Soulfader - Slashdot User

Submission + - Sixpack from sitting at the computer (twibright.com)

Submitted by

Clock

on Friday July 27, 2007 @05:04AM

Clock writes: "The secret dream of all computer geeks has come true. Surfing the Internet can now have similar positive effect on bodily attractivity as surfing Waikiki or Malibu. Twibright Labs have developed Exciter, a cheap open source DIY exercise bike that is to be used while sitting at a computer. Running as a three-phase self-excited induction machine, it generates electricity to power the computer, the LCD screen or at least a desk lamp. This arrangement both saves time and provides additional motivation and fun in exercise. And if you tweak the excitation capacitors, you can draw over 500 volts!"

Submission + - Is eBay Now Completely Unusable?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 26, 2007 @11:07AM

An anonymous reader writes: I recently read an article about one person's experience trying to sell on eBay, which closely reflects my own. According to the author, eBay is now riddled with so much active fraud and spam that is has become impossible to sell anything or conduct business in any way. He suggests several ways eBay could fix the problem, none of which have yet been implemented. So I'd like to tap the Slashdot community and get more advice for how to make eBay usable for myself, and what else you think eBay should do to fix all their problems?

Submission + - Americans Clueless About Cancer Risks (cancer.org)

Submitted by

Invisible Pink Unicorn

on Thursday July 26, 2007 @09:52AM

Invisible Pink Unicorn writes: "A study conducted by the American Cancer Society found that a surprising number of Americans believe scientifically dubious claims concerning cancer, and that the groups with the greatest burden of cancer are the most likely to be misinformed. For example, the majority of survey respondents didn't think smoking was more likely to cause lung cancer than pollution — despite 87% of lung cancer cases being due to smoking. The most interesting finding was that people who described themselves as knowing the most about cancer were more likely to have false beliefs. Participants who labeled themselves as "very informed" about cancer were more likely to believe underwire bras cause breast cancer, or that quitting smoking did nothing to reduce cancer risks. The article abstract is availabe from the journal Cancer."

Submission + - Nursing Home Cat Can Sense Death (yahoo.com) 1

Submitted by

Raver32

on Thursday July 26, 2007 @08:06AM

Raver32 writes: "When Oscar the Cat visits residents of the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, the staff jump into action — Oscar can sense within hours when someone is about to die. In his two years living in Steere's end-stage dementia unit, Oscar has been at the bedside of more than 25 residents shortly before they died, according to Dr. David Dosa of Brown University in Providence. He wrote about Oscar in the New England Journal of Medicine. "It's not that the cat is consistently there first," Dr. Joan Teno, a professor of community health at Brown University, who sees patients in the unit. "But the cat always does manage to make an appearance, and it always seems to be in the last two hours.""

Submission + - Confustion over Vista cause of most support calls (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by harsha_c on Thursday July 26, 2007 @07:44AM

harsha_c writes: Support.com, a "Instant Technology Relief" support website that opened its doors to troubled techies in June, has released survey results from its first month of business. The number one reason for support calls? Vista questions.From a pool of 1,000 users that inquired about technical help, 77 percent needed help with Vista. Of those inquiring about Vista, 30 percent needed help navigating around Vista's new Aero user interface. According to Anthony Rodio, the chief marketing director of support.com, the three main issues were navigation problems, device incompatibility, and home networking issues. Consumers are having a hard time with Aero because of the changes between Vista and the Windows 2000 and XP user interfaces. Support.com customers were also complaining about device issues, which were mostly attributed to outdated drivers that needed to be brought up to speed with Vista. Lastly, support.com customers complained about home networking issues in which Vista users were not able to see Windows XP computers connected to their home network.

Submission + - Iraq vet gets bionic hand

Submitted by

mcgrew

on Wednesday July 25, 2007 @04:06PM

mcgrew writes: "CNN is carrying a report about a new prosthetic device, called an 'i-LIMB', that user Sgt. Juan Arredondo, who lost his real hand in Iraq, likens to the robotic bionics in 'Star Wars' and 'Terminator'. 'My son, he goes nuts about it,' the Sergent said.

'To have this movement, it's — it's amazing,' Arredondo said Monday as he showed off the limb made by Scotland-based Touch Bionics. 'It just gets me more excited about now, about the future.'

Five individual motors power the fingers, allowing the person to grasp round objects. The hand's gestures are made possible through electrode plates that detect electrical signals generated in the remaining muscles in the amputated limb.
And I thought my eye implant was cool! Welcome to the 21st century!"

Submission + - MySpace finds 29,000 sex offenders

Submitted by taoman1 on Wednesday July 25, 2007 @12:54AM

taoman1 writes: MySpace has identified more than 29,000 registered sex offenders among those registered to use its site — more than four times what the company said in May it had found from an investigation, according to North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper.

Submission + - The seven habits of highly subversive people (blogspot.com)

Submitted by

frank_adrian314159

on Tuesday July 24, 2007 @01:02PM

frank_adrian314159 writes: "Tired of the repression in the US? Want to fight "da man"? Want to be a subversive? A person who grew up in an authoritarian regime tells you how to do it in seven simple habits. Although couched in language of ecological concern Amanda Kovattana gives everyone who wants to get off their butts and make a difference a good set of guidelines."

Submission + - Beautiful Katamari on PS3 Cancelled, Now on Wii (ign.com)

Submitted by

CubeNudger

on Saturday June 30, 2007 @07:05PM

CubeNudger writes: "IGN is reporting that the Playstation 3 edition of Namco's idiosyncratic ball-rolling game has been canceled in order to concentrate on a Wii version. The article cites "stalled sales of the PS3" as the reason for the cancellation."

Submission + - Compressed Air Car

Submitted by FridayBob on Saturday June 30, 2007 @05:13PM

FridayBob writes: Yesterday, a Belgian newspaper published this article (translation) about a new car that runs on nothing but compressed air. Apparently, it can run for about 200km on a tank of air filled up to a pressure of 300 bar (4351 psi). Special filling stations can refill an empty tank in only 3 minutes, but the car can also refill itself in six hours using an electrical outlet and its own on-board compressor. The car was developed by MDI (lots of info), a company set up by French engineer, Guy Nègre (ex-Formula One), that makes its money by selling patents and manufacturing licenses. It will become available in Belgium some time next year for a minimum price of only EUR 4,000 ($5,402). The Indian company, Tata, have also bought a manufacturing license and plan to sell a model for as little as EUR 1,835 ($2,478). This Wikipedia article has some interesting information regarding the air engine. Until a good enough battery appears with which to run an electric car, this seems like an excellent solution.

Submission + - Eben Moglen: Global Software Industry Post-GPL3

Submitted by

Dan Shearer

on Friday June 29, 2007 @05:15PM

Dan Shearer writes: "Three days before GPLv3 was released, Eben Moglen delivered the annual lecture of The Scottish Society of Computers and Law in Edinburgh, Scotland giving his thoughts on The Global Software Industry in Transformation: After GPLv3. The text transcription, audio and 384kbit video are up at archive.org. Eben looks back at the "legislative action" achieved by the GPLv3 community over the last 18 months, and also from the 22nd century. A riveting presentation for all present."

Submission + - New Concept in Gaming Launched Online and at PAX (technomancer-press.com)

Submitted by

archer904

on Friday June 29, 2007 @05:15PM

archer904 writes: "Penny Arcade and Technomancer Press have jointly announced the launch of TerraDrive, a new concept in gaming. It features content generated by the players via an ELOTH:TES style wiki, except that players will play in the universe they have created during the Massively Multiplayer Live Action Role Playing Game phase, which happens at PAX. They say they are expecting 4,000+ players. They are set to get a Guinness World Record for Largest RPG (single venue). After the MMLARPG at PAX, TerraDrive is available as a tabletop role-playing game with a twist: Technomancer Press is publishing adventures for the game based on content from the wiki. This means that a player can buy an adventure one day and find out he named the planet that the action takes place on, and his buddy developed the crime syndicate they're fighting against.

Information is available in wikipedia in the articles TerraDrive and TerraDrive Live, as well as at these URLs:

http://www.pennyarcadeexpo.com/tdlpress.php
http://www.technomancer-press.com/index.php/tdu-pr ess-release/"

Submission + - RIAA Wants Agreements to Stay Secret

Submitted by

NewYorkCountryLawyer

on Friday June 29, 2007 @05:10PM

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The RIAA is opposing Ms. Lindor's request for discovery into the agreements among the record company competitors by which they have agreed to settle and prosecute their cases together, by which she seeks to support her Fourth Affirmative Defense (pdf) alleging that "The plaintiffs, who are competitors, are a cartel acting collusively in violation of the antitrust laws and of public policy, by tying their copyrights to each other, collusively litigating and settling all cases together, and by entering into an unlawful agreement among themselves to prosecute and to dispose of all cases in accordance with a uniform agreement, and through common lawyers, thus overreaching the bounds and scope of whatever copyrights they might have. ...As such, they are guilty of misuse of their copyrights.""

Submission + - A commercial look at the GPL (nyud.net)

Submitted by

also-rr

on Friday June 29, 2007 @04:09PM

also-rr writes: "I needed to present a five minute brief on the GPL and what it could offer a company.

My aim was to give a clear idea of the basics of the GPL and why it should be considered for some projects. In particular there is a focus on partnered projects and how the GPL might be used to build a better relationship.

Entitled "The GNU GPL: A Commercial View" I hope it's useful for anyone else that needs to persuade a value-focused audience of the benefits of the GPL.

What changes would you make to put the point across more effectively? What changes need to be made for GPL3?"

Submission + - Are web-developer certifications worth it?

Submitted by

riyley

on Friday June 29, 2007 @04:04PM

riyley writes: "I'm a fairly advanced web developer with some hard experience in HTML, CSS, Javascript, Coldfusion and PHP. Now the HR at my company wants me to prove it in a way they understand, certificate. My boss has asked me to select some solid certifications and i've come up with three providers: W3Schools, BrainBench and ExpertRating.

I would like to know if these companies hold any more weight than the frame around the cert, or if it's a waste of my departments money and time? Is there another company I should look at? I'd prefer that in 3-5 years when i'm ready to move on to another job, that these would still be worth padding my resume with. Is that a pipedream?"

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