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Japanese Robot Awards 2006 Announced 23

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the elmo-declares-war dept.
PreacherTom writes to mention that this past Thursday many robots were honored at the government-sponsored Robot Awards 2006 in Japan. Winners include a feeding machine, a theraputic seal, and a giant automated vacuum cleaner. From the article: "Examples among the winners were MySpoon, which is a robot that helps to feed people who are paralyzed, and Paro, a furry robotic seal that responds to human touch and is designed for nursing home and hospital therapy."

Making Time With the Watchmakers 257

Posted by Zonk from the temple-fugate-would-be-proud dept.
PreacherTom writes "In the age of watches that have more computational power than Apollo 11's computer, one would think that the watchmaker has gone the way of the cobbler, the blacksmith and the Dodo. Quite the contrary. With the rise in interest for mechanical watches (especially luxury models), Rolex has sponsored a new school to train horologists in the arcane art. From the article: 'We were facing a situation today where we needed to foster a new generation of watchmakers,' says Charles Berthiaume, the senior vice-president for technical operations at Rolex and the Technicum's president 'Thirty to 40 years ago, there was a watchmaker at every jewelry store. That's not the case today,' he notes. Included are some remarkable examples of their training, dedication, and intricate patience as they take technology in an entirely different direction."

House Passes Ban on Social Site Access 681

Posted by Zonk from the freedom-of-choice dept.
Krishna Dagli writes to mention a C|Net story covering a House of Representatives vote on restricting access to social sites on public terminals. The bill, which passed the House in a 410-15 vote, would bar users from accessing sites like Amazon, MySpace, or Slashdot from terminals in libraries and schools. Adults would be able to 'ask permission' to access such sites. From the article: "'Social networking sites, best known by the popular examples of MySpace, Friendster and Facebook, have literally exploded in popularity in just a few short years,' said Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican and one of DOPA's original sponsors. Now, he added, those Web sites 'have become a haven for online sexual predators who have made these corners of the Web their own virtual hunting ground.'"

Warhammer Mark Of Chaos - How Is The RTS? 99

Posted by Hemos from the something-fun-to-play dept.
Steven Williamson writes "HEXUS.gaming's resident wood elf, Steven W, jumped at the chance to take the eye-opening trip to the Games Workshop HQ in Nottingham, home to the unique venue that is Warhammer World. What started out as a run-of-the-mill press event to see the latest real-time tactics videogame set in the Warhammer universe ended up capturing my imagination and quashing any previous hang-ups I almost certainly had about the people who played Warhammer and indeed the tabletop game that has spawned this latest PC game, Warhammer: MOC."
Slashdot.org

Journal Journal: The autoban script sucks

Journal by DrunkenTerror
Hey folks, just throwing this up to let yall know I can't reply to anyone in that mousepad thread. Apparently I'm down to 1 post allowed per day, so that was it. All I can do is write journal entries now, can't even reply to comments in those. Thanks for playing!
Slashdot.org

Journal Journal: Oblig CSS Bitching 1

Journal by DrunkenTerror
Gah, ok, I gave it more that a fair shot, IMO, and yep, this new layout is terrible. It makes me feel even more colorblind that I already am. Wow, thanks, slashdot. You picked the one shade of green that I see as gray, and then slathered various shades of gray around that. Fucking brilliant. I can't tell what's green and gray anymore, and it makes me want to throw up. Anyone got a graph showing a decline in traffic after the switch? Comment volumes decreasing perhaps? This theme is terrible, hor

Flying Faster Without ID 528

Posted by Zonk from the i-feel-so-safe dept.
jjh37997 writes "A Homeland Security's privacy advisory committee member finds that flying without a photo ID is actually faster than traveling with proper identification. According to Wired the committee member, Jim Harper, accepted a bet from civil liberties rabble-rouser John Gilmore to test whether he could actually fly without showing identification. He found that traveling without ID allowed him to bypass the long security lines at San Francisco's International Airport, and get in faster than if he had provided his driver's license."

SCO Claims Ownership of ELF To Court 227

Posted by Zonk from the not-the-keelber-kind dept.
l2718 writes "In the most recent punch-counterpunch of the SCO v. IBM case, IBM is claiming that SCO is trying to vastly expand their claims beyond what they alleged in their list of material allegedly misused by IBM filed last December, using their expert reports. For example, two years ago we covered SCO's claim to own ELF, the main executable format of Linux. Apparently they are have finally made the same claim to a court of law, after the deadline for making such claims. From IBM's memorandum: 'The final disclosures identify 19 Linux files relating to the ELF specification, as well as excerpts from several specification documents. Dr. Cargill far exceeds this claims ... asserting infringement of the entire ELF format ... also ... for the first time, claims to the ELF magic number.'"

A Working 5D Rubik's Cube 171

Posted by CmdrTaco from the i'm-still-confused-in-2d dept.
Melinda Green writes "Readers who enjoyed the previous Slashdot postings regarding the 4-dimensional Rubik's cube called MagicCube4D will be interested to know that a couple of brilliant developers have recently created a working 5-dimensional Rubik's cube. Operating a 5 dimensional puzzle projected all the way down to a 2D computer screen may seem a hopeless task but the full 5D puzzle has already been solved by 3 people. Also noteworthy is the fact that the 4D puzzle has now been ported to Java and is available as both a full-featured desktop application and as an Applet."

New Disclaimer for the Internet 113

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the slippery-slopes dept.
Techdirt has an amusing new disclaimer for the internet penned by lawyer David Canton is response to Rob Hyndman's recent discovery of an impressive disclaimer for a rock preserve. From the disclaimer: "Business is unpredictable and unsafe. The Internet is dangerous. Many blogs have been written about these dangers, and there's no way we can list them all here. Read the blogs. The Internet is covered in slippery slopes with loose, slippery and unpredictable footing. The RIAA can make matters worse. Patent trolls are everywhere. You may fall, be spammed or suffer a DOS attack. There are hidden viruses and worms. You could break your computer. There is wild code, which may be vicious, poisonous or carriers of dread malware. These include viruses and worms. E-mail can be poisonous as well. We don't do anything to protect you from any of this. We do not inspect, supervise or maintain the Internet, blogosphere, ISP's or other features, natural or otherwise."

Garry's Mod Goes Commercial 67

Posted by Zonk from the antlions-vs.-gmen-vs.-combine dept.
Gothic_Walrus writes "A recent entry in The Steam Review brings the news that Garry's Mod, the popular mod for Half-Life 2 that allows players freedom to play with the game's physics engine in what is effectively a sandbox mode, is going to be sold through Steam at a $10 price point. It's worth noting, however, that the current version of the mod will remain as a demo."
The Internet

Viacom vs. News Corp. on Social Networking 65

Posted by Zonk from the feel-the-neopet-love dept.
dolphinlover writes "The purchase of MySpace.com by Robert Murdoch's News Corporation last year for $580 million has caught the attention of another media conglomerate, Viacom Inc., whose CEO, Tom Freston, has now announced his intentions to purchase or partner with a social networking site this year in order to enhance the company's image with youth. Whether it will also be successful monetarily has yet to be seen, as MySpace.com only had $47 million in revenue in 2005 based on advertising. This news follows Viacom's acquisition of Neopets.com in 2005. For those companies already heavily involved in television and movies, expanding their presence to the Internet provides a new opportunity to gain a foothold over the competition."
Slashdot.org

Journal Journal: Not seen on Slashdot

Journal by DrunkenTerror
Forbes is running an interesting article about /. parent, VA Software, and how they use the term "open source" purely for marketing. Why won't VA open-source it's main product? "Our own code could be used to compete against us," according to Colin Bodell, chief technology officer at VA Software. The article also contians some choice RMS action, urging us "cyber Che Guevaras

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