rubyfreak - Slashdot User

Submission + - New MacBook Pro Benchmarked against the Old

Submitted by yonp on Thursday June 07, 2007 @02:04PM

yonp writes: Apple released the Santa Rosa MacBook Pro this week, here is a write up about the new MacBook Pro. Be sure to click on the benchmark page and see the benchmark against the last gen MacBook Pro.

"No write up on any Apple product can get by without asking the question "Why would I spend so much on an Apple when I could buy an X from Y for just $Z?" Let's look at the new MacBook PRO; in 15" screen with 2Gb RAM and 256 meg graphics, it's $2,499... I could buy THREE Dell laptops for that sort of money; seriously; check out the Inspiring 6400 or whatever it's called but, I reckon that, as you've read this far, you're with me... you don't want a Dell, not even three of them. You want a cool laptop... join me as we go over to the dark side of premium consumer products."

Submission + - NASA Chief says Global Warming "mostly politic

Submitted by on Thursday June 07, 2007 @01:52PM

An anonymous reader writes: MSNBC is reporting that the head of NASA, Michael Griffin "wishes he'd stayed out of debate on climate effects"' NASA administrator Michael Griffin said in the closed-door meeting Monday at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena that "unfortunately, this is an issue which has become far more political than technical, and it would have been well for me to have stayed out of it."'

Submission + - Serious diseases genes revealed

Submitted by

gollum123

on Thursday June 07, 2007 @01:52PM

gollum123 writes: "A major advance in understanding the genetics behind several of the world's most common diseases has been reported ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6724369.stm ). The landmark Wellcome Trust study analysed DNA from the blood of 17,000 people to find genetic differences. They found new genetic variants for depression, Crohn's disease, coronary heart disease, hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis and type 1 and 2 diabetes. The Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC) involved 50 leading research groups analysing the DNA from 2,000 patients for each of the seven conditions and 3,000 healthy volunteers. One of the most exciting finds was a previously unknown gene common to type 1 diabetes and Crohn's disease, a type of inflammatory bowel disorder, suggesting that they share similar biological pathways. There is also disease by disease data at the BBC ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6727043.stm )."

Submission + - Sedo auctions domain seller didn't own

Submitted by on Thursday June 07, 2007 @01:45PM

An anonymous reader writes: VentureBeat is reporting at http://venturebeat.com/2007/06/07/sedo-and-the-boo btubecom-problem/#more-17137 that Sedo last week completed a two week auction for the domain Boobtube.com for $41,688, only to cancel the auction after the fact when it learned the seller didn't actually own the domain. The article raises interesting questions about the trust, reliability and transparency of domain name exchanges and brokers. Are new regulations needed to protect domain buyers and sellers, such as those that protect stock traders on Nasdaq and the NYSE?

Submission + - Soviet Video Games from the 70s

Submitted by

vigmeister

on Thursday June 07, 2007 @01:27PM

vigmeister writes: "Russian kids have uncovered and rebuilt some arcade games from the Soviet era. These games apparently offered free play when someone played well, but no list of hi-scores. Roughly 32 of them have been found and although they are based on other arcade games, I hope these games were unique enough to offer playability for the present day arcade game lovers. Wonder when they'll be available for download on the Wii though...:))"

Comment Re:TTY? (Score 1) 151

by rubyfreak on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @08:49AM (#17995852) Attached to: Sign Language Via Cell Phone

Both yes and no. As others have mentioned, deaf people use SMS as much as the next guy. However, written language is extremely un-intuitive for deaf people. For someone who is deaf from birth, it's just sequences of meaningless symbols, and even the grammar is different. Which isn't that strange when you think about it - remember, their native language is sign language, not English.

Being able to communicate with your friends in your native language is something we take for granted, but to the deaf community this isn't always the case. That is why sign language via cell phones is turning into such a big thing. Here in Sweden, lots and lots of deaf people have switched to 3G phones with video ability because of that.

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