Johannes K. - Slashdot User

Submission + - Delaying the "inevitable" death of Morse C (pete.net)

Submitted by

synchros

on Monday October 08, 2007 @12:15PM

synchros writes: "The Wall Street Journal had a front-page article today describing one man's work to encourage the uptake of Morse code, by transcribing books into Morse Code-based audio CDs.

From the article: "So far, Mr. Adams says he has sold or donated thousands of Morse versions of such novels as Edgar Rice Burroughs's "At the Earth's Core," Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe," and H.G. Wells's "The Time Machine." In about an hour his software can take any book in the public domain and turn it into a string of digital dits and dahs; last weekend, he turned out a version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's - .... . / -... . .- ..- - .. ..-. ..- .-.. / .- -. -.. / -.. .- — -. . -.. (a.k.a., "The Beautiful and Damned")."

I'm just disappointed I didn't get my 20WPM before the Morse Code requirement for radio amateurs was dropped."

Submission + - Customize your Emacs world (ibm.com)

Submitted by

BlueVoodoo

on Monday October 08, 2007 @11:51AM

BlueVoodoo writes: "This tutorial walks you through some of the useful ways you can customize and configure the Emacs environment. Learn how to change everything about the Emacs environment to your liking, from the behavior of minor modes to the default key bindings. Check out the other tutorials in the Emacs series."

James Randi Posts $1M Award On Speaker Cables 1239

Posted by kdawson on Thursday October 04, 2007 @10:03AM from the money-where-your-ears-are dept.

elrond amandil writes "James Randi offered US$ 1 million to anyone who can prove that a pair of $7,250 Pear Anjou speaker cables is any better than ordinary (and also overpriced) Monster Cables. Pointing out the absurd review by audiophile Dave Clark, who called the cables 'danceable,' Randi called it 'hilarious and preposterous.' He added that if the cables could do what their makers claimed, 'they would be paranormal.'"

Canadian Theatre Chain Sued for Abusive Search 374

Posted by kdawson on Monday July 30, 2007 @11:27PM from the get-a-detector dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A Canadian theater chain has been sued for an abusive search for camcording equipment. A Montreal woman is seeking $60,000 in damages for the search, which comes after the Canadian government caved to US pressure and enacted anti-camcording legislation."

Submission + - Fox News' FTP Password Anyone?

Submitted by Paris The Pirate on Monday July 23, 2007 @06:38AM

Paris The Pirate writes: Jeff Goodman writes "While browsing around the Fox News website, I found that directory indexes are turned on. So, I started following the tree up, until I got to /admin. Eventually, I found my way into /admin/xml_parser/zdnet/, in which, there is a shell script. Seeing as it's a shell script, and I use Linux, I took a peek. Inside, is a username and password to an FTP. So, of course, I tried to login. The result? Epic fail on Fox's part. And seriously, what kind of password is T1me Out. This is just pathetic." Anyone want to suggest a password policy to Fox?

Feed Linux.com: Open source software on the Nintendo DS (Lite) (linux.com)

From feed by lcfeed on Friday July 20, 2007 @04:12AM

The Nintendo DS is an excellent gaming device, but that's not all you can do with it. The machine's "hackability" makes the Nintendo DS a great platform for running open source software and even Linux, if you want to run a slimmed down version of Linux. In fact, several nifty open source applications can turn your Nintendo DS into a rather useful all-around computing device.

Submission + - Outsourcing IT

Submitted by on Friday July 20, 2007 @04:00AM

An anonymous reader writes: Recently my boss announced at a meeting that the focus at our company should be to outsource all 'non-core' aspects of our business. Because what we do is very much IT related, it surprised me to hear that parts of IT should be outsourced as well. While our email and phone systems are currently outsourced, certain systems such as corporate websites, source code management, and project collaboration seem like things that are better managed in house. My question to the slashdot crowd is this: Given such a directive, would you recommend outsourcing? Why or why not?

Feed Engadget: UK retailers reveal Xbox 360 Elite pricing (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed on Friday July 20, 2007 @01:32AM

Filed under: Gaming

Retailers such as HMV, Play, and Game in the UK are gearing up for the August 24th European release of Redmond's deluxe game system, and have begun pricing and taking pre-orders on Xbox 360 Elite packages at £330, although there's been no official word from the company on pricing. Microsoft has been tight-lipped, but speculation is that sellers have been tipped off from other regions, as many of them have a European presence. Of course, Steve McGill, the UK mouthpiece for the Xbox, stated last week that the Elite vs. Premium package pricing would be similarly relative to their US counterparts, thus placing the Elite costs close to £336 -- which certainly seems to solve this mystery.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Gateway Customer Sues to Get His PC Fixed 147

Posted by Zonk on Saturday June 09, 2007 @07:19AM from the toss-the-tossing-toses dept.

prostoalex writes "The Sacramento Bee tells the story of an El Dorado resident who had to go to small claims court to get his Gateway PC fixed: 'Right out of the box, he says, the computer displayed scattered graphics and wouldn't work properly. He says he called a Gateway salesman five times and sent him an e-mail to get an authorization number to send the computer back, but his phone calls and message were never returned. Then, over the course of months, Sheehan said he called Gateway technical support dozens of times.' Gateway insists that by clicking 'Accept' on a customer service EULA when the computer was first booted, Mr. Sheehan has waived his rights to sue the computer manufacturer in United States courts. The Gateway EULA states that conflicts must be resolved via private arbitrage. Sheehan, though, argues that he never saw the EULA, because of the broken graphics. As such, he's not held to that agreement." Some connections between this and a discussion about a Second Life case we had yesterday.

Submission + - Mapping the Blogosphere

Submitted by

dominique_cimafranca

on Saturday April 21, 2007 @04:52AM

dominique_cimafranca writes: "Discover Magazine has an interesting article on mapping the blogosphere, reporting on the work of Matthew Hurst. Hurst put together a 3D map of the blogosphere, with bright spots represent sites with the highest number of links and isolated islands represent closed communities like Livejournal. The study also identifies other islands like sociopolitical commentary, gadget hounds, sports fans, and, um, porn blogs."

Submission + - CU Student Arrested For Dorm Room Weapons Cache

Submitted by championsoftware on Saturday April 21, 2007 @04:35AM

championsoftware writes: Officers then went to Kittredge West and contacted Matthew Furnish at his room. After interviews with Furnish and a search of his room that was done with his consent, officers seized a Glock .40 caliber handgun, a Remington12-guage shotgun, several hundred rounds of ammunition, magazine clips for weapons and a 12-inch knife. Click here for article

Submission + - Is your printer ripping you off?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21, 2007 @04:23AM

An anonymous reader writes: Are original inkjet cartridges really worth the high cost? Do third party refill inks do as good a job? This article looks at printers from Epson, HP, Canon and Lexmark, with a combination of original inks and the top selling the top selling third pary options, using a whole host of different papers. A panel of printer users judged the ouput in a blind test — the printer manufacturers may not be happy with the results! http://www.trustedreviews.com/printers/review/2007 /04/21/The-Inkjet-Investigation/p1

Submission + - Digital Media Archiving Challenges Hollywood

Submitted by HarryCaul on Saturday April 21, 2007 @04:17AM

HarryCaul writes: Movies are moving to digital, but what about long-term archiving of the master source materials? Turns out it's harder for digital media than for contemporary analog. Data is being lost, and studios have to learn to cope. Phil Feiner of the AMPAS sci-tech division says "when he worked on studio feature films he found missing frames or corrupted data on 40% of the data tapes that came in from digital intermediate houses" How to deal with it? Regular migration from old media to new media. Grover Crisp, says Sony has put in a program of migrating every two to three years. Other studios are following suit, but wht about indie features? Will we lose films like we lost the orignals of the 20s?

Satellites Mating Via Robotic Arm 91

Posted by Zonk on Sunday April 08, 2007 @09:27PM from the that's-one-way-to-do-it dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "The launch of the Orbital Express mission, with its two satellites ASTRO and NextSat, the first one servicing the other, was widely covered a month ago. But what is happening in space now? In 'Robotic satellite servicer rehearsal underway in orbit,' Spaceflight Now reports about the progress done. A week ago, the two satellites were able to link to each other to operate the first transfer of hydrazine fuel from ASTRO's propellant tanks into NextSat. This weekend, ASTRO's ten-foot-long robotic arm is going to be used to move objects to NextSat. But what does it mean for international satellite operators when they need help with their space birds? Will they use a system designed for U.S.'s DARPA? "

The Virtual Teacher 94

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday April 04, 2007 @08:43PM from the aibo-ate-my-homework dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers from Illinois and Florida are developing a networking system which will create virtual representations of real people to improve our knowledge. They will use artificial intelligence and natural language processing software to enable us to interact with these avatars. The goal of the project, sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is to give us the possibility to interact with these virtual representations as if they were the actual person, complete with the ability to understand and answer questions. We should see the results at the beginning of 2008 — if the researchers succeed."

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