Comment BREAKING NEWS: US Army to employ twitter! (Score 1) 320
So if it's a terrorist tool...
Terrorism is all relative by the way.
Unreal Tournament 3 Beta Demo Now Out 97
Eurogamer notes that the beta demo for Unreal Tournament 3 is now available over at Fileplanet. "Currently the open beta demo is only available to Windows users, and will give you all a chance to test out a couple of maps and then leave your feedback for Epic Games so it can make a more polished end product - like a shoe."
Submission + - Ted Stevens' Home Raided
Submission + - White Collar IT Revolution
vasco costa writes: "I went to the hospital today. There was a queue of people waiting. Some simply wanted to get a stamp in a prescription. Others merely wanted to schedule an appointment.
The government clerical workers, all women, toiled the best they could. I could see the grim determination pictured in their faces. I could see the speed they were processing each request. They were fighting, with a mix of one software generation old information technology systems, and reams of paper. They were stressed to the max, as were the people waiting. I was sad at this state of affairs, because as a software engineer, I know we can do better. All these tasks can be done via the web by users and health care professionals in real-time. No waiting. No stress.
When people say they fear loss of jobs like these I say:
To hell with those jobs! They are dehumanizing. People should not be treated like cogs in a machine.
Then I had a flashback. I felt like I was watching a modern version of a telephone switchboard operator.
Some things did give me comfort. The smile of a beautiful girl, the tranquility of a woman carrying a child, the glorious beach.
Then I had another flashback: one hospital I went to was already providing blood analysis results via an Intranet application in PHP. It was an incomplete application, probably a hack, but already it was giving health care professionals valuable real time feedback. In another, a Java program empowered the doctor to schedule appointments. In yet another hospital, prescriptions were directly provided by the information system from the doctor to the patient.
As our ancestors the Romans, that people of great engineers would say:
Adde parvum parvo magnus acervus erit
— Add little to little and there will be a big pile. "
The government clerical workers, all women, toiled the best they could. I could see the grim determination pictured in their faces. I could see the speed they were processing each request. They were fighting, with a mix of one software generation old information technology systems, and reams of paper. They were stressed to the max, as were the people waiting. I was sad at this state of affairs, because as a software engineer, I know we can do better. All these tasks can be done via the web by users and health care professionals in real-time. No waiting. No stress.
When people say they fear loss of jobs like these I say:
To hell with those jobs! They are dehumanizing. People should not be treated like cogs in a machine.
Then I had a flashback. I felt like I was watching a modern version of a telephone switchboard operator.
Some things did give me comfort. The smile of a beautiful girl, the tranquility of a woman carrying a child, the glorious beach.
Then I had another flashback: one hospital I went to was already providing blood analysis results via an Intranet application in PHP. It was an incomplete application, probably a hack, but already it was giving health care professionals valuable real time feedback. In another, a Java program empowered the doctor to schedule appointments. In yet another hospital, prescriptions were directly provided by the information system from the doctor to the patient.
As our ancestors the Romans, that people of great engineers would say:
Adde parvum parvo magnus acervus erit
— Add little to little and there will be a big pile. "
Submission + - NVIDIA market share grows at Intel, AMD's expense (arstechnica.com)
VGA4Life writes: New market research figures show NVIDIA stealing market share from both AMD/ATI and Intel. For the 2nd quarter of 2007, NVIDIA grabbed 32.6 percent of the graphics market, up from 19.7 percent during the same quarter in 2006, and 28.3 during the 1st quarter of 2007. Intel saw its share slide from 38.7 percent last quarter to 37.6 percent for the 2nd quarter, while AMD/ATI's market share has dipped below the 20 percent mark for the first time in over a year. In its writeup, Ars notes that 'NVIDIA's gains have come in both the discrete graphics and desktop chipset markets, with total desktop market making up the bulk of the good news for the company. Indeed, NVIDIA delivered only a bit late and in spades with the G80 family, while AMD/ATI's R600 part stumbled out of gate to lackluster reviews after a hefty delay.'
Submission + - RIAA backtracks after embarrassing P2P defendant (arstechnica.com)
Harmony writes: When the RIAA sued Sgt. Nicholas Paternoster, it included a screenshot of a shared folder with over 4,600 files — some of which were pornographic images unrelated to the case. Last week, the RIAA got permission from a judge to, as a 'professional courtesy,' swap out the original exhibit for one with only the 350+ songs the defendant is accused of sharing on Kazaa. The RIAA's carelessness may come back to haunt it, however: 'After the suit was filed — and the exhibit made public — Sgt. Paternoster decided to fight back, filing a counterclaim accusing the RIAA of violating his privacy and seeking to "shame Counter-Plaintiff... into giving in to their unreasonable demands regarding their copyrighted materials."'
Submission + - Plant grown insulin could be a diabetes cure. (ucf.edu) 2
MamaEri writes: "In a study by UCF professor Henry Daniell, he found that by genetically splicing insulin into Tobacco and Lettuce plants, these produce an insulin laced plant. Then he gave a freeze-dried powder of these plants to mice with diabetes. After 8 weeks the mice had normal sugar levels and were producing their own insulin."
Submission + - Russia wins International Math Olympiad (imo2007.edu.vn)
prostoalex writes: "Russia, China and Vietnam took the top prizes of 48th International Mathematics Olympiad that this year took place in Hanoi, Vietnam. The problem sets are available on the official Web site in a variety of languages."
Feed Engadget: The AirLive WMU-6500FS BitTorrent NAS gets reviewed (engadget.com)
Filed under: Storage, Networking
We've seen NAS BitTorrent drives / servers before, but none quite as cheap or ugly as the AirLive WMU-6500FS. The Inquirer has gotten its hands on the funky gray PATA- or SATA-ready media stealer, and they give it a pretty decent once over. The drive comes with 32MB of RAM on board, 4MB of flash memory for the OS, and 802.11g. The BitTorrent and HTTP / FTP server clients all reside in the drive and are accessible through your web browser, allowing you to engage in all sorts of energy-saving activities -- like downloading lots of "films" without the need for any computers around. According to the review, the whole package can be yours for around $100. Of course, you can get all the thrilling details if you simply hit the read link.[Thanks, Tech Luver]
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Submission + - Digital Freedom Kid Supports YouTube Lawsuit Baby (digitalfreedom.org)
Charles Martin writes: "Digital Freedom Kid Supports YouTube Lawsuit Baby
7/27/2007
The big record labels are at it again — - this time Universal Music has scolded a dancing toddler and demanded a precious 30-second video clip of the child dancing be removed from YouTube.
Shame on them. This video is clearly "fair use" under section 107 of the Copyright Act. While we insist that consumers and college students respect the law, copyright owners must do so as well.
Keep on dancing for fair use, baby!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1KfJHFWlhQ"
Submission + - 9-year-old receives 2 credit cards and $18K credit
reube writes: "From the article: 'If you think the minimum age of a principal credit card holder is 18 years of age, think again. A nine-year-old boy named Kyle Shoemaker has received not just one but two credit cards and an $18,000 line of credit'."
Submission + - Anime fan-sub group arrested at Otakon
Ouija writes: When they arrived at the home of one of the staff members they were surprised to find that the member had removed all the hard drives from his computer and they now lay in pieces in a garbage bag. Frustrated officers then began to yell at that staff member and accused him of destroying evidence. When the staff member met their response with silence they decided to take him into custody. Family members looked on in shock as they tasered this individual repeatedly despite him not fighting back. Suddenly, the staff member began to convulse on the floor. Doctors would later say that the individual had suffered an epileptic seizure, possibly resulting from the repeated tasering. Officers claim they then mistook these convulsions for an attempt at escape and one of the officers fired his firearm, injuring the individual. The injured staff member, in handcuffs, was later transported to a local hospital where he is now in critical condition in the ICU.
AMD's New DRM 382
DefectiveByDesign writes "Remember how AMD said they'd make use of ATI's GPU technology to make better technology? Well, not all change is progress. InfoWorld's Tom Yager reports that AMD plans to block access to the framebuffer in hardware to help enforce DRM schemes, such as allowing more restricted playback of Sony Blu-Ray disks. They can pry my Print Screen key from my cold, dead fingers."
Truth Behind the ClearType/OpenSUSE FUD 123
Kennon writes "Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols over at Linux Watch clears up the FUD around Tuesday's Slashdot discussion concerning OpenSUSE, ClearType, and patent deals with Microsoft."
