Magdalene - Slashdot User

Submission + - What's happening with Transmeta

Submitted by

prostoalex

on Monday February 19, 2007 @07:00PM

prostoalex writes: "At launch Tranmeta Corp. received tons of publicity — boasting Linux Torvalds among its employees, the energy-efficient microprocessor company was supposedly revolutionizing the world of microprocessors as we know it. Electronic Engineering Times provides an update on what's happening with Transmeta right now: "Transmeta last week laid off 75 employees, decreasing its worldwide work force by about 39 percent. Most of the cuts were in the engineering-services business, which is being discontinued. Sales and support offices in Taiwan and Japan are also being closed. Over the next two quarters, the company expects to further reduce head count by about 25 to 55 people.""

Submission + - Gamers perform better on surgical skill test

Submitted by Blindside on Monday February 19, 2007 @06:33PM

Blindside writes: Are surgeons who are also gamers at an advantage in the operating room? A new study showed that gamers had a distinct advantage in a surgical skills test. 'Neither years of training nor number of surgeries performed would predict performance on the laparoscopy skills test. Past gaming and current skills, in contrast, would. Those who had never gamed took significantly longer to complete the skills test, and had an error rate of roughly 1.5 times that of regular gamers. Similar correlations also held when gaming skills were tested: those scoring in the top third made nearly 50 percent fewer errors, and and performed the drill nearly 40 percent faster. For those keeping score at home, Super Monkey Ball 2 had the best correlation with surgical skills, Star Wars Racer Revenge the worst.'

Journal Journal: PHP ... An Object of Frustration

Journal by yintercept on Monday February 19, 2007 @06:30PM

I am sitting here upgrading a program (Community Color) to PHP 5. I originally wrote the program procedurally since there were people on the project who were new to OO programming.

Submission + - HD DVD on-the-fly copy tool announced

Submitted by tronicum on Monday February 19, 2007 @06:30PM

tronicum writes: Heise reports that Antigua based SlySoft announced a tool called "AnyDVD HD" which ripps AACS on-the-fly from HD DVD discs. It also allows to watch movies on a computer without HDCP equipment and comes with built-in UDF 2.5 for Windows XP. It ships for 79 US$.

Sweden to Make Denial of Service Attacks Illegal 108

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday February 19, 2007 @06:30PM from the play-nicer dept.

paulraps writes "Sweden is to pass legislation making Denial of Service attacks illegal. The offense will carry a maximum jail term of two years, and is thought to be a direct response to the attack which crashed the Swedish police's web site last summer. Nobody was charged for that, but the fact that it came shortly after a raid on the Pirate Bay's servers was thought by many to be not entirely coincidental. Sweden's move follows the UK, which is even tougher on web attackers — there the sentence can be over five years in prison."

Submission + - Pastor with 666 tatoo claims to be God

Submitted by

acgrissom

on Monday February 19, 2007 @06:17PM

acgrissom writes: "This is strange. Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, a pastor with 666 tattooed on his arm, claims to be the new Christ. His followers, of which there are thousands, in dozens of countries, also get these tattoos. He says, "Antichrist is the best person in the world."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/16/miami.preacher/in dex.html"

Submission + - The Bane of Forced Obsolescence

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 19, 2007 @06:11PM

An anonymous reader writes: Everyone hates being forced to upgrade when they don't want to. Especially when it's the hardware or software company forcing them to upgrade. This article discusses some of the reasons behind this, suggestions for changes, and calls for both hardware and software companies to start changing in ways that the customers want, not just what the investors and managers demand or dictate.

Regrowing Lost Body Parts Getting Closer All the Time 210

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday February 19, 2007 @05:49PM from the go-go-gadget-hand dept.

[TheBORG] writes "There are two stories on Yahoo! News about regrowing lost body parts. One is about regrowing lost fingers & limbs and the other one is about regrowing teeth. The story about regrowing lost fingers and limbs talks about the experimental use of powdered pig bladder to regrow fingers and eventually lost limbs for soldiers and others in need from information that Pentagon-funded scientists hopefully learn from studying the salamander. The story about regrowing teeth talks about how Japanese scientists used primitive cells and injected them into a framework of collagen. Once grown to a certain point, scientists implanted the growths into mice where the teeth developed normally."

Submission + - Dell XPS 710 H2C Watercooled Desktop Tested

Submitted by

MojoKid

on Monday February 19, 2007 @05:30PM

MojoKid writes: "Dell's XPS 710 H2C Edition is touted as a top-of-the-line, ultra-performance machine built with performance enthusiasts in mind. Not only does the XPS 710 H2C hold the distinction of being Dell's first volume available, factory overclocked computer, but it also uses Dell's first in-house developed liquid cooling system to keep its quad-core power plant cool. This evaluation at HotHardware has plenty of performance data and goes into great detail on the technologies employed in the XPS 710 H2C Edition. It sure seems like a killer system if you can justify the investment."

Feed You Buy Research You Can't See (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed on Monday February 19, 2007 @05:12PM

The Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress is funded by taxpayers to the tune of $100 million annually. But the reports are not public information. In 27B Stroke 6.

Feed The Man Who Snuffed Out Pluto (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed on Monday February 19, 2007 @05:12PM

A Cal Tech astronomer tells how and why Pluto was downgraded from planet status. Bodyhack reports from AAAS.

Journal Journal: What Basic Skills?

Journal by rpbird on Monday February 19, 2007 @05:08PM

What are the basic skills and knowledge any eighteen-year-old American should have? What do you need to know in order to function, even at a minimal level, as an independent human being in the United States? A first list, in no particular order of importance.

1. Fluent in the English language, both the written and spoken forms. What's the point in being a genius if you can't tell anyone about it, or send them a letter?

Submission + - XM Radio, Sirius merger imminent

Submitted by grudy on Monday February 19, 2007 @04:49PM

grudy writes: Ars Technica reports that XM Radio, Sirius merger imminent . From the article:

"XM Radio and Sirius are reportedly in final negotiations that should result in a merger. First reported by the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal is confirming that the two companies are very close to a deal that may be announced as early as today..."

Monopoly? They wouldn't be a monopoly! Really! These are not the droids you seek. Move along...

Submission + - BBC launches Space Shuttle based on car

Submitted by

David Off

on Monday February 19, 2007 @04:10PM

David Off writes: "Last summer BBC Television decided to launch a space shuttle shaped motorcar, the Reliant Robin, into very very low earth orbit! Now this may not be the X-prize but it is a very very cool hack that harks back to era of MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club. Now a shuttle launch costs hundreds of millions of dollars. The Beeb built a very convincing shuttle from the Robin, a main fuel tank and two SRBs in an industrial unit in Manchester. There was very little money but all the tea the team could manage to dring. The rockets develop 8.5 tonnes of thrust and this was the most powerful private launch in Europe to date. The Robin had to be stripped from 750kg to 250kg and avionics fitted for the flight back to earth. All doesn't quite go to plan as you can see in the 20 minute film which was broadcast yesterday. It would be nice to know more about the tech behind the launch, the film is thin on details."

Submission + - Outsourced call centre jobs returning to UK

Submitted by fiannaFailMan on Monday February 19, 2007 @03:32PM

fiannaFailMan writes: The BBC is reporting that more UK companies are reversing the call-centre outsourcing trend.

"Hello, it's my car." ''Your cat, sir?." "No, my hatchback." "Your bad back, sir?" "No my car, it's a hatchback." "Your cat has a bad back, sir?" "Arghhhhhh!" ...Just 4% of people have had a good experience when dealing with a call centre, according to a recent survey by YouGov. Over half of those asked said their biggest gripe was having to contact call centres outside the UK and more than a third admitted to shouting and swearing at agents because they got so frustrated.

Slashdot Top Deals