Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Scubaboard sued over post content

Beardo the Bearded writes: In early 2008, several SCUBA divers were injured (one killed) due to contaminated air provided by a dive boat. Old news is exciting, but legal gears grind slowly.

The operator of the dive shop has filed suit against the owner of the board in an attempt to discourage discussion about the bad air, the fatality, and the conditions of the dive operation. Part of the issue is that the operator closed ship and moved to another company in January of 2010. The posters on scubaboard found that it was the same person and started warning divers against using the new company altogether.

Is it possible or reasonable to hold public forums accountable for the posts of its users?

Comment Re:Not really new (Score 1) 261

EMI and Zenph are two different animals altogether. If I remember correctly EMI creates new music in the style of a composer based on a database of the composers work. The Zenph technique currently takes existing recordings of musicians, analyzes the music, and essentially turns that into a MIDI file. Hopefully when played on an acoustic instrument that's been modified to play MIDI the result sounds as close to the original as possible.

At the moment all it can do is recreate what has already been done. As for what they intend to do in the future, that sounds more like EMI. However, I suspect they're going for something that can play existing music that sounds like it was played by that artist and not new music that sounds like it was written by that artist.

Comment Re:Too much time on their hands (Score 1) 502

As opposed to Mozart, who not only invented Classical music, but also music itself, starting with nothing more than the occasional, disjointed, a-harmonic noises that existed in the world before him.

I'm going to have to disagree with this statement. As much as I enjoy Mozart, he, like others before him built on those that came before.

Music from the Baroque period can be quite beautiful, and much of it was written before Mozart was born. For example, The Four Seasons (1723) by Antonio Vivalidi, Water Music (1717) by George Frideric Handel, and Brandenburg Concertos (1721) by J. S. Bach. Each of these was composed before Mozart was born in 1756.

Graphics

NVIDIA Shows Off "Optimus" Switchable Graphics For Notebooks 102

Vigile writes "Transformers jokes aside, NVIDIA's newest technology offering hopes to radically change the way notebook computers are built and how customers use them. The promise of both extended battery life and high performance mobile computing has seemed like a pipe dream, and even the most recent updates to 'switchable graphics' left much to be desired in terms of the user experience. Having both an integrated and discrete graphics chip in your notebook does little good if you never switch between the two. Optimus allows the system to seamlessly and instantly change between IGP and discrete NVIDIA GPUs based on the task being run, including games, GPU encoding or Flash video playback. Using new software and hardware technology, notebooks using Optimus can power on and pass control to the GPU in a matter of 300ms and power both the GPU and PCIe lanes completely off when not in use. This can be done without being forced to reboot or even close out your applications, making it a hands-free solution for the customer."
The Almighty Buck

America's Army Games Cost $33 Million Over 10 Years 192

Responding to a Freedom Of Information Act request, the US government has revealed the operating costs of the America's Army game series over the past decade. The total bill comes to $32.8 million, with yearly costs varying from $1.3 million to $5.6 million. "While operating America's Army 3 does involve ongoing expenses, paying the game's original development team isn't one of them. Days after the game launched in June, representatives with the Army confirmed that ties were severed with the Emeryville, California-based team behind the project, and future development efforts were being consolidated at the America's Army program office at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. A decade after its initial foray into the world of gaming, the Army doesn't appear to be withdrawing from the industry anytime soon. In denying other aspects of the FOIA request, the Army stated 'disclosure of this information is likely to cause substantial harm to the Department of the Army's competitive position in the gaming industry.'"

Submission + - Heart patient with no pulse (straitstimes.com) 2

laggist writes: "Heart patient in Singapore implanted with artificial heart that pumps blood continuously, allowing her to be very alive without a pulse.

From the article: '.. the petite Madam Salina, who suffers from end-stage heart failure, would not have been able to use the older and bulkier models because they can only be implanted in patients 1.7m or taller. The 30-year-old administrative assistant is the first recipient here to get a new artificial heart that pumps blood continuously, the reason why there are no beats on her wrist.'"

Comment Re:how hard can it be? (Score 1) 165

Well, I'm not an engineer so someone else may correct me on this, but I suspect that it may have to do with the incompressibility of fluids. I would think that the pressure on the outside of the hull would be transmitted to the fluid which in turn would transmit the pressure to the inner hull causing a collapse.

This would be similar to how a free diver's lungs get compressed as they dive. The pressure is transmitted through the skin, muscle, bone, hits the lungs which are mostly gas and are compressed.

Comment Re:17000 tons of steel gone to waste (Score 1) 169

Yes, I'm sure it'll be nice for the fish and a few extreme divers

If the Oriskany (200ft max depth) ans Spiegel Grove(134 ft max depth) are any indication then more than just extreme divers will dive this. At the bottom both of these wrecks are below the recreational dive limit of 130 ft, but the top of the Spiegel Grove sits just around 60-70ft as does the top of the Oriskany. This is well within the depth limits for recreational diving and I understand that there is quite a bit to see in these wrecks above 130ft.

Comment Re:Stupid double standard (Score 1) 904

Go to the movies. you will see plenty of full frontal nudity of women in R rated movies. You won't get a single shot of a penis until you go to X.

While I agree that there is something of a double standard here, I can think of several movies containing full frontal male nudity that were not rated X. For example "Any Given Sunday", "Life of Brian", "Schindler's List", and "The Crying Game" all contain full frontal male nudity. While it may not be common, it's not exactly unheard of.

Comment Re:SNOWBOUND!! (Score 1) 429

White stuff. Falls from the sky. Sure sign of the apocalypse. If you see it, run to the grocery store and get all the foodstuffs you can - don't forget a gun to fight off the crowds. You'll need gas and candles too.

Watch the TV for emergency news, but remember, those people have no idea what's happening either, so take what they say with a grain of salt.

Oh, so like a hurricane then, well except for the white stuff.

Comment Re:Hmm.. (Score 1) 181

And you can't go 20 mph straight up unless you want to get some type of DCI either.

Seriously though if it's keeping water out it either has to be pressurized (doubtful if it's using a snorkel for air) or just watertight. If it's watertight it's probably only down to a fairly shallow depth, if it gets too deep the water pressure is going to start pushing water in through the "watertight" seals. Assuming a watertight seal (and not a pressurized vehicle) and given that the pressure at 10m (33 ft) is twice the atmospheric pressure at sea level, I'd be willing to guess that the max depth isn't much more than that (if not less).

Space

Submission + - Voyager 2 finds solar system's shape is 'dented' (reuters.com)

Selikoff writes: "NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft has found that our solar system is not round but is "dented" by the local interstellar magnetic field of deep space, space experts said on Monday. The data was gathered by the craft on its 30-year journey into the edge of the solar system when it crossed into a sweeping region called the termination shock, they said. It showed that the southern hemisphere of the solar system's heliosphere is being pushed in or "dented." Voyager 2 is the second spacecraft to enter this region of the solar system behind Voyager 1, which entered the northern region of the heliosheath in December 2004."
Space

Submission + - First Evidence of Another Universe? 2

blamanj writes: Three months ago, astronomers announced the discovery of a large hole at the edge of our universe. Now, Dr. Laura Mersini-Houghton thinks she knows what that means. (Subscription req'd at New Scientist site, there's also an overview here.) According to string theory, there are many universes besides our own. Her team says that smaller universes are positioned at the edge of our universe, and because of gravitational interactions, they can be observed, and they're willing to make a prediction. The recently discovered void is in the northern hemisphere. They contend another one will be found in the southern hemisphere.
Security

Submission + - Man hacks 911 system, sends SWAT on bogus raid. 5

An anonymous reader writes: The Orange County Register reports that a 19 year old from Washington state broke into the Orange County California 911 emergency system. He randomly selected the name and address of a Lake Forest, California couple and electronically transferred false information into the 911 system. The Orange County California Sheriff's Department's Special Weapons and Tactics Team was immediately sent to the couple's home. The armed officers surrounded the home.Inside the home lived a couple with two toddlers who were asleep and unsuspecting of what was going outside the home. The SWAT team handcuffed the husband and wife before deciding it was a prank.

Slashdot Top Deals

An Ada exception is when a routine gets in trouble and says 'Beam me up, Scotty'.

Working...