Bobo72a - Slashdot User

Cambridge, Mass. Moves To Nix Security Cameras 366

Posted by timothy on Thursday February 12, 2009 @02:14PM from the buncha-lefties dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Citing privacy concerns, the Cambridge, Mass. City Council has voted 9-0 to remove security cameras scattered throughout the city. 'Because of the slow erosion of our civil liberties since 9/11, it is important to raise questions regarding these cameras,' said Marjorie Decker, a Cambridge city councilor. Rather than citing privacy, WCBVTV is running the story under the headline 'City's Move To Nix Security Cams May Cost Thousands.'"

How Small Can Computers Get? Computing in a Molecule 143

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Tuesday December 30, 2008 @06:36AM from the nano-pc dept.

ScienceDaily on what the future might bring for atomic-scale computing: "Joachim, the head of the CEMES Nanoscience and Picotechnology Group (GNS), is currently coordinating a team of researchers from 15 academic and industrial research institutes in Europe whose groundbreaking work on developing a molecular replacement for transistors has brought the vision of atomic-scale computing a step closer to reality. Their efforts, a continuation of work that began in the 1990s, are today being funded by the European Union in the Pico-Inside project. ... The team has managed to design a simple logic gate with 30 atoms that perform the same task as 14 transistors, while also exploring the architecture, technology, and chemistry needed to achieve computing inside a single molecule and to interconnect molecules."

2009, Year of the Linux Delusion 696

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday December 18, 2008 @12:56PM from the feed-the-trolls dept.

gadgetopia writes "An article has come out claiming (yet again) that 2009 will be the year of Linux, and bases this prediction on the fact that low-power ARM processors will be in netbooks which won't have enough power to run Windows, but then says these new netbooks will be geared to 'web only' applications which suits Linux perfectly. And, oh yeah, Palm might save Linux, too." The article goes on to skewer the year of Linux thing that seems to show up on pretty much every tech news site throughout December and January as lazy editors round out their year with softball trolling stories and "Year End Lists." We should compile a year-end list about this :)

Scientists Achieve Mental Body-Swapping 297

Posted by kdawson on Friday December 05, 2008 @02:29PM from the put-yourself-in-my-place dept.

SpaceAdmiral notes the news that scientists have succeeded in convincing experiment subjects that a mannequin's body is their own, and even feeling at home in the body of someone of the opposite sex. The effect could prove useful in virtual reality applications and in robot technology. Here's the paper on PLoS ONE.

Comment Re:Read the comic! (Score 2, Interesting) 266

by Bobo72a on Monday July 21, 2008 @07:35PM (#24282057) Attached to: Watchmen Movie Trailer Is Out

I have somewhat mixed feelings about the side stories. When I first read the comic I almost didn't want to read all of them because they seemed so long, boring, and irrelevant to the plot. As I continued however, they all seemed to make more and more sense and became relevant to the story.

That being said, I'll be upset if they try to put them in the movie as they are in the book. In a movie that would be jarring and people with less patience than me will give up. The only way I can think of to make it work would be to put the history stories first, and cut out the pirate one altogether.

People need to realize that the movie won't be a 100% adaptation of the comic book. As a poster said above me, film and graphic novels are two different mediums, and can't be perfectly translated. If the film tried to do exactly word for word what is in the comic book, it would be boring.

How Microsoft Plans To Get Its Groove Back With Win7 612

Posted by kdawson on Friday April 04, 2008 @11:02AM from the you-have-no-compatibility-get-over-it dept.

shawnz tips a blog post up at thebetaguy that details Windows 7's huge departure from the past, and the bold strategy Microsoft will be employing to maintain backward compatibility. Hint: Apple did it seven years back. There are interesting anti-trust implications too. "Windows 7 takes a different approach to the componentization and backwards compatibility issues; in short, it doesn't think about them at all. Windows 7 will be a from-the-ground-up packaging of the Windows codebase; partially source, but not binary compatible with previous versions of Windows."

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