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Comment VEX Robotics Kit (Score 1) 166

The VEX robotics kits are much more versatile (think Erector Set) than the Lego kits. VEX robots use industry standard PIC microcontrollers, so for a programmer the C programming interface might actually be less of a hassle. They do the same line following or grasping type problems, but I've done things like attaching omnidirectional wheels, porting the code to other non-VEX PIC controllers, and sending instructions to the controller over a serial port from a laptop. VEX kits are still fairly pricy, but compared to the Mindstorm kits you can do a lot more with them. They don't fall apart as easily as Lego robots. I would highly recommend them.

Comment Re:tumours grown under the skin? (Score 1) 42

Sounds like a quote from Portal 2...

"For this next test, we put nanoparticles in the gel. In layman's terms, that's a billion little gizmos that are gonna travel into your bloodstream and pump experimental genes and RNA molecules and so forth into your tumors. Now, maybe you don't have any tumors. Well, don't worry. If you sat on a folding chair in the lobby and weren't wearing lead underpants, we took care of that too." --Cave Johnson

Comment Re:iPhone secret screenshots? (Score 4, Insightful) 193

"For example, every time an iPhone user closes out of the built-in mapping application, the phone snaps a screenshot and stores it." - TFS What?

I'm guessing it does that because when it opens it wants to look just as spiffy as it looked when the user closed it, and it can't do that if it has to re-render the map from scratch.

Comment finally a book review (Score 5, Funny) 51

Is this review going to make it onto the "Book Reviews" sidebar? That Excel one has been there forever. Nothing against the author, but I'm sure I'm not the only slashdotter that shudders at every thought of having to code something in Excel macros.

Comment Re:3000BC called... (Score 0) 195

I'm not a linguist, as I'm probably about to demonstrate, but the development of written language went (very) roughly like: pictograms -> consonants -> vowels -> punctuation

What?! Practically every language in existence, new or old, uses vowels. You can hardly make grunts without using vowels. Unless there are some highly advanced languages that I'm not aware of that write things like "aaaaaaoo ooaaaa iiieeey eeeuuueoo" and somehow understand what that means.

It seems the dumber things one says, the more likely one is to get +5 interesting on slashdot. If that's the case...

*ahem*

I for one am against the current trend of using more vowels and punctuation. I enjoy eating consonants for breakfast; they aid in my digestion. With less demand for consonants, the only breakfast cereals I can find on the shelves are O's shaped. I suspect this recent language paradigm shift was brought about by recent popular phrases such as "SPARTAAAAAAA" and "LOOOOOOOOL", but I don't know why the kids enjoy punctuation so much. I guess I'm out of the loop. :(

Comment Re:Priorities! (Score 2, Informative) 132

Could we first work on robots that DON'T stab people, before we put a lot of effort into developing robots that DO stab people?

Once again, the /. summary is misleading. TFA says that the researchers are developing a system that's used to detect and prevent such robot stabings. Whether or not this postpones the inevitable robot uprising is yet to be seen.

Comment Re:Excellent timing (Score 3, Funny) 167

Having just spent 17 hours bringing a server back online after a third party team blew up a data center move I am greatly amused.

Did you crawl through ventilation ducts or kill anyone in the process? CmdrTaco must have, unless I misunderstood the phrase "hit the nail on the head."

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And it should be the law: If you use the word `paradigm' without knowing what the dictionary says it means, you go to jail. No exceptions. -- David Jones

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