Comment What I'd name the dog, no matter the sex. (Score 1) 261
Dolly the dog.
Should Scientists Date People Who Believe Astrology? 1181
YourAstrologer writes "Wired Science asks: Should scientists date people who believe in astrology? Apparently, the argument is quite complex. Astrology is sort of a flawed mental shortcut for understanding the world, but so is disregarding someone because of their spiritual beliefs. Women are inundated with astrological nonsense from fashion magazines, so it is normative for them to believe it even if they are otherwise highly logical. Smart people can convince themselves of silly things."
The Power Consumption of Modern PCs 122
janp writes "The power consumption of modern PCs has skyrocketed the past few years. Hardware.Info has done some fairly extensive research on the power usage of various configurations. It turns out the a high-end gaming rig can easily use more than 400 W, and that putting a system in stand-by isn't as saving as you might think. The article has some interesting tips to save on power costs."
Submission + - Wii Outselling PS3 3-to-1
njkid1 writes: "Say it with me now: Wiiiiiiii! If Nintendo's new console can keep up its current pace, it'll dominate the market just as the Nintendo DS has. Lately, the new system has been outselling Sony's PS3 in the land of the rising sun by close to a 3-to-1 margin.
http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=1517 1&ncid=AOLGAM000500000000006"
Submission + - In Case You Were Unsure: E-Mail is Not Private.
Brad Eleven writes: "Wal-Mart, the largest corporation on the planet, has indicated that it is so powerful that it believes that it can do whatever it wants in the name of its own bottom line, reputation, and other concerns exclusive to its own enterprise. It is alleged here that The Company That Sam Built found and paid for potentially incriminating email messages in order to discredit a fired executive. Apparently Wal-Mart doesn't want to lose the suit which Julie Roehm filed for compensation to which she believes she is entitled.
Corporate malfeasance is old news. Even discounting the cultural problem of Big Money paying goons to bend/break the law to get what it wants, this underscores the fallacy of the widely-held belief that one's personal email is private. At least not when powerful entities want to see it. You and I probably can't afford to dig this deeply into the electronic effluvium, but we also tend towards encrypting our private communications. The larger concern is that our privacy means nothing to the elite. Though somewhat protected in many parts of the world by law, this is another example of how corporate leaders presume that the world really is their oyster. If your email isn't protected from prying eyes, you might want to take an hour or so to get it that way. Or just don't discuss anything which could ever possibly be used against you in a court of law of any kind. And don't presume that deleting email makes any difference at all in this context. That is, it's not that Wal-Mart's pinkertons broke into Ms. Roehm's email store. They got it from her alleged lover's wife. By reminding her that they knew which church she attended, and that he hadn't yet received his $200K bonus.
What if it wasn't just the world's largest corporation that wanted the email? Ramifications of the US Patriot Act are left as an exercise of the reader. The perception of FUD on your part is optional."
Corporate malfeasance is old news. Even discounting the cultural problem of Big Money paying goons to bend/break the law to get what it wants, this underscores the fallacy of the widely-held belief that one's personal email is private. At least not when powerful entities want to see it. You and I probably can't afford to dig this deeply into the electronic effluvium, but we also tend towards encrypting our private communications. The larger concern is that our privacy means nothing to the elite. Though somewhat protected in many parts of the world by law, this is another example of how corporate leaders presume that the world really is their oyster. If your email isn't protected from prying eyes, you might want to take an hour or so to get it that way. Or just don't discuss anything which could ever possibly be used against you in a court of law of any kind. And don't presume that deleting email makes any difference at all in this context. That is, it's not that Wal-Mart's pinkertons broke into Ms. Roehm's email store. They got it from her alleged lover's wife. By reminding her that they knew which church she attended, and that he hadn't yet received his $200K bonus.
What if it wasn't just the world's largest corporation that wanted the email? Ramifications of the US Patriot Act are left as an exercise of the reader. The perception of FUD on your part is optional."
Submission + - GPS for cyclists?
antifoidulus writes: As an avid cyclist but someone who gets lost frequently, I have always wanted a GPS system like some of my friends have in their cars. But I wasn't sure that I could find soemthing that was accurate enough for cyclists as well as something that wouldn't tell me to go on a highway when it was obviously unsafe. However, as always technology has marched forwards and there seem to be several handheld units that are accurate enough for cyclists. Some seem to be a very fancy(and somewhat expensive) bike computers without much navigation aid, others seem to be navigation aides with a bit of bike computer tacked on. Have any slashdotters ever used a GPS on their bike? If so, what kind? My ideal GPS would have maps for both North America and Europe(and maybe Japan as well). Any suggestions?
Submission + - Microsoft wants to know... what's wrong with you?
Fozzyuw writes: An article over at Gizmodo points out Microsofts new Xbox marketing campaign in Asia. From the article...
If you're in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan or Korea, Microsoft wants to know what's wrong with you. That's right, your tepid response to their console isn't their fault, it's yours. Which leads Microsoft to launch the website "whatswrongwithu.com" questioning what really is wrong with you. C'mon, it's got great Japanese games, blockbuster titles, and it looks cool!
Submission + - Diamond Light Source Ready
SuperGrads writes: "The Diamond Light Source, the largest scientific facility to be built in the UK for 30 years, is ready for business. The third generation synchrotron cost £250 million (US$491.9) to build and has a circumference of more than half a kilometre. It will produce beams of light from the microwave to the X-ray region of the spectrum that are 100,000 times brighter than those of the second generation facilities. The facility will operate 24/7 and 10% of its beam time will be sold to industrial customers."
Journal Journal: Another County Heard from on Global Warning
In the face of attempts in the UN to close debate on the topic of global warming and, especially, its being a human-created phenomenon, and advocacy by the Weather Channel for the decertification of the numerous meteorologists who dissent, the first Canadian climatologist voices his dissent.
NASA May Have to Buy Trips to Space 256
MattSparkes writes "Budget cuts could leave NASA without a Space Shuttle replacement, and leave it reliant on private firms to get payloads into space. A similar scenario happened between 1975 and 1981 when NASA made the transition from Apollo to the Space Shuttle. It seems like a strange state of affairs when a magazine can take people to space, but the USA can't."
Submission + - Kodak to Sell Inkjet Printers With Low Cost Ink
rocketjam writes: "Kodak is introducing a line of desktop inkjet printers in March. They are entering a market crowded with well-established players. To compete with HP, Epson, Canon and Lexmark, Kodak plans to differentiate their line of printers with low-cost replacement ink cartridges. Rather than selling the printers at a loss and making up the difference and future profits by selling expensive replacement cartridges, Kodak's entry-level printer will be priced at $150, but ink cartridges will cost roughly half of what most other companies charge. Black ink cartridges will be sold for $10 and 5-ink color cartridges will cost $15. I've maintained for some time that if a big player in the inkjet printer market began selling their inks for substantially less than the rip-off, liquid gold prices the market leaders charge, they could quickly gain significant market share. I'll be interested to see if this happens."
Submission + - More Fatal Windows Vista Exploits Discovered
DelawareBoy writes: Long Zheng is reporting of two new Vista security exploits which have been discovered. After describing the known exploit of the Voice Recognition Flaw, Long proceeds to describe two more flaws, one of which resides within the Oft-praised Visual Studio 2005. If three exploits have been discovered this soon after the release, how many more are out there?
Wal-Mart Offers Up Downloadable Movies 217
An anonymous reader slipped us the link to a C|Net article on another downloadable movie offering, this time from retail giant Wal-mart. Stinging from their loss to Netflix in the online DVD rental business two years ago, they are coming out swinging with this service. They've made arrangements with all six major Hollywood studios, and (the article theorizes) will likely have highly competitive prices. With Apple's dominance of this particular market, there is still no guarantee whether Wal-mart will have any success with this program. The biggest problem, commentators note, is that there is no guarantee Wal-mart's service will draw customers into their stores: the issue that ultimately caused them to scuttle the DVD rental service. What do you think of a major retailer getting into movie download business? Will the company be able to outmaneuver Apple and Netflix the same way it has done with other retailers in the past?
Cheap, Safe, Patentless Cancer Drug Discovered 576
PyroMosh writes "The New Scientist is reporting that researchers working at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada have discovered that an existing drug called dichloroacetate (DCA) is effective in killing cancer cells, while leaving the host's healthy cells unharmed. DCA has already been used for years to treat metabolic disorders, and is known to be fairly safe. Sounds like great news, is it too good to be true? Why is the mainstream news media failing to report on this potential breakthrough? The University of Alberta and the Alberta Cancer Board have set up a site with more info, where you can also donate to support future clinical trials."
French Kids Get OSS on USB Sticks 313
daria42 writes "To help make kids aware of alternatives to proprietary software the Ile-de-France, the political district of greater Paris, will give 175,000 school children and apprentices USB keys loaded with open-source software. With a word-processing program, audio and video playback capabilities, an email client and an IM client, these are essentially computers on a stick. The council touts this as 'represent[ing] for students a tool of freedom and mobility between their school, cybercafes and their home or friends' PCs'." With the prevalence of internet cafes in Europe, that might work better than in the US ... but do you think such a project would work here as well? If so, what software would you want to see loaded up?
