jgreco - Slashdot User

Comment The obvious answer (Score 5, Insightful) 231

by jgreco on Thursday November 18, 2010 @12:01PM (#34268742) Attached to: Cellphone Carriers Try To Control Signal Boosters

which is for carriers to improve their coverage, doesn't even occur to them, eh.

Customers so desperate to be able to use a sucky service that they're willing to do the job a carrier ought to be doing... how many other businesses would *kill* to have that problem?

Comment Re:Learn to use apostrophes dammit! (Score 1) 290

by jgreco on Wednesday November 17, 2010 @10:23AM (#34253850) Attached to: Cooks Source Magazine Apologizes — Sort Of

It didn't strike me as being well-written. Perhaps there was a reason that they were borrowing content. Just a thought.

Submission + - Tablet prototype needs no external power supply | (tgdaily.com)

Submitted by timothy on Monday November 15, 2010 @03:58PM

timothy writes: I'd like to see a computer with no need for an external power supply as an e-book reader, a general knock-about PDA, a phone — all kinds of things. But there's a certain heart-strings appeal to such a computer intended as an educational tool for precisely those kind of places where basic infrastructure (like the provision of electricity) is a stumbling block. Perhaps built-in solar makes more sense, more places, than the hand-cranked power that the OLPC project ended up dropping from their laptops-for-kids program.

Submission + - Cell Phone Tower in the Sky (mediaroom.com)

Submitted by airshowfan on Monday November 15, 2010 @02:47PM

airshowfan writes: Boeing's SkyTerra satellite is in orbit and has just sent its first transmissions, signaling successful activation. This satellite uses the biggest antenna ever put into orbit, about 70 feet in diameter, wide and precise enough to communicate with small cell phones from 20,000 miles away. In other words, it will allow for cell phones to be used like sat phones. The satellite will hover in geostationary orbit within view of the US. When your phone company start using this technology, you will always have a cell phone signal, even in the middle of nowhere, as long as you have line-of-sight with SkyTerra (and if your cell phone has the right kind of radio). For some background on the technology, here's an article and a video, from back when the project was named after the company that developed the technology; MSV.

Submission + - Walmart using DMCA letters to stop BF ads rumors (slickdeals.net)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 15, 2010 @02:45PM

An anonymous reader writes: Walmart is sending DMCA notices to bargain hunting websites demanding they remove threads which contained scans of their Black Friday ads. Slickdeals.net and also ThanksgivingBlackFridayAds.com (https://www.thanksgivingblackfridayads.com/2010/walmart-day-after-thanksgiving-circular/) have received such notices. Forum posters on the Slickdeals site indicate they have also recieved such threats relating to their own blogs. (Feel free to rewrite this information or add additional details to bring it up to your editorial standards.)

Submission + - Poll: Would you take a one way ticket to Mars? 1

Submitted by ElizabethGreene on Monday November 15, 2010 @02:17PM

ElizabethGreene writes: Options:
1. Yes, even if I would die on impact.
2. Yes, if we had a 50% chance of surviving a year.
3. Yes, if we had a 50% chance of surviving 5 years.
4. Yes, if we had a 50% chance of surviving 10 years.
5. No way, round trip only.
6. No way, flying is for the birds.
7. I'm already there.

Submission + - Oracle Solaris 11 Express 2010.11 released (oracle.com)

Submitted by comay on Monday November 15, 2010 @02:07PM

comay writes: Today Oracle released its latest version of Solaris technology, the Oracle Solaris 11 Express 2010.11 release. It includes a large number of new features not found in either Oracle Solaris 10 or previous OpenSolaris releases including ZFS encryption and deduplication, network-based packaging and provisioning systems, network virtualization, optimized I/O for NUMA platforms and optimized platform support including support for Intel's latest Nehalem and SPARC T3. In addition, Oracle Solaris 10 support is available from within a container/zone so migration of existing systems is greatly simplified. The release is available under a variety of licenses including a supported commercial license on a wide variety of x86 and SPARC platforms.

Submission + - Scientific breakthroughs in "Racetrack memory"

Submitted by Esther Schindler on Monday November 15, 2010 @02:06PM

Esther Schindler writes: Swiss scientists are working on racetrack memory, shock-proof memory that they say is 100,000 times faster and consumes less power than current hard disks. Professor Mathias Kläui at EPFL, Laboratory of Nanomagnetism and Spin Dynamics and SwissFEL, says the new kind of memory using nickel-iron nanowire may soon be possible — and a market-ready device could be available in as little as 5-7 years.

If you're comfortable reading text like "For each bit of information to be clearly separated from the next so that data can be read reliably, the scientists use domain walls with magnetic vortices to delineate two adjacent bits," you'll probably be able to follow the techie details in the journal article Physical Review Letters, but mere mortals who want the summarized "what's in it for me?" can get it from the short ITWorld.com blog post, Racetrack Memory — Computer Memory That's 100,000 Times Faster Than Today's — May Arrive in 5-7 Years.

Submission + - Can't Remember Faces? Blame your Reading Skills (newscientist.com)

Submitted by

Hugh Pickens

on Sunday November 14, 2010 @11:04AM

Hugh Pickens writes: "Have you ever been embarrassed by introducing yourself to someone only for them to point out that you've met before? The New Scientist reports that new research suggests that learning to read competes with face recognition ability. To test the hypothesis Stanislas Dehaene at the INSERM-CEA Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit in Saclay, France carried out functional MRI brain scans on 10 people who could not read, 22 who learned to read as adults and 31 who did so as children. When the researchers showed participants pictures of faces, the visual word form area of those who could read was much less active than that of participants who could not read. Dehaene speculates that the ability to read may have hijacked a neuronal network that evolved to enable us to visually track animals. "The hypothesis suggests that this brain area has not evolved for reading but results from a reconfiguration of evolutionarily older brain circuits dedicated to object processing," says Manuel Carreiras at the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language who prevously found that the brains of adults who learn to read as adults are structurally different to those who cannot read."

Submission + - Warren Miller non-compete expired; still no films

Submitted by

michaelmalak

on Sunday November 14, 2010 @09:43AM

michaelmalak writes: "As most ski buffs with an interest in intellectual property know, Warren Miller, who made ski films annually from 1950, sold his company, Warren Miller Entertainment, in the late 1980's, has not been involved at all in the films that bear his name for the past six years or so, and is not pleased with the most recent films. He's been getting involved in the ski film industry again, which he thought he could do since his non-compete expired in 1999. However, an arbitration panel decided based on trademark issues surrounding the name "Warren Miller" that Warren Miller is barred from the ski film industry for life."

Submission + - Minecraft getting graphical update + new game mode

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 14, 2010 @08:59AM

An anonymous reader writes: Notch is releasing a major graphical update to Minecraft. A game play video and a screenshot have been released showing off the new engine.

"The most noticeable change is a complete rewrite of the lighting system. Minecraft now makes use of many graphical effects found in other *next gen* games, such as High Dynamic Range lighting, soft shadows and water reflections, as well as some rendering techniques that are simply not possible with more geometrically complex games, like Real Time Global Illumination."

Youtube link to HD update video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjhtjDnneLQ

Source URL: http://pucklovesgames.com/?p=52

Submission + - Cracks found in Shuttle external fuel tank (nasa.gov)

Submitted by Mysticalfruit on Sunday November 14, 2010 @08:40AM

Mysticalfruit writes: During an inspection of Discovery's external fuel tank, two cracks in the stringers were found. Currently NASA is evaluating its possible repair options. Considering how critical these stringers are to the structural integrity of the tank, I'm surprised that they'd be so willing to repair in place. This launch will the the last launch of Discovery before she is mothballed.

Submission + - Android copied Sun JVM's code using a decompiler (reddit.com) 2

Submitted by

yuhong

on Sunday November 14, 2010 @03:20AM

yuhong writes: "This reddit comment have some evidence that the PolicyNodeImpl.java code that Oracle claim was copied from Sun's Java SE 5 JVM was decompiled using JAD and used almost verbatim. This pastebin has the output from the JAD decompiler to prove it."

Submission + - Sea level rise and satellites (nytimes.com) 1

Submitted by mdsolar on Sunday November 14, 2010 @03:04AM

mdsolar writes: An interesting article on sea level rise this century (at least 3 feet) includes an interesting description of faltering efforts to use satellites to measure ice lose from ice sheets and how airplanes are picking up part of the slack. The problem has been discussed here before: http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/06/05/1157202/US-Climate-Satellite-Capabilities-In-Jeopardy

Submission + - Is this evidence that we can see the future? (newscientist.com) 2

Submitted by afabbro on Sunday November 14, 2010 @02:52AM

afabbro writes: "Parapsychologists have made outlandish claims about precognition – knowledge of unpredictable future events – for years. But the fringe phenomenon is about to get a mainstream airing: a paper providing evidence for its existence has been accepted for publication by the leading social psychology journal. What's more, sleptical psychologists who have pored over a preprint of the paper say they can't find any significant flaws."

Slashdot Top Deals