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Comment Why? (Score 1) 277

by qeorqe (#37017852) Attached to: Comcast Launching $9.95 Low Income Broadband Plan
If Comcast's acquisition of NBC/Universal is monopolistic, anticompetitive, or inappropriate for some other reason, why should they be able to "buy" an exemption with this agreement? If there is nothing wrong with the acquisition why should the government extort an agreement from them?

Is this profitable or beneficial to Comcast? If so why are they permitted artificially to discriminate against others?

If it is not profitable is the cost paid by the shareholders or their other customers?
Robotics

Submission + - Robot Block Party 1

Submitted by qeorqe
qeorqe writes: The Robot Block Party will feature an assortment of robots July 19-20, 2008 at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh. This is being held in conjunction with Robot 250, of which other events have been discussed elsewhere on Slashdot. A story by Anamika Singh can be found at Robotics.TMCnet.com. Another article may be found at Webwire.

Some of the featured robots include:
  • Al — from Alcoa
  • Battling Bots — student built battling robots
  • Boss — autonomous car from CMU and winner of the DARPA Urban Challenge
  • Hazmat Robots — from Nuvision Engineering
  • Quasi — from Interbots featured at ESPN's Super Bowl XLI festivities
  • Red Rover — from Astrobotic Technology being developed for the Google Lunar X Prize
  • RHex — from Bossa Nova Concepts and CMU
  • Scarab — part of a lunar rover initiative from CMU
  • Zoë — designed to look for life on other planets from CMU
Robotics

Submission + - Robot 250 2

Submitted by qeorqe
qeorqe writes: As part of Pittsburgh's 250th anniversary CMU and Pitt are hosting Robot 250, scheduled July 11-27, 2008. It is a citywide collection of art exhibits, events, and activities employing or relating to robotics. Eleven more of the larger outdoor exhibits are called Bigbots.

One Bigbot exhibit by Keny Marshall is "Crickets" or "prototype for an infinite array of semi-autonomous percussive devices". A garden at The Mattress Factory Museum is filled with small robotic creatures that make sounds, activating and deactivating themselves in accordance with the rules for John Conway's "Game of Life". The garden has 25 robots in a 5x5 wrap around logical space.

Another Bigbot exhibit by Osman Khan is "Mower", a herd of robotic sheep that roam and mow the lawn at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.

"You're #1" by Ian Ingram is another Bigbot exhibit. It is a 15 foot hand on the roof of The Andy Warhol Museum that interacts with people that high five it from various outposts around the city.
Robotics

Submission + - Does Pittsburgh Dream of Electric Sheep? 2

Submitted by qeorqe
qeorqe writes: As part of Pittsburgh's 250th anniversary CMU and Pitt are hosting Robot250 July 11-27, 2008. It is a citywide collection of art exhibits employing or relating to robotics. Some of the larger outdoor exhibits are called Bigbots.

One of the Bigbot exhibits by Osman Khan is "Mower", robotic sheep that mow the lawn at Phipps Conservatory.

Another Bigbot exhibit by Keny Marshall is "prototype for an infinite array of semi-autonomous percussive devices" or "Crickets". It is a garden full of small robotic creatures that make sounds, activating and deactivating themselves in accordance with the rules for John Conway's "Game of Life".

Another Bigbot exhibit by Ian Ingram is "You're #1". It is a 15 foot hand on the roof of The Andy Warhol Museum that interacts with people that high five it from various outposts around the city.
Christmas Cheer

Submission + - 2007 Cost of the Twelve Days of Christmas 1

Submitted by qeorqe
qeorqe writes: PNC has been calculating the cost of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" since 1984. They calculate all occurrences of all items in the song for 2007 at US$78100 (up 4% from 2006). One day's worth of each item is US$19507.

They also did a calculation for buying everything on the internet at US$128886. That is US$50786 extra. They explain, "In general, Internet prices are higher than their non-Internet counterparts because of shipping costs."

Their valuation of a beer was missing.
Robotics

Submission + - CMU wins Robot Car Challenge 2

Submitted by qeorqe
qeorqe writes: Tartan Racing Team from CMU has been declared the winner of The Urban Challenge. Autonomous (unmanned)robot cars competed in tasks in an urban setting. Professional human drivers drove on the course as moving obstacles. Vehicles were penalized for violating the California driving laws, collisions, hitting the curb, and various other restrictions.

DARPA sponsored the competition. Tartan Racing Team (CMU) won the $2 million first prize with their entry "The Boss" based on a Chevy Tahoe. Stanford Racing Team won the $1 million second prize with their entry "Junior" based on a Volkswagen Passat. VictorTango (Virginia Tech) won the $1/2 million third prize with their entry "Odin" based on a Ford Escape. Junior had line honors being the first to cross the finish line. The Boss finished shortly after Junior. Because starts were staggared and penalties were applied for errors, a corrected time was used to determine the winner.

MIT's car cut off and hit Team Cornell's car during the competition. Both cars were eventually able to resume.

Congratulations to all participants and especially Tartan Racing Team. Is there any chance of The Boss leading a victory parade through the streets of Pittsburgh?

Some other coverage may be found at WIred and itwire. Earlier slashdot coverage can also be found.
The Courts

Submission + - America's Cup, Court, Catamaran 1

Submitted by qeorqe
qeorqe writes: Does this seem like Deja Vu?
No we are not back in 1988.

The Swiss won their defense of the America's Cup in 2007 in one of the closest AC matches in history. Since Switzerland is inland, the venue was Valencia Spain. Upon winning, the Swiss accepted a challenge from the Spanish for the next America's Cup. The venue will probably again be in Spain.

The Spanish seem to have conceded most terms of the competition. The Swiss have declared major changes. They are eliminating the current boat design in favor of a new larger design. They are also giving themselves the option to compete in the challenger series.

Larry Ellison (Oracle CEO) is threatening court action according to Stuart Alexander of "The Independent".

"Ellison said that the Spanish challenge was invalid and issued his own."

"Ellison's challenge would be for a 90ft-long boat to challenge in just 10 months' time. His challenge also makes the yacht 90ft wide, indicating a catamaran again. What Ellison really wants, however, is to lever Bertarelli into negotiations."

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