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Technology (Apple)

Submission + - smart car coming to the USA 2008

Blahbooboo3 writes: Delays and missed promises finally fulfilled. The smart car is coming to the USA in January 2008. Smart car uses a special designed crash cage to protect the driver and gets upwards of 40MPG. Crash test are very positive. The car is deceptively large inside, as showcased by this great ad from the smart usa web site. The 2nd gen Fortwo will be offered first, starting around $15000. The slick roadster unfortunately isn't coming soon.
Announcements

Submission + - smart car launched in the USA Jan 2008

Blahbooboo3 writes: After many delays the smart car is coming to the USA in January 2008. Smart car uses a special designed crash cage to protect the driver and gets upwards of 40MPG. Crash test are very positive. The car is deceptively large inside, as showcased by this great ad from the smart usa web site. The 2nd gen Fortwo will be offered first, starting around $15000. The slick roadster unfortunately isn't coming soon.
Power

Submission + - smart car coming to the USA Jan 2008

Blahbooboo3 writes: After several delays and missed promises, the smart car is coming to the USA in January 2008. Smart car uses a special designed crash cage to protect the driver and gets upwards of 40MPG. Crash test are very positive. The car is deceptively large inside, as showcased by this great ad from the smart usa web site. The 2nd gen Fortwo will be offered first, starting around $15000. The slick roadster unfortunately isn't coming soon.
Quickies

Submission + - The Benefits of Herpes

anthemaniac writes: Rarely if ever seen in a good light, herpes does have its advantages, at least in mice. The virus can protect against the bubonic plague and other bacterial contagions. Says immunologist Skip Virgin at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis: "There may be symbiotic advantages to chronic infections with these viruses." More research is needed to see if the effect holds in humans. Yes, you should wait for that research before changing your habits.
Programming

Submission + - Conversation between two chat-bots

Tabernaque86 writes: http://discovermagazine.com/2007/brain/i-chat-ther efore-i-am/article_print Apparently programmers left two chat-bots alone in a room. The only intervention was programming a bot to start a conversation with a question, the rest was up to the bots. There is a brief description in the article, followed by a handful of conversations between the two bots, ALICE and jabberwocky.
Privacy

Submission + - Why web pirates can't be touched

gwoodrow writes: Forbes has a brief article about, essentially, the ultimate futility of fighting online pirates. From the article:

'Pirates don't just plunder. In Sweden, it seems, they also believe in sharing.

As the world's largest repository of BitTorrent files, ThePirateBay.org helps millions of users around the world share copyrighted movies, music and other files — without paying for them.

That's illegal, of course — at least it is in the U.S. But when Time Warner's (nyse: TWX — news — people ) Warner Bros. studio accused them of breaking U.S. copyright law in 2005, the pirates gleefully reminded the movie company that they didn't live in America, but rather in "the land of vikings, reindeer, Aurora Borealis and cute blond girls."'

Also touches on the many YouTube clones and AllofMP3.com. Nothing that most of us regular slashdotters haven't read/heard before, but a decent article nonetheless.
The Internet

Submission + - NoPhoneTrees.com

Marcin Musiolik writes: "Dear Slashdot, I am a reader of your site, and thought you might be interested in a project we have been working on called NoPhoneTrees.com. Our mission is to help users skip phone trees and connect with a real human on the customer support phone lines at many companies throughout the U.S. Users simply choose the company they wish to call, and we'll dial the company directly, navigate their phone tree, and call them back when they are in queue for an operator or customer service representative. The service is available for free, and we've gotten some great feedback so far. We are in the middle of doing a soft beta launch, and we are trying to get early feedback to refine the site before we publicize the site more broadly. Recently we had a great coverage of our service on Techcrunch (http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/15/bringo-phone -tree-killer-this-is-a-genuinely-useful-service/#c omments) and I would like to as if it is possible that you could mention about our website on your blog? We are looking for larger audience who could test our technology and provide us with feedback. Of course, I am very curious to hear your personal opinion as well! Regards, Marcin Musiolik NoPhoneTrees.com marcin@bringo.com 1-877-BRINGO-1 x503"
Software

Submission + - Game designer causes stink with Virginia Tech game

An anonymous reader writes: Talk about whistling past the graveyard.

An Australian video game designer has caused a major uproar Down Under with his creation of a game based on the Virginia Tech massacre.

Called V-Tech Rampage, the game has several levels of "stealth and murder," reports The Sydney Morning Herald.

But what really is causing the kerfuffle — as if the game itself wasn't in bad enough taste — is that its designer, Ryan Lambourn, says he will take the game down from his Web site only if the public comes up with a $2,000 payoff.

For another grand, he'll apologize.

"I've done offensive things before, but they're not usually this popular," the Morning Herald quoted Lambourn as saying.

He also said that friends encouraged him to put up the cash payment demand.

"Attention angry people," Lambourn wrote on his site. "I will take this game down from Newgrounds (where the game is hosted) if the donation amount reaches $1,000. I'll take it down from (Lambourn's Web site) if it reaches $2,000 and I will apologize if it reaches $3,000."

It's hard to know how to respond to that. So I won't.

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9720248-7.html
Slashdot.org

Submission + - Skill based immigration better than H1B?

ghoul writes: Congress is talking about shifting to skill based immigration instead of family based immigration. This should immediately make it easier for Indian and Chinese Engineers and Scientists to immigrate on green cards without needing to go through the H1B no mans land. This is because under the current system they get stuck as the quota are set to be 7% of total from any country in the world irrespective of population size. This means the Vatican gets the same sized quota as China or India. In the new system the losers are Latin Americans who are mostly unskilled labourers (note mostly I know quite a few Brilliant latin american post grads) but used to be able to get in easier as there being a large number of latin american countires each country got 7%. How does the Slashdot community which has strong opinions on H1B feel about this? As these new workers will be on Green cards they wont be beholden to companies and should not depress the market as they wont take any shit from companies. In fact if the green card process can be shortened down to 6 months H1Bs can be abolished all together. Given this if people still feel this is not right are we still talking about protecting jobs or about fear of the stranger? Canada, Britain and Australia seem to be doing very well with these kind of point based systems.
Upgrades

Submission + - GT3 Small Form Factor PC

Newman writes: "Smallest case that can hold a full size motherboard and SLI video configuration. Pretty cool! GT3 is the first small form factor computer chassis built solely to utilize full-size desktop PC components. Unlike GT3's desktop-PC counterparts, GT3 is a fraction of a desktop-PC's size and weight yet by utilizing full size desktop PC components, GT3 PCs are able to deliver performance previously only available from full size desktop PCs. As a result, GT3 PCs have the potential to be the smallest, highest performing PCs in the world. http://www.gtrpc.com/ http://www.sportcompactpc.com/"
Enlightenment

Submission + - Game Over! The World's Most Inaccessible Game

hansamurai writes: "Kotaku uncovers a computer game that describes itself as the "world's first (and hopefully only) universally inaccessible game." Game Over! is a Space Invader derivative in which each level exhibits an absolutely horrible design decision to frustrate the player. The game is meant to serve as a teaching tool in how not to design games. There are 21 levels in all where the violated guidelines range from having to press three keys simultaneously just to move left, to audio and visual frustrations such as no subtitles for important spoken commands. Along with each level, Game Over! provides tips and quotes on how to avoid design pitfalls. The game is available for download on Windows, OSX, and Linux."

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