farker haiku - Slashdot User

Submission + - Clam Shells Provide More Global Warming Evidence

Submitted by farker haiku on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @02:24PM

farker haiku writes: Scientific American is reporting that 'A new method for analyzing fossilized shells confirms link between carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and warmer oceans'. The article goes on to say that "The finding adds yet more weight to the contention that greenhouse gases drive climate change, and bode ill for the present increases in atmospheric concentrations of such gases. "It supports the notion," Eiler says, "that you can use simple radiative balance arguments — that is, the greenhouse effect to relate atmospheric chemistry to global temperature."

Submission + - A first look at Iron Ruby (iunknown.com)

Submitted by farker haiku on Monday July 23, 2007 @01:18PM

farker haiku writes: The "first drop" of source is available for Iron Ruby, the Microsoft .NET version of Ruby. It's a very early version, but since it's being released under the Microsoft Permissive License, it's going to be very close to open source. This might finally stop some of the most common complaints regarding Ruby: namely that there is no "mature" GUI toolkits. Being able to use WinForms might further help out newbie programmers who are looking to write simple apps to show off. John Lam's blog post on the article is here. They are also currently accepting source code contributions.

Submission + - Nintendo opens up the Wii (theglobeandmail.com)

Submitted by

Raver32

on Thursday June 28, 2007 @07:51AM

Raver32 writes: "Nintendo Co. has opened its blockbuster Wii game system to independent video-game developers for the first time, the company announced Wednesday. Nintendo said it will let individuals and outside game studios create and sell downloadable Wii games with a tool called WiiWare. Gamers will be able to purchase the games through the console's Wii Shop channel starting in early 2008. Perrin Kaplan, a Nintendo spokeswoman, said the game-creation kit is designed for people with at least some knowledge of computer programming. Developers can start designing games using a PC but must complete them on the Wii console, Kaplan said. "Independent developers armed with small budgets and big ideas will be able to get their original games into the marketplace to see if we can find the next smash hit," said Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, in a statement."

Submission + - Wii Opened For Development

Submitted by

kiwipom

on Thursday June 28, 2007 @07:29AM

kiwipom writes: "The BBC is reporting that Nintendo are opening up the Wii to developers to produce their own games.

"Home and independent game makers are getting a chance to put together titles for Nintendo's Wii console. The hi-tech firm has released a set of game-making tools called WiiWare that give budding game makers the data they need to use the console and its innovative controller.

Do Slashdotters think this will drive a decent selection of games for the Wii driving further adoption, or is this just a gimmick that will supply endless versions of centipede clones? What games, that can be home developed, do people think would benefit from the wiimote and nunchuck?"

Submission + - Nintendo to open up Wii Console (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by the_crowing on Thursday June 28, 2007 @07:09AM

the_crowing writes: [Nintendo] has released a set of game-making tools called WiiWare that give budding game makers the data they need to use the console and its innovative controller. Wii owners will be able to download the games through net channels accessible via the console. Nintendo said the first games would be available for download in early 2008.

Submission + - Faster handling of Ruby on Rails CRUD

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 27, 2007 @08:08PM

An anonymous reader writes: ActiveScaffold is a plugin and a model-based "smart" UI systems for Ruby on Rails, that can dramatically simplify the creation and maintenance of your Ruby on Rails application. Instead of having to create pages by hand that display your models, ActiveScaffold will introspect your ActiveRecord models and dynamically generate a CRUD (create, read, update, delete) user interface for managing those objects. Its fast, easy, and sweet.

Submission + - Rails ported to JavaScript 1

Submitted by farker haiku on Monday June 25, 2007 @03:56PM

farker haiku writes: John Lam has a story on his blog about how Steve Yegge has ported Rails to JavaScript.

FTA: In an effort to increase developer productivity at Google, Steve tried to convince the company to adopt Rails (and consequently Ruby) as a programming language. When that fell on deaf ears (Google really does not want to increase the number of languages that must be supported by their infrastructure), Steve decided to do what any other frustrated programmer would do: he ported Rails to JavaScript. Line by line. In 6 months.

As a programmer who has been trying to convince my company to adopt Rails, I know just how hard it is to get a large company to increase the number of languages supported. Does this mean that we can finally see some widespread Rails adoption?

Submission + - FCBD in the US and Canada!

Submitted by farker haiku on Saturday May 05, 2007 @12:08PM

farker haiku writes: Just a quick reminder that it's Free Comic Book Day in the US and Canada. Here is a list of the comics available for free, and you can find a local participating comic book store here. What is Free Comic Book Day? From their press kit: As the name implies, Free Comic Book Day is a single day when participating comic book shops across North America and around the world are giving away comic books absolutely free to anyone who comes into their stores.

Submission + - How do you change careers into programming?

Submitted by on Sunday February 18, 2007 @09:14PM

An anonymous reader writes: I have worked in tech support for the last several years, but find myself wanting to move on to something else — programming. I've written some small programs in my limited spare time but nothing particularly impressive; just functional stuff to make my life easier. I've spent a lot of time recently working through programming books, and feel I'm ready to make the switch in my career. That said, I don't have a CS degree, and find that responses to my resume have been along the lines of "Thanks, but we aren't hiring for tech support positions." Surely someone from the slashdot crowd has been in the same position — what would you recommend?

Submission + - Debian gets win32 installer

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 27, 2007 @04:32PM

An anonymous reader writes: Debian hacker Robert Millan has just announced the availability of a Debian-Installer Loader for win32. The program, inspired by Ubuntu's similar project, features 64-bit CPU auto-detection, download of linux/initrd netboot images, and chainloading into Debian-Installer via grub4dos. A frontend site, http://goodbye-microsoft.com/ has been setup for advocacy purposes.

Submission + - string theory

Submitted by

R. Mirman

on Saturday January 27, 2007 @04:19PM

R. Mirman writes: "String theory has been proven with mathematical rigor to be wrong. It has long been known that physics (a universe)would be impossible in any dimension but 3+1. Also there is a quantum theory of gravity, the only possible one since it is required by geometry: GR. The description of the books showing this is at impunv.blogspot.com. For the dimension see

Our Almost Impossible Universe:
Why the laws of nature make the existence of humans extraordinarily unlikely
R. Mirman

and for the derivation of GR from geometry (the Poincare group) and quantum gravity see Massless Representations of the Poincare Group electromagnetism, gravitation, quantum mechanics, geometry
R. Mirman.
The proofs are rigorous and verified by others."

Submission + - Does every posting have to be a question?

Submitted by gregger on Friday January 26, 2007 @07:27PM

gregger writes: The growing trend for Slashdot posts appears to be that you must end your headline with a question mark. At least 63 posts in January 2007 have been posed as questions. Now, why is that? Are people afraid of making a statement?

Submission + - Learn by doing XForms in Firefox

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 23, 2007 @07:13PM

An anonymous reader writes: Using the experimental Mozilla XForms extension, you can process XForms in your browser today. While not yet deployed widely enough for use on the public Internet, XForms may be suitable for some intranet applications. This article demonstrates basic XForms processing as currently supported by Firefox and the Mozilla XForms plug-in. XForms is not only a more powerful means of designing and laying out forms than using classic HTML; it's a much easier way to do it too.

Submission + - How to get stem cells from the placenta, at home!

Submitted by

Anna Sebestyen

on Tuesday January 23, 2007 @07:02PM

Anna Sebestyen writes: "Attila Csordas has a protocol on how to isolate millions of amniotic stem cells from the placenta, even at home, in the garage. "The placenta is a very valuable human tissue, although the proper recycling of it is not placentophagy, but the isolation of stem cells from its amnion layer, and storing them for later regenerative purposes for the whole family. Human amniotic epithelial cells (HAECs) from the placenta are alternative replacements of human embryonic stem cells, and have the potential to differentiate to all three germ layers in vitro. These cells are very close to those earlier and broadly multipotent amniotic fluid-derived stem cells, which made the big buzz lately on the web, published by De Coppi, Atala et al. in Nature Biotechnology. Here I would like to show, although I do not provide any warranty, that isolating stem cells from the placenta is not more difficult than making a steak, and with proper preparation, investment and timing you can do it even at home or in a rent lab. The process is ethically non-controversial since the placenta is usually discarded after birth. Today, stem cell therapy is just a promising possibility, but in the not so distant future, self-aware citizens may manage their own stem cells, grow them in the garage, and store them in the fridge. If so, it could be a form of autonomous medical self-insurance. We are at the dawn of the bioDIY movement backed by open source science for anybody. Here is the algorithm at the cartoon and below are the detailed, although not self-including textual protocol...""

Submission + - Analysis: Will EMC's big gamble pay off?

Submitted by eastbayted on Tuesday January 23, 2007 @06:52PM

eastbayted writes: Over the past three years, EMC has plunked down well over $5 billion (yes, billion) to pick up some 23 different technologies companies, including Documentum and RSA, that offered a motley of product types, from systems management to content management to BPO. The question many people in the IT world have been asking is, "Will EMC's information gamble payoff?" InfoWorld explores that very question as it dissects EMC's four-pillared strategy toward integrating its hodgepodge of acquired technology.

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