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Input Devices

Logitech Makes 1 Billionth Mouse 456

Posted by CmdrTaco from the so-much-carpal-tunnel dept.
Smivs writes "Logitech has hailed as a major landmark the production of their one billionth computer mouse. The news comes at a time when analysts claim the days of the mouse are numbered. 'It's rare in human history that a billionth of anything has been shipped by one company,' said Logitech's general manager Rory Dooley. 'Look at any other industry and it has never happened. This is a significant milestone.' The computer mouse will achieve a milestone of its own next week when it turns 40. It was 9 December 1968 when Douglas C. Engelbart and his group of researchers at Stanford University put the first mouse through its paces."

Comment Re:Oh, get over yourself (Score 2, Insightful) 556

by kikta (#25909373) Attached to: Computer For a Child?

You're a jackass who either doesn't have kids or was such an obnoxious dipshit about having them that the other parents hated you.

Toddlers want to use the same things mommy and daddy have. They know the difference between a toy and the real thing. My son had several toy remotes before I finally bought a spare TiVo remote and gave it to him without batteries. He now leaves the remote alone, because he has one also.

This won't be an electronic babysitter - the guy wants something to distract the little brat. If you knew what you were talking about, you'd understand that it need to be durable because kids are FAST, not because he'll be left alone with it for extended periods of time. Hell, I wouldn't trust mine with a Toughbook.

I know the rest of the world seems simple from your mom's basement, but you really should shut the fuck up.
Media

Micro-Projectors May Bring YouTube On-The-Go 143

Posted by Zonk from the that-wacky-cat-washer-never-gets-old dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A tiny portable projector, about the size of a pack of cards, may soon replace a ring tone as the most annoying thing on the train or bus. These technical innovations can project an image up to 50 inches in size in dark lighting, making them ideal for on-the-road business presentations. They can also be hooked up to cell phones or media devices, though, possibly introducing a whole new level of social intrusion into US culture. 'Digital projectors were once bulky. These new models, though, are small enough to fit into the pocket of consumers who want a big-screen experience from a small-screen device. Some of the models are expected to be on the market by year-end, or sooner. Prices have yet to be announced. Matthew S. Brennesholtz, an analyst at Insight Media, a marketing research firm in Norwalk, Conn., says he thinks the projectors will initially cost about $350, then quickly drop to less than $300.'"
Mozilla

Hotmail Doesn't Work With Linux Firefox 2.0 396

Posted by kdawson from the whoa-there-big-feller dept.
An anonymous reader tips a column up at freesoftwaremagazine.com in which the writer discovers that the latest UI enhancements that Hotmail has recently introduced don't work with Firefox 2.0 under Linux. The writer concludes that the webmail interface has been artificially limited by basic user-agent sniffing. The solution is simple enough — spoofing the User Agent that Firefox reports.
Science

Impassable Northwest Passage Open For First Time In History 528

Posted by Zonk from the is-it-warm-in-here-or-is-it-just-me dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Northwest Passage, a normally ice-locked shortcut between Europe and Asia, is now passable for the first time in recorded history reports the European Space Agency. Leif Toudal Pedersen from the Danish National Space Centre said in the article: 'We have seen the ice-covered area drop to just around 3 million sq km which is about 1 million sq km less than the previous minima of 2005 and 2006. There has been a reduction of the ice cover over the last 10 years of about 100 000 sq km per year on average, so a drop of 1 million sq km in just one year is extreme.'"

Pthreads vs Win32 threads 385

Posted by Hemos from the different-situations,-different-needs dept.
An anonymous reader writes "It's interesting when different people have different opinions. While I was searching for something on Intel's website, I came across an article on why Windows threads are better than Posix threads. Curiously, I also came across this article on why Posix Pthreads are better that Win32 threads. The thing is, both of these articles are written by the same author!

So who is right (metaphorically speaking?), or what has changed since the first article was written?"
Microsoft

Sony and Universal Prohibit Sharing Via Zune 325

Posted by Zonk from the as-if-the-zune-didn't-have-enough-trouble-already dept.
ack154 writes "Engadget has a story about Sony and Universal Music apparently denying Zune owners the ability to 'squirt' songs by certain artists to other Zune users. That's right, if you've actually purchased songs from the Zune marketplace and happen to run into another Zune owner, you're prohibited from sharing certain songs. From the article: 'In a non-scientific sampling of popular artists by Zunerama and Zune Thoughts, it looks like it's roughly 40-50 percent of artists that fall under this prohibited banner, and the worst news is that there's no warning that a song might be unsharable until you actually try to send it and fail.'"
Power

Submission + - UFO witnessed at O'Hare International Airport

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A UFO had been witnessed yesterday by dozens of employees at the O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, the Chicago Tribune reports. From the article: "A flying saucerlike object hovered low over O'Hare International Airport for several minutes before bolting through thick clouds with such intense energy that it left an eerie hole in overcast skies, said some United Airlines employees who observed the phenomenon." The sighting occurred during daylight at 4:30 p.m. local time, just before sunset. "All the witnesses said the object was dark gray and well defined in the overcast skies. They said the craft, estimated by different accounts to be 6 feet to 24 feet in diameter, did not display any lights."
Slashdot.org

Submission + - RTFA Filter: No comments without reading

Submitted by
amigoro
amigoro writes: "Here is a useful feature to have on Slashdot: A nifty technique to ensure that people Read The F* Article before they comment. The best deal is, you can replace Captcha's with the RTFA filter, which will be greatly appreciated by visually impaired people."

Google to Distribute Online Video Ads 186

Posted by Zonk from the missing-the-point dept.
sufijazz writes to mention an AP story about Google's plan to start distributing online video ads. From the article: "The video expansion, announced late Monday, will affect thousands of Web sites that rely on Google to post ads related to the surrounding material on a page. For instance, a news story about housing might prompt Google to display an ad for real estate agents. Google isn't allowing the video ads to appear on its own Web site -- a heavily trafficked destination that produced 58 percent of its $2.25 billion in revenue during the first three months of this year."

Americans Are Seriously Sick 1519

Posted by Zonk from the cough-hack dept.
jd writes "A study by US and British researchers on frequency of illnesses shows that even when you compare like groups in the US and the UK, people in the US are considerably sicker than their counterparts in the UK. This is after factors such as age, race, income, education and gender were taken into consideration. The most startling conclusion was that although the richest Americans were better off than the poorest Americans, they did no better (health-wise) than the poorest of the English. Previous studies of the entire population had shown similar results, with America placing around 25th amongst industrialized countries on chronic disease prevention, but it had been assumed that minorities and economics were skewing the results. This study suggests that maybe that isn't the case."
Music

Gadgets for the Lazy 233

Posted by Zonk from the worse-or-better dept.
theodp writes "The Pentagon has found the perfect way to demonstrate it's purely the thought that counts - 700 bugle emulators which sit in real bugles and play 'Taps' at military funerals. The Ceremonial Bugle is just one item in Wired's collection of Gadgets for the Lazy."
Privacy

U.S. Government Moves To Dismiss EFF Case 219

Posted by CowboyNeal from the nothing-to-see-here-honest dept.
iny0urbrain writes "The New York Times reports that the US government has asked a federal judge to dismiss the Electronic Frontier Foundation's civil liberties lawsuit against the AT&T Corporation because 'of a possibility that military and state secrets would otherwise be disclosed.' The statement concludes by saying: 'Finally, because the United States intends to assert the state secrets privilege and file a dispositive motion to dismiss this action, the United States requests that discovery proceedings be deferred until the government's submission has been considered and heard.' You can view the full text of the government's statement of interest (PDF) on the EFF's website." Sorry, hadn't had my coffee yet this morning, and double posted this one. Sadly, the first one is a mere two stories down. It's also still pouring into the submissions bin, so I'm not the only one not yet awake.

Slashdot CSS Redesign Contest 587

Posted by CmdrTaco from the at-long-last dept.
A few months back we went and redesigned Slashdot with fancy new CSS templates. The idea was that with a new clean CSS framework under the skin, we could more easily redesign the look & feel of the site. At that time I mentioned that we wanted to have a contest to redesign Slashdot. Well that time has come. Read on for the rules, instructions, and timeline. Oh, and did I mention that the top prize is a new laptop?

Music Downloads = Expensive Concerts? 698

Posted by Zonk from the shaft-the-listener dept.
melonman writes "According to an article at BBC News, $250 tickets for the latest Madonna tour are the fault of P2P file sharing. 'Before the advent of illegal downloads, artists had an incentive to underprice their concerts, because bigger audiences translated into higher record sales, Professor Krueger argues. But now, he says, the link between the two products has been severed, meaning that artists and their managers need to make more money from concerts and feel less constrained in setting ticket prices.' And it seems David Bowie agrees. Is 'the fans always get fleeced' the rock industry's equivalent to Moore's Law?"

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