qbwiz - Slashdot User

Submission + - Non-digital computing theory from Rudy Rucker

Submitted by

destinyland

on Friday March 02, 2007 @02:15AM

destinyland writes: "Mathematician Rudy Rucker argues that any natural process can be regarded as a computation — which means "The digital thing is sort of a red herring." If one system can be "mapped" using another — since they share a recurring pattern — a universal computation is expressed in any number of systems, including living beings. Taking the idea to an extreme, he's explored the idea in a new science fiction book asking if existing patterns approximate ongoing patterns, could it generate partial predictions of the future?"

Submission + - Faked Recordings Producer Comes Clean

Submitted by

thyrf

on Thursday March 01, 2007 @10:51PM

thyrf writes: "It seems as though those independent comparisons stated by the producer of the recently uncovered Hatto music fraud took an interesting turn, the BBC reports. Since it was first revealed, William Barrington-Coupe, the late Joyce Hatto's producer and husband admitted replacing the original tracks with those of other artists. However, all is not as it seems. Barrington-Coupe claims he first began to replace snippets of certain tracks where his wife, who had cancer, could be heard groaning in pain. "It is very touching and he does go through every detail and how he did it and he makes it very credible," Mr von Bahr of the BIS music label said. As he got better at replacing the material, the sections grew longer until they in some cases ended up being the entire piece itself. Though we don't quite know why he ended up replacing entire tracks, his confession is convincing enough to call off the legal-heavies. "I don't see how either myself or the industry can get any satisfaction for pure revenge, I think the whole thing is deeply tragic story"."

Submission + - The strange Heath Robinson Rube Goldberg Computer

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 16, 2007 @01:05PM

An anonymous reader writes: The continuing effort to add at least one series of (vacuum) tubes to the Internet progresses with an introduction to the workings of and thinking behind the Heath Robinson Rube Goldberg (HRRG) emulator. Learn how to implement a computer using a mixture of technologies from relays to fluidic logic.

Submission + - IP attorney: Bankrupt or not, SCO case is 'boring'

Submitted by

Jane Walker

on Tuesday January 16, 2007 @12:58PM

Jane Walker writes: "SCO could file for Chapter 11 this week, but attorney Tom Carey says it may be a moot point. The world may be bored with SCO, but that doesn't mean it should forget the lessons learned."

Journal Journal: Democrats May Reinstate Fairness Doctrine.

Journal by Slithe on Tuesday January 16, 2007 @12:45PM

Last week at the National Conference for Media Reform, Dennis Kucinich stated that Fairness Doctrine may be reinstated. The Fairness Doctrine was an FCC regulation that required broadcast media to present controversial issues in an honest, equal and balanced manner. It was repealed in 1987, and the Supreme Court ruled that the Doctrine was constitutional when applied to radio stat

Submission + - Google Contributes Thousands to Conservatives

Submitted by

Sigh

on Monday January 15, 2007 @07:53PM

Sigh writes: "Google is contributing some serious money to some of the most conservative members of congress, from the article: "Under pressure in Washington, Google has given thousands in political contributions to some of the most conservative members of Congress, tempering its image as a bastion of liberal campaign money. The online search giant's nascent political action committee gave 61 percent of contributions to Republicans, including Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Orrin Hatch of Utah, according to a USA TODAY analysis."

Looks like the 'Do No Evil' slogan of Google may have finally given way to political pressure..."

Submission + - Blizzard hints at new StarCraft by 2008

Submitted by

jtorry

on Monday January 15, 2007 @07:36PM

jtorry writes: "Blizzard fans were out in force in London tonight, celebrating the launch of the much anticipated World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade expansion, but another Blizzard game might have stolen the limelight. Itzik Ben Bassat, Vice President Business Development and International for Blizzard Entertainment, took the stage at HMV, Oxford Street, London, and said some rather revealing words.

"I'm a StarCraft player myself and I hope it's not a decade, and we launched StarCraft in 1998, before I'm standing here again, celebrating the next game in the series," stated Bassat while on stage.

So, while not an official date for the next game in the StarCraft series, a new game by 2008 looks very likely. We'll keep our ear to the ground for more info.

http://www.pro-g.co.uk/news/15-01-2007-4502.html"

Submission + - Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age to be miniseries

Submitted by fmackay on Monday January 15, 2007 @06:51PM

fmackay writes: Neal Stephenson's novel The Diamond Age is to be adapted for a Sci Fi Channel miniseries. George Clooney is producing and Stephenson writing the screenplay.

Submission + - Sun commits to Xen

Submitted by VirtualizationDork on Monday January 15, 2007 @06:43PM

VirtualizationDork writes: Sun Microsystems said publicly that it will include the open source Xen hypervisor in the next release of Solaris 10.

Alex Barrett has the story on SearchServerVirtualization.com.

Submission + - Fluendo releases WM, MPEG GStreamer codecs

Submitted by

joeljkp

on Monday January 15, 2007 @06:41PM

joeljkp writes: "Fluendo today released the first set of general-use GStreamer plugins for patented codecs such as Windows Media, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4. Previously available only in legally-questionable form from the FFMpeg or MPlayer projects, or bundled with the TurboLinux or Linspire products, these codecs now allow anyone using a GStreamer-based media player to view media produced with such codecs. The plugins are compatible with GStreamer 0.10.x, and are available from Fluendo's webshop."

Toshiba Touts 51GB HD DVD 236

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday January 15, 2007 @06:30PM from the i-thought-you-said-it-was-a-good-size dept.

srizah writes to mention that Toshiba plans to launch a 51 GB HD DVD, with a 1 GB advantage over Sony's Blu-ray disc. From the article: Toshiba has submitted a triple-layer, 51GB HD DVD-ROM disc to the standard's overseer in the hope the technology will be adopted as a standard by the end of the year. If approved, it allow the format to exceed the 50GB storage capacity of rival medium Blu-ray Disc. The HD DVD standard currently defines single- and dual-layer discs capable of holding 15GB and 30GB of data, respectively."

Submission + - Helpers instead of frameworks: date, don't marry

Submitted by on Monday January 15, 2007 @05:40PM

An anonymous reader writes: Frameworks like Rails are generally an all-or-nothing commitment. I find that frameworks are great when they handle what you want, but are a bear when you have requirements that must go outside of them. I've instead been shifting toward "helpers" instead of frameworks. Helpers are small utility functions or classes that you can use to simplify things, but that you can ignore if they get in the way. You marry frameworks, but can merely date helpers, keeping your options flexible. An example helper is a function to generate a drop-down list (HTML Select). It takes a pipe-delimited list of value-description pairs. I have another function that can generate such delimited lists from a database query for longer lists. I don't have to use either if they don't fit my needs; or I can rewrite them for a specific application. They are kept simple by trying not to make them overly generic. Over time my helper kit gets better and better. What are your experiences with such?

Submission + - worm.whboy Receives First 5-Star Severity Rating

Submitted by

jimbojw

on Monday January 15, 2007 @05:00PM

jimbojw writes: "ShanghaiDaily.com reports:
The cyber bug, called worm.whboy because it originated in Wuhan, China, received the first five-star severity rating ever issued by the Shanghai Information Technology Service Center because it can attack local area networks in government bureaus and companies and damage their programs and databases.
It goes on to say:
The new worm can also prevent infected computers from operating antivirus software and any programs using the "exe" suffix.
Users will know their systems are infected if their executable file icons turn into images of pandas with burning joss sticks.
"

Submission + - MIT Research Team Develops Model for Wireless Powe

Submitted by

Giuliano

on Thursday November 16, 2006 @02:09PM

Giuliano writes: "The idea of wireless energy transfer has been around for a number of years, but now MIT believes it can be done inside the lab Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have created a system that is theoretically able to power electronic devices wirelessly. Assistant Professor Marin Soljacic of the Department of Physics and Research Laboratory of Electronics, along with MIT graduate students Aristeidis Karalis and John Joannopoulos, are working on the "evanescent coupling" technology. The primary downfall of other power-over-air technologies is the fact that they are extremely directional or extremely dangerous. The first roadblock in wireless power is traditionally solved by simply increasing the power and using omni-directional antennas. This unfortunately gives rise to the second downfall; enough of an increase in power to make omni-directional useful traditionally results in so much energy transmitted that it is no longer safe for humans to stand near the device. Full Story"

Submission + - Ask the Creators About Punchscan

Submitted by

The Punchscan Team

on Tuesday November 07, 2006 @06:03PM

The Punchscan Team writes: "When the story broke on /. about our system, we observed a larger than normal number of comments from members who appeared to be confused. We wanted to offer all of you a chance to ask, and get, answers to the big questions that you may have about our system and what we are trying to do. Thanks!"

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