Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:Not Quite. (Score 1) 253

The best fitted for the environment, in terms of evolution, is the one that survives to pass it's traits along - through breeding. So in that sense yes, it does mean leaving more offspring to pass on whatever adaptive advantage it had gained. I'm pretty sure it doesn't mean we can select for greater brain capacity just by being bored from less effort required for our daily chores. Unless that boredom leads to more time and resources to devote to successful breeding, of course.
Communications

Submission + - Researchers find Cursing helps control pain. (reuters.com)

Anarchduke writes: The next time someone screams out a filth-ridden paragraph of obscenities upon stubbing his toe, you can feel reassured that he is just self-medicating. Researchers at Britian's Keele University discovered that swearing can physically control pain. Richard Stephens, John Atkins and Andrew Kingston, set out to establish if there was any link between swearing and physical pain.

"Swearing has been around for centuries and is an almost universal human linguistic phenomenon," says Stephens. "It taps into emotional brain centers and appears to arise in the right brain, whereas most language production occurs in the left cerebral hemisphere of the brain. Our research shows one potential reason why swearing developed and why it persists."

Their experiment showed that swearing enabled people to withstand pain or discomfort longer. The link, Stephens explains, appears to be the fact that swearing increases aggression.

"What is clear is that swearing triggers not only an emotional response, but a physical one too, which may explain why the centuries-old practice of cursing developed and still persists today".

Having watched English soccer matches, I guess all of the attendees must be suffering severe chronic pain.

Idle

Submission + - Massive VisaBuxx $23 Quadrillion "Glitch"

myob1776 writes: Visa Buxx is a funded debit card program that allows parents to give their kids Visa debit cards that are funded from parent accounts. Parents can monitor the spending and funding, etc. Our kids travel a lot for sports and so we find the cards useful.

There appears to have been a massive software problem with the Visa Buxx system yesterday. I received an email from Visa Buxx informing me that my son's account was overdrawn, due to a purchase he'd made from Applebees — in the amount of $23,148,855,308,184,500.00 (that's 23 quadrillion — I had to look it up).

After checking with him to make sure he really hadn't purchased 23 quadrillion dollars worth of food from Applebees — he's really not that big an eater — I called to dispute the transaction. A tired-sounding customer service rep interrupted me: "Are you calling about the $23 trillion dollar charge?" I corrected her "Actually, it's 23 quadrillion. I looked it up." According to her this was the result of a "glitch" that affected many, many other accounts. Until it's worked out — meaning, until Visa figures out why it happened and confirms that my son did not really spend $23 quadrillion dollars at Applebees — the accounts are frozen.
Space

Submission + - New map hints at Venus' wet, volcanic past (spacefellowship.com)

Matt_dk writes: "Venus Express has charted the first map of Venus' southern hemisphere at infrared wavelengths. The new map hints that our neighbouring world may once have been more Earth-like, with a plate tectonics system and an ocean of water. The map comprises over a thousand individual images, recorded between May 2006 and December 2007. Because Venus is covered in clouds, normal cameras cannot see the surface, but Venus Express used a particular infrared wavelength that can see through them."
Space

Submission + - SpaceX orbits its first satellite successfully (spacefellowship.com)

xp65 writes: "SpaceX achieved a launch success today with orbiting RazakSat, the first satellite successfully launched aboard a Falcon rocket. The satellite was separated from the Falcon 1 about 48 minutes after liftoff at 3:35 GMT (11:35 pm EDT). The orbit is 685 km and 9 degrees inclination. Launch was delayed several times due to a faulty helium valve on the ground and bad weather at the launch site at Kwajalein. This was the fifth flight of the Falcon 1 rocket, with the last two flights being succesful. Later this year the inaugural flight of the larger Falcon 9 rocket is planned from Cape Canaveral The RazakSat satellite was originally named MACSAT (Medium-Sized Aperture Camera Satellite). It was a joint development program between Astronautic Technology (M) Sdn.Bhd. of Malaysia and SaTReCi to develop and validate technologies for a Near Equatorial Orbit remote sensing mini-satellite system to acquire medium high-resolution images."

Comment Re:I would like to hear from a lawyer on this.. (Score 1) 581

I did one of these "assessments" about two hours ago, as part of a job application. Personally, I found it laughable. The majority of the test seemed, at least to me, more concerned with detecting discrepencies in my answers than actual narrowing down any personality traits.
An hour later I received a phone call from the employer telling me they were pleased with my results and would like to fly me down (to their corporate HQ) to discuss the position further. Needless to say I'm happy with the result, but honestly a bit put off with the means of getting there. I gamed their system - all that was required was consistency in the answers and a (quite obvious I would think) understanding of what they would be looking for.
A large part of it involved me rating, from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree" lists of words. Among those words were stupidities like "strong", "upright" and "planful".
I can understand the desire, in a competitive environment, to quantify the skills of prospective employees, but sometimes the attempt to reduce a persons personality to a metric is simply counter-productive.
The resulting "summary" didn't closely reflect my personality, and yet I'm quite certain I'll exceed my new employers expectations.
The Courts

Judge — "Making Available" Is Stealing Music 489

JonathanF writes "If you were hoping judges would see reason and realize that just using a program that could violate copyright law is about as illegal as leaving your back door unlocked, think again. An Arizona district judge has ruled that a couple who hosted files in KaZaA is liable for over $40K in damages just because they 'made available' songs that could have been pirated by someone, somewhere. There's legal precedent, but how long do we have before the BitTorrent crew is sued?" The New York case testing the same theory is still pending.
United States

Torrentspy Disables Searching For US IPs 277

dr_strang writes "Torrent indexing site Torrentspy.com appears to have disabled torrent searches for IPs that originate in the United States. Instead of a results page, users are directed to this page, which states: 'Torrentspy Acts to Protect Privacy. Sorry, but because you are located in the USA you cannot use the search features of the Torrentspy.com website. Torrentspy's decision to stop accepting US visitors was NOT compelled by any Court but rather an uncertain legal climate in the US regarding user privacy and an apparent tension between US and European Union privacy laws."
Businesses

Acer to Acquire Gateway for $710 million 222

downix writes "On the way into work today, I heard about Acer buying Gateway. A bold move strategically, I wonder what consequences this will have for Gateway's employees and customers. As the purchase price was at $1.90 per share, those of us that purchased Gateway shares a few years ago are reminded just how far it has fallen."
Networking

Submission + - Legal File Sharing with Incentives

Brian writes: "At PeerIt, users can post their torrents for sale, and buyers get paid out for helping distribute what they have purchased. The bittorrent tracker has been modified to use digest authentication, and access control lists. Sellers list post their torrents, and can accept PayPal or Google Checkout. Torrents include both a sale price and a payout. The payout is paid out to other buyers who help distribute the file."
It's funny.  Laugh.

Submission + - Mac v. PC Commercials - South Park style

ErikInterlude writes: The Mac v. PC commercials were fun when they first came out, but for me they've gotten a little old now that the novelty has worn off. I actually forgot them until I came across this little presentation posted on Youtube. It's a Mac v. PC commercial in the style of South Park. The voices could use a little work, but I got a chuckle out of it. I figured the Slashdot community would as well.
Privacy

Submission + - Last day to submit Real ID comments to DHS

SynCrypt writes: "The deadline for submitting comments on Real ID to Department of Homeland Security is 5 p.m. EST on Tuesday, May 8 — and today DHS announced that they're accepting email comments. The address is oscomments@dhs.gov, and emails must have "DHS-2006-0030" in the subject line. Privacy Activism and a lot of other organizations will be filing detailed comments; but numbers count too, especially in politicians' eyes: a strong showing in the commenting process will help swing some of the undecided states against Real ID and add momentum to the repeal movement in Congress. So please, make your voice heard!

The Privacy Coalition and the Stop Real ID Now blog have more a lot more information, including links to sample letters."
Music

Submission + - Montana Store Has No Problem With Used CDs

hendrix2k writes: "As we saw in kdawson's submission on May 7th, some states are taking great measures to keep people from burning CDs and selling them used. In Missoula, Montana, however, one record store has no problem with selling an album, letting you burn it, then paying half price for the "used" CD. From the article:

It's a simple policy, really: Standard computer software allows the owner of a CD to copy (aka "rip") to the computer hard drive a CD's tracks, which can then be copied to another recordable CD ("burned") and played, uploaded to any variety of MP3 players — or given to a friend. You then take the CD back to Budget within two days, and you'll get half of what you bought it for in cash.
"
Security

Submission + - Recent activity on DIGG, is DIGG really useful?

xploraiswakco writes: With the recent activity over Digg.com vs AACS, how valid do you think Digg.com is? Add to that there are many that think Digg.com is easy to hack and therefore falsify it's listings (this is I believe what really happened, hackers didn't want the AACS "stuff" to be removed, it isn't that hard for hackers to get there virus "bots" to register and vote. (This is my opinion).

So what do you think?

Hacked
Not Valid
Valid
Very Valid
Can't live without it.
I don't care, where is my fish, the answer was 42
It's funny.  Laugh.

Submission + - Canadian 'Spy' Coins "Looked Like Nanotechnolo

westcoaster004 writes: Earlier this year it was reported that according to the U.S. Department of Defence that "on at least three separate occasions between October 2005 and January 2006, cleared defence contractors' employees travelling through Canada have discovered radio frequency transmitters embedded in Canadian coins placed on their persons."
While the claims were quickly retracted, new reports indicate that the cause of the confusion was a 2004 Canadian coin emblazoned with a red poppy to commemorate the country's war dead. According to reports,

The worried [defence] contractors described the coins as "anomalous" and "filled with something man-made that looked like nanotechnology."
"It did not appear to be electronic (analog) in nature or have a power source," wrote one U.S. contractor, who discovered the coin in the cup holder of a rental car. "Under high power microscope, it appeared to be complex consisting of several layers of clear, but different material, with a wire like mesh suspended on top."
The coin's protective coating also glows peculiarly under ultraviolet light.

Slashdot Top Deals

Software production is assumed to be a line function, but it is run like a staff function. -- Paul Licker

Working...