Earl The Squirrel - Slashdot User

Submission + - Robots Guarding US Nuclear Stockpiles In Nevada (singularityhub.com)

Submitted by kkleiner on Tuesday October 12, 2010 @12:36PM

kkleiner writes: The US National Nuclear Security Administration recently announced that it has started using autonomous robot vehicles to patrol the vast desert surrounding its Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). The 1360+ square miles of territory is home to millions of tons of low grade nuclear waste, as well as Cold War Era nuclear weapons, and cutting edge nuclear testing research. Guarding those precious nuclear materials is the Mobile Detection Assessment Response System (MDARS) robot, which is essentially a camera on a mini-Hummer. The MDARS can roam and scout the desert on its own, alerting a remote operator when it encounters something that shouldn’t be there.

Submission + - S&P says 60% of countries bankrupt by 2060 (businessweek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 12, 2010 @12:05PM

An anonymous reader writes: "Some sixty percent of the world's economies will be so in debt by 2060 that their debt will be downgraded to "junk" status, effectively bankrupting the countries, says a report from Standard & Poor's ratings agency, which also warns that attempts to deal with the problem could cause social instability." Is it time to start stocking up on ... whores?

Submission + - Oracle's newest move to undermine Android (infoworld.com)

Submitted by GMGruman on Tuesday October 12, 2010 @12:05PM

GMGruman writes: Oracle's decision to shift focus from the Harmony Java open source project to OpenJDK seems innocuous enough — but InfoWorld's Josh Fruhlinger explains it's part of an effort to derail Google's mobile Android OS by gutting the open source project that Android has been driven by. IBM has signed on, apparently in return for getting the Java Community Process reactivated, leaving Google in a bind.

Comment So, Safety?? (Score 1) 488

by Earl The Squirrel on Monday September 20, 2010 @06:48PM (#33642932) Attached to: Airbus Planning Transparent Planes

Let's see, how frequently do airplanes have to use the following FAA rule:

1. Practice the "see and avoid" concept at all times regardless of whether the operation is conducted under Instrument (IFR) or Visual (VFR) Flight Rules.

(from http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ato/tracon/anchorage/pilots_info/mca/ )

I'm thinking FAA would frown on this type of plane simply because of the potential safety issue...

"Hey, did you see that big transparent plane over their thru the fog?"

How the TSA Plans On Inspecting Your Monkey 114

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday March 25, 2010 @02:27PM from the I'm-gonna-need-to-check-your-monkey dept.

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 A suggestion... (Score 2, Insightful) 403

by Earl The Squirrel on Thursday March 04, 2010 @05:14PM (#31362656) Attached to: Throttle Shared Users With OS X — Is It Possible?

Put a 10 MBit switch between his computer and the network... that'll do it... 8-)

Throttle Shared Users With OS X — Is It Possible? 403

Posted by timothy on Thursday March 04, 2010 @05:11PM from the throttle-the-snot-instead dept.

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."

Apple Orders 10 Million Tablets? 221

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday January 04, 2010 @03:11PM from the pricepoint-better-be-right dept.

Arvisp writes "According to a blog post by former Google China president Kai-Fu Lee, Apple plans to produce nearly 10 million tablets in the still-unannounced product's first year. If Lee's blog post is to be believed, Apple plans to sell nearly twice as many tablets as it did iPhones in the product's first year."

FreeNAS Switching From FreeBSD To Debian Linux 206

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday December 06, 2009 @12:29PM from the changing-horses dept.

dnaumov writes "FreeNAS, a popular, free NAS solution, is moving away from using FreeBSD as its underlying core OS and switching to Debian Linux. Version 0.8 of FreeNAS as well as all further releases are going to be based on Linux, while the FreeBSD-based 0.7 branch of FreeNAS is going into maintenance-only mode, according to main developer Volker Theile. A discussion about the switch, including comments from the developers, can be found on the FreeNAS SourceForge discussion forum. Some users applaud the change, which promises improved hardware compatibility, while others voice concerns regarding the future of their existing setups and lack of ZFS support in Linux."

Repairman Steals Hard Drive And Charges To Reinstall It 181

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday May 07, 2009 @02:39PM from the new-geek-squad-terms-of-service dept.

Phase 1: Break into a realty office, and steal a computer hard drive.

Phase 2: Ask if they will pay you $50 to fix the computer.

Phase 3: Get charged with theft and receiving stolen property!

Comment Why does everything have to appeal to everybody?? (Score 2, Insightful) 798

by Earl The Squirrel on Monday March 16, 2009 @04:58PM (#27216605) Attached to: Sci Fi Channel Becoming Less Geek-Centric "SyFy"

I read the article and it says it has to "appeal to a more mainstream audience", and yet it's earnings and revenue are up sharply this year. So, what logic says that they need to appeal to a wider audience?? Do they think that going more mainstream (which I suspect means also changing some of the type of programming as well....) won't cause any of the existing audience to leave? This sounds like the media equivalent to New Coke.

Sugar-Coated Drug-Dealing Game Approved For iPhone 73

Posted by timothy on Wednesday January 21, 2009 @04:11PM from the just-try-calling-your-suitcase-a-bomb-at-the-airport dept.

Pocket Gamer writes "Of course, Apple wouldn't allow such a salacious games as Dope Wars on the hallowed corridors of the App Store. What Catamount's done is sugarcoat its game (quite literally) and turned it into Prohibition 3: Candy Wars — a reskinned version of the exact same game."

Apple Introduces "MacBook Wheel" 268

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday January 06, 2009 @10:27AM from the future-is-now dept.

CommonCents noted an Apple announcement a few hours before the anticipated keynote. He says "Apples' latest must have gadget does away with the keyboard. With the new MacBook Wheel, Apple has replaced the traditional keyboard with a giant wheel."

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