lethalp1mpslapper - Slashdot User

openSUSE Launches 11.1 173

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday December 15, 2008 @02:16PM from the i-am-lizard-hear-me-roar dept.

Novell has unveiled their latest release to the openSUSE line with 11.1. Offering both updates and new features, Novell continues to push for more openness and transparency. The new release includes Linux kernel 2.6.27, Python 2.6, Mono 2.0, OpenOffice 3.0, and many others. "[...] Our choice was also influenced by impressive changes that are transpiring in the openSUSE community, which is growing rapidly and is also becoming more open, inclusive, and transparent. Last month, the project announced its first community-elected board, a major milestone in its advancement towards community empowerment. This is a very good openSUSE release and it delivers some very impressive enhancements. The distro has evolved tremendously in the past two releases and is becoming a very solid and usable option for regular users."

Sarcasm Useful For Detecting Dementia 389

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday December 15, 2008 @01:28PM from the yeah-that'll-work dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Sarcasm may be the lowest form of wit, but Australian scientists are using it to diagnose dementia, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of New South Wales, found that patients under the age of 65 suffering from frontotemporal dementia (FTD), the second most common form of dementia, cannot detect when someone is being sarcastic."

How To Make Money With Free Software 187

Posted by timothy on Thursday October 30, 2008 @05:54PM from the actual-money dept.

fons writes "Dutch Python hacker/artist Stani took part in a contest organised by the Dutch Ministry Of Finance to design a 5 euro commemorative coin. And he won, using only free software: 'The whole design was done for 100% with free software. The biggest part consists of custom software in Python, of course within the SPE editor. For the visual power I used PIL and pyCairo. From time to time also Gimp, Inkscape and Phatch helped quite a bit. All the developing and processing was done on GNU/Linux machines which were running Ubuntu/Debian. I would have loved to release the coin under the GPL, which could maybe solve the financial crisis. However for obvious reasons I was not allowed to do that.'"

Brains Work Best At Age of 39 267

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday October 27, 2008 @01:39PM from the sounds-like-a-good-last-day-to-me dept.

Scientists at the University of California Los Angeles are reporting that while some people may think "life begins at 40," all it seems to do is slow down. According to recent research, at age 39 our brain reaches its peak speed, and it's all downhill after that. "The loss of a fatty skin that coats the nerve cells, called neurons, during middle age causes the slowdown, experts say. The coating acts as insulation, similar to the plastic covering on an electrical cable, and allows for fast bursts of signals around the body and brain. When the sheath deteriorates, signals passing along the neurons in the brain slow down. This means reaction times in the body are slower too."

Nintendo's Homebrew-Blocking Update Hacked 157

Posted by timothy on Monday October 27, 2008 @07:28AM from the initiative-applied dept.

ElementC writes "Team Twiizers, the group behind almost all of the Wii Homebrew scene, has released an update to the Homebrew Channel (and installer) that allows for installation on a Wii with the most recent update installed. While the team still recommends against installing the Nintendo update, those who accidentally updated or purchase games that require the update are no longer left out to dry. This update to the Homebrew Channel also adds SDHC support, a feature Nintendo has not implemented in vanilla Wiis. The community has also created an app that updates just the Wii Shop Channel — allowing users to purchase Wiiware and Virtual Console games without losing their homebrew. It took the team only two days to get the fix out."

One of HST's Cameras Is Back In Action 47

Posted by timothy on Sunday October 26, 2008 @07:13PM from the skynet-makes-this-look-like-a-science-experiment dept.

StupendousMan writes "One of the two big cameras aboard the Hubble Space Telescope is the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, or WFPC2 for short. As the most recent HST status report indicates, the camera was recently powered up again and sent commands to take some test images. Today (Sunday, Oct 26), I received E-mail from a colleague at STScI indicating that the calibration images were 'nominal.' That's NASA-speak for 'fine and dandy.' The E-mail goes on to say 'The data look nominal, indicating that Hubble optical imaging capabilities are in fine shape. (We can expect more glorious Hubble images in the near future.) ... Science with WFPC2 has resumed, and plans are underway to restore ACS/SBC to service this coming week.' Let's hope that the other big instrument, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), also comes back to life successfully. We should find out in just a week or so."

Submission + - Repurposing Consumer Hardware

Submitted by ChelleChelle on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @02:41PM

ChelleChelle writes: "I believe that what we are seeing is the beginning of a new trend: application-centric computing using inexpensive, small form-factor, low-power platforms, linked or not to the network, to address a new set of interesting needs. It's a good time be a hobbyist." So states Mache Creeger in the Queue column Geek@Home. Creeger, a technology hobbyist, discusses new uses for small form-factor, low-power machines, such as Microsoft Xboxes.

Submission + - Music Decoded from 600 Year Old Engravings

Submitted by RulerOf on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @01:50PM

RulerOf writes: Musicians recently unlocked a 600 year old mystery that had been encoded into the walls of the Rosslyn Chapel that was featured in "The Da Vinci Code." The song was carved into the walls of the chapel not using traditional notes, but in the form of geometric shapes known as cymatics, or Chladni patterns. After the entire song was decoded, it was set to traditional lyrics and recorded, and can be heard in a video featured here, at the musicians' website. The video also gives a visual representation of how the engravings match up to the cymatic patterns.

From the article:

"The music has been frozen in time by symbolism...They are of such exquisite detail and so beautiful that we thought there must be a message here." The two men matched each of the patterns on the carved cubes to a Chladni pitch, and were able finally to unlock the melody.

Lastly, a direct link to the video.

Lone Programmer Writes 352 Webcam Drivers For Linux 450

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday April 30, 2007 @05:23PM from the twelve-cases-of-ballz-later dept.

mrneutron2004 writes "A French physician and ardent Linux supporter is the one man you can all thank for adding support for 352 webcams in Linux. The Open Source OS world may still be a bit of a mess when competing with the ease of Windows, but efforts like this make you wonder. One man with drive, tenacity, and no funding does what no one else can do. And none of the major Linux distributions back this guy's efforts, even the big players dipping into the corporate world's coffers."

Submission + - Apple grants DRM-free distribution to all labels

Submitted by SexCaptain on Monday April 30, 2007 @03:24PM

SexCaptain writes: AppleInsider gives details of a letter circulated by Apple to all producers of content for the iTunes Store, announcing that from May onwards they can sell their music at higher quality and free of DRM. Hopefully this opens the doors for labels like Netwerk, and although its unclear exactly what Apple means by 'higher quality', and there is no mention of price changes, this is a big step in the right direction.

"Many of you have reached out to iTunes to find out how you can make your songs available higher quality and DRM-free," Apple wrote in the communication. "Starting next month, iTunes will begin offering higher-quality, DRM-free music and DRM-free music videos to all customers."

Submission + - The Ultimate Wii Case Mod Released

Submitted by Croakyvoice on Monday April 30, 2007 @11:35AM

Croakyvoice writes: XCM have released the first transparent replacement case mod for the Nintendo Wii that also features preinstalled LEDS. The case is called the II-Case and the LEDS are bright blue in colour and it also features covers for the airflow and dvd. By far the best case mod so far for the Nintendo Wii.

Submission + - Robot Chicken: Star Wars coming to Adult Swim

Submitted by wild_berry on Monday April 30, 2007 @07:46AM

wild_berry writes: Mark Hammill and George Lucas are working together again, and on Star Wars. Better than that, a Star Wars spoof. The London Times is reporting that the unusually-long 30-minute episode of Robot Chicken for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim grew from discussions about a Star Wars-themed Robot Chicken sketch on StarWars.com. Also, TheForce.net has more details of other cast members, including the unusual combination of Malcolm McDowell, Hulk Hogan and James Van Der Beek. There's no mention of the roles, so we can only hope for The Hulk voicing Greedo, perhaps slain by Malcolm McDowell's replicant Han Solo.

Submission + - ATi Unveils the R600

Submitted by

MBrichacek

on Monday February 12, 2007 @07:29PM

MBrichacek writes: "VR-Zone has learned about some new details on 80nm R600 today and there will be 2 SKUs at launch; XTX and XT. There will be 2 versions of R600XTX; one is for OEM/SI and the other for retail. Both feature 1GB DDR4 memories on board but the OEM version is 12.4" long to be exact and the retail is 9.5" long. This picture shows a 12.4" OEM version. The power consumption of the card is huge at 270W for 12" version and 240W for 9.5" version. As for R600XT, it will have 512MB of GDDR3 memories onboard, 9.5" long and consumes 240W of power. Lastly, there is a cheaper R600XL SKU to be launched at a later date. Good luck fitting this thing into your case!"

Submission + - Flu pandemic could lead to Internet usage limits

Submitted by

PetManimal

on Monday February 12, 2007 @06:36PM

PetManimal writes: "If a pandemic were to occur, many companies and organizations would ask their staffs to work from home. The impact of millions of additional people using the Internet from home might require individuals and companies to voluntarily restrain themselves from surfing to high-bandwidth sites, such as YouTube. If people don't comply, the government may step in and limit 'Net usage. The scenario is not far-fetched: Last year at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, a group of telecom and government officials conducted a pandemic exercise based on a hypothetical breakout of bird flu in central Europe. The results weren't pretty:

"We assumed total absentees of 30% to 60% trying to work from home, which would have overwhelmed the Internet," said participant Bill Thoet, vice president of Booz Allen Hamilton. "We did not assume that the backbone would be gone, but that the edge of the network, where everyone was trying to access their office from home, would be overwhelmed. The absence of maintenance was also a factor. The person who brought up the problem was himself a CEO of an Internet service provider. "The conclusion [of imminent collapse] was not absolute, and the situation was not digitally simulated, but the idea of everyone working from home appears untenable," Thoet said.
"

Submission + - Julie Amero wrongly convicted? The spyware defense

Submitted by Anonymous Howard on Monday February 12, 2007 @06:28PM

Anonymous Howard writes: Substitute teacher Julie Amero faces up to 40 years in prison for exposing kids to porn using a classroom computer, but the facts strongly suggest that she was wrongfully convicted. Many issues remain, from the need for an independent computer forensics investigation and the presence of spyware and adware on the Windows 98 machine, to bad or incomplete legal work on both sides of this criminal case. It appears that spyware caused Julie Amero's conviction. She will be sentenced on March 2, 2007. This is a new development from the previously story on Slashdot.

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