Comment Re:Well now they are sure to get noticed... (Score 4, Funny) 74
Good thing Slashdotters don't read articles. Otherwise we would be an accessory to linking an article about linking articles.
Wikipedia Almost Reaches $6 Million Target 412
An anonymous reader noted a story discussing the aftermath of the Wikipedia fundraiser and says "The writer suggests that Wikipedia can earn $50-100 million a month by a simple text ad. He also suggests that contributors should be financially rewarded and that the lack of financial reward is the reason why 98.3% of registered Wikipedia users are inactive.
What do you think? Should Wikimedia Foundation put ads on Wikipedia? Should contributors be financially rewarded? What compensation structure would be best?" Personally I think the independence of Wikipedia is great, and any advertising would not only compromise that integrity, but give contributors a sense of entitlement that the site is better off without.
Comment Re:How small can computers get? (Score 2, Insightful) 143
That's only if a human needs to interface with it directly. If the tiny computer had networking capabilities, you could access it through that. How about a pre-programmed computer that collect data from their surroundings? They could be injected into a person's blood stream for health monitoring, spread around the worlds oceans, and even dispersed in the atmosphere. And that's just one direction that you could go with this. Don't limit your thinking to the computer that you're sitting in front of.
Comment Re:The REALLY impressive thing... (Score 1) 95
Right. Not even that *WHOOSH* could cool something to -20 K.
Mozilla Unveils Aurora Concept Browser 213
Barence writes "Mozilla has unveiled a spectacular new concept browser, dubbed Aurora. The bleeding-edge browser is part of a new Mozilla Labs initiative, in which the open-source foundation is encouraging people to contribute ideas and designs for the browser of the future. The Aurora browser demonstration shows a highly advanced way of collaborating data gathered on the web, and represents a spectacular introduction to the new Mozilla Labs, which much like Google Labs looks to become a home for offbeat projects which would otherwise probably never see the light of day. More details, and a video demonstration, are on the Mozilla Labs site."
R.I.P Usenet: 1980-2008 625
CorinneI writes "In a way inconceivable in today's marketplace, Usenet was where people once went to talk — in days before the profit-centric Internet we have today. The series of bulletin boards called 'newsgroups' shared by thousands of computers, which traded new messages several times a day, is now a thing of the past."
China's Cyberwar Against India 227
An anonymous reader writes "China's cyber warfare army is marching on, and India is suffering silently. Over the past one and a half years, officials said, China has mounted almost daily attacks on Indian computer networks, both government and private, showing its intent and capability."
The Future of Ubiquitous Computers 145
An anonymous reader writes "Is there any end to this ubiquitous computing thing?
Plants that send thank you notes, player pianos that follow the dancer's movements, and umbrellas that warn you of upcoming rain are just a few of the
uses of embedded computers described in this article from
the NY Times. Laptops seem so dull when it's easy to embed chips, install a Linux
distro and sew them into your clothes.
Do we really need to wear our computers? Why can't the world be happy with a good old desktop? It was good enough for the PC generation."
Pirate Yourself, Become a Best-Seller 288
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "It sounds like a dotcom-era business plan: 1) give it away, 2) ???, 3) make pots of money. Author Paulo 'Pirate' Coelho leapt out of obscurity and onto the best-seller list by giving away his books on the Net. The best-selling author of 'The Alchemist' will even help you pirate his books via his blog. His publishers were not pleased, but then his books went from selling 1,000 copies to 100,000 and then over a million. He gives special credit to pirate translators who are making his work accessible to a wider audience and convincing more people to read his book."
Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code 184
kabz writes "Refactoring (as I'll refer to the book from here on in) is a heavy and beautifully produced 418 page hardback book. The author is a UK-based independent consultant who has worked on many large systems and has written several other books including UML-Distilled. Refactoring is a self-help book in the tradition of Code Complete by Steve McConnell. It defines its audience clearly as working programmers and provides a set of problems, a practical and easily followed set of remedies and a rationale for applying those techniques." Read below for the rest of Johnathan's review.
Student Given Detention For Using Firefox [UPDATED] 818
An anonymous reader writes "Several sites are reporting that a student has been given detention for using Firefox to do his classwork. No, really. The student was in class, working on an assignment that necessitated using a browser. The teacher instructed him to stop using Firefox and to do his classwork, to which the student responded that he was doing his classwork using a 'better' browser (it is unclear whether the computer was the student's own computer or not). The clueless teacher (who called the rogue program 'Firefox.exe') ordered him to detention." Update: 12/17 20:09 by SM One of the school officials was nice enough to contact us and let us know this is a hoax. If you are planning on calling the school please refrain from doing so, I'm sure they have had enough excitement for one day.
Submission + - Surveillance system tracks faces on CCTV (guardian.co.uk)
Zephida writes: "Engineers at British defence company BAE Systems, which is working on the technology, claim it is even able to automatically follow a target even if they change their appearance by changing their clothes or hiding beneath a hat.
"Today the effectiveness of CCTV surveillance relies on a small, highly-trained team to identify and track suspicious individuals," said Andrew Cooke, project manager at BAE Systems. Automating elements of the system — and employing techniques to prevent suspects from throwing a team off their scent — enables a single operative to track multiple targets with as much, or even greater, precision than before."
The Integrated Surveillance of Crowded Areas for Public Security (Iscaps) project is part of a joint initiative with around Europe to develop security systems for potential deployment around the continent."
"Today the effectiveness of CCTV surveillance relies on a small, highly-trained team to identify and track suspicious individuals," said Andrew Cooke, project manager at BAE Systems. Automating elements of the system — and employing techniques to prevent suspects from throwing a team off their scent — enables a single operative to track multiple targets with as much, or even greater, precision than before."
The Integrated Surveillance of Crowded Areas for Public Security (Iscaps) project is part of a joint initiative with around Europe to develop security systems for potential deployment around the continent."
Submission + - Tolerated Use of Copyrighted Material
ArieKremen writes: Tim Wu at 'The Slate' discusses copyright and tolerated use of copyrighted material in the digital world (http://www.slate.com/id/2175730/entry/0/). He starts with examples describing two competing interests of the copyright owner: increased visibility vs. protection of copyrighted material. The gist of the story is a paradox, where the current law is so expansive and extreme that the very firms, ie. the copyright owners, that first sought it cannot even make of the law. He points out that while in a functioning political system a copyright reform would be negotiated between all involved parties, this is not applicable to the US. BTW, the article is part of a series discussing versus aspects of laws in the US. Worth reading!
Submission + - MoveOn.org Reverses: Allows Critical Ads on Google
reset_button writes: Slashdot had previously reported that Google had removed an advertisement that was critical of the left-leaning political advocacy group, MoveOn.org. Google responded that MoveOn.org had asked Google to remove an advertisement because it infringed on their MoveOn.org trademark. After facing a barrage of criticism, MoveOn.org is now allowing Google to run the advertisements, permitting an influential Republican senator to criticize the organization. MoveOn.org's communications director says, "We don't want to support a policy that denies people freedom of expression."
Submission + - "All Quiet Alert" issued for the sun
radioweather writes: "The phrase sounds like an oxymoron, and maybe it is, but
the sun is
extremely quiet right now, so much in fact that the
Solar Influences Data Center in Belgium has issued
an unusual "All
quiet alert" on October 5th.
Since then, the sunspot number has remained at zero. Because solar cycle 24 has not yet started. There are signs that the sun's activity is slowing. The solar wind has been decreasing in speed, and this is yet another indicator of a slowing in the suns magnetic dynamo. There is talk of an extended solar minimum occurring.
There are a number of theories and a couple of dozen predictions about the intensity solar cycle 24 which has yet to start. One paper by Penn & Livingstonin 2006 concludes: "If [trends] continue to decrease at the current rate then the number of sunspots in the next solar cycle (cycle 24) would be reduced by roughly half, and there would be very few sunspots visible on the disk during cycle 25."
We'll know more in about six months what the sun decides to do for cycle 24."
Since then, the sunspot number has remained at zero. Because solar cycle 24 has not yet started. There are signs that the sun's activity is slowing. The solar wind has been decreasing in speed, and this is yet another indicator of a slowing in the suns magnetic dynamo. There is talk of an extended solar minimum occurring.
There are a number of theories and a couple of dozen predictions about the intensity solar cycle 24 which has yet to start. One paper by Penn & Livingstonin 2006 concludes: "If [trends] continue to decrease at the current rate then the number of sunspots in the next solar cycle (cycle 24) would be reduced by roughly half, and there would be very few sunspots visible on the disk during cycle 25."
We'll know more in about six months what the sun decides to do for cycle 24."
