313373_bot - Slashdot User

Comment n*mediocre greater than genius ... (Score 1) 364

by 313373_bot on Sunday December 14, 2008 @10:43AM (#26110651) Attached to: The End of Individual Genius?

... for sufficiently large values of n.

A single genial paper may have more value than several (even infinitely many) mediocre ones. However, the majority will define the rules - funding, "peer" review, etc - so individual genius is eventually suppressed anyway.

Submission + - Stanford to hit P2P users with reconnection fees

Submitted by 313373_bot on Thursday May 17, 2007 @05:33AM

313373_bot writes: This is not an unexpected development: rather than higher learning institutions, Universities behave more and more like businesses, and if it is more lucrative to take RIAA and MPAA's side, they will.

Citing the costs involved with keeping up with the number of file-sharing complaints received by the school, Stanford will continue to disconnect students from the campus network upon the receipt of "DMCA complaints" and other notices such as the infamous prelitigation settlement letters from the RIAA but will now charge students a hefty fee to be reconnected.
Here.

Submission + - Gates: 40 million Vista copies sold

Submitted by 313373_bot on Tuesday May 15, 2007 @03:00PM

313373_bot writes: Is anyone buying this?

Submission + - Black Hole Cluster Emits Massive Cloud

Submitted by

Shifty Jim

on Sunday April 22, 2007 @05:43AM

Shifty Jim writes: "According to a recent article at Space.com a black hole cluster may be the source of a massive cloud millions of light years in size. From the article:
'A giant cloud of superheated gas 6 million light years wide might be formed by the collective sigh of several supermassive black holes, scientists say. The plasma cloud, detailed in April 10 issue of Astrophysical Journal, might be the source of mysterious cosmic rays that permeate our universe.
...
The plasma cloud is located about 300 million light years away near the Coma Cluster and is spread across a vast region of space thought to contain several galaxies with supermassive black holes, or active galactic nuclei (AGN), embedded at their centers.'"

Submission + - EA: No patches, no support for a 5-month-old game

Submitted by Xyston on Saturday April 21, 2007 @08:39PM

Xyston writes: It's been five months since the release of EA's Rise of the Witch-King, and fans who were hoping for a patch were let down again this month when the promised patch never materialized. The game, which has been plagued by bugs, cheats and imbalances since its late November release, has become the source of frustration for gamers at several fan communities. While EA programmers admit they've neglected the game in favor of Command & Conquer 3, their last official statement was that a patch "should" have been available weeks ago. Gamers are still waiting.

Submission + - Microsoft Admits Vista Failure

Submitted by

mnath77

on Saturday April 21, 2007 @05:27PM

mnath77 writes: ""With two overlapping events, Microsoft admitted what we have been saying all along, Vista, aka Windows MeII, is a joke that no one wants. It did two unprecedented things this week that frankly stunned us... "What happened is the OEMs revolted in the background and forced Microsoft's hand. This is a big neon sign above MeII saying 'FAILURE'. Blink blink blink. OK, MeII won't fail, they have OEMs whipped and threatened into a corner, it will sell, but you can almost hear the defectors marching toward Linux. This is a watershed..." http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39 087"

Only 244 Genuine Windows Vista's Sold in China 457

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday April 18, 2007 @11:21AM from the not-good-odds dept.

morpheus83 writes "Whilst Microsoft was bragging about the sales number of their latest OS Windows Vista, few would actually know that they have only managed to sell 244 copies in the whole of China in the first 2 weeks. You heard that right, and that's the number quoted from the headquarters of the Windows Vista chief (90% national volume) distributor in Beijing."

Linux Based Nokia N800 Internet Tablet Reviewed 127

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday April 18, 2007 @10:20AM from the i'll-tell-you-where-you-can-put-it dept.

HHL3T writes "CoolTechZone.com has published a review of the Linux-based Nokia N800 Internet Tablet that was announced at CES 2007 back in January. The review concludes, "As it currently stands, the N800 is an absolutely amazing product for web browsing. However, it's targeted at a very exclusive market: pure technology admirers who must have the latest and greatest, regardless of its real world functionality. We wouldn't recommend you place all of your critical information on the N800, due to its limited online connectivity options and lack of a portable form factor, especially if you are a professional. But if you must have the N800, we would recommend only using it as a digital newspaper to stay abreast on the latest news, and get work done online. It's just too much of an independent platform to be able to replace anything else, such as a notebook, a smartphone or a cell phone."

Intel's Penryn Benchmarked 124

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday April 18, 2007 @09:46AM from the slightly-faster-than-my-286 dept.

Steve Kerrison writes "Intel's keen to show off its up-coming 45nm Penryn Core 2 CPU. HEXUS had some hands on time with the new processor to get an idea of how well it will perform once its released: 'Intel's new 45nm Penryn core adds more than just a clock and FSB hike, so much so that even a dual-core Penryn is able to beat out a quad-core QX6800 under certain circumstances.'"

Turbo Tax Melts Down on Tax Day 554

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday April 18, 2007 @09:10AM from the procrastinators-in-a-pinch dept.

Raven17 writes "Turbo Tax by Intuit completely melted down under the load from last minute filers. Some people have been having problems as long as 24 hours already. I surrendered 2 hours before the East Coast deadline and schlepped on down to the Post Office."

MS Silverlight a Step Back For Linux Users 366

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday April 18, 2007 @07:55AM from the no-media-for-penguins dept.

mattb0611 writes "Just as it seemed that Linux users (especially 64-bit users) would finally be able to enjoy streaming content with a minimum of hassle, Microsoft's new Silverlight software promises to throw a monkey wrench in the works — as they have yet to suggest any sort of Linux platform support."

Sony Fixes Problems With New DVDs 210

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday April 18, 2007 @04:43AM from the DRM-again dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Following up on reports that DVDs for some Sony titles were causing problems, Video Business is reporting that Sony has fixed the copy-protection problem on recent DVD releases, and will provide replacement discs to customers. The problem was with the ARccOS DRM system. The company issued the following statement: 'Recently, an update that was installed on approximately 20 titles was found to cause an incompatibility issue with a very small number of DVD players (Sony has received complaints on less than one thousandth of one percent of affected discs shipped)... Since then, the ARccOS system has once again been updated, and there are no longer any playability problems.' Customers can call 800-860-2878 to inquire about replacement discs."

Ontario Proposes School Cyber-Bullying Law 267

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday April 18, 2007 @01:38AM from the first-in-a-trend dept.

nursegirl writes "Ontario announced today a proposal to change their education act to add both physical bullying and cyber-bullying to the list of behaviors that can get a student suspended or expelled. Posting comments, pictures, or videos attacking other students or teachers outside of school hours will carry the risk of school punishment, if the incident is believed to have an 'impact on school climate.'"

Six-Dimensional Space-Time Theory 330

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday April 18, 2007 @12:15AM from the let's-do-the-twistor dept.

eldavojohn writes "PhysOrg is covering an interesting year-old paper that proposes an alternative six-dimensional theory of space and time. George Sparling's proposition, based on Einstein's general relativity and Elie Cartan's triality, is a twistor space (which I've only read of in Roger Penrose's latest work). The gist is that space-time is modeled not by four dimensions but by six, and that the extra two dimensions are time-like. Sparling is hoping that tests from the Large Hadron Collider will help prove his theory. The paper is heavy but the PhysOrg article summarizes it nicely."

Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring Released 191

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday April 17, 2007 @10:47PM from the fresh-bits dept.

AdamWill writes "Mandriva is proud to announce the release of Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring. Download the hybrid live / install One or the purely free / open source software Free. Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring includes the latest software (KDE 3.5.6, GNOME 2.18, Firefox and Thunderbird 2.0) and several major new features: Metisse, the most innovative accelerated 3D desktop technology; open source telephony with WengoPhone; Google desktop applications including Picasa and Earth; updates and improvements to many of the Mandriva configuration tools, and the brand new drakvirt for configuring virtualization; significantly improved hardware support, including greatly improved graphics card detection and support for several common laptop memory card readers; and a brand new desktop theme. Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring is available in the full range of editions, including the freely downloadable One and Free, as well as the commercial Discovery, Powerpack and Powerpack+. For more information see the Spring product page and the Wiki page, where you can find download and installation instructions, the Release Tour, the Release Notes and the Errata."

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