Jackazz - Slashdot User

Heroic Engineer Crashes Own Vehicle To Save a Life 486

Posted by kdawson on Friday October 22, 2010 @11:09AM from the delta-vee dept.

scottbomb sends in this feel-good story of an engineer-hero, calling it "one of the coolest stories I've read in a long time." "A manager of Boeing's F22 fighter-jet program, Innes dodged the truck, then looked back to see that the driver was slumped over the wheel. He knew a busy intersection was just ahead, and he had to act fast. Without consulting the passengers in his minivan — 'there was no time to take a vote' — Innes kicked into engineer mode. 'Basic physics: If I could get in front of him and let him hit me, the delta difference in speed would just be a few miles an hour, and we could slow down together,' Innes explained."

Theremin Guitar Hero 79

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday June 10, 2010 @11:32AM from the still-waiting-for-bassoon-hero dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Greig 'Theremin Hero' Stewart has developed a way to play Guitar Hero with a theremin, like an air guitar. The results speak for themselves, in this rocking video complete with awesome costumes and some sweet artwork. It even has a Co-op mode. ROCK ON! This needs to be a real product!" The beginning is a bit annoying, but this has to be one of the coolest "projects" I've seen in a long time.

Submission + - EU Appeals Board Overturns Beer Naming Decision (irishtimes.com)

Submitted by Jackazz on Thursday April 01, 2010 @01:07PM

Jackazz writes: IF YOU’RE moved to drown your sorrows after a week of financial gloom, a German brewer has produced a drink that might just match your feelings. The company has been allowed by the European Trademarks Office to register a new brand of beer under the label “Fucking Hell”.

The brewers say their “hell” – German for light ale – is named after the Austrian village of Fucking (pronounced Fooking) near Salzburg. But the 93 Fucking villagers are worried that the unsolicited dedication will boost further the village’s notoriety among English-speaking tourists.

Submission + - Barbie as a Computer Engineer? (barbie.com)

Submitted by dylannika on Monday January 11, 2010 @11:42PM

dylannika writes: It looks like it's time again for Barbie to find a new job. She's already tried her hand at being a race car driver, a rock star, an olympic athlete and an astronaut, now you can vote for her to try the field of Computer Engineering. Maybe there are some brains behind those big blue eyes. Maybe she won't find that "math is hard" this time...

Should Barbie try Computer Engineering?

Submission + - Smart Pen syncs audio w/ notetaking on plain paper (hexus.net)

Submitted by quintin3265 on Monday January 11, 2010 @06:19PM

quintin3265 writes: The Pulse Smart Pen, released by Livescribe at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Showcase, allows users to draw their own user interfaces on paper they can print for freeat home. The pen records audio while a lecture is occurring, and as notes are taken, the position of the words the user writes is stored in 2GB or 4GB of onboard memory. Later, when the user taps a word that was previously written, it plays the portion of the lecture beginning at the time the word was written.

In the linked video, the company's CEO also demonstrates an application that allows the user to draw a piano on a piece of paper, and the pen plays the keys that are tapped. Should the user decide (s)he prefers not to play his or her own music, (s)he can draw a menu bar to select a song by a classical composer. Finally, by writing and clicking on words, the pen recognizes the words that are written and translates them into a selection of languages. And should the user be dissatisfied with the controls printed at the bottom of the paper, (s)he can draw custom interfaces to access the pen's various features. Best of all, this gadget isn't a pipe dream, but one that's on sale right now for around $220.

NASA Tests Flying Airbag 118

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday December 09, 2009 @03:10PM from the drop-the-cloud-anchor dept.

coondoggie writes "NASA is looking to reduce the deadly impact of helicopter crashes on their pilots and passengers with what the agency calls a high-tech honeycomb airbag known as a deployable energy absorber. So in order to test out its technology NASA dropped a small helicopter from a height of 35 feet to see whether its deployable energy absorber, made up of an expandable honeycomb cushion, could handle the stress. The test crash hit the ground at about 54MPH at a 33 degree angle, what NASA called a relatively severe helicopter crash."

Zombie Pigs First, Hibernating Soldiers Next 193

Posted by samzenpus on Monday December 07, 2009 @07:06PM from the fattening-up-on-brains dept.

ColdWetDog writes "Wired is running a story on DARPA's effort to stave off battlefield casualties by turning injured soldiers into zombies by injecting them with a cocktail of one chemical or another (details to be announced). From the article, 'Dr. Fossum predicts that each soldier will carry a syringe into combat zones or remote areas, and medic teams will be equipped with several. A single injection will minimize metabolic needs, de-animating injured troops by shutting down brain and heart function. Once treatment can be carried out, they'll be "re-animated" and — hopefully — as good as new.' If it doesn't pan out we can at least get zombie bacon and spam."

Comment Re:Or (Score 1) 237

by Jackazz on Friday November 20, 2009 @09:40PM (#30180850) Attached to: Anti-Smoking Vaccine Is Nearing the Market

Where in the story does it say anyone is being forced to take the vaccine!??! you are all mixing up two separate issues. This is an amazing technological breakthrough if it works! No need to chew gum or use patches if you want to quit, just get a shot and lose your will to smoke. how great is that!

If you want to talk about the government overlords mandating this, that is a whole separate discussion.

Comment Re:Kindle (Score 1) 111

by Jackazz on Tuesday November 10, 2009 @07:46PM (#30053532) Attached to: Intel's New E-Reader For the Visually Impaired

Have you tried navigating a Kindle without sight? This device was designed from the ground up with accessibility in mind. Tactile buttons that cover all the functions, menus that are spoken or can be enlarged for low vision, and features that help orient the device and take pictures of text when you can't even see.

Totally different function than just a talking newspaper.

Submission + - Intel Offers an E-Reader, With a Difference (wsj.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10, 2009 @03:14PM

An anonymous reader writes: Electronic gadgets that help people enjoy digitized books are all the rage. Most share one assumption- that their users can read. Not so for the latest offering from Intel. The company Tuesday announced the Intel Reader, a device about the size of a paperback book that is designed to digitize printed text and read it aloud to users. Intel is not targeting book lovers who want to lighten their briefcases and backpacks; its audience, the company says, is people with poor eyesight, dyslexia or other conditions that make reading difficult or impossible.

Submission + - Intel's New E-Reader for the Visually Impaired (bblogic.com) 3

Submitted by serverguy on Tuesday November 10, 2009 @03:33AM

serverguy writes: A win for all visually impaired members of society with Intel releasing a new device called the Intel Reader. It allows visually impaired people to take a snap shot of a newspapers, books and magazines and have it read back to them. It's estimated that in the US alone there are as many as 55 million people who could make use of such a device. It comes at hefty price though, costing US$1,499 for the paperback sized device which contains a 5 megapixel camera and is powered by a Linux OCR system that converts text into spoken words. The device can contain up to 2GB of data which would equate around 600 snap shots, in addition to reading text to words the device can also play back a Audio Books in a number of supported files such as MP3s and WAV.

The device is expected to be released next Tuesday.

Comment Re:YouTube Comments Disabled (Score 1) 830

by Jackazz on Monday September 28, 2009 @08:15PM (#29574383) Attached to: Mainstream Press "Cringes" At Win7 Launch Parties

I thought all the quick cuts, diverse cast, microsoft color palette, and canned laughter were completely natural. What a witty repartee. And no, I do not know what 'contrived' means.

SDK Shoot Out, Android Vs. IPhone 413

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday September 25, 2008 @10:44AM from the take-the-pepsi-challenge dept.

snydeq writes "Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister delves into the Android and iPhone SDKs to help sort out which will be the best bet for developers now that technical details of the first Android smartphone have been announced. Whereas the iPhone requires an Intel-based Mac running OS X 10.5.4 or later, ADC membership, and familiarity with proprietary Mac OS X dev tools, the standard IDE for Android is Eclipse. And because most tasks can be performed with command-line tools, you can expert third parties to develop Android SDK plug-ins for other IDEs. Objective-C, used almost nowhere outside Apple, is required for iPhone UI development, while app-level Android programming is done in Java. 'By just about any measure, Google's Android is more open and developer-friendly than the iPhone,' McAllister writes, noting Apple's gag order restrictions on documentation, proprietary software requirements to view training videos, and right to reject your finished app from the sole distribution channel for iPhone. This openness is, of course, essential to Android's prospects. 'Based on raw market share alone, the iPhone seems likely to remain the smartphone developer's platform of choice — especially when ISVs can translate that market share into application sales,' McAllister writes. 'Sound familiar? In this race, Apple is taking a page from Microsoft's book, while Google looks suspiciously like Linux.'"

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