CapeBretonBarbarian - Slashdot User

Universities Collaborate On Air-Purifying Dress 58

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday January 11 2011, @02:55PM
from the you-smell-wonderful-tonight dept.

ecouterran writes "From the ecouterre article: 'We have dresses to impress, for success, even to kill, but "Herself" must be the first drapery number to clear the air. A collaboration between the University of Sheffield, London College of Fashion, and the University of Ulster, the sweeping gown is part of a larger project to engage the public in the science of environmental pollution. "Catalytic Clothing" explores how textiles can improve ambient quality, and the self-described textile sculpture, is the first prototype to emerge. Highly experimental, according to the designers, "Herself" is designed to illustrate how fabrics can eliminate pollutants so we can "breathe more beautifully."'"

Comment: Opt-in/out message (Score 2, Interesting) 287

by CapeBretonBarbarian on Saturday April 24 2010, @09:41AM (#31966678) Attached to: Facebook Retroactively Makes More User Data Public

I saw an opt-in/opt-out notice last night on Facebook for this change. I'm not sure why others have not. Perhaps they are rolling it out in waves or perhaps it depends on country (I'm in Canada).

Dying Man Shares Unseen Challenger Video 266

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday February 02 2010, @12:27PM
from the new-perspective-on-an-old-tragedy dept.

longacre writes "An amateur video of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion has been made public for the first time. The Florida man who filmed it from his front yard on his new Betamax camcorder turned the tape over to an educational organization a week before he died this past December. The Space Exploration Archive has since published the video into the public domain in time for the 24th anniversary of the catastrophe. Despite being shot from about 70 miles from Cape Canaveral, the shuttle and the explosion can be seen quite clearly. It is unclear why he never shared the footage with NASA or the media. NASA officials say they were not aware of the video, but are interested in examining it now that it has been made available."

Comment: Re:IMHO solaris has a really bad userland (Score 3, Insightful) 378

by CapeBretonBarbarian on Tuesday December 22 2009, @03:05PM (#30526964) Attached to: The Best, Worst, and Ugliest OSes of the Decade

OTOH, Solaris is much better at backward compatibility than Linux.

No kidding. I kept several old applications that was built on pre-Solaris machines (SunOS 4.1.4) running for many years on newer Sun OS' all the way through to Solaris 10. There were occasional blips in there that were less sucessful (Solaris 7 was a pain) but Sun takes backwards compatibility very seriously.

Comment: Re:damned imperialists (Score 1) 1297

by CapeBretonBarbarian on Thursday April 09 2009, @08:24AM (#27516583) Attached to: South Park Creators Given Signed Photo of Saddam Hussein

I can't believe how many of you are crying about 'what we did to Saddam'. You all need to remember what culture this man is a part of.

Huh? What culture Saddam is part of?? What exactly does that mean and why should that affect how decently the U.S. military should treat its prisoners? Should prisoners receive different levels of abuse based on their origin culture???

Comment: Re:Define a successful merger. (Score 1) 292

by CapeBretonBarbarian on Friday March 27 2009, @09:00AM (#27355961) Attached to: What an IBM-Sun Merger Might Mean For Java, MySQL, Developers

"The company culture between Sun and IBM are too different for a successful merger."

Success: [n] Chomp, chomp, gulp.

Just ask the former employees of Sequent, Informix, or Rational.

Speaking of Rational, I've been really underwhelmed with what IBM has done with the Purify products they acquired with their annexation of Rational. The product looks like it has hardly been updated at all since I first used it way back in '95 or so. Plus it is a huge struggle to get it to work, no thanks to IBM. And if you want to change your licensing or contact information, good luck with dealing with the huge IBM bureaucracy. I for one dread seeing IBM take over Sun. It'll make HP start to look good. :p

Anti-Piracy Firm Offering ISPs Money For Outing File-Sharers 132

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday January 17 2009, @11:20AM
from the if-at-first-you-don't-succeed,-open-the-checkbook dept.

mytrip points out news that an anti-piracy firm called Nexicon has been offering financial incentives to ISPs in exchange for having the ISPs police their own networks for copyright infringement. Nexicon would offer their services (for a fee) to help the ISPs pinpoint users who are illegally sharing files, and then give the users an option to "settle" through their "Get Amnesty" website. The revenue generated by such settlements would then be shared with the ISPs. Jerry Scroggin, owner of a smaller ISP in Louisiana, is still skeptical, saying, "I would still wind up losing customers. I would also have to pay Nexicon for this ... I have to survive in this economy but I don't have the big marketing dollars that bigger ISPs have. I have to fund 401(K)s and find ways not to lay off people. Giving free rein to the RIAA is not part of my business model."