DarkMachine - Slashdot User

Comment Genius Circa 1985 (Score 0) 627

by DarkMachine on Thursday November 19, 2009 @05:45PM (#30164198) Attached to: Laser Weapon Shoots Down Airplanes In Test

OMG "All you need is a large spinning mirror and you could vaporise a human target from space!!" Apparently the scientists who worked this one up didn't consider the implications, or maybe they did. At least the students in the movie made the right choice. Search IMDB for "Real Genius"

Comment Re:Not so new... (Score 1) 121

by DarkMachine on Monday April 27, 2009 @09:46AM (#27729109) Attached to: Windows 7 Streams Media To the Xbox 360 and PS3 Seamlessly

Yeah, I have to agree, not new. Why such a big deal, the old XBOX did this just fine. I mean I have been streaming media to my XBOX (not 360) for years, from my Linux media server, perfectly flawless, it's the center of my entertainment system.

3D Printing For Everyone 183

Posted by kdawson on Friday August 01, 2008 @10:16AM from the rapid-prototyping-as-a-service dept.

mmacx writes "Technology Review has up an article about Shapeways, a new online rapid-prototyping service that allows users to upload digital designs which are then printed on 3-D printers and shipped back. A spinoff from Philips Research, the service gives small businesses, designers, artists, and hobbyists access to prototyping tools that were once available only to the largest corporations. The fee for a typical printed object is $50-$150. Their video shows the steps behind the process." We've been talking about 3D printing for years.

DHS Allowed To Take Laptops Indefinitely 1123

Posted by kdawson on Friday August 01, 2008 @08:08AM from the reasonable-expectation dept.

andy1307 writes with a Washington Post story giving details of Department of Homeland Security policies for border searches of laptops and other electronic devices (as well as papers). (We have been discussing border searches for a while now.) DHS says such procedures have long been in place but were "disclosed last month because of public interest in the matter," according to the article. Here is a link to the policy (PDF, 5 pages). "Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed. Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption, or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, US Customs and Border Protection and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement... DHS officials said that the newly disclosed policies — which apply to anyone entering the country, including US citizens — are reasonable and necessary to prevent terrorism... The policies cover 'any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form,' including hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes. They also cover 'all papers and other written documentation,' including books, pamphlets and 'written materials commonly referred to as "pocket trash..."'"

Software Backs Up Human Memory 172

Posted by timothy on Friday August 01, 2008 @01:53AM from the where'd-I-put-my-pda dept.

CWmike writes "Ever try to remember who you bumped into at the store a few days back? Well, you're not alone. And IBM researchers are working on software that just may help you better recollect all the forgotten pieces of your life. This week, the company unveiled Pensieve, software that stores images, sounds, and text on everyday mobile devices, then allows the user extract them later on, to help them recall names, faces, conversations and events. IBM's project is akin to one that Gordon Bell and other scientists at Microsoft Research have been working on for the past nine years."

Laptops With Certain NVidia Chips Failing 310

Posted by timothy on Thursday July 31, 2008 @11:02PM from the hardware-sucks dept.

Eukariote writes "An estimated 18 million laptops with NVidia G84 and G86 graphics chips sold in the past one and a half years are experiencing high failure rates. Various laptop models from multiple manufacturers (Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and others) are affected. NVidia blames it on bad chip packaging causing thermal failure. BIOS updates that turn the laptop fan on more frequently or permanently have been released by Dell and HP. The cynical interpretation is that this is likely to only delay the problem until the warranty has expired."

Slashdot Top Deals