Comment Widget Workshop (Score 1) 64
Widget Workshop was a great mac game back in the 90s which gave you a lot of components to build things, ranging from electronic circuits to mechanical machines.
Submission + - Text spammer wants FCC to declare spam filters illegal. 2
TCPALaw writes: ccAdvertising, a company purported to have “a long, long, long history of pumping spam out of every telecommunications orifice, and even boasting of voter suppression” has asked the FCC to declare spam filters illegal. Citing Free Speech rights, the company claims that wireless carriers should be prohibited from employing spam filters that might block ccAdvertising’s political spam. Without stating it explicitly, the filing implies that network neutrality must apply to spam, so the FCC must therefore prohibit spam filters (unless political spam is whitelisted). In an earlier filing, the company suggests it is proper that recipients "bear some cost" of unsolicited political speech sent to their cell phones.
The public can file comments with the FCC on ccAdvertising’s filing here.
The public can file comments with the FCC on ccAdvertising’s filing here.
Submission + - High-Frequency Traders Use 50-Year-Old Wireless Tech (itworld.com)
jfruh writes: "In the world of high-frequency stock trading, every millisecond is money. That's why many firms are getting information and sending big orders not through modern fiber-optic networks, but using line-of-site microwave repeaters, a technology that's over 50 years old. Because electromagnetic radiation passes more quickly through air than glass, and takes a more direct route, the older technology is seeing something of a renaissance."
Submission + - Happy Birthday to Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer (wired.com)
MrBeeudoublez writes: Honored by a Google Doodle, Ada Lovelace is the first computer programmer. From the article,
"Ada’s life as a member of British society (first as the daughter of Lord Byron, and later as the wife of the Count of Lovelace), brought her into contact with Charles Babbage, whose concepts for mechanical calculating machines (early computers) she took a great interest in. Ultimately, her work on explaining Babbage’s design for the Analytical Engine resulted in her being credited as the first true computer programmer in history, even if the computer she programmed for was not actually built until 2002."
"Ada’s life as a member of British society (first as the daughter of Lord Byron, and later as the wife of the Count of Lovelace), brought her into contact with Charles Babbage, whose concepts for mechanical calculating machines (early computers) she took a great interest in. Ultimately, her work on explaining Babbage’s design for the Analytical Engine resulted in her being credited as the first true computer programmer in history, even if the computer she programmed for was not actually built until 2002."
Submission + - Funding sought to create prototype date-rape-drug-detecting drinkware (salon.com) 1
boneglorious writes: Funding is being sought by startup company DrinkSavvy to complete a prototype of drinkware (cups, straws, etc) that turn from clear to red-striped when they come into contact with drugs such as Rohypnol. The article makes the point that in order to be attractive to bars, it will need to not be too expensive. However, if this proves successful, I suspect some drinkers will be willing to bring their own cup to the bar.
Submission + - Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself (with a bad trip)
carmendrahl writes: "In Austria, people can submit their street drugs to a lab-on-a-bus to ensure they got what they paid for. The government is using the bus to track emergence of new variants of bath salts and other drugs. Now, researchers have developed a test they'd like to add to the bus's offerings: it assesses drug action instead of just reporting chemical structure."
Comment Re:Always wondered... (Score 1) 100
You mean every rich one who needs an organ transplant getting an organ transplant. That's why the playing field is so uneven: it would be a direct transfer of health to the wealthy.
Comment Re:encouragement (Score 1) 306
Oh --- just in case you're reading this, dad, I know that's not all you do! It's just the part I like describing the most!
Comment encouragement (Score 1) 306
My dad was laid of after many years as a developer/technical writer/manager at the same company when he was in his early 60s. After roughly a 6-month job search, he found a great position as an "automation engineer" (he basically wanders around looking at people's processes and then automates the boring parts for them). So hang in there, it can be done. If you just start from the assumption that you have to prove to them you've gotten wiser and smarter with age rather than getting "set in your ways", that could probably help.
Comment Re:supremacy clause (Score 3, Interesting) 878
Sure, this isn't 'the end of it, but these kinds of events are symbolic of the direction the country is moving. A few states trying it out here and there, pretty soon Iowa will be doing it and then it will be all over.
Comment Decimal time (Score 1) 475
I don't see why it matters if I get up at 6 or at 7. I know a lot of people who hate it so much they constantly talk about "real time" vs. "government time", but I see it as all "government time". They're just labels so we can manage to meet up with people. The thing I really care about is, why can't we switch to a decimal time system? That would be a lot more functional.
Comment R. Buckminster Fuller approves! (Score 1) 383
The estate's claim that the use of the name infringes on their rights (which is a patently ridiculous claim, in my view) is apparently quite consistent with R. Buckminster Fuller's views --- supposedly he would claim credit to his student's work but saw himself as simply protecting his own intellectual property by so doing.
Comment Re:Loon vs. fruitcake. (Score 1) 204
The fruitcakes want to turn right, the loons want to run left, but the "moderates" think we should go straight ahead.
I'm confused --- how did you know which party was represented by the loon and which by the fruitcake?
Comment Re:IQ tests are getting dumbed down... (Score 1) 421
It's more a comment on society in 1951, since that's when the story on which it was based was published...
Comment Re:IQ tests are getting dumbed down... (Score 1) 421
Well, seeing as how Idiocracy is fiction, I really don't see that as good evidence of anything. And even if IQ tests are really being dumbed down now --- which I doubt --- I doubt it was occurring already in 1951, when the short story on which Idiocracy was based was written.
