Comment Re:lol (Score 0) 332
All it takes is one case and it can convince anyone. Statistics aside, it's the same way we can be sold on anything. Would you like to see how this vacuum works at 7pm while you're eating?
Comment Finally (Score 0, Troll) 206
We've been holding on to this power for too long. Time to actually use it against China.
Comment NCAR (Score 2) 363
The National Center for Atmospheric Research, known as NCAR: http://ncar.ucar.edu/
Located in beautiful Boulder, CO, the Super Computer BlueFire http://www2.cisl.ucar.edu/docs/bluefire-user-guide is a great attraction if they let you go inside, but you can still see it outside the glass. Once you finish there, you can see all the great architecture by I.M. Pei (IIRC), and see awesome weather results like a tornado tube and understand all the different clouds, etc.
Comment Trade (Score 1) 151
Isn't it something we all agreed to: trade ease of use and functionality with a little bit of privacy loss?
Comment | Dream (Score 0) 374
This sounds like total crap. If I "make friends" with more people, then I'll be charged less a month? Then some 13 year old will figure out a way to make a buck off a guide called "Geek to Everyone's Friend in 7 days" which will make him very popular with his other geek friends, and change the face of gaming as we know it.
Comment Re:WMI (Score 1) 427
Agree with above post. Powershell is going to be your bread and butter. I've been working in a Windows Environment for over 6 years and Powershell is by far the most useful thing. It's the Admin Console for Exchange 2007 and up, Sharepoint 2010 and up, and a slew of other products. If you want to get your hands dirty in Powershell, a good way to start would be to read the articles posted on EE. Experts-Exchange.com has a few Powershell articles to get you up and running relatively easily. And yes, I may have written a couple of articles on there. http://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Languages/Scripting/Powershell/A_4327-PowerShell-Where-do-I-start.html
Good luck and Powershell is extremely worth your investment of time.
California County Bans SmartMeter Installations 494
kiwimate writes "Marin County in California has passed an ordinance (PDF) banning the installation of smart meters in unincorporated Marin. Among the reasons given are privacy concerns associated with measuring energy usage data moment by moment and the potential for adverse impact on emergency communication systems used by first responders and amateur radio operators. The ordinance also comments that 'the SmartMeters program ... could well actually increase total electricity consumption and therefore the carbon footprint,' citing 'some engineers and energy conservation experts.'"
The ordinance also mentions "significant health questions" raised about "increased electromagnetic frequently radiation (EMF) emitted by the wireless technology in SmartMeters."
Microchips Now In Tombstones, Toilets, & Fish Lures 83
Hugh Pickens writes "Steve Johnson writes in the Mercury News that microchips are going into a staggering array of once decidedly low-tech items — from gravestone markers and running shoes to fish lures and writing pens. In the future, 'where won't we find chips?' asks analyst Jordan Selburn. 'The answer is pretty close to nowhere.' For example, one company sells a coin-size, stainless steel-encased microchip for gravestone markers that tells the dead person's story in text, photos, video or audio histories, which visitors can access by pointing their Internet-enabled cell phones at it. The company says it has sold thousands of 'Memory Medallions.' There's AquaOne Technologies, who sell a toilet containing chips that automatically shut off the water when it springs a leak or starts to overflow, but Japanese company Toto goes one better with an intelligent toilet that gathers health-related data from the user's urine. Pro-Troll puts a chip in its fish lures that 'duplicates the electrical nerve discharge of a wounded bait fish,' prompting other fish to bite it."
Comment Online Gaming (Score 1) 417
I would be interested in the same thing. My daughter is 9 months right now, but I don't want her touching my computer. I got my nephew a "my first laptop" kind of thing from the store and it has word puzzles and things, but he's also 6 and knows letters and words pretty well. What I'm going to do for my daughter is probably get her a cheap laptop and let her have at it. Online they have some pretty good games too for kids. I think one of them is Nick Jr. With just a mouse, they can interface with many games, which is doable for an 18 month old I would assume. Maybe online is your answer. http://www.nickjr.com/kids-games/
Co-op Neverwinter RPG Announced For 2011 169
Atari and Cryptic Studios are teaming up to make a new Dungeons & Dragons-based RPG called Neverwinter, planned for Q4 2011. Gameplay will center on five-person groups that can include other players and/or AI allies, and there will be an extensive content generation system. Gamespot spoke with Cryptic CEO Jack Emmert, who explained parts of the game in more depth:
"I think there are two very unique gameplay elements in 4th Edition that we've done something interesting with: action points and healing surges. In the tabletop game, an action point lets a player perform a reroll or add an additional die to a roll. In our game, action points are earned through combat and spent to power special abilities called 'boons.' These boons give players special boosts, but only in certain circumstances. Healing surges represent the amount of times a player can heal himself before resting. In D&D and Neverwinter, various abilities let players use a surge immediately or perhaps replenish the number of surges available. It's a precious resource that players will need to husband as they adventure in the brave new world. Positioning, flanking, tactics, and using powers with your teammates are also all things that come from the 4th Edition that are interesting. Of course, we're using power names and trying to keep power behavior consistent with the pen-and-paper counterparts. Neverwinter will definitely feel familiar to anyone who has played the 4th Edition."
Comment Re:International? (Score 1) 106
I'm currently using Google Voice, and it doesn't listen to me when I tell it to call people. Unfortunately, it doesn't have Voice Recognition for anything. Just voice transcription services for the voicemails.
As for transcribing the email from Spanish to English or something like that, as for right now, Google Voice is only US numbers as far as I'm tracking, so I wouldn't expect the ability to transcribe.
If GOOG-411 goes international, then you will probably see a shift towards more languages, since the Google Voice Transcription service is directly related to the data culled from GOOG-411, which is also just US at the moment, as far as I'm aware.
UC Berkeley Offering Starcraft Course 148
The Tumeroks blog reports that the University of California, Berkeley is now offering a class on Blizzard's Starcraft real-time strategy game. "This course will go in-depth in the theory of how war is conducted within the confines of the game Starcraft. There will be lecture on various aspects of the game, from the viewpoint of pure theory to the more computational aspects of how exactly battles are conducted. Calculus and Differential Equations are highly recommended for full understanding of the course. Furthermore, the class will take the theoretical into the practical world by analyzing games and replays to reinforce decision-making skills and advanced Starcraft theory."
Carbonite Stacks the Deck With 5-Star Reviews 197
The Narrative Fallacy writes "In the aftermath of disclosures that Belkin employees paid users for good reviews on Amazon, David Pogue reports in the NYTimes that Carbonite has gone one better with 5-star reviews of its online backup services written by its own employees. Pogue recounts how Bruce Goldensteinberg signed up for the backup service, and all went well until his computer crashed and he was unable to restore it from the online backup while Carbonite customer support kept him on hold for over an hour. Frustrated, Goldensteinberg started reading Carbonite reviews on Amazon and a few of them seemed suspicious. 'They were created around the same date — October 31, 2006 — all given 5 stars, and the reviewers all came from around the Boston, MA area, where Carbonite is located,' including a review by Swami Kumaresan that read more like a testimonial. 'It turned out that Swami Kumaresan is the Vice President of Marketing for Carbonite. His review gives no indication that he is employed by the company.' Another review posted by Jonathan F. Freidin extols Carbonite without mentioning Freidin's position as Senior Software Engineer at Carbonite. 'It doesn't matter to me that Carbonite's fraudulent reviews are a couple of years old,' writes Pogue. 'These people are gaming the system, deceiving the public to enrich themselves. They should be deeply ashamed.'"
Comment Re:File a police report _now_. (Score 1) 931
Do we even know if the school was a college, I.E. the student was paying money to attend, or some public high school. In what college do you leave your stuff out for anyone to paw through? Maybe the kid was on recess and left his book bag in his cubby, and we are going a little bit extreme assuming that the faculty will actually do something about it. I agree with the parent poster where it's a tyranny because I really can't see that happening at the college level. A lot of kids assume their teachers know what best, but a lot of college students would fight back immediately like all the comments are suggesting. When you're fighting a system like a public High School, who usually wins?
Tech-Related Volunteer Gigs 252
jeffomatic writes "Here's a question for Service Day: what kind of volunteer opportunities are available out there for the technologically-inclined? I'm a software developer and I'm wondering if there's anyone in the field engaged in pro-bono work, like IT or teaching or web design or whatnot. I'm not at all above rolling my sleeves up and working at shelters or the local park, but it occurs to me that my professional skills might be usefully applied in the service context as well. I'd like to hear about what other people are doing, in terms of projects, time commitments, organizations, etc." Or just commit a patch to your favorite project.
