sidnelson13 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Jessica Watson sets sail (jessicawatson.com.au)

Submitted by DarkOx on Sunday October 18, 2009 @10:06AM

DarkOx writes: Jessica Watson has begun her round the world voyage, if successful she will be the youngest person, age 16, to circumnavigate the globe by sail unassisted and non-stop.

She will 23,000 nautical miles (about 38,000 kilometres), departing and returning to Sydney as required to set the record. This will be a journey lasting around 240 days, during which she may not acquire any outside supplies or receive any assistance with repairs.

She will have internet access, e-mail, and her position will be continuously tracked and monitored. This is a pretty high tech undertaking both in the electronics sense and as in sailing kit. Her yacht is a S&S (Sparkman and Stephens) 34 a boat that has successfully been used in other solo circumnavigation bids.

Much more information can be found at her website: http://www.jessicawatson.com.au/

Submission + - Airport tests full-body X-ray system (takefreetime.com)

Submitted by slreboy on Sunday October 18, 2009 @08:47AM

slreboy writes: Future passenger security checks at airports may no longer include ‘pat-downs’ with a new full-body imaging technology undergoing trials at Manchester Airport.

Manchester Airport’s Terminal 2 is trialling the Secure 1000 Single Pose, which uses backscatter technology and proprietary image processing software to produce a ghost-like outline of an individual’s body. A concealed threat such as a knife or gun would be clearly detectable on the image.

The US-based developer of the technology, Rapiscan Systems, believes that the technology could, one day, replace metal detectors in airports.

Submission + - Swedes Burn Bunnies for Biofuel

Submitted by

The Narrative Fallacy

on Saturday October 17, 2009 @04:25PM

The Narrative Fallacy writes: "Der Spiegel reports that thousands of rabbits living in the center of Stockholm are being culled, deep frozen and converted into biofuel for heating homes. "We are shooting rabbits in Stockholm center, they are a very big problem," says Tommy Tuvunger who hunts rodents for the Stockholm city administration. "Once culled, the rabbits are frozen and when we have enough; a contractor comes and takes them away" shipping them to a heating plant in Karlskoga in central Sweden which uses them as biofuel and incinerates them to heat homes, The practice of killing rabbits and incinerating has been criticized by Sweden's Society for the Protection of Wild Rabbits. "Those who support the culling of rabbits surely think it's good to use the bodies for a good cause. But it feels like they're trying to turn the animals into an industry rather than look at the main problem," says Anna Johannesson. Animal control authorities employ a special rifle to shoot the excess rabbits, with most of the culling taking place at dawn when the animals peek out from their holes. The rabbits, not native to Sweden, are mainly the offspring of pets released by owners, and are said to be destroying parks in the capital. "In the town where they are burning them the reaction of the residents is quite relaxed," says James Savage. "But in Stockholm there's the big city attitude of the rabbits being cute."

Submission + - Resolution to KB971486 and 0×000000E3 Blue Sc (stateofthetech.com)

Submitted by MarcelBrown on Saturday October 17, 2009 @03:35PM

MarcelBrown writes: This article details how to fix a particular issue with Windows update KB971486 and Windows XP (Blue Screen 0x000000E3). It seems to be a growing problem.

Submission + - World of Goo Birthday Sale

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 17, 2009 @03:34PM

An anonymous reader writes: As mentioned previously on Slashdot, World of Goo was ported to Linux. For one more day only, there is a World of Goo Birthday sale. "World of Goo just turned one year old! For this week... pay whatever you think it's worth (normally 20 USD)" For those who game (or wish there were more games) on Linux, now is a good time to show some support to the developers.

Submission + - Maldives Government Holds Undersea Cabinet Meeting

Submitted by

Hugh Pickens

on Saturday October 17, 2009 @03:32PM

Hugh Pickens writes: "The president of the Maldives and 11 ministers, decked in scuba gear, held a cabinet meeting 4m underwater to highlight the threat of global warming to the low-lying Indian Ocean nation. While officials said the event itself was light-hearted, the idea is to focus on the plight of the Maldives, where rising sea levels threaten to make the nation uninhabitable by the end of the century. President Mohamed Nasheed and his cabinet spent half an hour on the sea bed, communicating with white boards and hand signals and signed a document calling for global cuts in carbon emissions. The Maldives has already begun to divert a portion of the country's billion-dollar annual tourist revenue to buy a new homeland as an insurance policy against climate change that threatens to turn the 300,000 islanders into environmental refugees. Emerging out of the water, a dripping President Nasheed removed his mask to answer questions from reporters and photographers crowded around on the shore. "We are trying to send a message to the world about what is happening and what would happen to the Maldives if climate change isn't checked," he said, bobbing around in the water with his team of ministers. "If the Maldives is not saved, today we do not feel there is much chance for the rest of the world.""

Submission + - Snega2USB Reads Your SNES And Genesis Carts (gadgetoid.com) 1

Submitted by wodeh on Saturday October 17, 2009 @02:50PM

wodeh writes: Snega2USB lets you set up your SNES and Genesis carts as USB 2.0 Mass Storage, so you can simply copy or play the ROM files right off them

Submission + - The Dark Mod

Submitted by cha0t1c on Saturday October 17, 2009 @02:28PM

cha0t1c writes: THE DARK MOD is a total conversion for Doom 3, turning it into a dark and moody stealth game inspired by the Thief series by Looking Glass Studios. We have created a toolset with revamped gameplay, AI, graphics, HUD and weapons to allow fans to create missions in a gothic steampunk universe. The Dark Mod went beta on October 17th, 2009. http://www.thedarkmod.com/

Submission + - Watch This Rare One-Hour Interview with Alfred Hit (weekinrewind.com)

Submitted by WeekinRewindDotCom on Saturday October 17, 2009 @01:40PM

WeekinRewindDotCom writes: Here is Hitchcock's 1973 interview with Tom Snyder for his "Tomorrow" program. For a long time, the interview appeared to have been lost--but now it has been found, it's on YouTube, and you can enjoy it here. http://www.weekinrewind.com/2009/10/watch-this-rare-one-hour-interview-with.html

Submission + - 'Ho White' Australian Beer Ad Angers Disney (slashfood.com)

Submitted by xkcdFan1011011101111 on Saturday October 17, 2009 @11:57AM

xkcdFan1011011101111 writes: From the article:

"An Australian beer advertisement has reportedly ticked off Disney because it features a Snow White lookalike lying in bed blowing smoke rings with seven undressed dwarves. The ad campaign for Jamieson Brewery's Raspberry Ale was created by the Australian advertising agency The Foundry to promote the beer as "anything but sweet" with a maiden they call "Ho White" and seven dwarves.

The Walt Disney Co., who licenses the usually wholesome character, quickly noticed The Foundry's online and print marketing, the Daily Telegraph reports. The Foundry said it had "a little bit of contact" with Disney over this adults-only version of Snow White.

The official Web site, anythingbutsweet.com.au, can no longer be accessed. The Foundry's Web site reportedly featured pictures of "Ho White" earlier this week but no longer does."

Submission + - MIT Researchers Develop Indoor Robocopter (mit.edu)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 17, 2009 @11:49AM

An anonymous reader writes: Researchers at MIT's Robust Robotics Group have developed a robotic helicopter capable of flying inside buildings, or other GPS-Denied environments. While the video talks about search and rescue or civil engineering applications, the brings somewhat scary reminders of Minory Report to my head. How long till I see one of these chasing me down a dark alley??

Submission + - How to list FOSS experience on your resume (itworld.com)

Submitted by

Esther Schindler

on Saturday October 17, 2009 @11:19AM

Esther Schindler writes: "You may be hesitant to apply for a new job based on your "volunteer" open source skills. Don't be, writes Esther Schindler at ITWorld.com. As techie hiring managers explain in Building Your Open Source Career, listing open source experience on your resume makes you more appealing, not less so. Groovy. But few FOSS activities fit into the CV/resume structure. What to Include in Your Open Source Resume shares advice from the folks looking at your job application on how they expect to see your skills and experience listed. Useful information for your next job hunt."

Avataritis — On the Abundance of Customizable Game Characters 78

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday October 17, 2009 @06:51AM from the forty-nine-precisely-placed-freckles dept.

Martyn Zachary writes "The Slowdown has posted a new critique, 'Avataritis,' that attempts to portray the utilization of character customization as a pandemic, emotional response on behalf of publishers and developers to finding the easiest, most efficient solution to the very unique dilemma presented by the enlarging, widening player base of video games. 'No mechanisms are in place stopping developers from writing and designing heterogeneous yet fully structured, narrative-based computer games with carefully constructed and immutable, unchangeable characters.' The article discusses the emergence and role of gender criticism and research in relation to the recent proliferation of the customizable avatar. The story also dissects the very act of character creation, subsequently aiming to clarify several semantic distortions related to the terminology utilized in character creation, and in turn breaking apart the concepts of relatability and understandability, wholly differentiating the two. The overarching analysis is finally related to examples from the gaming marketplace, where many continue to corroborate apparent falsehoods and misunderstandings in relation to the utilization of the avatar. Ultimately, the writer hopes to dissuade readers, developers and players from believing that written narratives are going away as customization and emergent content are entering video games with full force."

Submission + - The New Net: Google's Bandwidth Bill Is Zero (wired.com)

Submitted by Wired has a story on how YouTube may not be paying on Saturday October 17, 2009 @05:19AM

Wired has a story on how YouTube may not be paying writes: Wired has a story on how YouTube may not be paying for its excessive bandwidth usage — thanks to how excessive it is. An interesting analysis of how that became possible with the recent changes of architecture of the Internet follows. From the article: "It’s much more complicated now with the top 30 websites serving up 30 percent of net traffic, either from their own sets of pipes or from data centers around the world that connect much closer to your computer — and for much cheaper — than ever before. (...) In 2007, the majority of the internet’s traffic came distributed by 30,000 [autonous systems]. In 2009, 150 [systems] served up half of the net’s traffic. +The internet is changing and it’s happening really quickly,+ [Craig] Labovitz [a longtime internet researcher] said. +I was blown away to find out that one-tenth of the internet is going [to] or coming from Google.+"

German Team Wins 2009 Solar Decathlon 56

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday October 17, 2009 @05:12AM from the it's-always-sunny-in-dusseldorf dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Our team recently competed in the 2009 US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon. The Solar Decathlon is a 2-year competition that challenges university students from 20 US and international teams to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered house. Objective scores are based on comfort control, appliance performance, net-metering, and home entertainment. Subjective contest scores are determined by juries that weigh the engineering design, architectural design, as well as marketing and communication strategies. Team Germany took 1st place due to a large net production of electricity, while Team California claimed top honors in the Architecture contest. Minnesota won the engineering design section. However, looking beyond the contest winners, the main purpose of the event is to raise awareness about solar technology and sustainable design. As part of this campaign, products used in all 20 homes are listed on the DOE website. The most exciting aspect is that the construction and engineering documents and communication materials from all teams are open-sourced for anyone to use or modify!"

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