Comment Re:One essential skill that never changes (Score 1) 258
What does the other half of your job consist of?
Comment Because the subject line... (Score 0) 84
isn't long enough for what they're typing?
Software To Diagnose Faulty PC Hardware? 274
Etylowy writes "Over the years I have repaired my own PC and those belonging to family and friends many, many times. While in most cases it turned out to be restoring a system after malware/the user/Windows made a mess, or simple cases of 'follow the smell of smoke and molten plastic,' there were some nasty ones where the computer mostly works. By 'mostly,' I mean: you can boot it up, it might even work for a while, but will crash way too often to blame it all on Microsoft — what do you do then? Once you strip it of any extra hardware (which, with today's motherboards that have pretty much everything integrated, might not be an option) you are left with the CPU, motherboard, graphics card, RAM and HDD. You can test the HDD, you can run memtest86+ to check the RAM, but how do you go about testing the CPU, motherboard and graphics card trio to find which is to blame? Replacing them one by one isn't really an option. Do you know of any software that would help the way memtest helps with RAM?"
Airborne Boeing Laser Blasts Ground Target 419
coondoggie writes "The airborne military laser which promises to destroy, damage or disable targets with little to no collateral damage has for the first time actually blown something up. Boeing and the US Air Force today said that on Aug. 30, a C-130H aircraft armed with Boeing's Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) blasted a target test vehicle on the ground for the first time. Boeing has been developing the ATL since 2008 under an Air Force contract worth up to $30 million."
Augmented Reality In a Contact Lens 196
Toe, The writes "Bionanotechnology researcher Babak A Parviz writes about his research toward producing a computer interface in a contact lens. At the moment, they have only embedded a single LED, but they foresee a much more complex interface such as detailed in Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End. Such lenses potentially could also read human bio-information from the eye, providing medical information on the order of what is now taken from blood tests, but on a continuous basis. An example would be monitoring glucose levels for diabetics. The author states that, 'All the basic technologies needed to build functional contact lenses are in place,' and details what refinements and advances will be necessary to bring this technology to reality."
Comment Re:Schedules are important. (Score 1) 443
That makes some sense. My recollection of the interviews had the recyclers shredding the crushed cars, but since they're the ones who strip the cars for the intact valuables before they're shredded, it would seem that working on a crushed car would make that job more difficult.
Comment Re:Schedules are important. (Score 1) 443
The government screws-up everything it touches. Look at the Cash-for-Clunkers program - many dealers voluntarily decided "we're done" because they're not getting paid their ~$4000 per car allowance. And also the clunker-cars were *destroyed*. Why? Why weren't they recycled for their parts? Stupid, stupid, stupid. And not environmentally-friendly.
The clunker cars were recycled for parts. There were interviews on CNN, NPR, and surely plenty of other news organizations with the heads of automotive recyclers who suddenly became celebrities-for-a-minute when people started wondering about the crushed cars.
They can't be re-sold, but that was part of the point. The will be re-used.
Comment Re:Class scheduling is hard work, yo! (Score 1) 443
Any decent class scheduling program should give you unexpected results; it's part of teaching you to deal with the real world, and not necessarily Prolog's (or your Prolog's) fault :)
How an Online-Only TV Series Stays Successful 163
ChronoDragon writes "The Wall Street Journal points out that it is possible to make a successful web series without the backing of a studio. With the release of a music video, Do you Wanna Date My Avatar, and the start of Season of 3, the web series The Guild is ready for even more success. The Guild, created by Felicia Day (Doctor Horrible), is a low-budget comedy series about a group of MMORPG gamers and their interactions both online and off. While there are a lot of references that will be instantly recognized by gamers, the show is still very accessible to non-gamers."
Comment Re:I wonder.... (Score 5, Funny) 198
So, about 7 years after the general public gets their hands on it?
Comment Re:Problem with the galactic positioning system (Score 1) 146
So you're saying the universe is fundamentally 2-dimensional?
Comment Re:But does it work? (Score 1) 707
What's wrong with using a normal average? If for some reason you're memory-constrained, you still only have to store 2 values, disregarding history:
y(0) = 0
y(n) = (y(n-1) * ((n - 1) / n)) + x(n) / n
Adobe Confirms PDF Zero-Day, Says Kill JavaScript 211
CWmike writes "Adobe Systems has acknowledged that all versions of its Adobe Reader, including editions for Windows, the Mac and Linux, contain at least one, and possibly two, critical vulnerabilities. 'All currently supported shipping versions of Adobe Reader and Acrobat, [Versions] 9.1, 8.1.4 and 7.1.1 and earlier, are vulnerable to this issue,' said Adobe's David Lenoe said in a blog entry yesterday. He was referring to a bug in Adobe's implementation of JavaScript that went public early Tuesday. A "Bugtraq ID," or BID number has been assigned to a second JavaScript vulnerability in Adobe's Reader. Proof-of-concept attack code for both bugs has already been published on the Web. Adobe said it will patch Reader and Acrobat, but Lenoe offered no timetable for the fixes. In lieu of a patch, Lenoe recommended that users disable JavaScript in the apps. Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security, said of the suggestion in lieu of patches, 'Unfortunately, for Adobe, disabling JavaScript is a broken record, [and] similar to what we've seen in the past with Microsoft on ActiveX bugs.'"
"Tweenbots" Test NYC Pedestrian-Robot Relations 197
MBCook recommends Kacie Kinzer's tweenbots page, which documents some of her experiments with small, anthropomorphized robots that need help. Kinzer is writing a thesis (at the Center for the Recently Possible) centered around investigating whether people in New York City will help a cute little robot to get where it's going. "Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal."
Designer Accused of Copying His Own Work By Stock Art Website 380
the_harlequin writes "A successful designer, who has a showcase of his own work available online, has had a stock image site accuse him of copyright infringement over his own illustrations, citing damages of $18,000. The story doesn't end there; the stock photo site hired lawyers, who have contacted the original designer's clients. The lawyers told them the designer is being investigated for copyright infringement and their logos might be copied, thus damaging his reputation. 'My theory is that someone copied my artwork, separated them from any typography and then posted them for sale on the stock site. Someone working for the site either saw my [LogoPond] showcase or was alerted to the similarities. They then prepared the bill and sent it to me. The good thing is that the bill gives me a record of every single image they took from me. That helps me gather dates, sketches, emails, etc. to help me prove my case. The bad thing is that despite my explanations and proof, they will not let this go.'"
