50987905
submission
R3d M3rcury writes:
NASA and Boeing, along with other nations, are studying the feasibility of keeping the International Space Station in orbit until 2020 and possibly until 2028--the 30 year anniversary of the launch of the first module.
50179111
submission
R3d M3rcury writes:
A recent decision from the New Jersey Appelate Court [PDF] states that you can be sued if you send a text message to someone who, in the course of reading or responding to the message, is involved in an accident. In this particular case, the judges decided that the person who was texting, Shannon Colonna, was not liable because she didn't know that the defendant was driving. So the litmus test appears to be that if the sender knows the recipient is driving and knows the recipient will likely read the text immediately, they could be in trouble. (page 25) Not sure how you'd go about proving this...
49399217
submission
R3d M3rcury writes:
Revelers at the Oppikoppi Music Festival in South Africa are getting free beer dropped in by parachute. After placing their order via a smartphone app, a drone zooms in at an altitude of 50 feet and drops their beer.
Personally, if the drones that are spying on me brought me free beer, I'd be more than happy to have them around.
41503505
submission
R3d M3rcury writes:
As Santa delivers toys to good little boys and girls, the North American Air Defense Network tracks him with a combination of "radar, satellites, Santa Cams and fighter jets."
Meanwhile, Google is working Santa's Developer Elves to get a preview of Santa Tracker.
Of course, neither of them agree as to where he is.
So, who do you believe?
30492023
submission
R3d M3rcury writes:
Aereo is a subscription service, just started in New York, which allows it's customers to stream live broadcast TV and record broadcast TV shows via the Internet. Needless to say, the legal drama may be more interesting than anything on TV.
19323410
submission
R3d M3rcury writes:
Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communication has asked ISPs to block access to on-line games between 10:00PM and 8:00AM. 'The request, made on Wednesday, is another move from the authority to mitigate the side effects of online games. The request follows numerous stiff measures by the ministry to tackle the issue, including cutting internet access to agents at night beginning last September.'
8711544
submission
R3d M3rcury writes:
The New York Times has an article about walking and using a cellphone. But the interesting part was an experiment run by the University of Western Washington this past fall.
There was a student who knew how to ride a unicycle and a professor who had a clown suit. They dressed a student up as a clown and had him ride his unicycle around a popular campus square. Then they asked people, "Did you see the Unicycling Clown?" 71% of the people walking in pairs said that they had. 51% of the people walking alone said that they had. But only 25% of the people talking on a cellphone said that they saw the unicycling clown.
On the other hand, when asked "Did you see anything unusual?" only about one person in three mentioned a unicycling clown. So maybe unicycling clowns aren't enough of a distraction at the University of Western Washington...
6613661
submission
R3d M3rcury writes:
New Zealand's Dominion Post reports on a new book just released, Time to Eat the Dog: The real guide to sustainable living. In this book, they compare the environmental footprint of our housepets to other things that we own. Like that German Shepherd? It consumes more resources than two Toyota SUVs. Cats are a little less than a Volkswagen Golf. 2 Hamsters are about the same as a plasma TV.
Their suggestions? Chickens, Rabbits, and Pigs. But only if you eat them.
4708671
submission
R3d M3rcury writes:
The Lunar X-Prize is a contest offering $20 million to the first private organization to land and maneuver a robotic rover on the moon. There is also a $1 million bonus to anyone who can get a picture of a man-made object on the moon. But one archeologist believes that "The sites of early lunar landings are of unparalleled significance in the history of humanity, and extraordinary caution should be taken to protect them." He's concerned that we may end up with rover tracks destroying historic artifacts, such as Neil Armstrong's first bootprint, or that a mistake could send a rocket slamming into a landing site. He calls on the organizers to ban any contestant from landing within 100KM of a prior moon landing site.
Now he seems to think this just means Apollo. What about the Luna and Surveyor landers? What about the Lunokhod rovers? Are they fair game?
178227
submission
R3d M3rcury writes:
Legions of the undead dropped by the Apple Store in San Francisco yesterday. Probably getting bloodstains on the beautiful crystal staircase, they stormed a presentation. One tried an iMac snack, but seemed to have some problems getting her teeth into it. More views on the gruesome spectacle here and here.
101100
submission
R3d M3rcury writes:
I was going through the links in the 'Funnies' section and I found that a bunch seem to have been discontinued.
Mikey — Appears to have been taken over by a squatter.
Dr. Fun — Has been discontinued.
After Y2K — Updating sporadically at best. Looks like the last one was in 2004.
Helen — Ended at the end of last year.
Also, the Fifth Wave has moved to http://www.gocomics.com/thefifthwave/
Anyway, it might be time to clear out those five. Perhaps replace them with AppleGeeks, Ctrl+Alt+Del, Joy of Tech, Sheldon, and Evil, Inc.. Of course, that's just my list. What other comics do people think would be entertaining for Slashdot readers?
49644
submission
R3d M3rcury writes:
The Wii's controller is an innovative device. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the strap that you're supposed to attach to your wrist to keep the controller from accidentally flying across the room. Televisions, walls, and windows are in danger from the flying Wii controller. The website "www.wiihaveaproblem.com" has the stories.
31377
submission
R3d M3rcury writes:
For those who wanted instructions on how to hack the vote: if you're using a Sequoia Voting system just hit the yellow button on the back twice. When it asks if you want to enter manual mode, say "Yes." Then vote again.
Remember that, here in the US, elections are coming up this Tuesday. So vote early and vote often.
3938
submission
R3d M3rcury writes:
NIST has issued a FAQ for the conspiracy-minded about the collapse of the World Trade Centers. Not to be outdone, the conspiracy-minded have replied in kind.
1003
submission
R3d M3rcury writes:
According to GateWorld, Stargate SG-1 has been cancelled. MGM is looking for "a new outlet" for the show. Maybe iTunes?
