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Businesses

Canadian Mint To Create Digital Currency 298

Posted by samzenpus from the no-coins-for-you dept.
Oldcynic writes "The Canadian mint has allowed 500 developers to enter a contest to create a new digital currency. The currency would allow micro payments using electronic devices. From the article: 'Less than a week after the government announced the penny’s impending death, the Mint quietly unveiled its digital currency called MintChip. Still in the research and development phase, MintChip will ultimately let people pay each other directly using smartphones, USB sticks, computers, tablets and clouds. The digital currency will be anonymous and good for small transactions — just like cash, the Mint says. To make sure its technology meets the gold standard in a world where digital transactions are gaining steam, the Mint is holding a contest for software developers to create applications using the MintChip.'" It looks like the Canadian Mint might have a bit of Sweden envy.
Security

Ask Slashdot: A Cheap, DIY Home Security and Surveillance System? 508

Posted by Soulskill from the i-hear-those-DoD-pain-rays-are-nice dept.
scubamage writes "Six weeks ago, my home was broken into while my fiance and I were at work. Two laptops were stolen, an iPad, a power brick, a safe (complete with several years worth of taxes, my birth certificate, and old copies of my driver's license), a digital SLR, and several other costly items. We are now dealing with an attorney because the homeowner's insurance is fighting us on a number of items and we're not backing down. It has been a nightmare. However, we've now noticed that someone has been visiting our house during the day. There has been garbage left sitting on our back porch table, so its unlikely to have blown there. We've also seen footprints in our garden that are not there in the morning. Our neighborhood is essentially empty during the day, and we want to know who is on our property while we're not. If we're really lucky, reporting it to the police could recover some of our property. My fiance has asked me to assemble a home security system that is motion activated, and both notifies us of an entry, as well as records video or rapid HD stillframes when sensing motion. The goal is to do this cheaply and more effectively than going with a private security company like ADT (who, consequently, our police department told us to ignore due to the incredibly high rate of false alarms). We've already gotten the dog and the gun, so we have those bases covered. What suggestions do you have on setting up home security systems, and what have you done to build one in the past?"

Comment Re:And how much supporting code? (Score 1) 115

by smoothnorman (#39467597) Attached to: Javascript Game of Tron In 226 Bytes
Yes, this is exactly my point too. As an limiting argument, let's say my window manager had some-sort of graphics interface with more bells and whistles than emacs. "ooo look! i wrote a script that resulted in a full Donkeykong game in less than 32 characters!!" of course, that was one of the features of the fancy fictitious graphics interface that there are a number of example games that could be started with the equivalent of "run('donkkong')"
Linux

Why Linux Can't 'Sell' On the Desktop 1091

Posted by Soulskill from the everybody-knows-tuxes-are-expensive dept.
New submitter VoyagerRadio writes "Recently I found myself struggling with a question I should easily have been able to answer: Why would anyone want to use Linux as their everyday desktop (or laptop) operating system? It's a fair question, and asked often of Linux, but I'm finding it to be a question I can no longer answer with the conviction necessary to 'sell' the platform. In fact, I kind of feel like a car salesman who realizes he no longer believes in the product he's been pitching. It's not that I don't find Linux worthy; I simply don't understand how it's ever going to succeed on the desktop with voluntary marketing efforts. What do Linux users need to do to replicate the marketing efforts of Apple and Microsoft and other corporate operating system vendors? To me, it seems you don't sell Linux at all because there isn't supposed to be one dominant distribution that stands out from the rest. Without a specific product to put on the shelf to sell, what in the world do you focus your efforts on selling? An idea?"

Comment 3d, a solution desparately in search of a problem (Score 2) 70

by smoothnorman (#39232625) Attached to: Bringing Online Shopping Into the Future With the 3D Web
The central problem with 3d-ing stuff is that it solves no problem, scratches no apparent itch, feeds no bull-dog, *and* annoys the pig. Every implementation i've been 'lucky' enough to observe comes off as a skit John Candy did where the 3d feature was made the central feature of the plot (of some silly B-movie). oh, here's a sample (forgot it was "Dr Tongue") http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u4tTFEF_XE

So... "look at this crap we want you to by... *look* at it! ooo..." [moves object fitfully in/out of visual plan]
Books

Booktype: An Open Source, Cross-Platform Approach To E-Book Publishing 87

Posted by timothy from the no-presses-to-stop dept.
Despite Apple's protestation that the iBooks Author EULA was misinterpreted, the idea of a book publishing system that could be used to grab copyright of the prepared text is annoying — like the sort of EULAs that seem to give photo-sharing sites unlimited re-use rights of hosted personal photos. New submitter rohangarg points out a publishing system which shouldn't have such problems, and is nicely cross-platform besides: "A new open-source digital writing and publishing platform has been launched by non-profit group Sourcefabric. Booktype allows for collaborative editing and writing of books that can be easily outputted to on-demand print services and eReaders such as the Amazon Kindle, Nook, iPad, and more with a few simple clicks. Booktype source can be found here." The online demo also leads to some downloadable examples (as PDFs).

Comment Tricky bit here is when there's software involved (Score 1) 64

by smoothnorman (#39052471) Attached to: The Unspoken Rules of Open Source Hardware
These efforts are to a large extent laudable, and ought to be encouraged in any case; ...however, it gets messy when this hardware requires firm/soft -ware which comes only on a proprietary platform, or binary only libraries, or libraries which require binary only libraries. .Net, Eagle, MPLAB... are easy examples, others are more subtle. These guys know about this problem and either are "working" on it (and for that, gawdbless'em), or in some few cases, just don't give a damn; (there is a buck to be made presenting it thus after-all). So, "Open Source Hardware" is often "Open Hardware", sans the source.

Comment QWK (once a week) (Score 1) 126

by smoothnorman (#38943057) Attached to: MIT Envisions DIY Solar Cells Made From Grass Clippings
Given the nature of the organic (chemical) bonds involved, i think it's safe to say that you'd be required to "gather up your grass clippings, mix with chemicals, and paint it on your roof" rather frequently to maintain any sort of significant electricity production. That is, the original organism has to turn these structures over fairly often, and so would you. But, (i suppose), given the proper equipment, it wouldn't be too much more terrible than moving the lawn and washing the car once a week... maybe. And besides, the neighbor's camellia bush has always annoyed you anyway, so...

Comment So here's my gratuitous Science quote (Score 5, Insightful) 474

by smoothnorman (#38883341) Attached to: Trials and Errors: Why Science Is Failing Us
Es ist nicht das Ziel der Wissenschaft, der unendlichen Weisheit eine Tür zuöffnen, sondern eine Grenze zu setzen dem unendlichen Irrtum. -- Bertolt Brecht "Leben des Galilei"

here's my (dubious) translation: It is not the goal of Science to open a door to endless knowledge, but rather to place limits upon endless error.

this quote, i believe, it both filled with truthiness, and also reveals notable false-iness in the referenced article.

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