41329679
submission
kodiaktau writes:
Before the bankruptcy deadline, Kodak manages to work out a deal with Intellectual Ventures to purchase 1,100 patents and raising over $525 million dollars which will make Kodak eligible to get an additional $830 million dollar note to get itself out of bankruptcy. Intellectual Ventures has filed several IP lawsuits against others in recent years.
41298173
submission
kodiaktau writes:
Mayan temples located in the Guatemalan rain forest near Tikal are expected to be flooded with visitors during the last rush or tourist excursions leading up to Dec 21st. The Tikal Four were the same temples that Lucas sent his production crew to capture to represent Yavin 4 in the 1977 production of Star Wars: A New Hope while the country was enduring a civil war.
40957241
submission
kodiaktau writes:
A proposal put forth by Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates seeks to give more control and government of internet addressing. The move would basically undermine ICANN and decentralize control of internet addressing.
40888731
submission
kodiaktau writes:
Scientists at University of Waterloo have made a computerized brain named Spaun! The model has around 2.5M neurons and can complete basic pattern recognition. It is hoped that this model will aid in research and study of cognition and how disease impacts the brain. Maybe even help to make a unified brain theory.
40652195
submission
kodiaktau writes:
Today is the 20th anniversary of the text message, first sent by Matti Makkonen. The first useless text message was, "Merry Christmas".
40545779
submission
kodiaktau writes:
The National Museum of Computing is installing and has fired up the 60 year-old Harwell Dekatron computer. Restoration of the machine was able to use about 95% of the original parts. The computer is rated at 0.1 FLOPS and uses 828 dekatron tubes to help manage arithmetic operations. Logic operations are carried out via 480 telephone exchange relays.
40258331
submission
kodiaktau writes:
Author of "Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" is rumored to be on he the short-list of potential authors to write one or more of the additional Star Wars movies.
40153775
submission
kodiaktau writes:
A recent story from the AP relates poor working conditions for animals used in the new Hobbit Trilogy. Workers site the production company keeping the animals left sinkholes open and bluffs that the animals cannot negotiate. Some 27 animals including horses, ponies, goats and chickens have been either killed or euthanized related to accidents on the farm. The farm has been investigated and animals have been moved to another area.
38618443
submission
kodiaktau writes:
Launch of the latest SpaceX rocket to the international space station was off course due to a Falcon 9 rocket shutting down early during launch. Other rockets were used to burn longer to recover the missing and ensure the capsule containing a communications satellite owned by Orbcomm. The rocket is due to dock with the station on Wed.
38306315
submission
kodiaktau writes:
An article reported by the WSJ discusses why online media users are more rude online than they are in person. The story discusses some of the possible reasons being lowered inhibitions because there is formal social interaction. Other theories include feeling like reporting on a phone or other device is simply communicating with a "toy" which dehumanizes the conversation. Submitter's note: A dehumanized conversation has never happened on Slashdot in the last 15 years.
37801795
submission
kodiaktau writes:
Teller, of famed Penn & Teller filed a copyright infringement on a magician named Gerard Bakardy from Belgium. Apparently Bakardy was selling a trick/act very similar to one Teller created in his youth. The trick sounds like it was very emotional in which he murders a rose by cutting and stabbing a shadow of a rose which in turn cuts a real rose into pieces.
While this isn't a very technical related article it was interesting to contrast the expectations of the magic/performing arts community to those of the open source community. In open source we see value in expanding and extending on others work, while giving them credit. It seems for those in the magic and performing arts community that there is little tolerance in sharing and exposing knowledge without remuneration.
37441109
submission
kodiaktau writes:
This interesting story talks about the thoughts and feelings of Astronaut Frank Culbertson as he floated in the International Space Station after the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11.
37431319
submission
kodiaktau writes:
Interesting article about how Nerf guns have become such a big hit with kids. The author explains the engineering process that takes place and how they use 3-D printers in an $800K workshop to prototype some of the weapons they create. Especially interesting is an interactive diagram showing a model that can shoot darts at 50 mph, traveling over 75 ft.
37202919
submission
kodiaktau writes:
An interesting research paper estimates the amount of time it would take for a sugary spherical substance, say a piece of candy, to dissolve in your mouth. I wanted to sub title this "Or How Many Licks does it take to get to the bottom of a Tootsie Roll, but that isn't really the point of the paper.
36136409
submission
kodiaktau writes:
My exposure to HCI or Human Computer Interaction (now Human Centered Informatics) has been largely aged and limited to some brief early interaction with the Association of Computing Machinery. Since then I have been loosely following trends in usability but haven't really focused on the actual science behind the work we do on a day-to-day basis in creating user interfaces and using web applications. When I picked up this book I assumed it would be some unifying theory of HCI that would catch me up with where the science is today, but found it to be quite different.
In 113 pages, including the author biography, Yvonne Rogers winds a curious path through not only the theories behind HCI, but also a significant portion of time is spent giving some background in the history of the study. I was pleased to find that science is evolving and has spent a significant amount of time working with other social science disciplines as well as technical interaction. It was also interesting to see that like other social based disciplines there are many forks from the origin. I liked this book's style of simple presentation around theories. Most authors would trip over themselves trying to find long and complicated ways of explaining theory and purpose. This author is straight to the point and has practical examples for the different phases of the HCI theory evolution. In particular I really liked the way she included "...in a Nutshell" summaries of each theory. In a very small area she re-stated theory in an easy to digest manner. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a "For Dummies" kind of book, but the presentation is simple, elegant and well, usable.
The limited number of pages in the title may dissuade readers from purchasing, however this is not a case of more-is-better. I spent a lot of time reading this book in small chunks so I could completely understand each theory and how it evolved from previous models both inside the science and from other disciplines. While this book isn't for everyone I would certainly recommend this to someone moving into HCI studies, or for those who have interest in user interaction and classical theory. My biggest disappointment with this title was the quality of some diagrams supporting the theories. There is a lot of pixelation in some of the art and the fonts used in them can be a little hard to read. Really the publisher should have fixed those issues before going to print. As a survey of the body of knowledge I think this is really good. It is a little on pricey side at $35 for the amount of material, but the quality and uniqueness seems to be about right for the price.
