Comment Re:Details of the ban make little sense (Score 1) 633
Apparently the plastic explosive used in the recent devices looks very similar to the contents of certain toner cartridges when viewed by current screening devices.
Google Engineer Sponsors New Kinect Bounties 96
ashidosan writes "Hot on the heels of the Adafruit competition, Matt Cutts (a search spam engineer at Google) is sponsoring two more $1,000 bounties for projects using Kinect. 'The first $1,000 prize goes to the person or team that writes the coolest open-source app, demo, or program using the Kinect. The second prize goes to the person or team that does the most to make it easy to write programs that use the Kinect on Linux.'"
Relatedly, reader imamac points out a video showing Kinect operating on OS X.
Comment Re:Flexible wages? (Score 1) 623
CORRECTION: Please read "nervice" as "nervous", and "greatful" as "grateful". My internal spell check is non-op for some reason today.
Comment Re:Flexible wages? (Score 1) 623
But, the way these layoffs (excuse me, "resource actions") are done is completely in the dark. Employees of these companies are not happy to be laid off, and the companies do them no service to make the survivors "nervice". If one is on a firing line and the two people on my left and right sides are shot and killed by Mr./Ms. CEO, should I feel greatful?!?!? Yep, I would be "nervous", but unfortunately that is completely abusive. Way to motivate -- terror, fear, uncertainty, and doubt. For the record, no one "deserves" a job, but there is no reason to play this insanely depraved version of "Survivor: Kampuchea".
Comment Re:Flexible wages? (Score 1) 623
Tablizer, that is way too progressive and cool. Besides, I think that execs have more fun turning their companies in abbatoirs than encourage such noxious things as fairness, humanity, and so forth. And, their Wall Street buddies need to know that Sam and the gang still have the stones to play with them at the golf club.
Comment Re:well... (Score 1) 623
Just wait a few decades until androids become common and folks want to give the broken down ones funerals, then you will have come full-circle. You are very well positioned for the future, undoubtedly lucrative android funeral business!
Comment Re:WTF is up with IBM? (Score 1) 623
Slightly off-topic, but the economny in New England -- esp. the tech market has been declining for over a decade. The financial sector consolidations moved all of the banking jobs out, and now acquisitions (such as IBM's purchases of Informix, Rational, Lotus, Cognos, Ascential, etc.) have moved even more good jobs out of the area.
One thing to consider (if it is a personal option) is to consider relocating to a place with jobs, a sociopolitical culture you like, and a lower cost of living. I lived in Boston 20 years and relocated to the Chicago area several years ago, sick and tired of the high housing costs and unpredictable economics, and left it all behind for greener pastures (no pun intendend).
Visualizing Ethernet Speed 140
anthemaniac writes "In the blink of an eye, you can transfer files from one computer to another using Ethernet. And in the same amount of time, your eye sends signals to the brain. A study finds that images transferred to the brain and files across an Ethernet network take about the same amount of time." From the article: "The researchers calculate that the 100,000 ganglion cells in a guinea pig retina transmit roughly 875,000 bits of information per second. The human retina contains about 10 times more ganglion cells than that of guinea pigs, so it would transmit data at roughly 10 million bits per second, the researchers estimate. This is comparable to an Ethernet connection, which transmits information between computers at speeds of 10 million to 100 million bits per second."
Comment Re:The nicest prop (Score 2, Funny) 225
I bid 350 quatloos!
ICANN Meeting Puts Off XXX Domain Again 157
An anonymous reader wrote to mention an International Herald story about a recent ICANN meeting on the proposed .XXX domain. Australia, the U.S., and the EU have moved to block the idea, with most commentators surmising this will prevent the concept from ever moving forward. From the article: "Some people maintain that a triple-x domain name, and the ability to enforce rules to qualify for it, would rein in an out-of-control Internet phenomenon. In registering, a company could have to abide by ratings agency standards, require proof of age for entrants, maybe even pay for Internet filtering research. The company pushing the idea, ICM Registry, also argues that dot-xxx would be good for customers of pornography sites, assuring them of certain business benchmarks, like being free of adware or computer viruses."
