Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Comment Because the current block is working so well (Score 1) 231

by gagravarr (#38006152) Attached to: Film Studios Seeking Complete Block of Newzbin2 in the UK

As highlighted by RevK from AAISP in a recent blog post on the stupidity of the blocking

I can reveal the secret high-tech method for accessing newzbin2 and by-passing the recent block on the site on BT residential lines.
Its top secret and highly technical, so don't tell anyone...
Instead of typing http://newzbin.com/ you type https://newzbin.com/
Yes, that is typing an extra s in the right place.
Image

Girl Claims Price Scanner Gave Her Tourette's Syndrome 558

Posted by samzenpus from the it's-$4.99-you-f*#@ing-co^&%#@!er dept.
Attorneys for Dominica Juliano claim that she was burned and developed psychological problems after a store clerk aimed a hand-held price scanner at her face. Store attorneys say their scanners uses a harmless LED light and that the girl had serious health problems before she was scanned. From the article: "Dominica Juliano was 12 when she and her grandmother entered the Country Fair store in Erie in June 2004. A clerk allegedly called the girl 'grumpy' before flashing his hand-held bar code scanner over her face and telling her to smile. Attorneys for Ms. Juliano and her guardian say the girl was sensitive to light and burned, and later developed post-traumatic stress and Tourette's syndrome."
Image

How To Find Bad Programmers 359

Posted by samzenpus from the how-little-work-can-you-do-in-a-day dept.
AmberShah writes "The job post is your potential programmer's first impression of your company, so make it count with these offputting features. There are plenty of articles about recruiting great developers, but what if you are only interested in the crappy ones?" I think much of the industry is already following these guidelines.

Cryptol, Language of Cryptography, Now Available To the Public 140

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the new-toys-to-play-with dept.
solweil writes to mention that Cryptol, a 'domain specific language for the design, implementation and verification of cryptographic algorithms,' is now available to the public. Cryptol was originally designed for the NSA. It allows for a quick evaluation and continued revisions, and is available for Linux, OS X, and Windows.
Education

Voters Swayed By Candidates Who Share Their Looks 266

Posted by samzenpus from the govern-by-proxy dept.
iandoh writes "Stanford researchers have found that voters are subconsciously swayed by candidates who share their facial features. In three experiments, researchers at the Virtual Human Interaction Lab worked with cheap, easy-to-use computer software to morph pictures of about 600 test subjects with photos of politicians. And they kept coming up with the same results: For the would-be voters who weren't very familiar with the candidates or in perfect lockstep with their positions or political parties, the facial similarity was enough to clinch their votes."
Earth

Removing CO2 From the Air Efficiently 487

Posted by kdawson from the install-anywhere dept.
Canadian scientists have created a device that efficiently removes CO2 from the atmosphere. "The proposed air capture system differs from existing carbon capture and storage technology ... while CCS involves installing equipment at, say, a coal-fired power plant to capture CO2 produced during the coal-burning process, ... air capture machines will be able to literally remove the CO2 present in ambient air everywhere. [The team used] ... a custom-built tower to capture CO2 directly from the air while requiring less than 100 kilowatt-hours of electricity per tonne of carbon dioxide."
Transmeta

Transmeta Up For Sale 112

Posted by timothy from the when-a-name-bespeaks-transition dept.
arcticstoat writes "After giving up on the CPU manufacturing business in 2005, low-power CPU designer Transmeta has announced that it's up for sale. In a statement, the processor company that brought us the mobile Crusoe and Efficeon series of CPUs said that it has 'initiated a process to seek a potential sale of the Company.' The announcement came straight after Transmeta reached a legal agreement with Intel over Transmeta's intellectual property and patents, which includes Intel making a one-off payment of $91.5 million US to Transmeta before the end of this month, as well as annual payments of $20 million US every year from 2009 through 2013."
Biotech

Submission + - World's Poor Pay Price as Crop Research Is Cut

Submitted by gollum123
gollum123 writes: Experts say that during the food surpluses of recent decades, governments and development agencies lost focus on the importance of helping poor countries improve their agriculture ( http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/business/worldbusiness/18focus.html?_r=1&hp&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin ) . The budgets of institutions that delivered the world from famine in the 1970s, including the rice institute, have stagnated or fallen, even as the problems they were trying to solve became harder. Growth of the global food supply has slowed even as the population has continued to increase, and as economic growth is giving millions of poor people the money to buy more food. But cuts in agricultural research continue. The biggest cutbacks have come in donations to agriculture in poor countries from the governments of wealthy countries and in loans from development institutions that the wealthy governments control, like the World Bank. Such projects include not only research on pests and crops but also programs to help farmers adopt improved methods in their fields. Adjusting for inflation and exchange rates, the wealthy countries, as a group, cut such donations roughly in half from 1980 to 2006, to $2.8 billion a year from $6 billion. The United States cut its support for agriculture in poor countries to $624 million from $2.3 billion in that period. From 1970 to 1990, the peak Green Revolution years, the food supply grew faster than the world population. But after 1990, food's growth rate fell below population growth.
Enlightenment

Submission + - Einstein Letter on God Sells for $404,000

Submitted by
Lexta
Lexta writes: "The New Yorks Times Reports that a letter written by Albert Einstien to the philosopher Eric Gutkind in 1954 has sold for $404,000. The letter outlines many of Einsteins religious views including describing the Bible as "pretty childish" and scoffing at the notion that the Jews could be a "chosen people,". The report also inlcudes an image of the letter. According to The Guardian newspaper, Oxford evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, an outspoken atheist, was among the unsuccessful bidders."
Earth

Submission + - High-tech diamonds paired with high-tech jewelry (yahoo.com)

Submitted by Chin
Chin writes: Wired did an article a few years back about gem-quality lab-created diamonds, but they seemed to be mostly vaporware. They are most commonly created using a high-pressure, high-temperature processes that mimics the conditions found deep in the earth. One company, D.NEA, announced the diamonds are now available in fancy blues and yellows direct from their website, with a few whites that still appear to be experimental. They feature them in Steven Kretchmer Designs, pioneers of a tension-set ring that uses 12,000psi to hold the stones in place. That makes for a unique combination for truly high-tech jewelry.

Comment Why not just use We7? (Score 1) 131

by gagravarr (#22207212) Attached to: Qtrax — Ad-Supported Music With iPod Compatibility?

This sounds a lot like We7, only with faff about DRM.

We7 do advertising supported downloads of MP3s, so you can put them on whatever device you want, including your iPod. A month after you downloaded the ad version, you can go back and re-download without adverts. They've got quite a lot of major labels on board, so there's a fairly decent choice. With the option of We7, why would you bother with something similar that still has DRM crap on it?
Operating Systems

Submission + - Petition to open OS/2 source, round/2 (os2world.com) 1

Submitted by The_Wilschon
The_Wilschon writes: On September 25, 2005, OS2World.com sent a petition with 11,613 signatures to IBM, asking them to release some or all of the source code to OS/2. Oddly, given IBM's embrace of the Open Source movement, the letter was ignored. So, on November 19 of this year, OS2World.com sent a second letter. They have also opened up a second petition round in order to show even more support to IBM for their requests. In particular, the System Object Model (SOM), Workplace Shell (WPS), and OS/2 kernel could both spur new OS/2 development and provide some fresh ideas to the Free Software world.
Education

Submission + - RIAA costs UW-Madison $300,000

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In the last few years, the University of Wisconsin Madison has spent more than $300,000 to prevent and resolve allegations of illegal downloading and sharing of music by users of the university 's computer network. Noting that UW-Madison ranked No. 10 among all universities nationwide for its number of alleged RIAA copyright violations. Via
Power

Submission + - The Upsides of Solar Panels in Parking Lots

Submitted by
UnanimousCoward
UnanimousCoward writes: "SFGate has an Open Forum piece written by UCLA Professor Donald Shoup considering the benefits of installing solar panels in parking lots:
  • Provides power when it is needed most
  • Cooler cars
  • Can't be worse-looking than the current asphalt desert :-)
  • Pro-business/Pro-development
  • He even plays the decentralized-power-in-the-face-of-terrorists card
The article mentions efforts by Walmart and, of course, Google:

Google, for example, has installed solar canopies on its parking lots to satisfy 30 percent of its headquarters' power demand.
"

Feed Engadget: Greenpeace dismantles iPhone, discovers "hazardous chemicals" (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Cellphones

Apple's no stranger to being slammed by Greenpeace, and while Steve certainly spoke of a "Greener Apple," it seems that the iPhone wasn't included. According to tests arranged by the entity, it was found that the iPhone contained "toxic brominated compounds (indicating the presence of brominated flame retardants) and hazardous PVC," which are said to be disallowed across the pond due to RoHS requirements. More specifically, the independent testing found "brominated compounds in half the samples, including in the phone's antenna, in which they made up 10-percent of the total weight of the flexible circuit board." As expected, Greenpeace wasted no time pointing to rival firms that have received pats on the back for their green efforts, and subsequently shook a finger at Apple while murmuring "tsk tsk" -- but we'll leave the actual politicking to you all in comments, cool?

[Via Switched, thanks Laura]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Slashdot Top Deals

He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him. -- Bion

Close