Gerocrack - Slashdot User

Camera Phones Read Hidden Messages in Print 126

Posted by CowboyNeal on Thursday February 15, 2007 @10:57PM from the go-go-gadget-decoder dept.

pikine writes "As reported by BBC News, Fujitsu has developed a technology that encodes 12-bytes of information in a printed picture by skewing yellow hue, which is difficult to discern by human eye but fairly easy for camera phones to decode using software written in Java." The first target uses are promotional contests and competitions, not entirely unlike those game pieces that need to be viewed through a colored filter.

Feed Bloggers Blow It on Wikipedia Ban (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed on Thursday February 15, 2007 @10:12PM

A rumor that Sen. Ted Stevens wants to block the online encyclopedia from schools and libraries is as wrong as thinking the net's tubes are clogged. In 27B Stroke 6.

Submission + - Interstellar Ark

Submitted by

xantox

on Thursday February 15, 2007 @10:07PM

xantox writes: "There are three strategies to travel 10.5 light-years from Earth to Epsilon Eridani and bring humanity into a new stellar system : 1) Wait for future discovery of Star Trek physics and go there almost instantaneously, 2) Build a relativistic rocket powered by antimatter and go there in 22 years by accelerating constantly at 1g, provided that you master stellar amounts of energy (so, nothing realistic until now), but what about 3): go there by classical means, by building a gigantic Ark of several miles in radius, propulsed by nuclear fusion and featuring artificial gravity, oceans and cities, for a travel of seven centuries — where many generations of men and women would live ? This new speculation uses some actual physics and math to figure out how far are our fantasies of space travel from their actual implementation."

Journal Journal: Linux.com | My sysadmin toolbox

Journal by bgood4000 on Thursday February 15, 2007 @09:51PM

http://applications.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/02/12/1550251 Lesser known command line tools for all flavors of Linux.

Submission + - Geek Toys for Kids

Submitted by Edis Krad on Thursday February 15, 2007 @09:51PM

Edis Krad writes: An CNN Money article reviews the Hot Toys for 2007. From the article:

"Industry leaders have accepted that kids are becoming more technology savvy at a younger age, and therefore are more inclined to discard their Barbie dolls and Power Ranger action figures for the cool MP3 player or camera cell phone."

Among those, I was particularly impressed with the Video Journal (blogging for kids?), the virtual bicycle (apparently, riding a real bicycle isn't cool enough anymore), and last but not least, the robotic parrot , that oddly reminds me of the replicant owl in Blade Runner

As technology becomes cheaper and more available, is it true that kids prefer cool gadgets rather and soccer balls and baseball gloves?

Submission + - waterproof iPod mod is just the beginnning

Submitted by

Gilliam H.

on Thursday February 15, 2007 @09:50PM

Gilliam H. writes: "The waterproof iPod thing is already out there. The real scoop I think is that the guy who invented it. Professor Silverman, has a string of patents on things that are very nearly sci-fi. The swimman is what everyone is talking about all of the the sudden but that's like throwing a bullet as opposed to shooting it. Yes, I am too lazy to write the actual story but I thought I'd put out what I know and let other more caffeinated people do it. Gilliam-"

Cancer Drug Found; Scientist Annoyed 349

Posted by kdawson on Thursday February 15, 2007 @12:42PM from the serendipity dept.

sporkme writes "A scientist was frustrated when the compound she was working with (called PPAR-gamma) destroyed her sample of cancer cells. Further research revealed that the substance was surprisingly well suited as a cancer treatment. Lab test results on mice resulted in the destruction of colon tumors without making the mice sick." Quoting: "'I made a calculation error and used a lot more than I should have. And my cells died,' Schaefer said. A colleague overheard her complaining. 'The co-author on my paper said, "Did I hear you say you killed some cancer?" I said "Oh," and took a closer look.' ... [They found that the compound killed] 'pretty much every epithelial tumor cell lines we have seen.'" Update: 02/15 17:27 GMT by KD : As reader CorporalKlinger pointed out, PPAR-gamma is a cellular receptor, not a compound; and this news is not particularly new.

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