sking - Slashdot User

Comment Minimal Impact? (Score 2, Interesting) 334

by sking on Tuesday May 18, 2010 @09:05AM (#32251656) Attached to: Gulf Oil Spill Nearing Loop Current

According to NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco, who was interviewed on last night's McNeil Lehrer News Hour, the oil entering the Loop will have minimal environmental impact in other parts of the Gulf. She opines that "By the time the oil is in the loop current, it's likely to be very, very diluted. And, so, it's not likely to have a very significant impact. It sounds scarier than it is."

Apple Patches Massive Holes In OS X 246

Posted by timothy on Wednesday January 20, 2010 @05:23PM from the well-it-wouldn't-be-polite-to-patch-windows dept.

Trailrunner7 writes with this snippet from ThreatPost: "Apple's first Mac OS X security update for 2010 is out, providing cover for at least 12 serious vulnerabilities. The update, rated critical, plugs security holes that could lead to code execution vulnerabilities if a Mac user is tricked into opening audio files or surfing to a rigged Web site." Hit the link for a list of the highlights among these fixes.

Music By Natural Selection 164

Posted by samzenpus on Monday December 21, 2009 @03:57PM from the survival-of-the-grooviest dept.

maccallr writes "The DarwinTunes experiment needs you! Using an evolutionary algorithm and the ears of you the general public, we've been evolving a four bar loop that started out as pretty dismal primordial auditory soup and now after >27k ratings and 200 generations is sounding pretty good. Given that the only ingredients are sine waves, we're impressed. We got some coverage in the New Scientist CultureLab blog but now things have gone quiet and we'd really appreciate some Slashdotter idle time. We recently upped the maximum 'genome size' and we think that the music is already benefiting from the change."

Robot Invented To Crawl Through Veins 99

Posted by timothy on Monday July 06, 2009 @08:39PM from the oh-no-not-creepy dept.

Slatterz writes "Scientists from Israel's Technion University have unveiled a tiny robot, made using Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology, purportedly able to crawl through a person's veins in order to diagnose and potentially treat artery blockage and cancer. The little robot — with a diameter of just one millimeter — has neither engine nor onboard controls, instead being propelled forward by a magnetic field wielded on it from outside the patient's body."

Comment Re:Of Course (Score 2, Insightful) 204

by sking on Saturday July 04, 2009 @10:57AM (#28580165) Attached to: Jammie Thomas To Appeal $1.9 Million RIAA Verdict

It seemed to me that a disproportionate damage award may have been the strategy all along, given the performance of her attorneys.

Tetris Turns 25 177

Posted by timothy on Tuesday June 02, 2009 @11:30AM from the where-were-you dept.

teh.f4ll3n writes "25 years ago a Russian (Soviet) researcher thought of one of the world's most popular games. It is now that we celebrate its 25th anniversary. 'Twenty-five years ago, inside the bowels of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow, a young artificial intelligence researcher received his first desktop computer — the Soviet-built Elektronika 60, a copy of an American minicomputer called a PDP-11 — and began writing programs for it.'"

City of Vancouver Adopts Open Standards 132

Posted by kdawson on Sunday May 24, 2009 @05:03PM from the asleep-at-the-switch-in-redmond dept.

rbrander writes "Vancouver, Canada's third-largest city, has adopted a policy of 'open standards, interfaces and formats' for all public data. They will also consider open-source software on an even footing with proprietary for all new software purchases. Fifteen of the fifteen people who signed up to speak to city council on the topic spoke in favor. Their only criticism was, 'can't you do more?' with one advocating that free and open source software be given preference, not equal footing."

iTunes Prohibits Terrorism 124

Posted by samzenpus on Monday April 13, 2009 @07:59PM from the great-songs-come-with-great-responsibility dept.

Afforess writes "A recent closer look at the oft-skimmed EULA agreement for iTunes has an interesting paragraph in it, Gizmodo reports. 'You also agree that you will not use these products for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture or production of missiles, or nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.' Although humorous, some readers suggested that this may be a defense measure to previously discussed price changes in the iTunes music store."

Project OXCART Declassified From Area 51 208

Posted by Soulskill on Monday April 13, 2009 @07:30PM from the tommy-lee-jones-comes-forward dept.

An anonymous reader sends this excerpt from the LA Times: "... the myths of Area 51 are hard to dispute if no one can speak on the record about what actually happened there. Well, now, for the first time, someone is ready to talk ... Colonel Hugh 'Slip' Slater, 87, was commander of the Area 51 base in the 1960s. Edward Lovick, 90, featured in 'What Plane?' in LA's March issue, spent three decades radar testing some of the world's most famous aircraft (including the U-2, the A-12 OXCART and the F-117). Kenneth Collins, 80, a CIA experimental test pilot, was given the silver star. Thornton 'T.D.' Barnes, 72, was an Area 51 special-projects engineer. And Harry Martin, 77, was one of the men in charge of the base's half-million-gallon monthly supply of spy-plane fuels."

Comment Who is it? (Score 1) 1582

by sking on Wednesday April 01, 2009 @01:08PM (#27420195) Attached to: Slashdot Launches User Achievements

Just who is it that has logged in the most consecutive days in a row?

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