Comment Re:Not 60 C or 140 F (Score 1) 165
Temperature extremes for the USA are strangely absent from that list.
Submission + - Alcohol, Not Marijuana, A Gateway Drug (isciencetimes.com) 1
An anonymous reader writes: While it may not settle the debate over how drug use begins, researchers found that alcohol, not marijuana, is the gateway drug that leads teens down the path of hard drug use, according to a new study that will be published in the August edition of the Journal of School Health
Comment In the mail? (Score 3, Insightful) 33
Why were they taking information, which they have electronically, and putting it on a physical medium where it loses its usability, presumably so someone could use it. And they used regular mail? Seriously? Is this April fools or something, this is just too much fail to be real.
Submission + - If You Resell Your Used Games, The Terrorists Win (hothardware.com) 1
MojoKid writes: "Game designer Richard Browne has come out swinging in favor of the rumored antipiracy features in the next-gen PlayStation Orbis and Xbox Durango. "The real cost of used games is the damage that is being wrought on the creativity and variety of games available to the consumer," Browne writes. Browne's comments echo those of influential programmer and Raspberry Pi developer David Braben, who wrote last month that "...pre-owned has really killed core games. It's killing single player games in particular, because they will get pre-owned, and it means your day one sales are it, making them super high risk." Both Browne and Braben conflate hating GameStop (a thoroughly reasonable life choice) with the supposed evils of the used games market. Braben goes so far as to claim that used games are actually responsible for high game prices and that "prices would have come down long ago if the industry was getting a share of the resells." Amazingly, no game publishers have stepped forward to publicly pledge themselves to lower game prices in exchange for a cut of used game sales. Publishers are hammering Gamestop (and recruiting developers to do the same) because it's easier than admitting that the current system is fundamentally broken."
Submission + - Mystery company may be an asteroid mining project (theverge.com)
MMatessa writes: From The Verge: MIT's Technology Review has just gotten news of a mysterious new project that claims it will "create a new industry and a new definition of 'natural resources.'" Space exploration company Planetary Resources will be unveiled in a conference call on Tuesday, April 24th. Besides the audacious announcement, which promises to "overlay two critical sectors — space exploration and natural resources — to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP," what makes this unique is its high-profile support group. The venture is backed by Google executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, director James Cameron, and politician Ross Perot's son, among others.
Submission + - TSA protest action bares all (nzherald.co.nz)
Kittenman writes: The NZ Herald (and no doubt many others) are covering the protest of a traveller, John E. Brennan, 49, who feeling disgruntled by the TSA intrusive pat-down, just continued to strip to the point of no return. He was arrested at Portland International Airport, and charged with Disorderly conduct and indecent exposure.
Submission + - Asian Call Center Workers Trained With U.S. Tax Dollars (informationweek.com)
gManZboy writes: "Despite President Obama's recent call for companies to "insource" jobs sent overseas, it turns out that the federal government itself is spending millions of dollars to train foreign students for employment in some booming career fields--including working in offshore call centers that serve U.S. businesses.
The program is called JEEP, which stands for Job Enabling English Proficiency. It's available to college students in the Philippines through USAID. That's the same agency that until a couple of years ago was spending millions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer money to train offshore IT workers in Sri Lanka.
Congressman Tim Bishop (D-New York), told about the program on Tuesday, called it "surprising and distressing." Bishop recently introduced a bill that would make companies that outsource call centers ineligible for government contracts."
The program is called JEEP, which stands for Job Enabling English Proficiency. It's available to college students in the Philippines through USAID. That's the same agency that until a couple of years ago was spending millions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer money to train offshore IT workers in Sri Lanka.
Congressman Tim Bishop (D-New York), told about the program on Tuesday, called it "surprising and distressing." Bishop recently introduced a bill that would make companies that outsource call centers ineligible for government contracts."
Submission + - Clues to Species Decline Buried in Pile of Bird Excrement (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit writes: In 2009, while searching for ways to help endangered birds, research technician Chris Grooms heard that a chimney on his university campus used to host a migratory species known as the chimney swift. When he investigated, he found a pile of bird excrement 2 meters deep. The poop lay at the bottom of a five-story-high chimney and had been deposited over 48 years by the birds, which had roosted there until the top was capped in 1992. Now, Grooms and his colleagues have dug into that pile of guano, revealing new clues about why the chimney swift and other species like it have begun to disappear.
Comment Re:No child left... (Score 1) 663
At least they are using the metric system.
Comment Re:A better name (Score 3, Interesting) 298
Nova Scotia, you mean near where the french colonized what would become Canada? Where people still speak Acadian French... yeah, no french history there.
Submission + - Kapersky quits BSA; SOPA not supportable (betanews.com)
Cmdrm writes: Kapersky to release additional information as to why it is intent on leaving the Business Software Alliance. "Kaspersky Lab would like to clarify that the company did not participate in the elaboration or discussion of the SOPA initiative and does not support it. Moreover, the company believes that the SOPA initiative might actually be counter-productive for the public interest, and decided to discontinue its membership in the BSA as of January 1, 2012", said a Monday press release.
Comment Re:Read a comment by a US naval commander (Score 1) 1319
You lose for spelling lose incorrectly too many times. Losing! (homage to the antonym of Charlie Sheen).
There is a great period in the last millennium where muslim scholars contributed greatly to the advancement of science.
I think there are parts of your discourse that are missing a sarcasm quote.
Comment Actually improving their products, slightly (Score 1) 1
M$ might be slowly learning that some areas of product development will go farther in enhancing the user experience than others. The areas of the windows OS that needed the updates and upgrades haven't traditionally been the interfaces or their user experience on start up. Its the nuts and bolts of the product that are finally getting the attention they deserve.
Things like TM and control interfaces like Msconfig or their service manager don't play a role in the day to day usage of their product -for most, but being able to troubleshoot and correct performance issues correctly & simply will go a long way in improving the user experience.
Submission + - Running Windows 7 (and 8) On a Mac (itworld.com)
itwbennett writes: "If you love Apple hardware but can't work with Mac OS X for whatever reason (gaming? business requirements?), running Windows on your Mac may be an option worth considering. Sure, you'll take some hits on performance and battery life, but, hey, you'll be using a Mac (and Windows). Sandro Villinger, a self-professed Win/Mac native, has written the ultimate guide to the ups and downs of a Win/Mac life."
Submission + - Windows 8 Task Manager An impressive Update (hothardware.com) 1
MojoKid writes: "The Windows Task Manager has historically been a vital (if boring) workhorse in an OS not generally described with adjectives like "sexy." Windows 8 has set out to change that, and the preliminary information available suggests the new task manager is a significant advancement over the old. Microsoft's research indicates that the most common actions performed in Task Manager relate to ending programs/processes. The new TM can categorize threads depending on whether they're foreground or background processes and then color codes column data to allow users to read pertinent information at a glance, rather than trying to manually resort the information by column. Applications are also now described by function rather than strictly by executable name."
