Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment oh god, the new year (Score 1) 444

You know what's really annoying? Going to the gym immediately after January 1st. It's disturbing how many losers sit around between christmas and new years going, "Yeah, this year I'm finally going to get in shape. Maybe I'll get a gym membership. I've never tried to before, I could right now but I won't -- I'm gonna do it in the new year. Make a new me!"

then for 3 months or so you can't even get on equipment because it's covered in sheeple livin' the dream, and then, like clockwork - they all quit.

losers.

Comment Anthropomorphism anyone (Score 1) 337

This story is ridiculous. All life has evolved as a result of 'pressure' from the environment surrounding it. It's not a conscious decision on the part of the plant, it's a permanent adaptation. It's not going to just say, "Oh ok, now I don't need to do this anymore".

If we were able to obliterate all insect life on earth, would we be studying the Venus Fly Trap and the Pitcher Plant and saying, "Oh wow! These plants are still trying to capture insects we obliterated years ago!". I feel stupider having read that article.

Comment What about putting white out on the key (Score 1) 874

This is kind of cute, but not really...

The person shows the elaborate process they go through to get the key pressed. I mean, if you were a paraplegic typing with a pencil stuck up your nose - you're still hitting the key. Or is the pen hitting the key? What if you white out just the key you need to hit so you can claim you knowingly hit it, but it wasn't marked.

I mean, cummon. This isn't worthy of slashdot. This is really lame.

Comment Second Rate? (Score 1) 353

"would make the US second-rate in education and basic research."

-- Wait a minute, somehow the U.S. is going to improve as a result of this beating out the 5 or 6 other countries that kick the 5#17 out of them for education and basic research? Awesome!

Space

Submission + - Japanese Scientists want to launch Paper Airplane

Ace905 writes: "Japanese Scientists have unveiled a plan to launch paper airplanes into space. The airplanes will be released in space (not flown there), and their successful trip back down to earth it is hoped — will revolutionize the design of re-entry vehicles. In early February a prototype just over 7.1 centimetres long and five centimetres wide survived Mach 7 speeds and broiling temperatures up to 230 degrees Celcius in a hypersonic wind tunnel.

One problem the project faces, is "there is no way to track the paper craft or predict when or where they may land." Critics claim this alone makes the entire project completely pointless. I disagree, this reminds me of the research recently into 'micro satellites' — maybe micro satellites of the future will be circuits printed on paper and formed into maple-keys for landing on planets or asteroids. Exciting stuff."
The Internet

Submission + - Bell Canada Disrupting Internet Use

Ace905 writes: "Bell Canada and Rogers, two of Canada's largest Internet Providers have begun load-balancing and traffic re-routing across their networks this past week. Disruptions to regular Internet use have caused many Internet Users and even other providers to complain. Apparently, Bell didn't feel the need to tell wholesalers that their bandwidth would now be throttled. Coincidentally, Bell has also admitted this week to purposely throttling Peer to Peer traffic solely to disrupt filesharing. To add to the outcry, a National Labour Union has joined the fight and is urging the Canadian Radio & Television Commission to curb interference by these two mega-ISPs.

I know from my own experience this past week — just loading common web sites like facebook can be extremely frustrating. A traceroute shows multiple, slow hops across Bell Canada servers, giving me response times of 1 to 2 seconds just to load a web page.

The repercussions to Bell and Rogers (if any at all) will determine the future of Internet Service across all of Canada. This could be the end of real high-speed Internet as we know it. eh (included for authenticity)."
Announcements

Submission + - Squid Beaks May Revolutionize Engineering

Ace905 writes: "For years the razor sharp beak Squid use to eat their prey have posed a puzzle to scientists. Squid are incredibly soft and fragile, but have a beak as dense as rock and sharp enough to break through hard shells. Scientists have long wondered why the beak doesn't hurt the Squid itself as they use it. New research has just been published in the Friday Edition of "Journal Science" that appears to explain the phenomenon. A detailed article is available online at the CBC web site.

One of the teams researchers described the squid beak as, "like placing an X-Acto blade in a block of fairly firm Jell-O and then trying to use it to chop celery." — illustrating just how bizarre this appendage appears to be. Careful examination shows the beak itself is actually formed in a gradient of density, becoming harder out towards the tip of the beak.

Understanding this gradient relationship may revolutionize Engineering, anywhere "interfaces between soft and hard materials [are required]." One of the first applications researchers imagine would be in Prosthetic Limbs."
Earth

Submission + - Google Raises Awareness of "Earth Hour"

Ace905 writes: "If you're a regular Google Search Engine user, you may notice the site appears drastically different today. Google has changed their home page background to black and now displays the notice, "We've turned the lights out. Now it's your turn". Google is trying to raise awareness of Earth Hour — an annual event where citizens all over the globe turn out their lights for one hour to raise awareness of environmental change.

Google is careful to explain that by darkening their web site, they're not actually saving any electricity — which is an interesting answer to a question I never considered. When I saw the page all dark and black, I thought some sort of cataclysmic event had just occured and this was Googles version of a flag at half-mast. Maybe in a way that's exactly what this is. A better explanation can be found at Google and on the site they ultimately link to."
The Almighty Buck

Piracy Economics 347

Reader Anonymous Coward the younger sends in a link to an article up at Mises.org on the market functions of piracy. The argument is that turning a blind eye to piracy can be a cheap way for a company to give away samples — one of the most time-proven tactics in marketing. The article also suggests that pirates creating knock-offs might just be offering companies market feedback that they ought to attend to. (Microsoft, are you listening?)
The Internet

Submission + - The Goat's Birthday

Ace905 writes: "The infamous goat-see web site turns 10 years old today (Tuesday May 22, 2007). While links to the 'notorious shock site' have been the bane of slashdot's existence — it none the less has become an iconic folk-hero of the web in the last 10 years its been online. Its history is long and diverse, with numerous hidden references and tributes in games and G-rated copycats paying tribute to the site the world over. So while we can censor a link to the actual site, let us toast its success in shocking us repeatedly for the past 10 years."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft will not sue over Linux patents

Nero Nimbus writes: In an official statement emailed to ZDNet UK, Microsoft confirmed that it would not litigate for now.

"If we wanted to go down that road we could have done that three years ago," said a Microsoft spokesperson. "Rather than litigate, Microsoft has spent the last three years building an intellectual property bridge that works for all parties — including open source — and the customer response has been tremendously positive. Our focus is on continuing to build bridges."

Slashdot Top Deals

Get hold of portable property. -- Charles Dickens, "Great Expectations"

Working...