Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Idle

Submission + - U.K. Designer “Grows" Clothes From Bacteria (ecouterre.com) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Experimental UK designer Suzanne Lee "grows" clothes from bacteria. She has developed a method for growing clothing from yeast, a pinch of bacteria, and several cups of sweetened green tea. From this microbial soup, fibers begin to sprout and propagate, eventually resulting in thin, wet sheets of bacterial cellulose that can be molded to a dress form. As the sheets dry out, overlapping edges “felt” together to become fused seams. When all moisture has evaporated, the fibers develop a tight-knit, papyrus-like surface.
Microsoft

MS Design Lets You Put Batteries In Any Way You Want 453

Posted by timothy from the dis-orientation dept.
jangel writes "While its strategy for mobile devices might be a mess, Microsoft has announced something we'll all benefit from. The company's patented design for battery contacts will allow users of portable devices — digital cameras, flashlights, remote controls, toys, you name it — to insert their batteries in any direction. Compatible with AA and AAA cells, among others, the 'InstaLoad' technology does not require special electronics or circuitry, the company claims."

Canadian Judge Orders Disclosure of Anonymous Posters 250

Posted by timothy from the or-you'll-get-a-mountie's-hoofprint dept.
debrain writes "The Globe and Mail is reporting that Google and a newspaper called The Coast must disclose all information they have about the identity of individuals who posted anonymous comments online about top firefighters in Halifax. The story in question is titled 'Black firefighters file human rights complaint,' and there are some heated opinions in the comments."
Idle

Directed Energy Weapon Downs Mosquitos 428

Posted by samzenpus from the two-pound-hammer-and-ten-penny-nail dept.
wisebabo writes "Nathan Myhrvol demonstrated at TED a laser, built from parts scrounged from eBay, capable of shooting down not one but 50 to 100 mosquitos a second. The system is 'so precise that it can specify the species, and even the gender, of the mosquito being targeted.' Currently, for the sake of efficiency, it leaves the males alone because only females are bloodsuckers. Best of all the system could cost as little as $50. Maybe that's too expensive for use in preventing malaria in Africa but I'd buy one in a second!" We ran a story about this last year. It looks like the company has added a bit more polish, and burning mosquito footage to their marketing.
Image

Man Sues Neighbor For Not Turning Off His Wi-Fi 428

Posted by samzenpus from the have-you-never-wondered-why-I-drink-only-distilled-water-or-rain-water-and-only-pure-grain-alcohol dept.
Scyth3 writes "A man is suing his neighbor for not turning off his cell phone or wireless router. He claims it affects his 'electromagnetic allergies,' and has resorted to being homeless. So, why doesn't he check into a hotel? Because hotels typically have wireless internet for free. I wonder if a tinfoil hat would help his cause?"

Submission + - More orwellian projects in the EU FP7 (europa.eu)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Another Orwellian research project under FP7, which explicitly states it is for urban environment although the project subscription clearly mentions the monitoring of the Internet.

Submission + - SPAM: Self Healing Hyperlinks: A possible method to elem

Submitted by
GrantRobertson
GrantRobertson writes: "I think I just invented a means to eliminate most if not all 404 errors without special scripting on web pages. I call the technique "Self Healing Hyperlinks." In addition, this method would allow specially tagged documents to be automatically found anywhere on the web if they have been moved from their original locations. This could prove very beneficial for locating academic papers even if the original site has been shut down. I am releasing this idea under a Creative Commons license and anyone is welcome to implement this idea in open source software. If you are interested, please take a look. I have other fish to fry."
Link to Original Source

Submission + - MIT's hybrid microchip to overcome silicon size ba (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by
schliz
schliz writes: "MIT researchers have successfully embedded a gallium nitride layer onto silicon to create a hybrid microchip. The method could be further developed to combine other technologies such as spintronics and optoelectronics on a silicon chip. It is expected to be commercialised in a couple of years, and allow manufacturers to keep up with Moore's Law despite today's shrinking devices."

Submission + - SPAM: In 2027, how powerful will "Mr. Everybodys" comput

Submitted by
snipe123
snipe123 writes: "In 2027, how will the computer be? Take the number of transistor in the top 1 super computer in the world and referencing it with Moore's law. You find the number of years to have such technology available for everbody."
NASA

Submission + - Our Moon May Hold Coldest Location in the Milky Wa (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
tromtone
tromtone writes: ""The shadowy craters near the south pole of the Moon may be the coldest places in the solar system, colder than even Pluto, NASA scientists reported Thursday as they unveiled some of the first findings from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.In the newly released data, thermal measurements showed that daytime temperatures over much of the surface reached 220 degrees Fahrenheit â" hotter than boiling water â" before plummeting to frigidness at night.But the bottoms of the craters, which lie in permanent darkness, never warm above minus 400.""
Idle

Submission + - Facebooking Judge Catches Lawyer in Lie (abajournal.com) 2

Submitted by
edadams
edadams writes: "A Galveston, Texas lawyer asked for a continuance because of the death of her father. But the judge she was asking knew the lawyer had earlier posted a string of status updates on Facebook, detailing her week of drinking, going out and partying."
Data Storage

Submission + - How are you backing up your data? 3

Submitted by jollyreaper
jollyreaper writes: Technology moves quickly and what was conventional wisdom last year can be folly this year. But the one thing that's remained constant is hard drives are far too large to backup via conventional means. Tape is expensive and can be unreliable, though it certainly has its proponents. DVD's are just too small. There are prosumer devices like the Drobo but it's still just a giant box of hard drives, basically RAID. And as we've all had drilled into our heads "RAID is not backup." When last this topic came up on Slashdot, the consensus was that hard drives were the best way to backup hard drives. Backup your internal HDD to an external one, and if your data is really important, have two externals and swap one offsite once a week. Is there any better advice these days?
Security

Submission + - What to do with a pwned router? 2

Submitted by Headbonk
Headbonk writes: So say that theoretically you live in a big apartment building where lots of people have wireless networks... When scanning for networks you find like 10 different network names. Lets say that one day you notice a new unsecured network that still has the default network name set from the wifi router manufacturer. Say you also discovered this router still had the default administrator password set for the config pages? Assume that there are enough people and networks in the building that you can't figure out who the unsecured router belongs to.

What is the correct thing to do here? From a security standpoint and or an ethics point of view? You could turn on encryption, but that would just make the outer stop working for the people whose network it is. It would be a pain in the ass for them and there's nothing preventing them from just reseting the router or buying a new one thus going back to the same situation as before. Is it right to get involved at all? Does it even matter since the default settings of wifi routers include a firewall and the unsecured wireless just makes them vulnerable to their neighbors (like you)? Is there a right "good citizen" thing to do here to help protect the people who connect to that network?

Slashdot Top Deals

Software production is assumed to be a line function, but it is run like a staff function. -- Paul Licker

Close