Eryximachus - Slashdot User

Nissan Adds Robot Helper To Its Concept Car 127

Posted by Zonk on Saturday October 27, 2007 @07:15AM from the i-don't-trust-glados-with-a-stick-shift dept.

narramissic writes "Nissan has mounted a robot passenger in the dashboard of its Pivo2 concept car whose job is to keep the driver happy, give spot-on directions, and even check your e-mail. 'We have data that happy drivers' accident rates are drastically lower than depressed ones, so this robot stays there to make sure the driver is happy always,' said Masato Inoue, chief designer at Nissan's exploratory design group, in an interview at the Motor Show. 'This guides the driver and sometimes cheers up the driver. For example, if the driver is irritated it might say 'Hey, you look somehow angry. Why? Please calm down.'' Other features of this vehicle include a cabin that can turn through 360 degrees so you never have to worry about looking behind when you back up and wheels that can twist 90 degrees, eliminating the need to parallel park." The article includes a video of the car talking to the driver, which is kind of adorable in a 'future is now' sorta way.

Mandriva Linux 2008 Now Available 189

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @03:16PM from the latest-bits dept.

AdamWill writes "Mandriva Linux 2008 is now available for download on the official site and on the network of public mirror servers. In 2008 you will find KDE 3.5.7 and the new GNOME 2.20 already integrated, a solid kernel 2.6.22.9 with fair scheduling support, OpenOffice.org 2.2.1, cutting-edge 3D-accelerated desktop courtesy of Compiz Fusion 0.5.2, Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.6, and everything else you've come to expect. We have integrated a reworked hardware detection sub-system, with support for a lot of new devices (particularly graphics cards, sound cards, and wireless chips). There is a wizard to import Windows documents and settings, a new network configuration center, and a set of improvements to the Mandriva software management tools. Read about the new features in depth in the release tour, or view the release notes. The One installation CD is the recommended download: it comes with a full KDE desktop and application suite, NVIDIA and ATI proprietary video card drivers, Intel wireless firmware, Adobe Flash and Sun Java browser plugins, all included."

Computer Analysis Sets NASA History Straight 278

Posted by kdawson on Saturday September 30, 2006 @08:02PM from the darn-it-i-said-it-right dept.

Ellis D. Tripp writes, "A computer analysis has upheld Neil Armstrong's version of the first words spoken on the lunar surface. The word 'a' was dropped due to a communications glitch, and Armstrong has been accused of flubbing his words since the historic 1969 landing. The corrected statement was 'That's one small step for *A* man, One giant leap for mankind.'"

Verizon Ruling May Tax Dial-Up Customers 147

Posted by Zonk on Friday April 28, 2006 @07:01PM from the no-pipe-for-them dept.

cellocgw writes "The Boston Globe is reporting that a court ruling in Verizon's favor could effectively allow phone companies to charge dial-up users on a per-minute basis." From the article: "About 68 percent of US internet users now connect via broadband, according to the latest data from Neilsen//NetRatings. That still leaves millions of users connecting the old way, in which modems in their home call local numbers over a telephone line to access the Internet. Precisely how many people were affected by the court ruling is unknown. Good said the number was in the thousands, but that Global NAPs did not have exact numbers and could not disclose the identities of all the companies that relied on Global NAPs for dial-up numbers."

Comment Re:Off-topic question (Score 1) 197

by Eryximachus on Saturday November 12, 2005 @04:09AM (#14014422) Attached to: WI Assembly OKs Voting Paper Trail

We didn't used to have political parties. In fact one of the founding fathers, I do not remember which, said that a two party system would be the death of this democracy. I believe that the reason that there are official parties today has to do with ballot printing. Each party used to print its own ballots, but that lead to problems and so a centralized agency took over the printing proccess, but which candidates do they put on the ballots? Any native born citizen over, I think 35, can run to be president. They had to decide how to choose which candidates were serious enough to put on the ballot. They needed to keep costs down, if nothing else. Can you imagine a ballot with even 500 candidates for one position?

Slashdot Top Deals