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Comment How long will Digital Britain last? (Score 5, Interesting) 130

by Landak (#32290980) Attached to: London's Mayor Promises London-Wide Wireless For 2012 Olympics
To the joy of nerds everywhere in the UK, it seems like the Digital Britain bill might not last very long with the current Government.

Whether or not Cameron and the conservatives can splinter away from Murdoch enough to let this happen remains to be seen, but I am currently naive enough to be genuinely optimistic about the results of having liberals in power for the first time in over a century.

Comment Musicians (Score 4, Interesting) 257

by Landak (#31880592) Attached to: Research Suggests Brain Has a 2-Task Limit for Multitasking
What about professional musicians, who have to concentrate on far many more things than two at once? Organists, in addition to playing anything up to five keyboard manuals with their hands and one with their feet (simultaneously reading anything up to twelve lines of music, though in practice usually never more than five), have to listen to a choir and/or congregation, watch a conductor, and read the music, all at the same time. Some of them can even sing competently one line whilst doing so!

Whilst I can accept that it is very difficult to consciously concentrate on more than two things at once, somehow some people can train their subconscious into doing so -- when sight-reading music, I experience a lovely sensation, almost as if my brain is being "split" down the middle -- if I concentrate for too long, I start to develop a headache and feel exceptionally exhausted. It is a most wonderful feeling, and nothing else in the world quite comes close (although doing some rewarding mathematics isn't far behind). I would not be surprised if it were possible to find many more examples of people concentrating on more than two things at once, "simply" through getting other bits of their brain to do the dirty work. Juggling on a unicycle while jumping over a skipping rope, anyone?
Apple

Submission + - iPhone Could Be Banned in Europe (slashgear.com) 1

Submitted by
Pieroxy
Pieroxy writes: "After numerous reports of iPhones exploding in Europe, the authorities have warned Apple that they could just ban the phone from the European market. While this sounds a little far fetched for a handful of "explosion" reports, the message is clear. What is more pitiful about this whole story is that most if not all of the explosions cases are clearly fakes. How could an iPhone explode enough to break its glass plate, but not enough to actually damage the screen? (Yes, some people claimed an explosion while they still had a functional device)"
Music

Submission + - EU to Set Volume Limit on MP3 players

Submitted by
pickens
pickens writes: "Associated Press reports that an European Union scientific advisory body says that between 2.5 million and 10 million Europeans could suffer hearing loss from listening to MP3 players at unsafe volumes — over 89 decibels — for more an hour daily for at least five years and will draft tougher standards to limit hearing loss and new proposals have been presented to the European Commission's European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (Cenelec) calling for the default setting on all personal music players to be 80db. There are no current European standards on volume controls for MP3 players, though under French law personal music players must be limited to an output of 100 decibels (db). "It's easy to push up the sound levels on your MP3 player to damagingly loud levels, especially on busy streets or public transport," says Meglena Kuneva, the EU Consumer Affairs Commissioner. "And the evidence is that particularly young people — who are listening to music at high volumes sometimes for hours each week — have no idea they can be putting their hearing at risk." The proposals apply only to the default setting, not to the maximum setting for the device. "These standards make small technical changes to players so that by default, normal use is safe. If consumers chose to override the default settings they can, but there will be clear warnings so they know the risks they are taking," says Kuneva."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - 2009 Geek IQ Test (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "Robotics, routing protocols, Perl, unix system calls, AD&D alignments — only those versed in a versatile array of nerd knowledge will ace InfoWorld's 2009 geek IQ test. The 20-question test, which surveys a broad swath of tech know-how and culture from network management to Net ninjas, extends InfoWorld's popular geek IQ series."
Novell

Submission + - SPAM: Novell forces customers to pay for maintenance

Submitted by
viralMeme
viralMeme writes: ".. Novell this week felt the ire of its user base, as it warned partners that in a few months it would be requiring that customers get a maintenance contract on software before they would get access to patches, updates, and technical documents for that software .."
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Is Windows 7 designed to spy on us? 11

Submitted by
freakxx
freakxx writes: "An article on cnet.com has invited some concerns about spying nature of Windows 7 in form of a comment. His claims seems to be quite genuine as he is asking others to confirm it by checking themselves. In his words:

What I did notice was that Windows 7 is the NSA's most comprehensive Spyware Platform to date.. Thats why Russia, France, China, Cuba and most other Countries are moving to Open Source for Security! Thats why Microsoft needs to scare you off of XP Thats why Outgoing Data is not blocked by default in the firewall Thats why antiviruses like AVG were rewritten to prevent you from blocking Internet access by programs on your computer like Firefox for example! (You no longer get popups from your firewall asking if you want firefox and other programs to connect to the Internet — they just connect without your OK) Thats why encryption programs rewritten for Vista and Windows 7 give you no indication of trouble yet trusted encryption programs give you warning that the contents of RAM are being copied to your hard drive ONLY after you open an encrypted disk and thereby compromising your encryption key which was located in RAM. Thats why Windows 7 runs to the Internet to find a solution to the problem listed above after rebooting from a bluescreen! To aquire your encryption keys! Download Drivecrypt 4.0 from 2cows if you doubt me and test it yourself. DC-4.0 Installs correctly without errors, creates an encrypted volume without errors and only Bluescreens AFTER your encryption key is in RAM and can be copied to your hard drive to be transferred accross the Internet the next time you have Net access! Thats why Windows 7 can send your wireless network encryption key accross the Internet as well as your disk encryption keys stated above. By transferring your wireless encryption key without your knowledge, local authorities can access your wireless network and access your encrypted data even after you disconnect from the Internet Thats why wireless networking hardware will soon be built into future netbooks and notebooks to prevent removal Thats why nobody is even covering these problems in the press but instead are removing my posts from over 50% of other sites on the Internet If they doubt me, they should at least investigate these problems, don't you think?

I think this is indeed something that should be checked by the Slashdot community to shed more light on legitimacy of the claim, because if it is true, it's a very big concern for everyone. The cnet.com article is here and the comment is here. The user, who is making the claim, has his cnet.com profile here. He is also claiming that his comments are getting regularly deleted on Internet by the admins."

Comment Re:metamaterials are just periodic structures (Score 5, Interesting) 113

by Landak (#29157011) Attached to: Big Bang Could Be Recreated Inside a Metamaterial
Saying "metamaterials are just periodic structures" is like a circular argument - perfectly valid, but not very interesting. It so happens that currently all of the structures we've manufactured with a refractive index that is negative somewhere, have that 'somewhere' outside of the visible spectrum. This is due entirely - it is theorised - due to our aqueous origins when we were evolving eyes and doesn't make the materials any less fascinating! As the understanding behind these structures grows, we might be able to produce more and more exotic 'period structures' that have a refractive index closer to glass (i.e. a real refractive index in the visible that rapidly becomes purely imaginary [dissipative] elsewhere). The same is true of Type II superconductors - just because they're periodic structures that we don't understand fully yet doesn't mean that they're not useful to society at large!

Comment Re:anonymous? (Score 1) 382

by Landak (#29117089) Attached to: In the UK, a Plan To Criminalize Illegal Downloaders
Whilst it is true that the politicians currently probably did find Oxford a university for the upper-classes, this is no longer the case; I am currently an undergraduate there, and I come from what you would call a single-parent-family 'lower class' background. Likewise, I have friends there - scholars indeed - who have mums who were heroin addicts and whatnot. Please don't perpetuate the myth that Oxford is purely for the toffs of Eton and Harrow. Oxford is for the bright, the able, and honestly doesn't care wherever the hell you come from.

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I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"

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