alphaque - Slashdot User

Submission + - Scientists Study Earth's Missing Crust

Submitted by UmUm~ on Tuesday March 06, 2007 @11:40PM

UmUm~ writes: British scientists have embarked on a mission to study a huge area on the Atlantic seabed where the Earth's crust is mysteriously missing and instead is covered with dark green rock from deep inside the planet.

Journal Journal: Why 2008 won't be like "1984" 5

Journal by ces on Tuesday March 06, 2007 @11:18PM

A really cool riff on Apple's famous "1984" commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h3G-lMZxjo

Submission + - Upcoming Microsoft software develpoments

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 06, 2007 @10:53PM

An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft is revealing some of their software development ideas. Some of these sound pretty kool. However, I wonder if they are original ideas from M$ or are they rip offs. From the article: a video game designed to teach children computer-programming basics. Text-It-Notes, lets people scribble a message on a sticky note. The devices converts it to a text message using handwriting recognition software, then fires it off to one of a few preset phones. a telescope application that lets PC users zoom around the universe and explore galaxies (think Google Earth, but in the stars), by piecing together images collected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey with educational content from astronomers at Harvard and other research centers. speakers that send sound to someone standing right in front of them, but are almost silent to someone standing off to the side. One featured program that is available to consumers now is Lincoln, which works on Windows Mobile 5. Mobile phone users can take a photo of a DVD cover when browsing in the video store. The system matches it to a photo on file, then spits back links to Amazon.com reviews. The service is open to the public, so bands, for example, can upload an image of a poster advertising an upcoming show, then give users a link to listen to some sample songs right from their phones

Submission + - PostgreSQL Stomps MySQL

Submitted by

menion

on Wednesday December 06, 2006 @04:58AM

menion writes: "Cliff Wells has posted a blurb on his blog after reading various threads and performance reviews that indicate something suprising: PostgreSQL now overcomes MySQL in performance terms as well as features and reliability.

FTA: "We see, for instance, that adding a second Woodcrest in MySQL 5.0.20a — costing a good 851 dollars — only yields a 6% performance increase."

Article 1: the Tweakers.net review of PostgreSQL vs. MySQL performance.
Article 2: a thread from the MySQL forums noting a few performance problems."

Submission + - Iran bans YouTube, NY Times

Submitted by

amigoro

on Wednesday December 06, 2006 @03:55AM

amigoro writes: "Iran, which has already banned Wikipedia, Amazon and IMDB.com have now added YouTube to the list of websites from which the populace should be protected. The interesting twist to the story is that They also point out that the Iranian government relies upon commercial software developed by for-profit United States companies to carry out the core of its filtering regime"

Submission + - The Internet Weighs Less than Two Ounces

Submitted by anaesthetica on Wednesday December 06, 2006 @03:54AM

anaesthetica writes: A back-of-the-envelope calculation by Russell Seitz indicates that the electrons constituting the flow of information on the internet weigh about 50 grams, or less than two ounces. Of course, this doesn't factor in the weight of the computers and physical networks themselves. From the article:
Forbes publisher and blogger Rich Karlgaard recently lamented his $1,200 monthly home utility bill. That's a lot of PG &E , but the yearly power bill for the global internet is just $3 per capita- a bargain even by third world standards. Yet looking at my ISP bill I'm not too happy - a dollar a day seems a trifle high when you reckon the weight of the penny's worth of electricity my computation consumes. My daily fix of electrons in motion costs me about half a billion dollars a pound.

Submission + - Flatulence Brings Down AA Flight 1053

Submitted by

theodp

on Wednesday December 06, 2006 @01:54AM

theodp writes: "American Airlines Flight 1053 made an emergency landing in Nashville Monday after passengers reported smelling struck matches. The FBI, Transportation Safety Administration and airport authority responded to the emergency, deplaning the passengers and unloading the baggage for another go through security. After bomb-sniffing dogs found spent matches, the FBI questioned a female passenger, who confessed to striking the matches in an attempt to 'conceal body odor.'"

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