Salvance - Slashdot User

Submission + - Thousands of Gadgets Left in Taxis

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 27, 2006 @08:05PM

An anonymous reader writes: A global survey of 2000 taxi drivers from eleven major cities around the world shows thousands of valuable mobile phones, handhelds, laptops and USB Sticks are forgotten in taxis every day. In the last six months alone, Londoners have forgotten a staggering 54,874 mobile phones, 4,718 handhelds, 3,179 laptops and 923 USB sticks at the back of licensed taxi cabs and that's just the ones that have been reported as lost!

Submission + - Army Game Proves U.S. Can't Lose

Submitted by Alien54 on Monday November 27, 2006 @07:05PM

Alien54 writes: A new video game commissioned by the U.S. Army as a recruiting tool portrays the nation's military in 2015 as an invulnerable high-tech machine. It's an impressive game, simulating weaponry the military is actually using or building, gamers say. But the gameplay is designed so it's hard to lose: The equipment holds up awfully well and the enemy doesn't learn from experience.

Submission + - Takin' Care of Business and Working Paid Overtime

Submitted by

theodp

on Sunday November 26, 2006 @01:30AM

theodp writes: "About 800 CA-based Siebel employees who held the job title 'software engineer' or 'senior software engineer' stand to pocket $27,000 each from the proceeds of Siebel's $27.5 settlement of an overtime dispute. And while IBM's 32,000 techies won't make out quite as well, they'll still divvy up $65M in OT pay that IBM's shelling out to settle a federal class action suit."

Submission + - The Great Atari Landfill: A Legend Dissected

Submitted by jogden on Sunday November 26, 2006 @12:50AM

jogden writes: Gamer website Kotaku is carrying a story about a research article that details the Atari Landfill. "Devoted researcher, Digital Madman, has created a whole website on the study of this phenomenon and tackles his subject with a fervor that would make Agents Mulder & Scully jealous. Through interviews and meticulous research he has set out to prove that the legendary pile of plastic actually exists and reveals the real truths behind the legend..."

Mark Shuttleworth Tries To Lure OpenSUSE Devs 258

Posted by Zonk on Saturday November 25, 2006 @11:38PM from the trolling-for-talent dept.

polar_bear` writes "A lot of developers are angry at Novell for its deal with Microsoft, but is it fair game for other vendors to try to capitalize on dissatisfaction with Novell? Apparently, Mark Shuttleworth thinks so. Shuttleworth sent an invitation to the openSUSE developers list inviting developers 'concerned about the long term consequences' of Novell's deal to participate in Ubuntu Open Week and consider jumping ship to Ubuntu. OpenSUSE and Ubuntu developers are not amused."

Journal Journal: Management by example? 2

Journal by Josh Lindenmuth on Saturday November 25, 2006 @10:54PM

An old adage states that "the best way to lead is to lead by example". In technology related fields though, this is a tricky act ... as one could readily tell after reading comments in November 25's Can a Manager Be a Techie and Survive? story.

Submission + - Analysts Estimate PS3 & Wii Launch Numbers

Submitted by

eldavojohn

on Saturday November 25, 2006 @10:48PM

eldavojohn writes: "PJ McNealy of American Technology Research has announced the estimated numbers for the launch of both the PS3 & the Wii in North America. The numbers are 125K-175K for the PS3 & 425K to 475K for the Wii. I'm not too great at math but if Sony loses $240 on each console, isn't that roughly a $36 million dollar hit in one day? It's also hard to believe that well over half a million consoles are out in the general public (or under evergreen trees) and I still am unable to buy either of them."

Submission + - What's the coolest thing you've ever built?

Submitted by

Josh Lindenmuth

on Tuesday November 21, 2006 @01:35AM

Josh Lindenmuth writes: "What is the most interesting gadget, product, or device that you've ever built on your own? Cool computers, cars, hovercraft, handheld devices, fusion reactors ... I'd love to hear what other slashdot readers have built!

My own:
In high school I was involved in an engineering competition where we needed to create a machine that could move 100 lbs of groceries from a disabled person's car up and down a set of stairs, and then into their kitchen. It was probably the coolest thing I ever built (there were only 3 of us on the team), even though the wooden treads started splintering halfway up the stairs (we didn't have a metal shop, so it was made entirely out of wood, spare boat parts, and conveyor belts) and then it completely destroyed the stairs on its way down (it weighed over 300 lbs)."

Students Put UCLA Taser Video On YouTube 1583

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Tuesday November 21, 2006 @01:34AM from the police-buddhism-studies dept.

dircha writes "As widely reported, an incident in which Iranian-American student Mostafa Tabatabainejad was tasered up to five times by UCLA police on Friday, has been captured by a fellow student using a video enabled cell phone and published to YouTube. From the Daily Bruin: 'At around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, Tabatabainejad, a fourth-year Middle Eastern and North African studies and philosophy student, was asked to leave the library for failing to present his BruinCard during a random check. The 23-year-old student was hit with a Taser five times when he did not leave quickly and cooperatively upon being asked to do so.' In a story which has raised concerns of racial profiling, police brutality and the health risks of taser use, the ubiquity of video cell phone technology has given us a first hand record of an incident which might otherwise have been a he-said, she-said affair. While the publishing of the video to YouTube has given the issue compelling popular exposure beyond the immediate campus community."

Submission + - Genetically Engineered Edible Cotton

Submitted by

eldavojohn

on Tuesday November 21, 2006 @12:31AM

eldavojohn writes: "New Scientist is running a curious article on genetically engineered cotton. Is it warmer than regular cotton? Is it thicker than regular cotton? Not really. It's simply edible. Here's why, normal cotton is 22% protein which makes it a great target food source but it contains gossypol which may cause fatigue and even paralysis. Early attempts failed since removing gossypol left the plants extremely susceptible to other organisms. Using RNA interference (RNAi) technology, a US team has figured out a way to leave the plants themselves full of the protective gossypol but remove it entirely from the seed. According to the researches, the kernel of edible cotton can be roasted, salted and ate for a 'nutty flavor.' It can also be prospectively used to enrich many other foods with protein. Will this put a dent in world hunger? The researchers sure hope so."

Journal Journal: $100 laptop gets its first production run 1

Journal by OSTG Marketing on Tuesday November 21, 2006 @12:06AM

The $100 'One Laptop per Child initiative' notebook has completed its test production run this week. "The prototypes used a lime-green and white case design and were built on a Beta "B1" motherboard and a 366 MHz AMD Geode processor, while previous specifications had promised a 500 MHz unit. The system uses 128 MB of and a 512 MB Flash unit serves as mass storage device. There will be four USB ports as well as a Wi-Fi chipset

Submission + - The best scalable web host for PHP sites is...?

Submitted by

yennieb

on Monday November 20, 2006 @09:03PM

yennieb writes: "Slashdotters know better than anyone that PHP/MySQL scales quite nicely if you know what you're doing. But what if, in spite of this, you'd still like to focus on your core business and let a web hosting provider worry about your servers? Assuming that your site will grow too big for just a standard "dedicated server" plan, what are the best options? What happens when my site needs 5 dedicated servers and database replication (or more)?"

Submission + - Michigan teen creates fusion device

Submitted by

Josh Lindenmuth

on Monday November 20, 2006 @08:33PM

Josh Lindenmuth writes: "The Detroit Free Press is reporting that Thiago Olson, a 17 year old Michigan teen, was able to create a small fusion device in his parents' basement. The machine uses a 40,000 volt charge and deuterium gas to create the small reaction, which he says looks like a "small intense ball of energy".

The teen's fusion device is obviously not a self-sustaining reactor, but it still shows how fusion technology is becoming more accessible. Hopefully this points to a future where large scale fusion reactors are both economical and widely used."

Submission + - PS3 released half done?

Submitted by ubergamer1337 on Monday November 20, 2006 @08:29PM

ubergamer1337 writes: Its been 4 days since the much debated PS3 hit the store shelves, and a recent review from the New York Times wonders wether or not the PS3 was really ready for launch. From the article: Measured in megaflops, gigabytes and other technical benchmarks, the PlayStation 3 is certainly the worlds most powerful game console. It falls far short, however, of providing the worlds most engaging overall entertainment experience. There is a big difference, and Sony seems to have confused one for the other.

Submission + - Novell CEO addresses patent concerns

Submitted by

PCM2

on Monday November 20, 2006 @07:38PM

PCM2 writes: "Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian has issued an open letter to the press and Linux community addressing some of the concerns about his company's recent deal with Microsoft. From the letter: "We disagree with the recent statements made by Microsoft on the topic of Linux and patents. Importantly, our agreement with Microsoft is in no way an acknowledgment that Linux infringes upon any Microsoft intellectual property. When we entered the patent cooperation agreement with Microsoft, Novell did not agree or admit that Linux or any other Novell offering violates Microsoft patents.""

Slashdot Top Deals