posted by Soulskill from the real-medicine dept.
Ten Ton Hammer has posted the transcript from an interview with Dr. Hilarie Cash, co-founder of the "reSTART Internet Addiction Recovery Program," a relatively new clinic that deals with adults who feel that they are addicted to video games. The interview contains some.. interesting nuggets of wisdom. If you want to avoid addiction, you'd better spend less than two hours per day on online entertainment! The good news is that she doesn't recommend beating people. "When people come, they come for 45 days. It is only for adults; patients must be 18 or older. When they first come, they come for a minimum 2 days to be interviewed and to interview us, because we don't want anyone there who doesn't want to be there. So if they decide they want to be there then they stay for 45 days or longer if they choose. During that time they don't have access to the internet. The idea is that it takes at least 30 days for the brain to make some adjustments it needs to make to get over this addiction, so the brain can begin to rewire back to normal. During that time we are helping them look at why they got addicted, what motivated their addiction and we're assessing to see what skills they are lacking so they can be successful in their adult lives. We try to make a good start at helping to build those skills."
Security

Submission + - What is the state of Linux security DVR Software?

Submitted by StonyCreekBare
StonyCreekBare writes: I am wondering what slashdotters have to offer on the idea of Linux based security systems, especially DVR software. I am aware of Zoneminder, but wonder what else is out there? Are there applications that will not only monitor video cameras, but motion sensors and contact closure alarms? What is state of the art in this area, and how do the various Linux platforms stack up in comparison to dedicated embedded solutions? Will these "play nice" with other software, such as Asterisk, and Misterhouse? Can one server host three or four services applications of this nature, assuming CPU/memory/disk resources are sufficient?
Censorship

Modern Warfare 2 Not Recalled In Russia After All 94

Posted by Soulskill from the it's-the-thought-that-counts dept.
thief21 writes "After claims that console versions Modern Warfare 2 had been recalled in Russia due to complaints from politicians and the gaming public over the infamous airport slaughter scene, it turns out the stories were completely untrue. Activision never released a console version of the game in Russia." Instead, they simply edited the notorious scene out of the PC version. They did this of their own volition, since Russia doesn't have a formal ratings committee.
Displays

Submission + - Low Power Monochrome LCD screens

Submitted by evilviper
evilviper writes: Ever since I picked up my Psion 5mx handheld many years ago, I was impressed all-around with the clarity and amazingly low power requirements of simple monochrome LCD screens. I didn't even find myself missing color. Now, I find myself tasked with replacing hundreds of dumb terminals with surplus PCs, doing nothing at all but running a simple terminal emulator, and wasting power. With the majority of power being drawn by the monitor, and requirements so modest that switching to a grayscale display would go practically unnoticed, naturally, my mind goes back to those inexpensive and power-sipping monochrome LCD screens. Sadly, all I've found in my searches are old CRTs, and very expensive high-end LCDs for medical imaging.

So where can decent-sized monochrome LCD screens (preferably with VGA connectors) for PC output be found? Even a text-only screen, ala. digital watches, might be acceptable. I'm sure I'm the only person to ever have this need. What do others in similar situations do to reduce the power consumption of largely idle PCs that are needed merely as a small upgrade from dumb terminals?
Businesses

Submission + - CompUSA Gives Customer 4+ Month Run-around

Submitted by
Andy
Andy writes: "I've had an ongoing...adventure...with CompUSA's repair and customer service departments for the last four months, the short version of which is that — two years in a row — they damaged my laptop while repairing it (this second time more than once!) and are dragging their feet in responding to me and replacing the computer their service center damaged. I've tried to handle it privately for four months, but at this point, I'm running out of options and hope that Slashdot can help bring some attention to my troubles and turn the heat up on CompUSA a bit so they'll do the right thing!

In October 2005 I brought my Sony laptop to them for service, and it came back with all the case screws in the wrong places, causing physical damage to the case and a big loose gap in the front edge. Then, a year later, they again returned my laptop to me with incorrect screws, and with a wad of tape wedged between the keyboard and the cooling fan!

That started a saga, still ongoing, with more missing screws, a heat-related video problem, a damaged hinge cover, missing protective covers for the LCD's screws, and four months of broken promises, abysmal customer disservice, and lack of returned calls on all levels from the local store's tech services manager, operations manager, and GM up to the corporate manager of customer service and chief of escalation.

I've posted my story on my blog at http://www.onefromtheroad.com/index.php?cat=11 (posts are in reverse order, since it's a blog!)

Please help me spread my story, and hold CompUSA responsible for mistreating their customers like this!

— Andy

P.S.-For futher episodes of CompUSA being involved in grossly mishandling repairs, see http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=28004 5"
Censorship

Submission + - Journalist arrested for taking photo of CT Governo

Submitted by reub2000
reub2000 writes: Journalist Ken Krayeske was arrested for taking a photograph of Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell during a parade. Krayeske a pacifist, was on a list of "potential troublemakers" and his photo had been sent to cops on the parade route.
Television

Submission + - Robert Adler, co-inventor of TV remote, dead at 93

Submitted by
yroJJory
yroJJory writes: "Hit the mute button for a moment of silence: The co-inventor of the TV remote, Robert Adler, has died. Adler, who won an Emmy Award along with fellow engineer Eugene Polley for the device that made the couch potato possible, died Thursday of heart failure at a Boise nursing home at 93, Zenith Electronics Corp. said Friday.

In his six-decade career with Zenith, Adler was a prolific inventor, earning more than 180 U.S. patents. He was best known for his 1956 Zenith Space Command remote control, which helped make TV a truly sedentary pastime.

In a May 2004 interview with The Associated Press, Adler recalled being among two dozen engineers at Zenith given the mission to find a new way for television viewers to change channels without getting out of their chairs or tripping over a cable.

Adler also was considered a pioneer in SAW technology, or surface acoustic waves, in color television sets and touch screens. The technology has also been used in cellular telephones.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published his most recent patent application, for advances in touch screen technology, on Feb. 1."
Networking

Submission + - How much storage do you "control"?

Submitted by linkedlinked
linkedlinked writes: While looking for some old backups with a friend, we started talking about storage space, and how so many of our random files wind up in obscure places. We realized that each of us has "access" to a pretty sizable heap of storage (for college kids). I would guess that, between ftp accounts on friends' servers, random school storage space, root access to a few work servers, and my own half-dozen computers and servers, I probably have near 5-6 TB of usable storage. Out of curiosity, we decided to ask Slashdot- legality aside, how much storage space could you feasibly dominate on a whim?

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2.4 statute miles of surgical tubing at Yale U. = 1 I.V.League

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