Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Music

Submission + - SPAM: Man claims Apple Nano iPod caught fire in pants 1

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: An Atlanta man says his iPod Nano caught fire in his pants. The nearly two year-old iPod caught fire in the pocket of Danny Williams at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where he is employed, according to Williams' mother, Elaine. The flames lasted 15 seconds and fire reached up to his chest, she said in a telephone interview. [spam URL stripped]
First Person Shooters (Games)

Submission + - A mod thats blowing away UT3

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "Hello, I was going to just email you but I found this form. I thought you might be intersted in doing an article or interview for this AMAZING UT2004 mod thats blowing away UT3 completely to the moon. Its not relesed yet but the trailer shows everything, and the devs are saying how the awesome game mechanics are compeltely new to gaming.

Anyways, you can watch the AWESOME trailer here: http://www.deefrag.com/gunreal/index.htm

Its definately worth news for anyone who likes games because Ive never seen anything like it. The sound and explosions are unbeleivable and the gameplay is unique.

- Commander Clean"
Republicans

Journal SPAM: I hate all Iranians, US aide tells MPs 10

Journal by Jeremiah Cornelius

Britsh MPs visiting the Pentagon to discuss America's stance on Iran and Iraq were shocked to be told by one of President Bush's senior women officials: "I hate all Iranians."

And she also accused Britain of "dismantling" the Anglo-US-led coalition in Iraq by pulling troops out of Basra too soon.
Technology (Apple)

Submission + - iPod Video Review on Squidoo (squidoo.com)

Submitted by
sodoku1
sodoku1 writes: "Watching a movie on a small screen under 3 inches is difficult and uncomfortable for the eyes. Most people would rather 'snack' on short clips like youtube or music videos on their iPods. The iPod is best used while waiting in lines at stores, airports or when commuting."
Education

Olin College — Re-Engineering Engineering 181

Posted by kdawson from the would-you-like-thinking-with-that dept.
theodp writes "In its College Issue, the NYT Magazine profiles tuition-free Olin College, which is building a different breed of engineer, stressing creativity, teamwork, and entrepreneurship — and, in no small part, courage. But questions remain as to whether the industry is ready for the freethinking products of Olin, and vice versa. Few of the class of 2006 are going on to grad study in engineering or jobs in the field."
Linux Business

Michael Meeks On ODF and OOXML 184

Posted by kdawson from the down-with-clippy dept.
biscuitfever11 writes "ZDNet has up a great interview with Michael Meeks, the distinguished Novell engineer, who's currently deeply involved in open document format and OpenOffice.org. In the interview, Meeks takes Microsoft to task on its alternative format OOXML and argues that Microsoft should adopt ODF — but says that realistically they never will. He also mentions his favorite example to explain the benefits of open source software to a nontechnical person: the flexibility of open source would have allowed us to free ourselves from Clippy, the world's most despised paperclip, by changing a single line of code."
Programming

Submission + - .NET or Java: Which Road to Take? 5

Submitted by jerbenn
jerbenn writes: I have recently decided to make the move from being a generalist IT professional in government, currently involved in maintenance programming in several different languages, some project management, some admin work (both MS and Unix), user support, etc., to strictly development. I have two opportunities; one consisting as a Java Web Developer, the other being an ASP.NET Web Developer primarily using VB 2005. Considering that the benefits/corporate culture are fairly equal, and forgetting the "Do what makes you happy" philosophy, what do you think is the best alternative? Looking into the future, which of the 2 development environments will offer the most stability, marketability, and personal growth? What do you think Slashdot Community?
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Mark your calendar: Pretend to be a Time Traveler (koalawallop.com)

Submitted by Iron Condor
Iron Condor writes: Dresden Codac comes up with this clever idea for a "Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day" (Dec-08) on the Koala Wallop forum.

"Remember, the only real rule is staying in character and try to fit in. Never directly admit you're a time traveler, and make really, really bad attempts at keeping a low profile."
Some of the suggestions include such gems as "Show extreme ignorance in operating regular technology. Pay phones should be a complete mystery (try placing the receiver in odd places). Chuckle knowingly at cell phones." or "Stand in front of a statue (any statue, really), fall to your knees, and yell "NOOOOOOOOO" ".

I figured the /. crowd would be exactly the kind of folks who'd get into that kind of thing (I know that I do).
Operating Systems

Submission + - Linux vs. Mac: Should I Get a Mac? (osweekly.com) 4

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: OSWeekly.com ponders on whether or not it's better to get a Mac over Linux. The author writes, "Then again, I have to come back full circle and ask myself — do I really 'need,' or even want, OS X over a pure Linux box? Under the hood, it's basically the same thing, which is a hat tip to Apple. Incredibly secure and simple to use. Personally, the most compelling reason to use this OS would not be for iTunes. It would also be for the fantastic applications designed to make video editing a breeze. Is this something I really want to do on a notebook? If I went MacBook Pro perhaps, but it's really more of a desktop sort of a task for an iMac, I think. I don't know yet, it does seem like OS X is looking better all the time. I can hammer out scripts like I do in Linux fairly easily, and now, thanks to VMWare Fusion, I can even use my beloved Evolution PIM where Entourage is not a great replacement for me. Maybe it's time to upgrade my notebook after all?
Movies

Submission + - Dreamworks Drops the Ball on Afghani Children 1

Submitted by ThanatosMinor
ThanatosMinor writes: Dreamworks recruited school-aged children from Kabul in Afghanistan to play lead roles in the new movie release of The Kite Runner. However, the presence of a brutal rape scene has serious potential to cause problems for one of the boys and his family. 'I want to continue making films and be an actor but the rape scene upset me because my friends will watch it and I won't be able to go outside any more. They will think I was raped,' said Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada. To make matters worse, two of the boys wanted to use their money from the job to move their families to the United States, but the film company paid them less than $20,000 each.
Should Hollywood be trying a little harder to be a good ambassador to foreign nations?
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Project Alternative OpenProj Reviewed (madpenguin.org)

Submitted by sober
sober writes: MadPenguin.org has reviewed an open source alternative to Microsoft Project, OpenProj. The author concludes, "If this software is given any amount of time or support to reach full maturity, it would definitely be a solid competitor against Microsoft's Project. The only downside I have seen thus far with regard to its localized installation is that it is Java-based in design. This means instant alienation from those who do not enjoy using what Java provides. Personally, I found that the application runs great, does exactly what it advertises and costs nothing for the localized version.
Wireless Networking

Submission + - MadWifi moves away from binary-only HAL

Submitted by kizmat
kizmat writes: The Madwifi team announced their decision to move away from the binary-only HAL and change the focus of future development towards ath5k, a completely free (as in freedom) driver which will eventually become an integral part of the Linux kernel. From the article — We now see a road to move away from the binary-only HAL; it's no comfortable road, however, and thus requires full concentration of our resources to finally reach the ultimate goal of getting a free driver for Atheros devices into the Linux kernel. This free driver is called ath5k, and the work on it has already been started. We are also in contact with Atheros to encourage them to support these efforts.
Education

MIT's SAT Math Error 280

Posted by Zonk from the maybe-they-should-get-a-college-graduate-to-check-it dept.
theodp writes "The Wall Street Journal reports that for years now, MIT wasn't properly calculating the average freshmen SAT scores (reg.) used to determine U.S. News & World Report's influential annual rankings. In response to an inquiry made by The Tech regarding the school's recent drop in the rankings, MIT revealed that in past years it had excluded the test scores of foreign students as well as those who fared better on the ACT than the SAT, both violations of the U.S. News rules. MIT's reported first-quartile SAT verbal and math scores for the 2006 incoming class totaled 1380, a drop of 50 points from 2005."
Privacy

Submission + - Seven CIA Vets Challenge 9/11 Commission Report (opednews.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_alan_mil_070922_seven_cia_veterans_c.htm

Seven CIA Veterans Challenge 9/11 Commission Report

September 23, 2007 — Seven CIA veterans have severely criticized the official account of 9/11 and have called for a new investigation. "I think at simplest terms, there's a cover-up. The 9/11 Report is a joke," said Raymond McGovern, 27-year veteran of the CIA, who chaired National Intelligence Estimates during the seventies. "There are a whole bunch of unanswered questions. And the reason they're unanswered is because this administration will not answer the questions," he said. McGovern, who is also the founder of VIPS (Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity), is one of many signers of a petition to reinvestigate 9/11.[1]

New Version of Gmail Being Tested 227

Posted by Zonk from the every-solid-companion dept.
Keith writes "Gmail was launched on April 1, 2004, and has revolutionized the way many of us use email. The interface has remained largely untouched since it launched, but get ready, it's soon to undergo a change in what they describe as a 'New Version'. Only a select few people have access to use the new interface — mainly employees and trusted people outside the company called 'Trusted Testers'. From the ZDNet blog entry: 'Google lets every-day users who are fluent in both English and another language translate small snippets of English text into the language of their choice. This is how they can offer services in several languages without spending a dime on professional translators. Unfortunately, exposing sensitive information in this manner makes it hard to keep a secret. One of my readers, who wishes to remain anonymous, stumbled across an interesting snippet of text (which I confirmed exists) spilling the beans on a new version of Gmail that is either currently being tested, or about to be released to testing in short order.'"

Slashdot Top Deals

8 Catfish = 1 Octo-puss

Close