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Submission + - 3D Windowing System Developed Using Wayland, Oculus Rift (phoronix.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Developed as part of a university master thesis is a "truly 3D" windowing system environment. The 3D desktop was developed as a Qt Wayland compositor and output to an Oculus Rift display and then controlled using a high-precision Razer mouse. Overall, it's interesting research for bringing 2D windows into a 3D workspace using Wayland and the Oculus Rift. The code is hosted as the Motorcar Compositor. A video demonstration is on YouTube.
China

Submission + - How the web makes a real-life Breaking Bad possible—and legal (medium.com)

gallifreyan99 writes: The real revolution in drugs isn't Silk Road—it's the open web. Thanks to the net, almost anyone with a basic handle on chemistry can design, manufacture and sell their own narcotics, and in most cases the cops are utterly unable to stop them. This piece is kind of crazy: the writer actually creates a new powerful-but-legal stimulant based on a banned substance, and gets a Chinese lab to manufacture it.

Comment Re:Sharing the road (Score 1) 201

You are a braver rider than I. The first day I had my SWB recumbent I pulled up to a red light next to a pickup. There was no way the driver could have seen me below his right bumper, and a trike is lower. If the driver had decided to turn right, I would have been crushed. I got a flag the next day. But now I've given up on the recumbent for commuting in my small town -- I just don't feel as safe as I do on the more nimble and visible upright. Perhaps a trike, being statically stable, would provide more confidence. And perhaps the body of a velomobile would stand out more. But you are still very low down.

Comment Sharing the road (Score 2) 201

Obviously no one here has ever ridden a recumbent bicycle in traffic. If you had, you'd see how rediculous it is to even think of taking one of these on pavement shared with cars. YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY INVISIBLE TO CARS in a vehicle this low. And because of the enclosure you have no peripheral vision so you cannot look out for other vehicles -- even other velomobiles. I didn't see one "safety flag" in any of the pictures, which tells me that none of these vehicles are used by anyone who cares for their life, or they are just toys for a weekend cruise. As other posters have said, these are only practical with a different road system, and I argue a different bike path system. How would you handle passing a group of 15mph standard bicyclists in your vision impared wide wheelbase trike wheeled monster? You wouldn't, it wouldn't be safe on bike paths of today for you or the other riders.

Comment CE curriculums and Embedded Systems Conferences (Score 2) 88

A Computer Engineering curriculum is much better than a traditional CS degree for this type of work, so you might look at what texts are being used in high quality CE programs. The Embedded Systems Conferences from UBM are also a good source of training for low level firmware implementation.
China

Submission + - Recycled Christmas Lights in China Get Happy Endi (theatlantic.com)

retroworks writes: "Shanghai based reporter Adam Minter visits where recycled Christmas Tree lighting goes in Chiina. Visiting Shijao, the town known as the Mecca for Christmas tree light recycling, he finds good news. The recycling practices in China have really cleaned up. Plastic casings once burned are now recycled into shoe soles in a wet process (film attached). Minter concludes that even if you try to recycle your wire in the USA, that the special equipment and processes for Christmas light recycling have been perfected in China "to the benefit of the environment, and pocketbooks, in both countries.""
NASA

Submission + - Mysterious Namibian "Space Ball" Demystified (dailymail.co.uk)

An anonymous reader writes: The mysterious metallic orb that fell from space this November may, according to one source, be a hydrazine bladder from an unmanned rocket. Investigators reached out to the public to see if anyone was able to identify the strange ball. Speculators have arrived at varied conclusions about the object, proposing that it was everything from a doomsday device, to reindeer droppings, to extra terrestrial space probes. Sadly Occams Razor may prove to win out once again; the simplest conclusion is most often the correct one.

Comment Re:Cool hack (Score 1) 250

Which developer do you think is going to be more productive? The dude having to know 3-4 different technologies, or the dude who just needs to know JS?

The developer that uses the right tool for the job will be more productive.

That means using a language with static type checking and a productive debug environment. Learning a new system infrastructure takes time, but only finding out about easily preventable failures during testing instead of compile time costs more.

Comment Re:Small company (Score 1) 200

I have to agree here. You say you are a small company, in my experience requirements for even modest size projects are generally easy to manage with human language documents, just label everything for traceability. If a word processor is too awkward switch to a spreadsheet, or use them in combo. But I do highly recommend using a defect tracking database. I like Jira.
Businesses

Japanese Game Developers Go West 84

donniebaseball23 writes "More and more Japanese game studios and publishers are looking toward the West. But as the industry becomes more global, is this really such a bad thing? From the article: 'Gameplay is an art that transcends borders, and it simply makes good business sense to keep your eyes open for opportunities no matter where they present themselves, as Zenimax, EA and THQ clearly have. Far from ruining the Japanese gaming industry, it may in fact save some of the best Japanese developers from considering retirement or a career change. They'll be able to make games on their own terms with their own original IP, and shouldn't it ultimately be about these creative types being able to realize their visions?""

Comment pdftotxt (Score 1) 359

My bank is similar when it comes to CSV/QIF/OFX files, only 90 days of history. But they have years of online statements in pdf format. Recently I got behind on my imports, and found that pdftotext and a little perl was all I needed to create .qifs from the pdf statements. .csv should be easier.

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