Comment Re:Now that they have hands... (Score 1) 110
It's funny you took note of that.
Comment Now that they have hands... (Score 1) 110
...they can play scales.
Comment Quite a jump (Score 0) 110
Quite a jump to make a string of organic material attached to a fish and claim that it somehow is the way fish developed legs. If I pump a fish full of air and it farts, is that the explanation I can use for my flatulence; "It's evolution!"
Real-Life Frogger Ends In Hospital Visit
314
BigSes writes "A 23-year old man has been hospitalized after police in South Carolina say he was hit by an SUV while playing a real-life version of the video game Frogger. Authorities said the 23-year-old man was taken to a hospital in Anderson after he was struck Monday evening. Before he was hit, police say the man had been discussing the game with his friends. Chief Jimmy Dixon says the man yelled 'go' and darted into oncoming traffic in the four-lane highway. Has it come time to ban some of the classics before someone else goes out and breaks a few bricks with their heads after eating a large mushroom?"
Comment Fluent (Score 1) 674
"Fluent in Java as well as Klingon", Weird Al from "White and Nerdy"
Comment Oil Spills (Score 3, Interesting) 97
Does it work on oil spills or only terrorist induced disasters?
Lord Lucas Says Record Companies "Blackmail" Users 236
Kijori writes "Lord Lucas, a member of the UK House of Lords, has accused record companies of blackmailing internet users by accusing people of copyright infringement who have no way to defend themselves. 'You can get away with asking for £500 or £1,000 and be paid on most occasions without any effort having to be made to really establish guilt. It is straightforward legal blackmail.' The issue is that there is no way for people to prove their innocence, since the record company's data is held to be conclusive proof, and home networking equipment does not log who is downloading what. Hopefully, at the very least, the fact that parliament has realised this fact will mean that copyright laws will get a little more sane."
NASA To Cryogenically Freeze Satellite Mirrors 47
coondoggie writes "NASA said it will soon move some of the larger (46 lb) mirror segments of its future James Webb Space Telescope into a cryogenic test facility that will freeze the mirrors to -414 degrees Fahrenheit (~25 K). Specifically, NASA will freeze six of the 18 Webb telescope mirror segments at the X-ray and Cryogenic Facility, or XRCF, at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, in a test to ensure the critical mirrors can withstand the extreme space environments. All 18 segments will eventually be tested at the site. The test chamber takes approximately five days to cool a mirror segment to cryogenic temperatures."
Comment Finally... (Score 2, Funny) 412
Year of the Linux Desktop! Seriously, Windows 7 seems to have answered many of the complaints of Vista. "I'm a PC and designed Windows 7 (by complaining loudly)."
Comment Re:See ya! (Score 2, Funny) 458
Guys like this always pop up again somewhere
I'm thinking "Celebrity Apprentice" or some other pseudo-celebrity reality show.
Comment Are you pondering what I'm pondering? (Score 1) 185
Gee, Brain, what do you want to do tonight?
The same thing we do every night, Pinky—try to take over the world!
The same thing we do every night, Pinky—try to take over the world!
Comment President Obama (Score 3, Insightful) 507
And people were up in arms about President Obama speaking in the schools? I'd much rather have an inspirational speech by our president than propaganda by a private organization.
FairPort Accused of Faking Network Readiness Test 144
wytcld writes "When Verizon spun off its Northern New England lines to FairPoint, FairPoint leased Verizon's computer network to manage them. This was costly, so FairPoint readied its own network. To prove its own network was ready for the switchover a demonstration was prepared for an outside auditor, Liberty. Now a whistleblower claims: '...when Liberty was watching what they thought was "flow thru" within a system and from one system to another, they were really only seeing a small program that was created to assimilate what they wanted the systems to do. They were not actually in the systems at the time nor were they in the test systems. They were in a newly created small program that used screen shots from the real system to deceive the audience into believing that they were watching a real demonstration.' How easy is it to find auditors who can be fooled by such a simple trick? Whether or not the test was faked, the network has proved so unready that FairPoint is close to bankruptcy, and may have its licenses to operate revoked in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont."
Comment I think I've seen this (Score 1) 35
It's called "Johnny Cab".
Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man 652
Strudelkugel writes "The NY Times has an article about a conference during which the potential dangers of machine intelligence were discussed. 'Impressed and alarmed by advances in artificial intelligence, a group of computer scientists is debating whether there should be limits on research that might lead to loss of human control over computer-based systems that carry a growing share of society's workload, from waging war to chatting with customers on the phone. Their concern is that further advances could create profound social disruptions and even have dangerous consequences.' The money quote: 'Something new has taken place in the past five to eight years,' Dr. Horvitz said. 'Technologists are replacing religion, and their ideas are resonating in some ways with the same idea of the Rapture.'"
