Rukie - Slashdot User

Submission + - Mouse brain simulated on computer

Submitted by

atamyrat

on Saturday April 28, 2007 @06:44AM

atamyrat writes: "BBC has an article about mouse brain simulated on a Blue Gene L supercomputer. Quote: "The team, from the IBM Almaden Research Lab and the University of Nevada, ran the simulation on a BlueGene L supercomputer that had 4096 processors, each one of which used 256MB of memory. Using this machine the researchers created half a virtual mouse brain that had 8,000 neurons that had up to 6,300 synapses. The vast complexity of the simulation meant that it was only run for ten seconds at a speed ten times slower than real life — the equivalent of one second in a real mouse brain."
Article refers to this research report[PDF] titled "Towards Real-Time, Mouse-Scale Cortical Simulations""

Submission + - Syncing and backing-up files cross-platform?

Submitted by

Blakey Rat

on Friday April 27, 2007 @10:35PM

Blakey Rat writes: "I have one of those problems that you'd think would be easy to solve until you actually start solving it. I have a folder of important files I want synced and backed-up in one step across three computers: my desktop G5 tower, my iBook laptop, and my generic Windows XP SP2. The theory is that every time I save a file on one of the computers, it is uploaded to online storage somewhere (serving as a backup), and the other two computers would detect that and update their local copy of the file. With the laptop, I'd like the files available offline, as it's frequently in locations with no Internet connection, or an Internet connection so flakey it might as well not exist.

So far I've tried Apple's .Mac service, which includes iDisk syncing software. While iDisk has an offline files mode it frequently fails when copying multiple files into it, claiming it needs to resolve conflicts for thousands of files where no actual conflicts exist. I've tried setting up a WebDAV folder on my web hosting account, but OS X fails when copying files to it with mysterious "insufficient permissions" errors that I can't figure out how to solve. In addition, OS X seems to have no offline files mode for WebDAV shares. I currently use rsync to do backups, but I don't know if it can be set it up to notify me when sync conflicts occur. A friend also recommended setting up something using MacFUSE, but it's version number is still 0.2 which doesn't help me trust important files to it, and the setup seems very complicated.

I'm looking for something that's easy-to-use, can mount as a disk in OS X and Windows XP, has an offline files mode, and can resolve conflicts when they occur. Bonus points if I can use my existing web hosting account as storage, and I'm not opposed to commercial software if it gets the job done. I'd also prefer something that encrypts data traveling over the network and is at least version 1.0. Can anybody offer any suggestions?"

Submission + - Why is RAM so bloody expensive?

Submitted by LuckyEdBoy66 on Friday February 16, 2007 @11:46PM

LuckyEdBoy66 writes: This has annoyed me for a while, but today i was surfing Newegg for some RAM (Random Access Memory), and I was outraged by the price tags on those things. none that i found were under $100 for 1gb (ok, i didn't look that hard). What is the deal? I have seen 1gb SD cards for under $10, so why is RAM so pricey? sure they use different types of memory and formating, but if technology can produce cheap SD cards and flash drives, one would think it could do the same for RAM... The only possible explanation i can think of is that all the people upgrading to Vista are flocking to upgrade their machines and thus causing a huge supply shortage (ya, right. we all know better than that...). ok, so if thats illogical, then where IS the logic? is there any foreseeable price drop in the near future?

Submission + - College student murders for video game money

Submitted by

dido

on Friday February 16, 2007 @11:43PM

dido writes: "The Mainichi Daily News reports that a college student has been arrested for withdrawing money from the bank account of a man found murdered last January 28. The suspect, 21-year-old Hiroshi Shimura, has further admitted to killing the man and his mother, telling investigators: "I spent the money at video game arcades. I murdered them so I could steal some money.""

Submission + - The World's First iPod Vibrator

Submitted by

playafly187

on Friday February 16, 2007 @10:35PM

playafly187 writes: "http://www.johnchow.com/onmibod-the-ultimate-ipod- acsexsory/ That's right ladies! The OhMiBod offers a completely new way to enjoy your iPod (or any other music player). Not only will you get your own personalized experience set to your own tunes, but you also get to feel the music in a whole new way. The OhMiBod shakes, buzzes, moves, and grooves to the beat of whatever you're playing."

Submission + - What Working at Google Microsoft and Yahoo is Like

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Friday February 16, 2007 @10:22PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "Tastyresearch shares stories about interning and working at Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. He barbecues with Bill Gates at his house, dines at the Google cafeterias, gets stood up by Yahoo, and details his interviews. He notes that many Microsoft interns end up at other places he works (reading between the lines). A chart compares Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo from the perspective of monitor sizes and perks. Prospective applicants are advised to learn about sorting and linked lists."

Submission + - Sight for the blind.

Submitted by

Manifold Space Traveler

on Friday February 16, 2007 @08:52PM

Manifold Space Traveler writes: "The primary problem with this technology is that the neural pathways are set at an early age and the mind is not like a hard disk, you cannot simply erase a lifetime of experience and then reinstall linux. Existing research seems to indicate that late acquired sight adversely affects the mind so much, that it leads to depression and in some cases suicide. This technology is several years old and is not "news" at all."

Submission + - DD-WRT now running on X86

Submitted by

JimBowen

on Friday February 16, 2007 @08:08PM

JimBowen writes: "The popular linux-based router firmware project, DD-WRT, based on the free OpenWRT, has recently been made to run on an ordinary PC. This allows a significant increase in performance by the use of much faster hardware, with more memory, enabling advanced SPI firewalls even in the presence of high load P2P software. Various community extensions provide support for extra features like NAS. With the combination of large, desktop-sized storage, this makes for an extremely powerful, yet manageable and easily deployable home server. There is a tutorial on how to set it up over at graynetwork.org."

Submission + - Why Geeks Make Good Lovers

Submitted by

stego

on Friday February 16, 2007 @06:18PM

stego writes: "Justin at Awkward Things I Say To Girls provides good evidence in Why Geeks Make Good Lovers that "that geeks, along with nerds and other peoples who overinvest in intelligence but boast underdeveloped social skills, make the best lovers""

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