rift321 - Slashdot User

+ - New Approach for the Factorization of Integers-> 0

Submitted by rift321 on Tuesday August 31, 2010 @04:50PM

rift321 writes "Looks like a clever guy at Moscow University found another way to factor integers using polynomial expansion and Fourier coefficients. Anyone have a take on whether this is more or less efficient than the methods already used?"
Link to Original Source

+ - Droid 2 - pre-sale tomorrow, available Thurs-> 0

Submitted by rift321 on Tuesday August 10, 2010 @11:27AM

rift321 writes "From engadget: Droid 2 ships with Android 2.2, mobile hotspot (a $20 / month add-on), Flash Player 10.1 and a revised QWERTY keyboard. It also ships with Swype pre-installed, though we'd prefer Swiftkey thrown in for good measure. You already know the specs by now — a 3.7-inch multitouch display, 5 megapixel camera, DLNA streaming, 8GB of onboard memory and a 8GB microSD card — but what you haven't known is the on sale date. VZW is putting this gem up for pre-sale tomorrow at $199.99 on a 2-year contract, with in-store availability locked for Thursday."
Link to Original Source

+ - Mice made from iPS cells-> 1

Submitted by

rift321

on Friday July 24, 2009 @02:31PM

rift321 writes "Chinese researchers used iPS cells from mouse skin to create a while mouse (published article in "Nature"). This was previously accomplished using mouse embryonic stem cells, but the researchers were curious to see whether it could be done with iPS cells... with the answer being "yes."

The question remains whether the approach could be used to clone humans."
Link to Original Source

+ - VideoLAN 1.0.0 Released!-> 0

Submitted by rift321 on Tuesday July 07, 2009 @09:36AM

rift321 writes "VLC media player, which we all know for simplifying the playback of, well, pretty much any codec out there, has finally released version 1.0.0.

Here's a quick list of improvements:

Live recording
Instant pausing and Frame-by-Frame support
Finer speed controls
New HD codecs (AES3, Dolby Digital Plus, TrueHD, Blu-Ray Linear PCM, Real Video 3.0 and 4.0, ...)
New formats (Raw Dirac, M2TS, ...) and major improvements in many formats...
New Dirac encoder and MP3 fixed-point encoder
Video scaling in fullscreen
RTSP Trickplay support
Zipped file playback
Customizable toolbars
Easier encoding GUI in Qt interface
Better integration in Gtk environments
MTP devices on linux
AirTunes streaming
New skin for the skins2 interface

Might be a good time to donate..."
Link to Original Source

+ - Scientists can grow stem cells in petri dish-> 1

Submitted by

rift321

on Friday May 29, 2009 @09:17AM

rift321 writes "Scientists safely created induced pleuripotent stem cells from human stem cells, and grew them in a petri dish. The previous methods for creating iPSC's involved the use of retroviruses, which rendered the stem cells unacceptable for human implantation, due to an increased risk of cancer and mutations. The researchers used a safer, albeit slower process to modify the skin cells, using a cell penetrating peptide to deliver the needed genes into the cell. Story here.

I'd like to hear if anyone has some insight into exactly how close that brings us to everyday-use of stem cells for regenerative therapy, and exactly what obstacles remain before such therapies can be put to use."
Link to Original Source

+ - Cornell, Penn State, Northeastern U: Instant-on PC-> 0

Submitted by rift321 on Thursday April 23, 2009 @11:10AM

rift321 writes "Researchers from Cornell, Penn State, and Northeastern University collaborated [Wired article] to combine strontium titanate into Si-based chips to create built-in, non-volatile, ferroelectric memory that could instantly restore the previous state of a computer upon the reapplication of power.

However, problems still exist in the technology, including current leakage from the ferroelectrics, manufacturability, among others... Usable technology could yet be a number of years away.

Here's the good word straight from Cornell."
Link to Original Source

+ - Dark Matter Possibly Detected by Italians-> 0

Submitted by rift321 on Thursday April 02, 2009 @11:24AM

rift321 writes "From the main article:

"PAMELA found a number of positrons much higher than expected," the mission's principal investigator Piergiorgio Picozza told SPACE.com. "Many think this could be a signal from dark matter, because for positrons this behavior fits very well with many theories of dark matter."

Any physicists out there with a take on these findings?"
Link to Original Source

+ - BMG Music Closing Doors... Opening Yourmusic.com-> 0

Submitted by

rift321

on Tuesday March 10, 2009 @09:03AM

rift321 writes "Looks like the traditional "record club" business model has officially crumbled away. Members of BMG Music service received emails this morning that notified them that the service is being discontinued. In its stead, yourmusic.com will offer $7 CD's with free shipping, and rather than showering new members with all the free CDs they could ever want, and giving away music points with certain purchases, you just get a single free CD... which seems like a more sustainable business practice. In the wake of economic decline, I can't really picture average Joe splurging on an album (when torrents are abundant), but if he just absolutely needed that new Colbie Caillat album, looks like yourmusic.com would be the place to go. Thoughts?"
Link to Original Source

+ - Chase online banking is exploitative-> 0

Submitted by

rift321

on Friday January 16, 2009 @05:09PM

rift321 writes "Bear with me here... for those of you who may finance an automobile through Chase, and do their banking online like I do, be wary of their tactics for collecting frivolous fees for common actions. Here's how it goes down: 1.) You make payments early because you manage your finances well. 2.) you decide to pay down the principle to reduce the amount of interest that is accrued. 3.) You look for a way to make a principal-only payment online, and are presented with two options:

"Make an auto payment today", which forces you to pay a $10 fee for "same-day processing," or

"Schedule an Auto Payment," which only allows you to make a payment to both the interest and the principal at some date in the future.

Either way, Chase is, in essence, forcing you to pay them interest, regardless of your wish to simply reduce the principal amount of your loan: they get their money early PLUS some extra interest! The only way for you to avoid the fee is to actually mail in a payment to a specific address for principal-only payments. How does that cost less for them?? IMO, this is manipulative behavior on the bank's part, and it should not be allowed. What if I wanted to reduce the principal by only $10??? I just needed the satisfaction of posting this somewhere...."
Link to Original Source

+ - Verizon has nationwide data network outage 0

Submitted by rift321 on Thursday January 08, 2009 @03:39PM

rift321 writes "I just called Verizon Tech support, and apparently they are experiencing a _nation-wide_ network outage. I can't find any news of it anywhere online, and wanted to post this to see if anyone on the Slashdot community has heard anything that could cause something this significant"