Comment Spoiler Free Comment (Score 1) 384
Sow this last night (New Zealand time or Wed 1100 hrs GMT).
Lot's of eye candy, sagerine backstory to justify the 'quest/journey' but worth your time.
Comment Re:A little more (Score 1) 1153
Yes, the popularity of lotteries proves the lack of understanding around basic statistics.
Comment Re:Er, (Score 2, Interesting) 457
So.... does the EFF sue Aiplex, the MPAA or the film owner?
(that's assuming Aiplex is careful not to upset hackers smarter than Aiplex). Do not DDOS Aiplex and if you're caught remember I told you not to do it.
Grad Student Invents Cheap Laser Cutter 137
An anonymous reader writes "Peter Jansen, a PhD student and member of the RepRap community, has constructed a working prototype of an inexpensive table-top laser cutter built out of old CD/DVD drives as an offshoot of his efforts to design an under $200 open-source Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) 3D printer. Where traditional laser cutters use powerful, fixed-focus beams, this new technique dynamically adjusts the focal point of the laser using a reciprocating motion similar to a reciprocating saw, allowing a far less powerful and inexpensive laser diode to be used. The technique is currently limited to cutting black materials to a depth of only a few millimeters, but should still be useful and enabling for Makers and other crafters. The end-goal is to create a hybrid inexpensive 3D printer that can be easily reconfigured for 2D laser cutting, providing powerful making tools to the desktop."
Nuns Donate Their Brains to Alzheimer's Research 148
Many Catholic religious orders are participating in a long range Alzheimer's disease study. Rush University's Religious Orders Study began in 1993 and tracks the participants' mental abilities through yearly memory testing. In addition to the annual tests, the study subjects agree to donate their brains. From the article: "The researchers sought members of religious orders, hoping they would be willing to donate and would not have children or spouses interfering with that arrangement at the last minute. More than 1,100 nuns, priests and brothers across the country representing a wide range of ethnic groups are taking part."
Comment Replay: Typically, I get N pieces of snail mail pe (Score 1) 228
Not counting junk mail it's more like 2 bills a month (from providers that don't use email) and birthday cards once a year.
This snail mail thing is dying if it isn't already dead.
Comment Re:Wait for Google then... (Score 1) 622
The "black border" is a bezel to keep your fingers (on the hand holding the device - when it is hand held) away from the touch screen. They *are* ugly but also necerssary.
8-)
Comment Re:Elation? (Score 1) 119
It's sad how many people have that attitude until they mature past their teenage years (that do not extend to their thirties).
Chinese Root Server Shut Down After DNS Problem 91
itwbennett writes "After a networking error first reported on Wednesday last week caused computers in Chile and the US to come under the control of a system that censors the Internet in China, the 'root DNS server associated with the networking problems has been disconnected from the Internet,' writes Robert McMillan. The server's operator, Netnod, has 'withdrawn route announcements' made by the server, according to company CEO Kurt Lindqvist."
How the TSA Plans On Inspecting Your Monkey 114
The uncertainty of what might happen to your service monkey at an airport security checkpoint won't keep you awake at night anymore, thanks to the TSA. They have issued an easy to follow list of how they will ensure your helper monkey won't go all Planet of the Apes on your flight. Some of the security techniques used to make sure your primate is not a terrorist include: "Security Officers will conduct a visual inspection on the service monkey and will coach the handler on how to hold the monkey during the visual inspection. The inspection process may require that the handler to take off the monkey's diaper as part of the visual inspection."
Comment Sob, only a single optioin! (Score 1) 515
For me perfection would be (equal first) Physics & Engineering, Pure Maths then Philosophy with maybe a little Art History.
Engineering is just so damn useful and Physics so much fun. Pure Maths and Philsophy teach you how to think, reason, solve problems and Art History well..... why the heck not! A little beauty in your world never hurt.
Throttle Shared Users With OS X — Is It Possible? 403
whisper_jeff writes "I work in a design studio where the production director is also the owner's son (translation = he can do no wrong). He is fond of accessing a designer's computer via filesharing and working directly on files off of the designer's computers rather than transferring the files to his computer to work on them there. In so doing, he causes the designer's computer to grind to a near-halt as the harddrive is now tasked with his open/save requests along with whatever the designer is doing. Given that there is no way he's going to change his ways (since he doesn't see anything wrong with it...), I was wondering if there was a way to throttle a user's shared access to a computer (Mac OSX 10.5.8) so that his remote working would have minimal impact on our work. Google searches have revealed nothing helpful (maybe I should Bing it... :) so I was hoping someone with more technical expertise on Slashdot could offer a suggestion."
Comment Re:You know what I always say? (Score 1) 85
So....... if that's a civil matter is it legitimate to offer payment in Monopoly money?
Perhaps a few questions before you can gain entry to determine if you're an adult with a realistic outlook before the game would start is worth considering.
Comment Re:if everyone ignored the quacks... (Score 1) 650
It's interesting that Russia and Germany are on the Special 301 list (start at http://www.iipa.com/special301.html and browse to the table on page 4).
Canada and Russia are on the priority list.
Greece, Israel, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain & Turkey are on the actual watch list and Switzerland gets a special mention.
How long until America is deemed as irrelavant to the western capitalist world as the Roman Empire was to it's neighbours?
Man Uses Drake Equation To Explain Girlfriend Woes 538
artemis67 writes "A man studying in London has taken a mathematical equation that predicts the possibility of alien life in the universe to explain why he can't find a girlfriend. Peter Backus, a native of Seattle and PhD candidate and Teaching Fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick, near London, in his paper, 'Why I don't have a girlfriend: An application of the Drake Equation to love in the UK,' used math to estimate the number of potential girlfriends in the UK. In describing the paper on the university Web site he wrote 'the results are not encouraging. The probability of finding love in the UK is only about 100 times better than the probability of finding intelligent life in our galaxy.'"
