Slashdot

mrscotty99 writes "distrowatch down all weekend... attacked? technical problems? M$ FUD?"

German researchers this week showed off their Gryphon personal strap-on jet wing that lets the pilot scream through the air at about 135MPH. The Gryphon features a six-foot wing and hand-held rotary controls for the rudder. The system includes onboard oxygen and helmet that features a heads-up display. Researchers say the final version of the flying wing will contain an electronic system that will take care of some of the steering for the pilot which today can be a little tricky, researchers say. The company also plans to add small jets to the wing making it a true jetpack in the future. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/19485
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/19485

The GIMP UI Redesign Team has created a blog to collect ideas for a new design of the most popular image manipulation program. Everyone is free to submit suggestions to be published in the blog. Will a new GUI finally get more users to choose The GIMP as their program of choice?

MoronBob writes "The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting that an Erie Pennsylvania man has invented a machine capable of extracting and igniting hydrogen from salt water using a radio-frequency generator. From the article: "John Kanzius, a Washington County native, tried to desalinate seawater with a generator he developed to treat cancer, and it caused a flash in the test tube. Within days, he had the salt water in the test tube burning like a candle, as long as it was exposed to radio frequencies.""
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07252/815920-85.stm

the_womble writes "I am never going to be a developer, but I write a little bit of code occasionally. A simple CMS written in TCL a few years ago, a few Wordpress plugins, things like that. I am now thinking of more ambitious projects.

I am most interested in websites and CMSs, but it would be useful to be able to whip up a simple GUI as well. What languages and tools should I learn. Programming only occasionally needs a language with a clear syntax and a small core language — so I do not forget it all between times. Development tools also need to be simple. Libraries need to be well documented. Finally, it should be fun to work with.

So, what should I learn? My own research has not got me further than "Ruby and Scheme look nice". What do you think?"

Liquid paraffin frees woman

Oudtshoorn - Rescuers battled for 10 hours at the Cango Caves near Oudtshoorn to free an overweight woman who became stuck in a narrow passage, trapping 23 other tourists in the caves.

Overweight must be the first major understatement of 2007. I mean damn, 23 other people were trapped by that stupid cow's fat ass!

"The woman had been warned she was not suited for the route... She was told at the ticket office that she was too big to take part in the specific section.... The woman was extremely offended and laid a charge with management.

When you're told you're too big to walk through caves with narrow passages, you should listen. The people who work at the Caves know more about them than you do...

Well, I guess it's better to be humiliated than offended. I really hope these others photographed the ordeal and blogged it...

Fortunately, there was no damage to the caves. I really hope they start to get more strict about enforcing the rules regarding who can, and more importantly can not enter the caves...

nathandbos writes "How rude is it to use a neighbor's open wireless access point without permission? I'm staying at my in-laws over the holidays and they don't have a reliable broadband connection. So I've been using an open connection that presumably belongs to one of the neighbors, although I don't know which one. It could be one of seven houses in the vicinity, and I really don't feel like knocking on all of their doors to ask a question most of them wouldn't understand. I don't know any way to figure out who they are electronically.

So I'm just wondering, how much of a social affront is this? I'll propose a bad-neighbor scale that runs from:

1= turning around in neighbor's driveway after 11PM

6= failing to pick up dog poo on their lawn

10= running off with spouse

Where on this scale is using an open wireless connection?"

fiorenza writes "John Timmer presents a fascinating summary — from the point of view of a scientist — of a talk given by the Discovery Institute's Michael Behe at the University of Kansas. The article looks at how Intelligent Design propoents are trying to keep momentum going in the wake of several high profile defeats. From the article, "the case for ID that they advance is striking. Based on Behe's talk, they've given up trying to dissociate themselves from their own creationist history: they openly embrace many creationist arguments and happily identify their designer as divine. In doing so, they appear to have given up on any attempt to address a scientific audience.""

An anonymous reader writes "Ruby on Rails provides an excellent platform for building Web applications. Discover how to use the built-in Asynchronous JavaScript(TM) + XML (Ajax) features of the platform to give your application the Web 2.0 rich user interface experience. Even if you don't envision yourself shipping a Rails application, I recommend that you download one of the Instant Rails or Locomotive applications and try it out."

lpq writes "Just saw this:

"Debian GNU/Linux 4.0, codenamed Etch, had been due to arrive by December 4, 2006, but it's been delayed because some developers have deliberately slowed down their work. "

This seems to be a deliberate "sabotaging" of the project because some people are being paid to work on the release of the project full time.

On one hand, I can understand the feeling that it is just "unfair" that someone else is getting paid to work on their favorite fun project and I am not, but on the other hand, is this anything more than spite?

What do others think? Is it desirable to cut off your nose to spite your face? Is that what these developers are doing? Or are the developers upset, perhaps because they perceive that someone else might be making a living, indirectly, because of their work?

Just sucks that "money changes everything"...

-l"

docinthemachine writes "The inventor, author, and futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts that in 15 to 30 years, nanobots will roam our blood streams fixing diseased or aging organs, computers will back up our human memories, and conference calls will be replaced by meetings in virtual resorts. Information week reports on Kurzweil's lecture and conducts a fascinating interview. Kurzweil told a keynote audience at last week's SCO6 supercomputing conference his predictions of future life. Key points of his lecture: 1) people and computers will intermix with nanobots, blood cell-sized robots, that will be integrated into everything from our clothing to our bodies and brains. 2) Think of replacing everyone's "human body version 1.0 with nanotech that will repair or replace ailing or aging tissue, he says. Parts will become easily replaceable. 3) "A $1,000 worth of computation in the 2020s will be 1,000 times more powerful than the human brain," says Kurzweil, adding that in 25 years we'll have multiplied our computational power by a billion. 4) "Fifteen years from now, we'll have cured cancer and heart disease, or at least rendered them to manageable chronic conditions that aren't life threatening. Details and more information at : http://docinthemachine.com/2006/12/19/kurzweilfutu re/"

fccoelho writes "PC Gaming have been plagued by the diversity of platforms that make it costly for game developers to maximize their customer base. Maintaining complex code bases for windows, Mac, and sometimes Linux is a major hassle involving having to maintain separate developing teams specialized in each platform. In the last five years, we have seen an explosion of Linux Live CDs and DVDs that vary widely in purpose: from demonstration to installation disks, and complete multimedia systems that run off these disks, etc. Why can't PC games follow this trend? Develop all games for Linux/OpenGL and sell to anyone that has a device that can boot from a CD/DVD, be it a computer, a Xbox, A PS3, etc. As a side benefit, gamers would not have to fill their hard-drives with huge amounts of game-related files. Linux supports just about any hardware platform you can imagine, and is a very capable development platform for games. So I ask Slashdotters: What do you think about this?"

VeryVito writes "Apparently, I wasn't the only one who spent way too much time playing this little Flash game last fall. According to Gamasutra, Line Rider is heading to both the Nintendo Wii console and the DS next year. According to the article:

"Line Rider began its life as a project I did for illustration class," commented Bostjan Cadez, who created Line Rider in his native Slovenia. "As much as people see it as a game I think of it as a toy because there is no score and no one wins or loses while playing Line Rider. I'm looking forward to working with inXile entertainment on the new Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii versions as they will bring added gameplay and features."

I suspect we'll see hordes of Flash game developers looking for venture capital in 2007!"

coondoggie writes "Employees who work from home or in remote branch offices often feel disconnected from corporate life and worry they will be forgotten and bypassed for promotions. Managers and employees have to make a concerted effort to stay in touch, experts say. At IBM, Pelino and others set out to improve corporate culture. The company sparked new life into an old tradition: IBM Club, which brings together employees for intramural sports, picnics, movies and other types of social, cultural and recreational activities."

The New York Times is reporting that Skype has said it would begin charging $30 a year for unlimited calls to landline and mobile phones within the United States and Canada. From the article: "As a promotion, Skype began allowing its users to place free domestic 'SkypeOut' calls from their computers to traditional and mobile phones last May. At the time, the company said the promotion would extend only through year's end. The company is offering a half-price subscription to those who sign up before Jan. 31. Calls from one computer to another have been and will continue to be free."