Tuor - Slashdot User

Survey Shows That Fox News Makes You Less Informed 1352

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday December 16, 2010 @01:58PM from the fair-balanced-and-simple dept.

A survey of American voters by World Public Opinion shows that Fox News viewers are significantly more misinformed than consumers of news from other sources. One of the most interesting questions was about President Obama's birthplace. 63 percent of Fox viewers believe Obama was not born in the US (or that it is unclear). In 2003 a similar study about the Iraq war showed that Fox viewers were once again less knowledgeable on the subject than average. Let the flame war begin!

Comment Re:Computers do what they are told to (Score 1) 250

by Tuor on Sunday December 12, 2010 @05:43PM (#34530558) Attached to: When Computers Go Wrong

Bob also gave us that annoying "Search Dog" in XP. It even mocked you when you tried to turn it off!

Comment Re:Price (Score 1) 931

by Tuor on Sunday October 03, 2010 @07:51PM (#33779946) Attached to: 66% of All Windows Users Still Use Windows XP

Price does have a trade off: user productivity.

Some applications, like desktop publishing, graphics, and CAD are still moving fast enough that new hardware and software every few years actually makes enough of an improvement in productivity that it can pay itself back. Someone waiting on a drawing to render on 4 year old hardware is wasting time!

Comment Old solutions (Score 1) 213

by Tuor on Saturday July 10, 2010 @03:30PM (#32861468) Attached to: AI Predicts Manhole Explosions In New York City

The old London sewer system had a system of gas lamps atop flues that drew the air out of the sewers, and the flame helped reduce the odor of the sewer gases. Most of these sewer problems have been looked at for a couple thousand years now. Electric wires are a new addition, but I'm sure that other ignition sources were problems before.

I'm actually surprised that several hundred gas explosions that rocket 300 pound discs of steel into populated areas is considered so minor, but perhaps the chances of death are much less then I would expect.

Submission + - CmdrTaco: 44th most important person on the Web

Submitted by floateyedumpi on Thursday March 08, 2007 @02:10PM

floateyedumpi writes: Slashdot's own CmdrTaco has recently been heralded as the 44th most important person on the Web by PC World Magazine, right behind Mikko Hypponen (F-Secure director of antivirus research), and ahead of the likes of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, director of the World Wide Web Consortium. What is the world coming to?

C-SPAN Adopts Creative Commons-Style License 86

Posted by kdawson on Thursday March 08, 2007 @02:09PM from the about-time dept.

Trillian_1138 writes "C-SPAN, a network in the US dedicated to airing governmental proceedings, has adopted a Creative Commons-style license for all its content. This follows the network claiming Speaker of the House Pelosi's use of C-Span videos on her site violated their copyright. Specifically, 'C-SPAN is introducing a liberalized copyright policy for current, future, and past coverage of any official events sponsored by Congress and any federal agency — about half of all programming offered on the C-SPAN television networks — which will allow non-commercial copying, sharing, and posting of C-SPAN video on the Internet, with attribution.' Here is the press release. The question remains whether videos of governmental proceedings should be public domain by default or whether the attribution requirement is reasonable in the face of easy video copying and distribution."

Submission + - France outlaws filming of violent acts.

Submitted by chowder on Thursday March 08, 2007 @02:08PM

chowder writes: France has outlawed the filming of violent acts and posting the video to the internet. The offense is punishable by up to 5 years in prison.

Submission + - Mandriva Linux guide updated for One 2007

Submitted by

squidsuk

on Thursday March 08, 2007 @02:03PM

squidsuk writes: "Mandriva in the news

Mandriva Club member Wim Coulier has updated his excellent in-depth home user's guide to choosing, installing and using Mandriva Linux. This comprehensive article goes into great detail on whether to choose Mandriva Linux, trying it out, preparing to install it, and using it once it's installed. If you're new to Mandriva Linux, or you want to introduce it to a first-time user, this guide will be a great help.

Last discussed on Slashdot for the 2006 article, now in a newly updated and revised version for Mandriva Linux One 2007."

Submission + - Pluto still a planet, at least in New Mexico, USA.

Submitted by

space_hippy

on Thursday March 08, 2007 @01:26PM

space_hippy writes: "The New Mexico State Legislature has decided that Pluto is a planet and "Pluto planet day" is March 13th. From the article on spaceref.com:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that, as Pluto passes overhead through New Mexico's excellent night skies, it be declared a planet and that March 13, 2007 be declared "Pluto Planet Day" at the legislature.

I would have hoped the New Mexico State Legislature had better things to do."

Submission + - Can you solve Joe Celko's SQL puzzles?

Submitted by

PetManimal

on Thursday March 08, 2007 @01:24PM

PetManimal writes: "Computerworld has a book excerpt of Joe Celko's second book of SQL puzzles, which includes three puzzles and Joe's solutions. Are your SQL skills up to par?"

Submission + - All Microsoft updates phone home

Submitted by

juct

on Thursday March 08, 2007 @01:17PM

juct writes: "In the wake of heise Security's report on the garrulous WGA Notification, Microsoft has now supplied additional details on the data sent and has revealed developers that apparently all updates relay information to the company in Redmond."

Submission + - Comic Relief - Red Nose Day 2007 game - Red Lead

Submitted by

Stuart Howarth

on Thursday March 08, 2007 @01:13PM

Stuart Howarth writes: "VIRAL GAME FOR RED NOSE DAY 2007 ALREADY DELIVERS 28,000 CLICKTHROUGHS

In response to the digital challenge set by Comic Relief to online agencies to "Spread the Red" this year, digital marketing agency TAMBA launched Red Lead on 1st March, a viral game in which users must save red noses.

The game is being independently tracked by both the Viral Chart and Memecounter and is also being monitored by Comic Relief to assess how many of the gameplays translate to donations to the cause.

So far the game has achieved over 130,000 plays and Comic Relief report over 28,000 clickthroughs to their donations page. Statistics provided by MemeCounter also show the game has a 48% returning player rate.

The agency has also created a MySpace page for the game to take advantage of the power of social networking as a tool to extend the game's reach. MySpace users can copy the code for the game to embed it in their own MySpace page or website.

"Whilst the game is designed to be fun and addictive to play, it does have some important tasks to do," said Kay Hammond, MD of TAMBA Internet. "It encourages players to donate from the game screen, and also promotes the date of this years Red Nose Day — Friday 16th March."

TAMBA has seen a surge in viral requirements from across its spectrum of B2B and B2C clients this year and is currently developing game campaigns for organisations including charity Bullying Online, air conditioning brand Heatbusters and The Savoy hotel in Jersey.

Game URL: www.rednoseday2007game.co.uk"

Possible Large Impact Crater In Nevada 29

Posted by kdawson on Thursday March 08, 2007 @01:10PM from the no-wonder-it's-burning dept.

While participating in amateur rocket launches in Black Rock Desert (the site of Burning Man), Ian Kluft noticed rocks with some oddities. Through the Internet he learned the characteristics of impact craters, then found some clues in photographs and Google Maps. Examining the area, he collected samples of rock with impact patterns and other evidence. He found that previous geological puzzles in the region are well explained as impact structures. Volunteers are finding peculiarities in satellite imagery of the area. Kluft presents his evidence here — "Submitted for Study: Discovery of Possible Impact Crater at Nevada's Black Rock Desert." This is a preliminary, six-week effort intended to bring the site to the attention of geologists. Confirmation will take some time and more elaborate tools than his group has.

(Almost) All You Need To Know About IPv6 359

Posted by kdawson on Thursday March 08, 2007 @12:50PM from the billions-and-billions dept.

Butterspoon tips us to an article in Ars Technica titled "Everything you need to know about IPv6." Perhaps not quite "everything"; the article doesn't try to explain the reasons behind IPv6's meager adoption since its introduction 12 years ago. But it should be regarded as essential reading for anyone overly comfortable with their IPv4 addresses. Quoting: "As of January 1, 2007, 2.4 billion of those [IPv4 addresses] were in (some kind of) use. 1.3 billion were still available and about 170 million new addresses are given out each year. So at this rate, 7.5 years from now, we'll be clean out of IP addresses; faster if the number of addresses used per year goes up. Are you ready for IPv6?"

Submission + - Which field for Master's degree?

Submitted by on Thursday March 08, 2007 @12:47PM

An anonymous reader writes: I was thinking of working on a Master's degree part-time, and I was wondering which fields would be more valuable in general. Are any in particular demand, and which ones would be most conducive to a career switch?

My bachelor's is in physics, and with varying degrees of preparation I could pursue any of the following master's degrees at a local university: physics, applied physics, math, applied math, statistics, materials science, computer science, computer science with telecom emphasis, computer science with software engineering emphasis, bioinformatics and computational biology, or business IT. Any others to consider?

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