jobiwankanobi - Slashdot User

Submission + - Raspberry Pi and Cotton Candy: Working with mini computers (patexia.com)

Submitted by

techgeek0279

on Tuesday March 06, 2012 @07:54PM

techgeek0279 writes: "In the area of the computer market that involves high-end users and gamers — the enthusiast market — new products receive names and mascots that provide an adrenaline rush, much like the products they represent: Fallout, Half-Life, FirePro and GeForce, for example.

When it comes to the other end of the computer market, the names are a bit different. Meet the Raspberry Pi and the Cotton Candy, two entries in the newest category of computing, the mini-computers. So do these cute names reveal computers that aren’t powerful enough to be anything but a toy?"

Submission + - Open Source Robotic Surgeon (popularmechanics.com)

Submitted by GlobalEcho on Tuesday March 06, 2012 @07:05PM

GlobalEcho writes: Researchers have created a second version of the Raven robotic surgeon, with open-source control code

UW researchers also created software to work with the Robot Operating System, a popular open-source robotics code, so labs can easily connect the Raven to other devices and share ideas.
Unfortunately for them, according to The Economist
there is [a] legal problem. Intuitive Surgical, the company behind the da Vinci [robot], holds patents that could make launching a commercial competitor tricky—at least in the immediate future.

Submission + - Retaliatory Hacks Already Underway In Wake Of LulzSec Informant, Arrests (darkreading.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 06, 2012 @07:00PM

An anonymous reader writes: Today's announcement by the FBI of arrests of 'Sabu' and five others connected LulzSec and the hacks against Sony, Fox, PBS, HBGary Federal, is just the beginning, as some members of Anonymous lash back. One source says Sabu isn't the only informant, either.

Submission + - Sheffield scientists have revolutionised the electron microscope (shef.ac.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 06, 2012 @06:31PM

An anonymous reader writes: For over 70 years, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), which 'looks through' an object to see atomic features within it, has been constrained by the relatively poor lenses which are used to form the image.

The new method, called electron ptychography, dispenses with the lens and instead forms the image by reconstructing the scattered electron-waves after they have passed through the sample using computers.

Scientists involved in the scheme consider their findings to be a first step in a completely new epoch of electron imaging. The process has no fundamental experimental boundaries and it is thought it will transform sub-atomic scale transmission imaging.

Submission + - Hadoop's Future: A Data-Crunching Platform (itworld.com)

Submitted by

jfruh

on Tuesday March 06, 2012 @06:20PM

jfruh writes: "Hadoop has quickly become widespread for its implementation of the MapReduce framework, which is used to analyze very large data sets. But the open source project's ambitions go past MapReduce. At last week's Strata conference, project lead Arun Murthy described a near future where different data-crunching apps will be able to plug into Hadoop, making it a sort of all-purpose data-analysis framework."

Submission + - Man barred from being alone with daughter after informing police of porn on PC (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by robably on Tuesday March 06, 2012 @06:07PM

robably writes: A man who informed police when he found child abuse images on his computer has not been allowed to be alone with his daughter for four months.

Nigel Robinson from Hull said he called police after trying to download music but instead finding pornographic images on his laptop last November.

As a result social services said he "should not have unsupervised access with his own or other children".

Submission + - Scientists Achieve New Anti-Icing Breakthrough With Nanotechnology (gereports.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 06, 2012 @04:56PM

An anonymous reader writes: Scientists from GE Global Research announced this morning yet another breakthrough in an ongoing project to develop new anti-icing applications from coatings created in the lab using nanotechnology, which involves the science of materials at a very tiny scale (a nanometer is one-billionth of one meter). At the nano-level, materials behave differently than they do at a normal scale, and GE material scientists have focused on creating superhydroponic, or extremely water repellent, materials as coatings for surfaces that could prevent icing. The new research presented today shows that in addition to dramatically reducing ice adhesion on surfaces, the experimental “nanotextured” coatings also delay ice from forming under simulated atmospheric icing conditions in the lab. While a non-coated surface will experience ice formation almost immediately under those conditions, the GE researchers found that a surface with the nanotextured coating won’t for approximately 80 seconds.

Submission + - IBM Watson heads to Wall Street (extremetech.com)

Submitted by

MrSeb

on Tuesday March 06, 2012 @03:13PM

MrSeb writes: "After conquering Jeopardy, battling patent trolls, making inroads into medical insurance claims, and threatening to replace customer service representatives, IBM’s Watson is now looking to take its first foray into Wall Streetesque financial services. Working with Citigroup, IBM has entered into an 'exploratory agreement' that will cover everything from streamlining the banking experience for customers, through to 'empowering financial professionals to make better business decisions.' In other words, watch out stock traders: Watson’s coming, and he wants a piece of your fat bonus."

Submission + - MIT, Google Release New Tools to Fix Android's Quality-Control Problem (wired.com)

Submitted by

S810

on Tuesday March 06, 2012 @02:50PM

S810 writes: "From the article over at Wired Magazine : "Ask any techie about the differences between Android and iOS apps, and you’ll get the same answer: Apple’s apps are more plentiful, and just plain better designed.

And users have responded in kind, eating up iOS apps by the armload. Just this past weekend, Apple surpassed the 25 billion download mark in its App Store. And in terms of overall customer satisfaction, Apple’s apps edge out Android apps according to a recent UTest survey.

Google’s app platform clearly needs a helpful boost, and thanks to a series of new initiatives, the Android Market could see an uptick in both quantity and quality sooner than you think."

Submission + - Iran to allow inspection of secretive nuke complex (the-diplomat.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 06, 2012 @02:27PM

An anonymous reader writes: Iran has agreed to allow U.N. inspectors into a secretive nuclear complex the U.N. believes may be home to a nuclear weapons program. All member states, including Israel and the US, are 'expected to refrain from any measures that undermine the conducive environment desperately needed for a conclusion.'

Comment Re:way worse than SOPA (Score 1) 178

by jobiwankanobi on Friday March 02, 2012 @09:53PM (#39228289) Attached to: Canada's Online Surveillance Bill: Section 34 "Opens Door To Big Brother"

I like the idea of a popular veto, especially where our congress is so far out of step with what the public wants.

Comment The hell kind of font is that? (Score 1) 114

by jobiwankanobi on Thursday March 01, 2012 @12:30AM (#39205355) Attached to: The Internet Blueprint Wants You To Crowdsource Digital Laws

Might work better if the site were readable.

Submission + - "Bona Fide Hedging" Exemption Reinflates Oil Bubble (tradersnarrative.com)

Submitted by

jobiwankanobi

on Monday February 20, 2012 @02:00PM

jobiwankanobi writes: "When gas prices rose to over four dollars a gallon in 2008, the common narrative was that the increased demand from China and other developing countries was the cause of the skyrocketing price. This article shows the cause to be a speculative bubble made possible by an exemption to a regulation meant to prevent the "walking up" of commodities prices by speculators. The exemption is called the "Bona Fide Hedging" exemption, and has been exploited by the usual suspects. This bubble not only affects oil prices, but corn and grains as well. This not only makes tortillas more expensive, but could be responsible for starvation in many areas of the world, not to mention the affect on the world economy."

Comment Re:under the guise of protecting children (Score 1) 178

by jobiwankanobi on Monday February 20, 2012 @01:12PM (#39100649) Attached to: Canada's Online Surveillance Bill: Section 34 "Opens Door To Big Brother"

Exactly. This bill is way worse than SOPA. When this new bill started I emailed a bunch of people, but got no response. I guess the theory by these congressmen is to push one draconian bill after another so that a) people get tired of hearing about congress b) people opposed to them sound like "cry wolfers" and c) they can probably sneak at least one through. If you look at most of the bills passed since NDAA on New Year's Eve, they have all been uber-draconian, limiting our freedom type bills. NDAA was treason against the United States citizen with hardly any congressmen opposing it.

Comment Business idea (Score 1) 311

by jobiwankanobi on Sunday February 12, 2012 @01:34PM (#39011861) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How To Go Paperless At Home?

Interesting to come across this article. I had the idea for a business that trucks around one of these multi-sheet scanners (probably higher-end than the fujitsu previously mentioned but same brand), and scans your documents, with shredding service if needed. After this post, I'm realizing that a small office with voting-booth style setups where you can rent time on a scanner and computer that goes directly to memory stick would be good. It could use some version of steadystate where the information on the computer is wiped and rebooted at the end of each session. Shredders would also be available.

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