Comment Are you suggesting we should instead use (Score 1) 283
hard X-rays to get the bandwidth we need?
Comment The chicken and egg question..for non-creationists (Score 1) 139
The egg came first; the first egg from which the first chicken emerged was laid by a bird that we would not fully classify as a chicken.
The actual resulting chicken was the result of a genetic mutation relative to the mother.
Submission + - Anonymous speaks about Australian Govt attacks (delimiter.com.au) 1
daria42 writes: The loose-knit collective of individuals known as "Anonymous" has broken its silence about the distributed denial of service attacks on the Australian Government. The group today said the attacks were more effective at stopping the government's internet filtering project than signing a petition, and that the attacks could go on for "months".
Submission + - SPAM: James Cameron on how 'Avatar' technology could kee
Suki I writes: "Sure, it’s terrific for turning human actors into big blue alien Na’vis. But the photorealistic CGI technology James Cameron perfected for Avatar could easily be used for other, even more mind-blowing purposes—like, say, bringing Humphrey Bogart back to life, or making Clint Eastwood look 35 again. “How about another Dirty Harry movie where Clint looks the way he looked in 1975?” Cameron suggests. “Or a James Bond movie where Sean Connery looks the way he did in Doctor No? How cool would that be?”"
The article goes on to quite James Cameron as saying you still need actors to play the roles and "bringing back" dead actors still requires someone to play them.
Link to Original Source
The article goes on to quite James Cameron as saying you still need actors to play the roles and "bringing back" dead actors still requires someone to play them.
Link to Original Source
Submission + - Psychic Neural Nets Take Drugs and Draw (sf.net) 1
brilanon writes: The open source artificial-life sim Critterding is a physics sandbox where blocky creatures evolve neural nets in a survival contest. What we've done is to give these animals an extra retina which is shared with the whole population. It's extended through time like a movie and they can write to it for communication or pleasure. Since this introduces the possibility of the creation of art, we decided to give them a selection of narcotics, stimulants and psychedelics. This is not in Critterding.
telepathic-critterdrug is our new application and it may actually produce hallucinations in the user. If the rules for Conway's game of life emerged from the substrate's thought and evolution you might get something like this. (Screenshot)
telepathic-critterdrug is our new application and it may actually produce hallucinations in the user. If the rules for Conway's game of life emerged from the substrate's thought and evolution you might get something like this. (Screenshot)
Submission + - The Internet Generation: Old Fogies in their 20s?
Hugh Pickens writes: "The NY Times has an interesting report on the iGeneration, born in the ’90s and this decade comparing them to the Net Generation, born in the 1980s. The Net Generation spend two hours a day talking on the phone and still use e-mail frequently while the iGeneration — conceivably their younger siblings — spends considerably more time texting than talking on the phone, pays less attention to television than the older group and tends to communicate more over instant-messenger networks. “People two, three or four years apart are having completely different experiences with technology,” says Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project. “College students scratch their heads at what their high school siblings are doing, and they scratch their heads at their younger siblings. It has sped up generational differences.” Dr. Larry Rosen, a professor of psychology at California State University, says that the iGeneration, unlike their older peers, expect an instant response from everyone they communicate with, and don't have the patience for anything less. “They’ll want their teachers and professors to respond to them immediately, and they will expect instantaneous access to everyone, because after all, that is the experience they have growing up,” says Rosen. Another intra-generational gap is the iGeneration comfort in multi-tasking with studies showing that 16- to 18-year-olds perform seven tasks, on average, in their free time — like texting on the phone, sending instant messages and checking Facebook while sitting in front of the television while people in their early 20s can handle only six, and those in their 30s perform about five and a half. "That versatility is great when they’re killing time, but will a younger generation be as focused at school and work as their forebears?" writes Brad Smith. “I worry that young people won’t be able to summon the capacity to focus and concentrate when they need to,” says Vicky Rideout, a vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation."
Comment Re:We had sex robots for a long, long time (Score 5, Insightful) 602
That is because popular opinion says that women can always get laid if they want to, and when they choose not to and use a vibrator instead, they are perceived as being discerning.
Whereas a man that uses a pocket pussy is perceived as a loser because "everyone knows" that he would rather have had the real thing.
Submission + - Wrist pain, warts from mouse operation common? 1
PeopleMakeMeLOL writes: Ever since I started working as the on site desktop support tech [I know, I KNOW] for a public high school 3 years ago, I've had increasing pain in my right wrist and shoulder. I've also developed warts and a fungus on my pinky finger. When I asked my doctor about this, he informed me that it was common among his patients that operate computer mice. He said the warts may come from constantly coming in to contact with the dozens of users' dirty mouse pads, and the pain is from irritated nerves and joints [this I knew]. He gave me some joint repair pills with glucose-amine. Here's my questions: Are any of these symptoms common among you readers? What do you do or would you suggest to remedy them? I know I could get a handheld trackball or something ergonomic, but that doesn't help much when I could be working at any 6 of the 400+ computers at my school. I don't want to carry a mouse/trackball around sticky-fingered teenagers. I have tried to remember to carry around some hand cleanser. What would you suggest?
Comment I bet that.. (Score 5, Insightful) 602
..this time, most slashdotters actually RTFA.
Submission + - China Luring Scientists Home (nytimes.com) 1
blee37 writes: The NY Times reports that China is increasing incentives for Chinese students earning PhDs in the U.S. to return home. One example is a prestigious Princeton microbiologist who returned to become a dean at Tsinghua, the Chinese MIT. In my experience as a grad student, Chinese students were often torn about returning home. The best science and the most intellectually stimulating jobs are in the U.S. Yet, surely they miss their families and their hometown. As alluded in the article, Chinese science remains far behind, especially because of rampant cronyism in academia as well as government. But, if more Chinese students go back, it could damage the U.S.'s technology lead. A large percentage of PhDs students in the U.S. are from China. Also, the typical PhD student has their tuition paid for and receives a salary. Does it make sense to invest in their training if they will do their major work elsewhere?
Submission + - Google Filtering Anti-Islam Search Suggestions (foxnews.com) 1
onefriedrice writes: Google's search engine returns common results to most queries as you type. But the "don't be evil" company appears to be censoring its results when it comes to Islam. Type "Christianity is" into Google and you'll get a list of common searches. But the engine appears to suppress results for "Islam is."
Submission + - Google Makes Ads The Only Viable Business Model? (theregister.co.uk)
hkmwbz writes: Is Google shafting the whole mobile industry with its Nexus One and other moves by the search/advertising giant? The Register certainly thinks so. The article argues that Google is working to undermine everyone else's business model to end up with the only viable business model on the internet: "With the value of copyright also reduced to zero, (the other arm of Google’s mighty lobbying effort is to kneecap creators and rightsholders,) then the only internet company that could possibly make money would be Google — since it would be the only internet company." They are certainly looking for ways to shaft networks, and making their own "Super Google Phone" seems to be a slap in the face for mobile vendors. Is Google really trying to kill the business models of everyone else to strengthen their own?
Submission + - Google Faces Deluge of Nexus One Complaints (pcworld.com)
wkurzius writes: It seems Google is going through some growing pains as far as customer service is concerned. Since their new phone, the Nexus One, can be bought unlocked, many people are turning to Google themselves for help, but not getting what they're used to from traditional mobile carriers. T-Mobile and HTC are also getting hammered, with many customers being bounced back and forth between the two companies service lines.
Submission + - SPAM: NASA to cryogenically freeze satellite mirrors
coondoggie writes: NASA said it will this week move some of the larger – 46 lb — mirror segments of its future James Webb Space Telescope into a cryogenic test facility that will freeze the mirrors to -414 degrees Fahrenheit. Specifically NASA will freeze six of the 18 Webb telescope mirror segments at the X-ray and Cryogenic Facility, or XRCF, at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., in a test to ensure the critical mirrors can withstand the extreme space environments. All 18 segments will eventually be tested at the site. The test chamber takes approximately five days to cool a mirror segment to cryogenic temperatures.
[spam URL stripped]
Link to Original Source
[spam URL stripped]
Link to Original Source
Submission + - MS Click-to-Run: The Future of Software Delivery? (infoworld.com)
snydeq writes: Fatal Exception's Neil McAllisters sees a hidden benefit in Microsoft's new Click-to-Run streaming installation technology, one that could create new revenue opportunities for smaller software vendors just as they appear to fast be drying up. Based on Microsoft's App-V, the technology allows Office 2010 beta testers to stream the productivity suite to their systems in stages, rather than download it all at once. 'Users don't have to wait for the entire suite to download to begin using the applications. Instead, modules are downloaded and installed as users need them,' McAllister writes. Moreover, the applications exist in isolated operating environments, allowing them to coexist with earlier versions on the same PC. But the real upside for smaller software vendors may be the way a technology like Click-to-Run breaks down applications into component modules, allowing them not only to deliver the functionality users are willing to pay for, but in a way easy enough for home computer users to accomplish — important in an era when software retail outlets are fast dying out to the big-box chains.
