Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Television

Submission + - Star Trek "DeMastered" Video Service Launc

Submitted by
lopy
lopy writes: "The Star Trek franchise has partnered with the little known DuroSport Corporation to launch a new video download service. The service will offer "DeMastered" versions of classic Trek episodes. The new releases roll-back the quality enhancements of recent years and attempt to replicate the experience viewers had while watching the original series on TV in the 1960's. Medialoper was given a preview, and they've just posted a scathing review of this odd new service."
Businesses

Submission + - Too much of a good thing?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Register http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/21/four_teat_ sheep/ is reporting a story broken by Stuff.co.nz, that New Zealand scientists plan to tackle the thorny problem of ewes producing more lambs than they have nipples to accommodate by simply upping mum's teat-count. They are looking to do this by traditional breeding tactics, though direct genetic engineering would seem to be another solution. Eccentrica Gallumbits, anyone?
Space

Submission + - NASA think tank to be shut down

Submitted by
Matthew Sparkes
Matthew Sparkes writes: "NASA will likely shut down its Institute for Advanced Concepts, which funds research into futuristic ideas in spaceflight and aeronautics. The move highlights the budget problems the agency is facing as it struggles to retire the space shuttles and develop a replacement. The institute receives $4 million per year from NASA, whose annual budget is $17 billion. Most of that is used to fund research into innovative technologies; recent grants include the conceptual development of spacecraft that could surf the solar system on magnetic fields, motion-sensitive spacesuits that could generate power and tiny, spherical robots that could explore Mars."
Software

Submission + - Opera /. easter egg and new speed dial feature

Submitted by Thelomen
Thelomen writes: Opera Browser contains a fairly unknown Easter Egg: Simply type /. in the address bar and you are taken directly to Slashdot.org. This easter egg was recently reported over at OperaWatch.com .

Other recent news from Opera is their new Speed Dial feature, precent in the most recent build from Desktop Team. Speed Dial is nothing more than 9 bookmarks you can open with CTRL+1 to CTRL+9, however the pages on the Speed Dial are shown as a thumbnail and automatically prefetched in background, making it ideal if you have some heavy pages among your top 10 bookmarks, and you may come to use this feature much more than you thought.
Microsoft

Submission + - Bill Gates Talks about 640k (1989)

Submitted by Andareed
Andareed writes: It seems that there might finally be proof of Bill Gates statement about how "640k ought to be enough for anybody". NewsForge has an article about a talk given by Bill Gates in 1989. Bill Gates apparently let slip that in 1981 he figured 640k would be good enough for the next 10 years.
United States

Submission + - Patent Office Head Lays Out Reform Strategy

Submitted by
jeevesbond
jeevesbond writes: "
The patent system is not broken, just not perfect. That is the viewpoint of Jon Dudas, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Dundas also talks of other improvements planned by the USPTO, including employing more examiners and allowing third-parties to submit information to patent submissions."
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Two Stargate SG1 Films Announced

Submitted by Presence2
Presence2 writes: MGM announced today that the Stargate franchise will migrate to the big screen, carrying with it the ending of the last two season's Ori plot-line. From the article:

"Stargate: The Ark of Truth": As SG-1 searches for an Ancient artifact which they hope can defeat the armies of the Ori, they learn more Ori ships are about to be sent through the supergate to launch a final assault on Earth. Daniel discovers that the artifact, the Ark of Truth, may be in the Ori home galaxy, and SG-1 embarks aboard the Odyssey to find it, and pre-empt the attack. The IOA has a plan of their own and SG-1 ends up in a distant galaxy fighting two powerful enemies.

"Stargate: Continuum": While SG-1 attends the execution of Ba'al, the last of the goa'uld system lords, Teal'c and Vala inexplicably disappear into thin air. Carter, Daniel and Mitchell race back to a world where history has been changed: the Stargate program has been erased from the timeline. As they try to convince the authorities what's happened, a fleet of goa'uld motherships arrives in orbit, led by Ba'al, his queen, Katesh, (Vala) and his first prime, Teal'c. SG-1 must find the Stargate and set things right before the world is enslaved by the goa'uld.

Still no word if Sam will end up the one and only "Sir!"
Microsoft

Submission + - The Home Server Cometh

Submitted by narramissic
narramissic writes: Apart from Apple's 'I'm cooler than you' ad campaign, you don't hear much about the Windows versus Mac battle these days. The reason: Today's battle isn't about 'what brand of computer sits on the desk in your spare room, or even what operating system it runs, it's going to be about who gets to dominate the market for home servers that will control your entertainment, television, telephony, and your home automation system,' argues Dan Blacharski in a recent article.
Space

Submission + - NASA Will Go Metric on the Moon

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Space.com is reporting that NASA has decided to use the metric system for its new lunar missions. NASA hopes that metrication will allow easier international participation and safer missions. The loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter was blamed on an error converting between English units and metric units. 'When we made the announcement at the meeting, the reps for the other space agencies all gave a little cheer,' said a NASA official.
Unix

Submission + - The birth of vi

Submitted by
lanc
lanc writes: "Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun, contributor to BSD Unix, the UltraSparc technology, NFS and even Java, tells the story in an article at TheRegister about how he wrote vi and what the motives were. In the interview he says:

"It was really hard to do because you've got to remember that I was trying to make it usable over a 300 baud modem. That's also the reason you have all these funny commands. It just barely worked to use a screen editor over a modem. It was just barely fast enough. A 1200 baud modem was an upgrade. 1200 baud now is pretty slow."

...and so my son begun The Holy Editor War."
Novell

Submission + - Post-Novell Interview with Jeremy Allison

Submitted by
schestowitz
schestowitz writes: "Jeremy Allison of Samba Fame has recently left Novell in protest over the company's deal with Microsoft. BoycottNovell has had an interview with Jeremy — one that covers the events which preceded the deal, as well as the ways forward. From the interview: 'My guess is that the negotiations for the useful parts of the agreement (the virtualization part and the federated directory interoperability part) had, as Ron (Hovsepian) says, been going on for months and just before Novell wanted to seal the deal Microsoft turned up with "there's just this one more thing we want you to sign..." and in desperation to get the other parts of the deal done they rushed it through.'"
NASA

Submission + - NASA Needs Fake Moon Dust

Submitted by
crisco
crisco writes: "NASA's renewed interest in lunar exploration and "in situ resource utilization," or ISRU, is driving the need for tons of carefully faked lunar dust and sand for testing purposes:
"We don't have enough real moondust to go around," says Larry Taylor, director of Planetary Geosciences Institute at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. To run all the tests, "we need to make a well-qualified lunar simulant." And not just a few bags will do. "We need tons of it, mainly for working on technologies for diggers and wheels and machinery on the surface," adds David S. McKay, chief scientist for astrobiology at the Johnson Space Center (JSC).
"

Slashdot Top Deals

Thus spake the master programmer: "After three days without programming, life becomes meaningless." -- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"

Close