Doctor High - Slashdot User

Sharks Seen Swimming Down Australian Streets 210

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday January 19 2011, @03:03AM
from the we're-going-to-need-a-bigger-sidewalk dept.

As if the flood waters weren't bad enough for the people of Queensland, it now appears that there are sharks swimming in the streets. Two bull sharks were spotted swimming past a McDonald’s in the city of Goodna, Butcher Steve Bateman saw another making its way past his shop on Williams street. Ipswich councillor for the Goodna region Paul Tully said: "It would have swam several kilometres in from the river, across Evan Marginson Park and the motorway. It’s definitely a first for Goodna, to have a shark in the main street."

Comment: Either great success or great failure (Score 1) 442

by Doctor High on Saturday June 13 2009, @02:58AM (#28317919) Attached to: Disney Strikes Against Net Neutrality

I would like to think that this move on the part of the content owners will be a massive failure without any intervention by government. If a typical computer user goes to a content owner's site and sees a message saying that the ISP has not purchased the "ESPN360" package and that the user will not be able to access ESPN360 videos, I expect that the user will just go download it via bittorrent or the like. Or just ignore ESPN360 and go to a competitor's site for the scores and highlights. So ESPN360 loses out on a potential sale (to the individual) either way.

I would understand if users from an ISP which did not pay for the ESPN360 access for its customers get a "give me your credit card info to see this video" page, whereas users from an ISP which did pay for access for its customers get to see the video free of charge. That might actually end up being a viable business model.

Of course, it's entirely possible that I don't know consumer behavior as well as I think I do. The foolish choices made by consumers continually impresses me.

Driving While Distracted More Dangerous Than Supposed 418

Posted by kdawson on Saturday May 10 2008, @02:10PM
from the it's-the-attention-stupid dept.

Science News reports on recent research indicating that any kind of multitasking while driving is dangerous. Not just the obvious distraction of juggling a cell phone, but even talking to a passenger or listening to a book on tape. The researchers used a driving simulator inside an MRI machine to measure brain activations. "Attending to what someone says galvanizes language-related brain areas while simultaneously reducing activity in spatial regions that coordinate driving behavior. This finding suggests that people who combine relatively automatic tasks, such as speech comprehension and car driving, exceed a biological limit on the amount of systematic brain activity they can accommodate at one time, the researchers propose. As a result, the less-ingrained skill — in this case, driving, which is learned long after a person grasps a native language — takes a neural hit."

New Fuel Cell 2x as Efficient as Genererators->

Submitted by

Hank Green

on Sunday June 03 2007, @08:31PM

Hank Green writes "A new kind of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell has been developed that can consume any kind of fuel (from hydrogen to bio-diesel) that is over two times more efficient than traditional generators. Acumentrics is attempting to market the technology both to off-grid applications (like National Parks) and also for home use as personal Combined Heat and Power plants that are extremely efficient (up to two times less carbon-intensive than grid power.)"
Link to Original Source

iPhone available on June 29th

Submitted by bobbybobber on Sunday June 03 2007, @07:45PM

bobbybobber writes "AppleInsider has the good word on iPhone availability. The Apple news site is reporting that a just-aired AT&T Wireless commercial advertises the Apple handset will be available beginning June 29th. The spot aired on CBS at approximately 7:00 p.m. eastern time. It included a brief demonstration of some iPhone functions, ending with Apple-branded splash screen and the June 29th availability date."

Web pages for handhelds: Size isn't the only point->

Submitted by

Psy2k

on Sunday June 03 2007, @07:29PM

Psy2k writes "Here is a nice analysis on how web pages for handhelds are build and how they should be build. Droping down the webpage's total size is not the only point. Information for web pages for handhelds should be oriented to people who travel or are on road, people who look or search for different type of info than home or office Internet users. Quote from the article:

"After building the stylesheet, it is easy to update your content and have your site available everywhere. On the other hand many designers mention that handhelds users look for different information than computer users. There are different needs when you are on the road with your mobile phone and different when you are at home."
"
Link to Original Source

PSP Earth Released

Submitted by YokimaSun on Sunday June 03 2007, @03:16PM

YokimaSun writes "Over at DCEmu Mat Dizzy has released PSP Earth which is an application that allows your PSP to view Webcamfeeds from around the World, currently in this beta release it supports 3 webcam feeds."

AT&T San Diego Outage?

Submitted by

Ray

on Sunday June 03 2007, @03:13PM

Ray writes "What's happened to AT&T's San Diego presence lately? It has be completely off the air to the Internet Health Report for several days, causing AT&T's service an overall red."

Russia wants weapons IP

Submitted by

Daniel Dvorkin

on Sunday June 03 2007, @01:59PM

Daniel Dvorkin writes "In the latest example of intellectual property demands gone wild, Russia wants licensing fees for the production of AK-47's. According to first deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov, the unlicensed production of Kalashnikovs (which have been around in very nearly their current form for half a century) in ex-Soviet Bloc countries is "intellectual piracy." A giant but declining power starts demanding royalties on commonly used methods and materials that are widely understood, well known, and by any reasonable standard have long been in the public domain — does this sound familiar? IP insanity is everywhere, it seems."

Guitartabs.com Suspends Under Legal Pressure 348

Posted by kdawson on Sunday June 03 2007, @01:59PM
from the not-another-mpaa dept.

Music publishers are stepping up their campaign to remove guitar tablature from the Net. Recently Guitartabs.com received a nastygram from lawyers for the National Music Publishers Association and The Music Publishers Association of America. These organizations want to stretch the definition of their intellectual property to include by-ear transcriptions of music. Guitartabs.com is currently not offering tablature while the owner evaluates his legal options.