Comment: Re:Real Geeks? (Score 1) 492
Strictly speaking, a geek is a person that performs in a circus sideshow. Everyone else is a fake geek.
I've had a job or six that could easily qualify as circus sideshows...
Comment: Re:I would hope apple will defend. (Score 2) 123
Looks like a good opportunity for Apple to pretend it gives a $#! about it's users/developers.
Any platform is only as good as the apps it has available. That's how Palm survived so long with crappy hardware and an even crappier OS. There was always an app (or thirteen) that did what you needed done.
If Apple doesn't stand up for the one thing that makes an iP[ad|od|hone] worth having, then it might prove that the one and only iDevice-killer was Apple itself.
+ - Attacking the Internet's Core->
Submitted
by
wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes "There's a commonly held belief that the Internet's predecessor — ARPANET— was originally designed, during the Cold War, to withstand a nuclear attack. While apocryphal, the story illustrates a design goal that has proven invaluable to this day. The Internet is heavily resilient to damage. Due to its decentralized topology, the loss of individual networks, even core pieces of infrastructure, should not bring down the Internet as a whole. Attacks may cause some users to lose connectivity or disrupt the path between two sets of users, but, on the whole, the network survives.
But what if there were an attack that could "kill" the Internet, even temporarily? Recently, a new such attack was devised. Security researchers from the University of Minnesota came up with what they called Coordinated Cross Plane Session Termination (CXPST), a form of DDoS attack designed to cause wide-scale disruption to Internet traffic....More"
Link to Original Source
But what if there were an attack that could "kill" the Internet, even temporarily? Recently, a new such attack was devised. Security researchers from the University of Minnesota came up with what they called Coordinated Cross Plane Session Termination (CXPST), a form of DDoS attack designed to cause wide-scale disruption to Internet traffic....More"
Link to Original Source
+ - Wikipedia flights with retention of contributors-> 1
Submitted
by
rackeer
rackeer writes "According to wikipedia's Editor Trends Study, active contributors are leaving, and new contributors don't stay with the project and make up a continuously smaller share of the total number of contributors. A whitepaper by the wikimedia foundation proposes top priorities based on this study. One of these priorities is the creation of a climate which is positive towards newcomers. What is your opinion of what should change?"
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
+ - Japan Earthquake May Have Shifted Earth's Axis-> 1
Submitted
by
Zothecula
Zothecula writes "Using a complex model to perform a theoretical calculation based on a U.S. Geological Survey, Richard Gross of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has determined that by changing the distribution of the Earth's mass, the earthquake that devastated Japan last Friday should have sped up the Earth's rotation, resulting in a day that is about 1.8 microseconds (1.8 millionths of a second) shorter."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
+ - Junkyard Jumbotron links screens into giant displa->
Submitted
by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes "Rick Borovoy at MIT's Center for Future Civic Media just started showing of his "Junkyard Jumbotron". With no special software, he can now link cellphone and laptop screens together into one big display that can be updated, scrolled, zoomed, etc. Borovoy is pitching it to local businesses and civic groups that have old hardware they can use as cheap storefront displays."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Browsing the Body 107
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the not-porn dept.
from the not-porn dept.
ColdWetDog writes "Google Labs has an interesting new line of business — human anatomy. The Google Body Browser is a 3D representation of the major parts of the human body. Based on the well known and very expensive Zygote 3D artwork, you can zoom in, rotate, view the various organ systems (bone, internal organs, nerves) in various states of transparency. Very much like Google Earth in both execution and concept. Written with HTML5, it requires WebGL to work. The Firefox 4 beta seems to work fine. Google, of course, recommends Chrome."
Humble Bundle 2 Is Live 217
Posted
by
kdawson
from the now-how-much-would-you-pay dept.
from the now-how-much-would-you-pay dept.
Dayofswords writes "The first Humble Bundle was a monster success, with over 100,000 people donating over $1 million in total to support the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Child's Play, and of course the developers behind the games. The second bundle is now live (bundle site), containing five great games: Braid, Cortex Command, Machinarium, Osmos, and Revenge of the Titans. Each game is DRM-free, the games work on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and you pay what you want and decide where your money goes."
Comment: Re:It's bad (Score 1) 524
Cool, now that I have an app that will let me know some details about a flight that I already have in sight, I can just drop by the closest convenience store and pick up a surface-to-air missile.
Remember those come cheaper by the dozen...
Pentagon Aims To Buy Up Book 347
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the sorry-we're-all-out dept.
from the sorry-we're-all-out dept.
jamie writes "Operation Dark Heart, a book about the adventures and frustrations of an Army officer who served in Afghanistan, has ruffled some feathers at the Pentagon. From the article: 'The Defense Department is attempting to buy the entire first printing — 10,000 copies — of a memoir by a controversial former Defense Intelligence Agency officer so that the book can be destroyed, according to military and other sources."
Microsoft Patents "Fonts With Feelings" 150
Posted
by
timothy
from the schoolhouse-rock-prior-art dept.
from the schoolhouse-rock-prior-art dept.
theodp writes "Seems like those old IBM flaming logo commercials (video) should count as prior art, but the USPTO granted Microsoft a patent Tuesday for inventing Fonts With Feelings. Giving font characters sound, motion, and altered appearance, Microsoft asserts, gives a user 'the impression the fonts have personalities,' thereby enhancing the user's understanding and/or fluency of words. From the patent: 'As a few non-limiting examples, the word 'giant' can get very large; the word 'lion' can morph into a line drawing of a lion; the word 'toss' can morph into a hand that animates a ball toss; the word 'bees' could show bees flying around with or without a 'buzz' sound effect'. If you're curious, Microsoft Research offers some explanations and examples of 'fontlings' in action — don't miss 'f' kicks 'a'!"
Iron Baby 139
Posted
by
kdawson
from the energizer-bunnies-beware dept.
from the energizer-bunnies-beware dept.
When Iron Baby wants O's, Iron Baby gets O's.
The Fashion Industry As a Model For IP Reform 398
Posted
by
kdawson
from the rip-mix-burn dept.
from the rip-mix-burn dept.
Scrameustache writes "In this 15-minute TED talk, Johanna Blakley addresses a subject alien to most here — fashion — but in a way sure to grab our attention. The lesson is about how the fashion industry's lack of copyright protection can teach other industries about what copyright means to innovation. And yes, she mentions open source software. There is one killer slide at 12:20 comparing the gross sales of low-IP-protection industries with those of films and books and music. If you want to know more, or if you prefer text, the Ready To Share project website should give you all the data you crave on the subject."
A Playable PAC-MAN On Google Doodle 286
Posted
by
kdawson
from the game-will-never-be-over-not-really dept.
from the game-will-never-be-over-not-really dept.
Kilrah_il and several other readers made sure we noted Google's tribute to PAC-MAN on its 30th anniversary — a playable game implemented in JavaScript. "'To play the game, go to google.com during the next 48 hours (because it's too cool to keep for just one day) and either press the "Insert Coin" button or just wait for a few seconds.' There is also an Easter egg for those who want to recall one of the first multi-player games, but you'll have to RTFA to find it." This doodle may overshadow the Official PAC-MAN 30th Anniversary Destination.
Cheap Cancer Drug Finally Tested In Humans 363
Posted
by
timothy
from the good-enough-for-the-likes-of-you dept.
from the good-enough-for-the-likes-of-you dept.
John Bayko writes "Mentioned on Slashdot a couple of years ago, the drug dichloroacetate (DCA) has finally finished its first clinical trial against brain tumors in humans. Drug companies weren't willing to test a drug they could not patent, so money was raised in the community through donations, auctions, and finally government support, but the study was still limited to five patients. It showed extremely positive results in four of them. This episode raises the question of what happens to all the money donated to Canadian and other cancer societies, and especially the billions spent buying merchandise with little pink ribbons on it, if not to actual cancer research like this."