sku158 - Slashdot User

Universities Collaborate On Air-Purifying Dress 58

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday January 11, 2011 @02:55PM from the you-smell-wonderful-tonight dept.

ecouterran writes "From the ecouterre article: 'We have dresses to impress, for success, even to kill, but "Herself" must be the first drapery number to clear the air. A collaboration between the University of Sheffield, London College of Fashion, and the University of Ulster, the sweeping gown is part of a larger project to engage the public in the science of environmental pollution. "Catalytic Clothing" explores how textiles can improve ambient quality, and the self-described textile sculpture, is the first prototype to emerge. Highly experimental, according to the designers, "Herself" is designed to illustrate how fabrics can eliminate pollutants so we can "breathe more beautifully."'"

Best Buy Unapologetic About Charging For PS3 Firmware Updates 454

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday October 07, 2010 @01:12AM from the a-fool-and-his-money dept.

donniebaseball23 writes "After discovering that electronics retailer Best Buy was charging ignorant customers $30 for the 'service' of installing updated firmware on PS3s, IndustryGamers got word from the company on its policy. Best Buy sees no problem with charging for this convenience, even though it's something Sony provides to PS3 owners completely free. 'While many gamers can handle firmware upgrades easily on their own, those customers who do want help can get it from Geek Squad, and we continue to evaluate this offering to ensure it meets their needs. The service goes beyond a firmware updates, and includes user account setup, parental control setup and other components,' a representative said."

Criminal Photoshops Himself Into Charity Photos In Bid For Leniency 108

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday July 20, 2010 @12:07PM from the shopping-daryl-in-a-crowded-theater dept.

38-year-old Daryl Simon decided it would be a good idea to submit fake pictures of himself at charity events, and forged letters of support from various charitable organizations to the court before he was sentenced for credit card fraud. Unfortunately for Daryl, he is as good at Photoshop as he is at credit card scams, and Judge Stephen Robinson was not amused. Simon was sentenced to 285-months in prison — 50 months more than the maximum under sentencing guidelines. From the article: "Daryl Simon's bald-faced move included sticking a picture of himself into a shot with a physical-therapy patient, then flipping the image and placing it next to a teen student. 'Evidence that his image was inserted and flipped can be seen by examining the single detail on his shirt above his fingers — that detail appears on the left side of the shirt in the top photograph, and on the right side of the shirt in the bottom photograph,' prosecutors wrote."

8-Core Intel Nehalem-EX To Launch This Month 186

Posted by Soulskill on Monday March 08, 2010 @05:29PM from the double-the-cores-for-only-twice-the-price dept.

MojoKid writes "What could you do with 8 physical cores of CPU processing power? Intel's upcoming 8-core Nehalem-EX is launching later this month, according to Intel Xeon Platform Director Shannon Poulin. The announcement puts to rest rumors that the 8-core part might be delayed, and makes good on a promise Intel made last year when the chip maker said it would release the chip in the first half of 2010. To quickly recap, Nehalem-EX boasts an extensive feature-set, including up to 8 cores per processor, up to 16 threads per processor with Intel Hyper-threading, scalability up to eight sockets via Intel's serial Quick Path Interconnect and more with third-party node controllers, and 24MB of shared cache."

Lack of Manpower May Kill VLC For Mac 398

Posted by timothy on Wednesday December 16, 2009 @05:53PM from the vlc-generally-rocks dept.

plasmacutter writes "The Video Lan dev team has recently come forward with a notice that the number of active developers for the project's MacOS X releases has dropped to zero, prompting a halt in the release schedule. There is now a disturbing possibility that support for Mac will be dropped as of 1.1.0. As the most versatile and user-friendly solution for bridging the video compatibility gap between OS X and windows, this will be a terrible loss for the Mac community. There is still hope, however, if the right volunteers come forward."

Dad Delivers Baby Using Wiki 249

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday December 15, 2009 @05:29PM from the 9cm-edited dept.

sonamchauhan writes "A Londoner helped his wife deliver their baby by Googling 'how to deliver a baby' on his mobile phone. From the article: 'Today proud Mr Smith said: "The midwife had checked Emma earlier in the day but contractions started up again at about 8pm so we called the midwife to come back. But then everything happened so quickly I realized Emma was going to give birth. I wasn't sure what I was going to do so I just looked up the instructions on the internet using my BlackBerry."'"

Comment what about the human aspects? (Score 1) 211

by sku158 on Tuesday November 10, 2009 @02:49PM (#30049378) Attached to: How Do You Evaluate a Data Center?

i did not read all the comments but i had done cage wrestling with servers as a week long event as well as those mid-night cravings that i need to touch the servers just because they are not purring at the right frequency. in addition to all the power, connections, server survival conditions, server security, assisted monitoring (don't rely solely on anyone), etc etc. i also find the need for good nearby parking, large clean bathrooms, available stools or chair, tool set(sockets, big screw drivers, pilers), a place for a coffee break, scream at the VAR and making excuses to the spouse, ULTRA HELPFUL. for small setups and fuzzy architects, these are something as a tech look for in my experience.

Comment Unless time != money (Score 1) 507

by sku158 on Saturday October 31, 2009 @09:05PM (#29938345) Attached to: Installing Linux On Old Hardware?

486 in the days of i7 is it really worth your time? even if you revive it, the second you hit its limit the second you wish you had not spend days trying. the issue is that all other software had moved on. i tried it with a 1 gHz P3 toshiba laptop, but then it couldn't even play youtube videos in decent smoothness. DSL/kubuntu what not, it's just not worth the two days trying various distros and drivers, compile my own drivers to make it work at a frustrating fashion. go shop craigslist.

Verizon Sued After Tech Punches Customer In Face 493

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday August 18, 2009 @12:28PM from the can-you-hit-me-now dept.

suraj.sun writes "A Verizon customer filed a lawsuit after the tech the company sent out got a little punchy. Instead of fixing the customer's problem, the tech allegedly hit him in the face. The New York Post says the tech attacked the customer after he asked to see some ID before allowing access to the apartment. From the article, '"You want to know my name? Here's my name," Benjamin snarled, slapping his ID card into Isakson's face, according to Isakson's account of the December 2008 confrontation. "The guy essentially snapped. He cold-cocked me, hit me two or three solid shots to the head while my hands were down," said Isakson, a limo driver. He said the pounding bloodied his face and broke his glasses. But things got uglier, Isakson said, when Benjamin squeezed him around the neck and pressed him up against the wall. "He's prepared to kill me," Isakson said. "That's all I could think of." The customer broke free and ran away. The Verizon tech then chased the customer until he was subdued by a neighbor who was an off-duty cop.'"

Comment Re:Worried about the results of your actions? (Score 1) 730

by sku158 on Friday August 14, 2009 @12:35PM (#29067209) Attached to: Why Should I Trust My Network Administrator?

if you are truly going with the "start-up" mentality then expect things in bad shape at the beginning. i would suggest you raise the funds to do IT right if you have an idea (IP) that is worthy of such. if not then talk to your friend to find some trustworthy IT folks. i hope you are not developing on an island. don't hire because "i need it now". the costs of subsequent fixes will blow your mind if not your start-up altogether. think about a comprehensive NDA and make it bite.
use the other "start-up" excuse and use bleeding edge technologies to keep your IP safe. TrueCrypt anyone?

Comment who do you hire for developer? what about manager? (Score 1) 592

by sku158 on Wednesday July 08, 2009 @12:27PM (#28623947) Attached to: Tech Or Management Beyond Age 39?

if you just worry about being hired later, review your own hiring practice. what do you look for when hiring? does age matter in hiring a developer? how about management position? there lies your answer.

People Prefer Angry-Faced Cars 473

Posted by timothy on Monday October 13, 2008 @04:58AM from the researchers-like-to-anthropomorphize dept.

fatalfury writes "Researchers from the University of Vienna asked 20 males and 20 females to rank vehicles based on their appearance. The list of traits included arrogant, afraid, agreeable, disgusted, extroverted, sad, and others. Cars with 'meaner' traits (such as BMW) ranked higher, whereas cars with 'nicer' traits (such as Toyota's Prius) ranked lower. With billions spent on developing new products in the automobile industry, this could spur a trend in meaner-looking cars and perhaps explain why sales of the Prius and other green cars are slow to take off with average consumers."

National Debt Clock Overflowed, Extended By a Digit 696

Posted by timothy on Sunday October 12, 2008 @10:51PM from the but-don't-worry-balanced-budget's-a-crazy-idea dept.

hackingbear writes "The National Debt Counter, erected in 1989 when the US debt was 'merely' a tiny $2.7 trillion, has been moving so much that it recently ran out of digits to display the ballooning figure: $10,150,603,734,720, or roughly $10.2 trillion, as of Saturday afternoon. To accommodate the extra '1,' the clock was hacked: the '1' from "$10.2" has been moved left to the LCD square once occupied solely by the digital dollar sign. A non-digital, improvised dollar sign has been pasted next to the '1.' It will be replaced in 2009 with a new clock able to track debt up to a quadrillion dollars, which is a '1' followed by 15 zeros. That should be good enough for a few more months at least, I believe." Adds reader MarkusQ, "I know Dick Cheney has assured us that 'Deficits don't matter' but I can't help wondering if we should be fixing the problem rather than the sign."

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