wolf1oo - Slashdot User

Life Found In Deepest Layer of Earth's Crust 335

Posted by Soulskill on Friday November 19, 2010 @02:01PM from the gabbroic-added-to-spellchecker dept.

michaelmarshall writes "For the first time, life has been found in the gabbroic layer of the crust. The new biosphere is all bacteria, as you might expect, but they are different from the bacteria in the layers above; they mostly feed on hydrocarbons that are produced by abiotic reactions deep in the crust. It could mean that similar microbes are living even deeper, perhaps even in the mantle."

The ~200 Line Linux Kernel Patch That Does Wonders 603

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday November 16, 2010 @09:49AM from the well-isn't-that-special dept.

An anonymous reader writes "There is a relatively miniscule patch to the Linux kernel scheduler being queued up for Linux 2.6.38 that is proving to have dramatic results for those multi-tasking on the desktop. Phoronix is reporting the ~200 line Linux kernel patch that does wonders with before and after videos demonstrating the much-improved responsiveness and interactivity of the Linux desktop. While compiling the Linux kernel with 64 parallel jobs, 1080p video playback was still smooth, windows could be moved fluidly, and there was not nearly as much of a slowdown compared to when this patch was applied. Linus Torvalds has shared his thoughts on this patch: So I think this is firmly one of those 'real improvement' patches. Good job. Group scheduling goes from 'useful for some specific server loads' to 'that's a killer feature.'"

Comment Flawed Statistics... (Score 1) 234

by wolf1oo on Monday November 15, 2010 @06:15PM (#34236378) Attached to: 'Smart' Vending Machines Triple Sales

Obviously, the lurking variable that the people in Japan MAY just be drawn to a vending machine that talks to them and is technologically advanced could not have possibly been a cause of the pickup in sales....

the only way to prove it's suggestion ability is what draws the people would be to put in a machine that suggests based upon random selection, that is identical to the others.

'Smart' Vending Machines Triple Sales 234

Posted by Soulskill on Monday November 15, 2010 @04:24PM from the by-tom-cruise's-eyeballs dept.

bossanovalithium writes "A vending machine in Japan which recommends drinks to customers based on facial recognition data has tripled sales. JR East Water Business has previously installed two vending machines in JR Shinagawa station and it is believed that the recognition technology is responsible for a vast increase in sales in comparison to traditional machines. The vending machines recommend beverages after physical attributes of customers are picked up by sensors which allow the machines determine age, sex and other attributes, before offering a number of suggestions."

Android Phone Solves Rubik's Cube In 12.5 Seconds 76

Posted by timothy on Thursday November 11, 2010 @05:47PM from the varies-with-the-cube dept.

DeviceGuru writes "A Lego Mindstorms robotics kit controlled by an HTC Nexus One smartphone successfully untangled a Rubik's Cube puzzle in 12.5 seconds at this weeks ARM technical conference in Silicon Valley. The current 3x3x3 cube-solvers's 15-second average represents a substantial improvement over the 25-second solutions of an earlier version, which was powered by a circa-2006 Nokia N95 smartphone, thanks to a faster (1GHz) CPU, more RAM, and revamped cube-solving algorithms. ARM Engineer David Gilday, who created the robotic cube-solver, claims the current version's algorithms can handle cube complexities up to 100x100x100, assuming he build the mechanics. In terms of racing humans, Gilday says the Lego robotics kits can only manage around 1.5 moves per second, whereas human players can make between 5 and 6 moves per second, amazingly enough." Update: 11/12 03:45 GMT by T : Apologies to creator David Gilday, whose name was earlier misspelled.

Comment Re:DDR, baby! (Score 1) 107

by wolf1oo on Thursday November 11, 2010 @04:47PM (#34200616) Attached to: Microsoft Patents Foot Computing

I agree entirely, that was my first thought when reading this. If someone does not have their hands free, clearly they are occupied with something else, in which case they really should not be using a computer... I can see some genius connecting it to a laptop and checking emails while driving.

Blizzard Unveils Custom StarCraft 2 Game Types, Encourages Map Design 83

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday October 23, 2010 @01:30PM from the my-pancakes-for-aiur dept.

StarCraft 2 launched in July, and since most of the developers' efforts since then have gone into tweaking balance issues, fixing bugs and further developing Battle.net integration, the second part of the trilogy is still quite a ways off. So, in lieu of announcements about Heart of the Swarm, the devs are using Blizzcon to showcase the map-editing tools and encourage the community to get more involved with custom maps and game types. Using the map editor, they created internally four custom games for StarCraft 2, which they’ll soon be releasing over Battle.net for free alongside three fan creations that won a recent contest. Read on for more details.

Take This GUI and Shove It 617

Posted by Soulskill on Monday October 04, 2010 @07:07PM from the i-ain't-clickin'-here-no-more dept.

snydeq writes "Deep End's Paul Venezia speaks out against the overemphasis on GUIs in today's admin tools, saying that GUIs are fine and necessary in many cases, but only after a complete CLI is in place, and that they cannot interfere with the use of the CLI, only complement it. Otherwise, the GUI simply makes easy things easy and hard things much harder. He writes, 'If you have to make significant, identical changes to a bunch of Linux servers, is it easier to log into them one-by-one and run through a GUI or text-menu tool, or write a quick shell script that hits each box and either makes the changes or simply pulls down a few new config files and restarts some services? And it's not just about conservation of effort — it's also about accuracy. If you write a script, you're certain that the changes made will be identical on each box. If you're doing them all by hand, you aren't.'"

Destroy Entire Websites With Asteroids Bookmarklet 65

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday September 29, 2010 @02:50AM from the take-that,-ads-with-sound dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Have you ever visited a website and been so frustrated by the content, layout, or adverts that you'd love to destroy it? Well, now you can. If you head on over to the erkie GitHub page there's a JavaScript bookmarklet you can drag and add to your bookmarks toolbar. Then just visit any website and click the bookmarklet. An Asteroids-style ship should appear that you can move around with the arrow keys. Press space and it will start firing bullets which destroy page content."

Sorting Algorithms — Boring Until You Add Sound 118

Posted by Soulskill on Friday August 20, 2010 @01:18PM from the bloop-bleep-bloop dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Anyone who's ever taken a programming course or tried to learn how to code out of a book will have come across sorting algorithms. Bubble, heap, merge — there's a long list of methods for sorting data. The subject matter is fairly dry. Thankfully, someone has found a way to not only make sorting more interesting, but easier to remember and understand, too."

Comment Re:What I suggest to people (Score 1) 259

by wolf1oo on Wednesday August 18, 2010 @06:32PM (#33294962) Attached to: Linux X.org Critical Security Flaw Silently Patched

I hope this is flamebait, for god's sake...
Anyways, did some research back in the day:
http://wolf1oo.doesntexist.com/files/Viruses_Per_OS.pdf

Now, don't go saying "OH YOUR LINUX INFORMATION IS WRONG, CLEARLY THERE'S A VIRUS." No. This is a security flaw. As it was known when I did the research, no program or malicious software existed for linux that could do damage, unless of course the user is dumb enough to run everything in root....

Textured Tactile Touchscreens 99

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday August 12, 2010 @11:32AM from the tremendous-triumph dept.

HizookRobotics writes "A new covering developed by Senseg and Toshiba Information Systems gives touchpads, LCDs, and other curved surfaces (eg. cellphones) programmable texture using a high-resolution electrotactile array — a grid of electrodes that excite nerves in the skin with small pulses of current to trick the body into perceiving texture, pressure, or pin-pricks depending on the current amplitude and electrode resolution. The new covering has many potential applications: interactive gaming, touchscreens with texture, robot interfaces, etc."

Debian 6.0 "Squeeze" Frozen 202

Posted by timothy on Friday August 06, 2010 @06:42PM from the declaring-it-squozen dept.

edesio writes with a snippet from debian-news.net, trumpeting an announcement from the ongoing DebConf10 in NYC: "Debian's release managers have announced a major step in the development cycle of the upcoming stable release Debian 6.0 'Squeeze': Debian 'Squeeze' has now been frozen. In consequence this means that no more new features will be added and all work will now be concentrated on polishing Debian 'Squeeze' to achieve the quality Debian stable releases are known for. The upcoming release will use Linux 2.6.32 as its default kernel in the installer and on all Linux architectures.""

The Canadian Who Holds the Key To the Internet 199

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday July 31, 2010 @12:17AM from the hope-nothing-breaks-during-hockey-season dept.

drbutts writes "The Toronto Star has an interesting story on how they are securing DNS: 'It's housed in two high-security facilities separated by the North American landmass. The one authenticated map of the Internet. Were it to be lost — either through a catastrophic physical or cyber attack — it could be recreated by seven individuals spread around the globe. One of them is Ottawa's Norm Ritchie. Ritchie was recently chosen to hold one of seven smartcards that can rebuild the root key that underpins this system' called DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions). In essence, these seven can rebuild the architecture that allows users to know for certain where they are and where they are going when navigating the Web."

DefCon Contest Rattles FBI's Nerves 136

Posted by Soulskill on Friday July 30, 2010 @07:34PM from the par-for-the-course dept.

snydeq writes "A DefCon contest that invites contestants to trick employees at 30 US corporations into revealing not-so-sensitive data has rattled nerves at the FBI. Chris Hadnagy, who is organizing the contest, also noted concerns from the financial industry, which fears hackers will target personal information. The contest will run for three days, with participants attempting to unearth data from an undisclosed list of about 30 US companies. The contest will take place in a room in the Riviera hotel in Las Vegas furnished with a soundproof booth and a speaker, so an audience can hear the contestants call companies and try to weasel out what data they can get from unwitting employees." The group organizing the contest has established a strict set of rules to ensure participants don't violate any laws. Update: 07/31 04:45 GMT by S : PCWorld has coverage of one of the day's more successful attacks.

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