Comment In Microsoft's defence... (Score 1, Funny) 346
...think how much they have had to spend on chairs over the years.
Comment Achievement unlocked? (Score 1) 1582
Just testing.
Opera Launches Facial Gesture Capability 199
cstrep writes "Eight years ago, Opera introduced Mouse Gestures as a way to speed up your interaction with the browser, and focus on what's important: Content. In 2005, Voice Navigation was introduced, and more recently we've worked with Nintendo to create a browser that takes full advantage of the 'Wiimote' and later, the touchscreen in the DSi.
Today Opera introduces Face Gestures, a revolutionary technology designed to make interacting with Opera easier on computers with cameras. Face Gestures lets you perform frequent browsing operations with natural and easy to make face gestures. By using an internal technology dubbed 'Face Observation Opera Language,' we are able to recognize pre-determined facial expressions and match them to commands on the Opera browser."
Submission + - Wikileaks publishes Australia's "secret" b 1
GBC writes: Wikileaks have done it again. They just published the Australian government's proposed secret blacklist of internet sites. Details of the leak are covered in a Sydney Morning Herald article which notes that,
about half of the sites on the list are not related to child porn and include a slew of online poker sites, YouTube links, regular gay and straight porn sites, Wikipedia entries, euthanasia sites, websites of fringe religions such as satanic sites, fetish sites, Christian sites, the website of a tour operator and even a Queensland dentist.
In that same article Nick Minchin, the Opposition Communications spokesman, is quoted giving a reasonable perspective on the blacklist:
"The regrettable and unfortunate reality is there will always be explicit and illegal material on the web and — regardless of blacklists, filters and the like — those with the means and know-how will find ways of accessing it. Adult supervision is the most effective way of keeping children safe online and people shouldn't be led into believing by Labor that expanded blacklists or mandatory filters are a substitute for that."
Slashdot recently covered a related story about the Australian government adding several Wikileaks pages to the banned list.
Since I am an Australian, I am not linking directly to the list (which is readily available on the Wikileaks site for those who wish to seek it out) as, according to that same article from the Sydney Morning Herald, "Australians caught distributing the list or accessing child pornography sites on the list could face criminal charges and up to 10 years in prison." So much for free speech downunder!
Journal SPAM: Societe Generale uncovers massive fraud 1
"Irrational" - "No collusion or accomplices"
Read: Intelligence Op.
Submission + - 3 Mobile launches new Skype mobile phone (bbc.co.uk)
jnaghdi writes: "Mobile phone provider 3 has launched a new handset that will allow users to make free calls over the internet via telephony service Skype.
Users will also be able to use Skype's instant messaging service, 3 said.But while people using Skype on their computers are able to make cheap global calls to any phone number, this will not be possible via the new 3 handset.Skype has about 246 million registered users worldwide and is one of the firms reshaping the global phone industry."
Submission + - Low Slashdot UID account sells for US$3,050 (ebay.com)
GBC writes: "After a bidding war involving 24 bidders and 40 bids, the low Slashdot UID was sold for US$3,050 to "Netelder". In case you missed it, the UID was offered as part of Slashdot's Ten-Year Anniversary Charity Auction for the EFF."
Submission + - DNA Pioneers says Blacks make poor employees (yahoo.com)
An anonymous reader writes: London's Science Museum canceled a Friday talk by Nobel Prize-winning geneticist James Watson after the co-discoverer of DNA's structure told a newspaper that Africans and Europeans had different levels of intelligence.
James Watson provoked widespread outrage with his comments to The Sunday Times, which quoted the 79-year-old American as saying he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — whereas all the testing says not really."
He told the paper he hoped that everyone was equal, but added: "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true."
James Watson provoked widespread outrage with his comments to The Sunday Times, which quoted the 79-year-old American as saying he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — whereas all the testing says not really."
He told the paper he hoped that everyone was equal, but added: "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true."
Submission + - Lucas To Make New Live Action Star Wars films
DrNASA writes: An article that quoted George Lucas as saying that SpiderMan 3 is a 'silly movie' also had this interesting bit of King Geek speak:
"And here's a little news: Lucas tells me he will make two more live-action films based in the "Star Wars" era.
"But they won't have members of the Skywalker family as characters," he said. "They will be other people of that milieu." "
TFA — http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,270874,00.html
Submission + - Alcohol and tobacco more dangerous than ecstasy
GBC writes: The Lancet [lancet.com — free registration required] has published an article about a rational system for drug classification in the UK.
The article claims that "In the UK, the total burden of drug misuse, in terms of health, social, and crime-related costs, has been estimated to be between £10 billion and £16 billion per year."
It proposes that drugs should be classified by the amount of harm they do, rather than "A", "B", and "C" divisions in the UK Misuse of Drugs Act. The three main factors that determine the harm associated with any drug of potential abuse are: physical harm to the individual user caused by the drug; tendency of the drug to induce dependence and addiction; and effect of drug use on families, communities, and society. Each of these factors is further broken down into three sections.
Based on assessments from independent experts and specialist addiction psychiatrists, drugs were then ranked according to these nine parameters. Alcohol and tobacco are considered alongside other drugs in the rankings.
Of the twenty substances examined, alcohol was ranked fifth most harmful (behind heroin, cocaine, barbiturates and street methodone) and tobacco came in ninth (behind ketamine, benzodiazepines and amphetamine).
4-MTA, LSD and Ecstasy (all considered "Class A" drugs under the Act) all ranked lower than alcohol and tobacco. From the article: "Overall there was a surprisingly poor correlation between drugs' class according to the Misuse of Drugs Act and harm score."
As someone who supports an end to the "War on Drugs", it would be nice if this article leads to a more rational examination of drug policy both here in the UK and abroad; I am not holding my breath though.
The article claims that "In the UK, the total burden of drug misuse, in terms of health, social, and crime-related costs, has been estimated to be between £10 billion and £16 billion per year."
It proposes that drugs should be classified by the amount of harm they do, rather than "A", "B", and "C" divisions in the UK Misuse of Drugs Act. The three main factors that determine the harm associated with any drug of potential abuse are: physical harm to the individual user caused by the drug; tendency of the drug to induce dependence and addiction; and effect of drug use on families, communities, and society. Each of these factors is further broken down into three sections.
Based on assessments from independent experts and specialist addiction psychiatrists, drugs were then ranked according to these nine parameters. Alcohol and tobacco are considered alongside other drugs in the rankings.
Of the twenty substances examined, alcohol was ranked fifth most harmful (behind heroin, cocaine, barbiturates and street methodone) and tobacco came in ninth (behind ketamine, benzodiazepines and amphetamine).
4-MTA, LSD and Ecstasy (all considered "Class A" drugs under the Act) all ranked lower than alcohol and tobacco. From the article: "Overall there was a surprisingly poor correlation between drugs' class according to the Misuse of Drugs Act and harm score."
As someone who supports an end to the "War on Drugs", it would be nice if this article leads to a more rational examination of drug policy both here in the UK and abroad; I am not holding my breath though.
