Comment Re:Floating? (Score 3, Funny) 252
Or maybe each of the ten weather balloons may or may not have a live six-year-old boy riding in it, and DARPA full well remembers what happened last time with just *one*.
Solomon
Comment Re:Can I avoid this simply by avoiding Disney? (Score 1) 498
I don't know about you others, but I shave, despite getting my slashdot account almost 12 years ago.
Comment Re:Agreed? (Score 1) 124
Actually I think damages were 40000d6, for which a final roll of $125000 is slightly below statistical expectation. In order to count the sheer number of dice, a roller rink had to temporarily be rented out as bean counters dumped the entire truckload of all 40K dice.
That's so many six sided dice, WotC has announced plans to buy out Chessex.
In other litigation news, GW is suing WotC for the usage of the term, "40K dice".
How To Play Poker With Your Rock Band Guitar 121
An anonymous reader writes 'Sean Lind over at PokerListings has written a really interesting piece on how to configure Rock Band (or Guitar Hero) instruments to use them as controllers for playing online poker. The instructions given in his how-to could really be used to configure the instruments for any game.' Or how about a genuine chording keyboard?
Senator Applauds Pirate Bay Trial, Chides Canada 526
eldavojohn writes "Republican Senator Orrin Hatch spoke Tuesday at the World Copyright Summit in Washington DC and hailed the Pirate Bay guilty verdict as an important victory. He expressed severe disappointment in Canada for showing up on our watch list for piracy next to China and Russia. Senator Hatch also said, 'In fact, one study reports that each year, copyright piracy from motion pictures, sound recordings, business and entertainment software, and video games costs the US economy $58 billion in total output, costs American workers 373,375 jobs and $16.3 billion in earnings, and costs federal, state, and local governments $2.6 billion in tax revenue. During this time of economic turmoil, we must ensure that all copyrighted works, both here and abroad, are protected from online theft and traditional physical piracy. After all, US copyright-based industries continue to be one of America's largest and fastest-growing economic sectors.' GamePolitics notes that for his 2006 campaign, Hatch was rented for $7,000 by the RIAA and also got on his knees for $12,640 from the MPAA."
Comment Re:I have to wonder (Score 1) 369
Maybe it's the caliber of the government IT workers...
Military Official: Davis, I need you to wipe every hard drive in this container.
Minimum Wage IT Contractor: Okay. [Opens a pack of lemon-scented WetNaps and starts wiping the outside of the hard drives.] Hard drives wiped, sir.
Officer: Then I need you to write "10101010" repeatedly on them, until there's no more space!
MWITC: Okay. [Pulls out Sharpie and draws alternating dashes and circles on the enclosure until there's no more place to put any.] Done, sir.
Officer: Good. Sign off on this ticket, and we're ready to liquidate them on Ebay!
Cutting Steel With Flaming Bacon Weapons
73
Ed Pegg writes "Theo Gray demonstrates the Bacon Lance, a flaming meatsword that can cut through steel. Yes, with some ordinary bacon, and some pure oxygen, it's possible to cut through security doors. Form the article, 'I recently committed myself to the goal, before the weekend was out, of creating a device entirely from bacon and using it to cut a steel pan in half. My initial attempts were failures, but I knew success was within reach when I was able to ignite and melt the pan using seven beef sticks and a cucumber.' This comes out right after his profusely illustrated book of science experiments, Mad Science."
Comment Re:"limited mass production" (Score 4, Funny) 128
> far stronger than I need to be for day to day life as an IT professional!
Your work environment will adapt.
Trac ticket 14849
Reported by: Operations Manager
Owned by: Somersault
Priority: Major
Description: Hey, we just got eight full racks of blade servers downstairs. Please bring them up to the fifth floor before lunch. There's also a three-ton rack cooler that needs to be installed.
Trac ticket 14936
Reported by: Operations Manager
Owned by: Somersault
Priority: Major
Description: Our next truckload of routers is here. I need them in the NOC. This time, DO NOT bring the truck. Just the routers.
Trac ticket 15186
Reported by: Office Manager
Owned by: Somersault
Priority: Major
Description: Somersault, would you be a dear and open the jar of peanut butter in the kitchen fridge? No one else in the office can even budge it, but you with your exo-suit and all... Thanks.
Comment Count *in* sheep? (Score 2, Funny) 599
"Umm, Officer, I know what this looks like, but really, I'm trying option number six in today's Slashdot poll..."
Or better yet...
"Hey Paul, are you done with my taxes yet...? Oh god! Do you have to do *that* when you're filing my return?!"
Comment Network cables (Score 5, Funny) 1032
Don't get just one cat. Get more than one. Get several.
You're right - Cat 1 and Cat 2 will probably do nothing. Most people won't even think they exist. Cat 3 will do most of the work, but won't harrass rats beyond 100 meters. Cat 4 needs motivation - give it a small token, like a ring.
Cat 5 can be faster than Cat 3, but like Cat 3, speed and response begin to attenuate after 100 meters. They start dropping packets, which should promptly be buried in the litter box. In the event that rodents bite back, you should consider shielding Cat 5.
Cat 6 is extremely fast with very little latency, but inflexible and difficult to work with. I use them in my fruit pantry, where rats ate "twisted pears"
Comment Re:Amazing Creature! (Score 1) 67
We like to think if as birth-barfing. The really nasty part is when it gets near the end... Ever drag your own anus down the length of your tongue? It's not pleasant.
Yours truly,
Self-Birthing Snake
How To Create More Jobs 368
TechDirt is spotlighting a call by Michael S. Malone, a columnist for ABCNews.com, for letting Silicon Valley create jobs once more. Malone argues that Sarbanes-Oxley and other attempts at accounting reform have done little to prevent fraud, but in fact have managed to kill off an entrepreneurship-venture capital-IPO cycle, centered in Silicon Valley, that has taken 30 years to nourish. Here's TechDirt: "...it's time to roll back SarbOx and other accounting rules that have acted more for theatrical purposes rather than any legitimate reason. Basically, all they've done is create new reporting requirements that do little to nothing to either prevent fraud or clarify a company's actual financial position (its intended purpose). I'm all for radical transparency in financial info, but that's not what has been done. Instead, we've made it burdensome to actually grow a company — and that doesn't help create jobs. It helps kill them."
Comment Or... just buy the extended warranty (Score 1) 79
I got mine from Best Buy, and paid the extra $30 for the extended warranty. Every time the pedal breaks, I bring it in, and they bust open a new box of Rock Band to give me the pedal inside. The remainder of the box goes back to Harmonix.
It was happening a few times at first, then when I was having my cousins come over for Rock Band every night, the pedal was breaking on a nightly basis. Best record so far is a broken pedal 5 nights in a row. 11 broken pedals so far.
I hope is enough people have done what I've done, this is going to cost Harmonix dearly. My Best Buy warranty lasts until September. I can keep doing this until then.
S.
Comment Re:I love mathematica (Score 5, Funny) 234
Uhh...
> High-Impact Adaptive Visualization
It's got graphics now.
> Automated Computational Aesthetics
You don't have to graph things out by hand.
> Fully Automated Graph Layout
You don't have to graph things out by hand.
> Real-Time 3D Graphics
If you change your equation, the graph changes too.
> Automated Table Layout
Shows you the points they graphed.
> Dynamic Interactivity
It's got a GUI.
> Integrated Geometric Computing
Runs on a computer following Moore's law, hence "geometric" advancement.
> Combinatorial Optimization
Solve the Travelling Salesman problem by something other than brute force.
> Equational Theorem Proving
Okay, that could be cool... if the previous versions didn't have it already.
> New Generation Numerical Integration
It can use numbers now?
> Computable Data
> Financial Data
> Astronomical Data
> Country Data
> Particle Data
> Graph Data
> Mathematical Data
Since this is a list of "New Features", previous versions of Mathematica could not be used for these purposes. All you could do was show a fellow math geek how that humanities major had a really nice set of 80085.
> Unification of Graphics, Text & Controls
In previous versions, you were lucky if what you wrote or clicked resembled anything like the output! Now, when when you type in "y=x", you actually get a straight diagonal line, instead of one of the spirally partial differential functions we like to put on the cover of the manual!
> Language for Data Integration
There's now its own scripting language. Whoa, Mathematica never had *that* before!
> Dynamic Graphical Input
Use symbols you never thought possible! Like that squiggly "integrate" symbol, or that lambda derive-like thingy. Even use that upside-down "U" for set theory!
> Instant Multimedia Programming
Uses both Video and Audio! Include a Youtube video in your equations of Stephen himself telling you how wrong your equation is!
> Real-Time Code Annotation
Add "comments" whenever and wherever you want! No other language has the ability to "comment" on your code!
> Instant High-Level Debugging
Be able to step through your code and set break points! Stephen is the first person to think of it! No other programming IDE has ever done anything so revolutionary!
> Integrated Graphics Editing & Drawing
Did your equations predict that the Mars Lander was going to crash and burn? Use the Graph Editor to change the equation output, and show your fellow engineers a perfect atmospheric re-entry! Then re-sell those high-risk equations to an over-leveraged engineer who does care! You'll be long gone by the time they realize what you've done! This feature brought to you by the Lenders Association of US Banks.
> HID Support
You may now use a mouse and keyboard in this version, instead of simply shouting at the screen, hoping it'll do something!
> Streamlined Presentation Framework
Use an overhead projector instead of a video monitor to show your results!
> New Documentation Framework Dynamic Interactivity
We'd like to call it "Google"...
Solomon Chang
Comment Re:La Source (Score 1) 574
I didn't say they stopped selling... they just changed their focus, and by focus, I mean what the sales staff are knowledgeable about.
Have you tried to ask sales staff about low level hardware lately? They tend to look it up in a catalog before they tell you whether you have it, without even knowing what it is.
Radio Shack isn't exactly attracting Electrical Engineering graduates these days.
S.
