Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:Apple II Stock Trader (Score 1) 346

by Trunklebob (#28995419) Attached to: Finding New and Unintended Ways of Playing Games

I used to do this with NetHack (back in the days when it was still just Hack), by writing a batch file that would change the system time. I had a list of the times that would give the best starting rings, wands, etc. for the Wizard, making me a filthy, cheating start-scummer.

Not sure if that still works or if the RNG is better these days. Save-scumming still works, though.
Programming

Alan Cox Quits As Linux TTY Maintainer — "I've Had Enough" 909

Posted by timothy from the when-smart-people-clash dept.
The Slashdolt writes "After a stern criticism from Linus, the long-time kernel hacker Alan Cox has decided to walk away as the maintainer of the TTY subsystem of the Linux Kernel, stating '...I've had enough. If you think that problem is easy to fix you fix it. Have fun. I've zapped the tty merge queue so anyone with patches for the tty layer can send them to the new maintainer.'" A response to a subsequent post on the list makes it quite clear that he is serious.
AMD

AMD Spin-Off GlobalFoundries Gets First Non-AMD Customer 34

Posted by timothy from the and-they're-not-virtual-like-transmeta dept.
Vigile writes "Since the company was spun off in March, GlobalFoundries has struggled to answer how it will survive and compete against powers like TSMC and UMC in the global world of chip manufacturing. Part of that answer came today when they announced the company's first customer, excluding AMD. STMicroelectronics will be using GlobalFoundries' 40nm lower power process technology for future cell phone SoC designs in the second half of 2010. While one customer won't drive enough revenue to make the foundry completely independent, it is an important step in the right direction and could lead to other customers finally making the leap."
Supercomputing

US Supercomputer Lead Sparks Russian Govt's Competitive Drive 74

Posted by timothy from the ever-since-that-damn-satellite dept.
CWmike writes "Russia's launch of Sputnik in 1957 triggered a crisis of confidence in the US that helped drive the creation of a space program. Now, Russia is comparing the US's achievements in supercomputing with theirs, and they don't like what they see. In a speech on Tuesday, Russia's President, Dmitry Medvedev, criticized his country's IT industry almost to the point of sarcasm for failing to develop supercomputing technology, and urged a dramatic change in Russia's use of high-performance computing. Medvedev, at the opening address of a Security Council Meeting on Supercomputers in Moscow, told attendees that 476 out of the 500 supercomputers on the Top500 list were manufactured in the United States. 'Therefore, in general, our situation is very difficult,' he said."

Comment Re:And a shout out to... (Score 1) 251

by Trunklebob (#28528239) Attached to: In Defense of the Classic Controller

Not only did I test the whole "2 opposite directions at the same time", I rewired the joysticks. The Atari family, the TI 99/4A, and the Odyssey2 all used the same DB-9 connector, but with different pinouts. As our systems aged and joysticks died, we had to shuffle them from system to system.

My father taught me to use a multimeter to map out the different pinouts when I was 10 or 11. Radio Shack sold imitation Atari joysticks for like $5; with no eBay or Google, finding a replacement joystick for a dead console was a weeks or months long proposition. My friends with less technical upbringings would be shocked to find me playing Parsec or Munch Man with a 2600 controller.
Math

Physicists Propose New Kind of Quantum Tunneling 163

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the good-ideas-debunked-the-fastest dept.
KentuckyFC writes to tell us that scientists from the UK and Germany are proposing a third kind of quantum tunneling. They propose that a quantum particle is capable of changing into a pair of "virtual particles" capable of passing through a potential barrier before changing back. The supposition also provides some interesting methods of possibly testing string theory. So many interesting and useful possibilities, I guess that just means it will be debunked faster than other scientific theories.

Leaked Pics of CrunchPad Elicit Progress Update 85

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the don't-etch-this-sketch dept.
TechCrunch has released a few more technical details, pictures, and general comments about their CrunchPad project as a recent accidental leak saw a new round of images posted to the web. It seems that the tablet has continued to grow and evolve with the help of an Intel Atom chip (as opposed to the Via chip previously used), new software from Fusion Garage, and a bottom-up Linux install. "I wanted something I couldn't buy, and found people who said it could be built for a lot less than I imagined. The goal — a very thin and light touch screen computer, sans physical keyboard, that has no hard drive and boots directly to a browser to surf the web. The operating system exists solely to handle the hardware drivers and run the browser and associated applications. That's it."
Google

Submission + - Google Ordered To Reveal Blogger's Identity (aviransplace.com)

Submitted by
Aviran
Aviran writes: "Israeli court ordered Google to reveal the identity of a blogger that uses Google's own blogging platform, Blogger.
The blogger accused a Shaarei Tikva comity member of illegal acts all through his blog posts. Google objected to the request claiming freedom of speech, however the court sided with the plaintiff and said that since the plaintiff is a public figure running for reelection, he is allowed to confront his accuser and clear his name."
Censorship

Submission + - British bloggers silenced by billionaire ex-con (pickledpolitics.com)

Submitted by
DavidMWW
DavidMWW writes: "Several major British blogs have been taken offline by their webhost after legal threats from Uzbek billionaire and ex-convict Alisher Usmanov. The trouble started when former ambassador to Uzbekistan wrote an article accusing Usmanov of being a criminal. A threat from lawyers scared the webhost into removing an entire server, which included other unconnected blogs — one of which belonged to Convervative MP and prospective Mayor of London candidate Boris Johnson! Alisher Usmanov is currently trying to purchase Arsenal Football Club."
Censorship

Submission + - Uzbeck billionaire silences British blogs (chickyog.net)

Submitted by
the_womble
the_womble writes: "Alisher Usmanov is a Uzbeck billionaire with increasing interests in the UK. According to Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, he is a crook and a criminal. Usmanov Usmanov has had Murray's blog taken down, along with others that shared the same server. The other blogs affected include that of a candidate for mayor of London.

Of course copies of the offending article remain available. It still shows how badly the UK needs to reform it libel laws, and stop hosts being a soft target.

What I want to know is why the UK's strict immigration laws, which often require fingerprinting, police checks and interviews to get just a tourist visa, cannot stop someone as obviously undesirable as this from regularly entering the country. Are billionaires automatically respectable?"
Businesses

Submission + - Acer to acquire Gateway for $710 million (infoworld.com)

Submitted by downix
downix writes: On the way into work today, I heard about Acer buying Gateway. A bold move strategically, I wonder what consequences this will have for Gateway's employees and customers. As the purchase price was at $1.90 per share, those of us that purchased Gateway shares a few years ago are reminded just how far it has fallen.

Slashdot Top Deals

"No matter where you go, there you are..." -- Buckaroo Banzai

Close