Comment: Re:rPi is different from RPI (Score 2) 79
No. For us old-timers, RPI stands for Rockwell Protocol Interface.
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Rockwell+Protocol+Interface
POS Modems....
Comment: Re:Indians in a nutshell (Score 4, Funny) 241
It's not cheating....it's "crowdsourcing."
Comment: May we burn her? (Score 5, Insightful) 241
"She's a witch...I mean copyright violator!"
Different century, same methodology.
+ - Postal Service to Discontinue Saturday Mail Delivery
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Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes "The Postal Service has been losing billions of dollars each year as Americans increasingly rely on online communications that drive down mail volumes. Now Reuters reports that the Postal Service plans to drop Saturday delivery of first-class mail by August saving $2 Billion per year. "The Postal Service is advancing an important new approach to delivery that reflects the strong growth of our package business and responds to the financial realities resulting from America's changing mailing habits," says Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe. But thePostal Service is already facing some pushback for moving forward with delivery schedule changes."Today's announcement by Postmaster General Donahoe to eliminate six-day delivery is yet another death knell for the quality service provided by the U.S. Postal Service," says Jeanette Dwyer, president of the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association. "To erode this service will undermine the Postal Service's core mission and is completely unacceptable."Package deliveries will continue under the new plan and were a bright spot in a bleak 2012 fiscal year, with package revenue rising 8.7 percent during the year. Donahoe saysthe changes would allow the Postal Service to continue benefiting from rising package deliveries as Americans order more products from sites such as eBay Inc and Amazon.com Inc."
+ - The Internet and Its Lessons for Hierarchies and Social Movements->
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explosivejared
explosivejared writes "Evgeny Morozov in the newest issue of The New Republic uses a highly critical review of Steven Johnson's book Future Perfect push back against what Morozov terms "internet-centrism" or the belief that the Internet has it's own internal logic of decentralization that has obviated older, hierarchical organizational structures. Now Johnson has replied, and the subsequent debate is online.
With the conversation between Morozov and Johnson as a starting point, I'd like to pose some questions to /.. I think we can all agree that the internet has proven that decentralized organizations can bring significant positive impacts, but what are the limits on this? As Morozov points out, even in ostensibly decentralized organizations there are often hidden hierarchies, and this is true for the Internet as well. Where could the vast, varied phenomenon we call the internet benefit from more openly centralized organization, if it can at all?"
Link to Original Source
With the conversation between Morozov and Johnson as a starting point, I'd like to pose some questions to
Link to Original Source
+ - The Moth-Driven Robot Is a Step Towards Automatons That Mimic Life ->
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pigrabbitbear
pigrabbitbear writes "a team from the University of Tokyo developed a small robot and gave it to silkmoth a to drive.
Essentially, the team was able to develop a scent-detecting robot that is directed by a silkmoth, and which actually was able to tracks scents even better than the silkmoth could on its own. All 14 silkmoths tested in the rig were successful in driving it towards the goal."
Link to Original Source
Essentially, the team was able to develop a scent-detecting robot that is directed by a silkmoth, and which actually was able to tracks scents even better than the silkmoth could on its own. All 14 silkmoths tested in the rig were successful in driving it towards the goal."
Link to Original Source
+ - Linux-friendly mini PC fast enough for Steam games->
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crookedvulture
crookedvulture writes "Barebones mini PCs have been around for a while, and the latest one from Zotac is pretty unique. For $270, the Zbox ID42 offers a Sandy Bridge CPU, a discrete GeForce graphics processor, and all the integrated I/O and networking you'd expect from a modern PC. You have to add your own memory, hard drive, and operating system, but the latter shouldn't cost you a dime. The Zbox works well with not only Windows, but also Linux. Ubuntu even recognizes the included remote, which can be used to wake up the system, control XBMC, and navigate Steam's Big Picture interface. Team Fortress 2 for Linux is actually playable, albeit at a relatively low resolution and detail level. The hardware seems better suited to casual games. Zotac also makes a Plus version of the Zbox that comes bundled with RAM and a hard drive, but it costs an extra $130, and you can get much better components if you add them yourself. The user-friendly chassis makes filling out the system a trivial undertaking."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
+ - Gut Bacteria Liberate Hidden Toxins Found In Grains->
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MTorrice
MTorrice writes "Crops such as wheat and corn sometimes harbor chemicals from molds that grow on the plants. Some of these compounds are seemingly harmless derivatives of toxins produced by the fungi. For the first time, researchers have shown that human gut bacteria can break down these compounds and release the toxins, which can cause gastrointestinal and neurological damage in people. The findings suggest that these masked toxins may not stay hidden within our digestive tracts, and that government agencies may need to regulate the chemicals, the researchers say."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
+ - Games Workshop bullies author over use of the words "space marine"->
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jzoetewey
jzoetewey writes "An author I know (MCA Hogarth) recently had her book "Spots the Space Marine" taken off Amazon because Games Workshop claimed it violated their trademark. The interesting thing? Their trademark doesn't include ebooks or novels. Unfortunately, she doesn't have the money to fight them.
Plus the idea of a space marine was around long before they were.
Anyway, Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing has written something about it:"
Link to Original Source
Plus the idea of a space marine was around long before they were.
Anyway, Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing has written something about it:"
Link to Original Source
+ - Nearly a third of all computers are infected with malware->
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Orome1
Orome1 writes "PandaLabs released its annual security report which details an extremely interesting year of data theft, social networking attacks and cyber-warfare. The most devastating news? 31.98 percent of all computers scanned around the world had malware. In 2012, Trojans dominated the threat landscape more than ever before. Three out of every four malware infections were caused by Trojans (76.56 percent). One of the reasons for this growth was the increased use of exploit kits such as Black Hole, which are capable of exploiting multiple system vulnerabilities to infect computers automatically without user intervention. Viruses came second (8 percent), whereas worms dropped to third place accounting for 6.44 percent of all infections."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
+ - Sony Rootkit Redux: Canadian Business Groups Lobby For Right To Install Spyware->
Submitted
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Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Michael Geist reports
that a coalition of Canadian industry groups, including the Canadian
Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Marketing Association, the
Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association and the
Entertainment Software Association of Canada, are demanding
legalized spyware for private enforcement purposes. The potential
scope of coverage is breathtaking: a software program secretly
installed by an entertainment software company designed to detect or
investigate alleged copyright infringement would be covered by this
exception. This exception could potentially cover programs designed
to block access to certain websites (preventing the contravention of
a law as would have been the case with SOPA), attempts to access
wireless networks without authorization, or even keylogger programs
tracking unsuspecting users (detection and investigation)."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
+ - Help! I Don't Want To Write Computer Code Anymore!->
Submitted
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jfruh
jfruh writes "After years of college and professional training, you've got a steady, paying job as a computer programmer — and you realize that you don't enjoy it, and want to do something, anything else for a living. What's your next step? Career advisor Eric Bloom has some tough questions you need to ask yourself in order to make a plan. One of the most important involves making sure that you're moving towards something you really want, not just away from pain."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Comment: Re:I think I saw Halo? (Score 2) 82
As did I. Poster was a little too anxious to post, weren't they?
Comment: Libraries Too (Score 4, Insightful) 342
I like the fact that my library (and most others) destroy records of checkouts after you return a book so that the information can't be used in an investigation or trial.
Just because I read some Karl Marx, doesn't make me a commie. Likewise, just because I texted a quote from the Koran doesn't make me a terrorist.
Comment: Budget Problems Solved (Score 4, Funny) 129
Just point them at key members' of Congress' homes for a while. Then, when budget reviews come up, NASA simply goes to Congress with a thumb drive. "We need funding for a new Mars mission, Senator. If not, we'll have to start selling some of these picture-filled drives to the public to offset the costs. Wouldn't it be a damn shame if certain images of that high school cheerleading squad coming and going from your house at all hours of the night were to...accidentally...end up on the Internet? That would be a damn, criminal, shame...wouldn't it, Senator?"