GretaGarbo - Slashdot User

Irrelevant Scientific Research Honored 93

Posted by samzenpus on Friday October 03, 2008 @03:54PM from the wierd-science dept.

More than 1,000 people attended this year's Ig Nobel awards, a light-hearted alternative to the Nobel Prizes. Scientists who unlocked the inner secrets of dog fleas, crisps and tangled string swept the show. Handing out awards was William Lipscomb, the 1976 Nobel laureate for chemistry, also doubling Thursday, at the age of 89, as the hero in the "Win-a-Date-With-a-Nobel-Laureate Contest." The prize itself is a plaque that reads, "This Ig Nobel Prize is awarded in the year 2008 to an Ig Nobel Prize Winner, in recognition of the Ig Nobel Prize Winners' Ig Nobel Prize winning achievement." At last I can submit my paper, "Everything is Really Wet, Even Dry Stuff." for peer review.

US House Adopts New Third-Party Web Site Rules 49

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday October 03, 2008 @03:10PM from the more-information-not-a-bad-thing dept.

GovIT Geek writes to tell us that third-party websites will no longer be off limits for members of the US House, provided that they use it for "official purposes" and not personal, commercial, or campaign purposes. "The rules are seen by House Administration Chairman Robert Brady as a compromise between several proposals under consideration in recent months and are closely aligned with those circulated by the Senate Rules Committee last week. [...] 'These new guidelines are a step in the right direction for a Congress that has been behind the technological curve for too long,' Boehner said. 'By encouraging the use of emerging and established new media tools, Congress is sending the message that we want to speak to citizens, and receive feedback, in the most open and accessible manner possible.'"

Comment Re:Well, for one thing.. (Score 1) 518

by rapidweather on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @08:57PM (#23565035) Attached to: Why Buy a PC Preloaded With Linux?

Given that not everyone can "install" an OS, and somehow deal with the hardware issues, PC makers are able to offer such low prices (yes they are) on powerful PC's IF they can sell them to everyone, most of whom are not able to install...etc. Volume = a chance at profit. So, all these people buying 3 GB Dual Core 256 MB video 320 GB HDD machines want (and expect) only one thing, that it "boot up to a graphical desktop" that is ready for them to use. So Microsoft still has the market for OEM installs sewed up, we get Vista. Not to bad, really, we get extra-powerful machines for under a grand, to "install linux" on. Hard drives so big we can "dual boot". (Anyone here dual booted Ubuntu 8.04 and Vista?) I dual boot my Knoppix Remaster and Ubuntu 7.10. (I like XMMS for some reason, so I'm sticking with 7.10) Actually, I can triple-boot, from a menu, into my Knoppix Remaster running from a USB drive, from the HDD, or Ubuntu from the HDD. The average buyer of PC's is not going to want to figure out how I do that. They want their OS, that "came with the computer" to just boot up to that expected graphical desktop. With a nice wallpaper. Now, if we want a PC preloaded with Linux, same thing applies, only the average buyers expect "lower prices" still. The manufacturers go along with that, and use "odd processors" that don't have the familiar Intel Inside sticker, or at least an AMD one. Also, forget the 3 GB of RAM. Sure, if you look around in the Dell website, you can find a powerful computer with Ubuntu on it. I just lied. I have not actually found it, or at least one that stayed with Ubuntu throughout the "Build it" process. Also, are there a few obscure PC builders out there that have a dual boot Windows/Linux machine to sell? I saw one once upon a time. Considering the "livecd" OS, the Dell Inspiron line can easily run Ubuntu 8.04, connect wirelessly, and have the desktop screen resolution done right also. Does not affect your Vista install, I tested it. The average PC buyer probably won't do that, but if Vista refuses to boot one day, that is a temporary solution.

Smarter-than-Human Intelligence & The Singularity Summit 543

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday September 09, 2007 @11:48AM from the something-to-think-about dept.

runamock writes "Brilliant technologists like Ray Kurzweil and Rodney Brooks are gathering in San Francisco for The Singularity Summit. The Singularity refers to the creation of smarter-than-human intelligence beyond which the future becomes unpredictable. The concept of the Singularity sounds more daunting in the form described by statistician I.J Good in 1965: 'Let an ultra-intelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultra-intelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an 'intelligence explosion,' and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultra-intelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make.'"

Blue Ring Around Uranus 269

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Saturday April 08, 2006 @05:17PM from the too-many-hours-looking-through-a-telescope dept.

ZedNaught writes "The BBC is reporting that 'astronomers have discovered that the planet Uranus has a blue ring - only the second found in the Solar System. Like the blue ring of Saturn, it probably owes its existence to an accompanying small moon.' According to the April issue of Science, the blue ring is one of two new outer rings recently discovered around Uranus using the infrared Keck adaptive optics system. The rings are blue and red like Saturn's E and G rings. The blue ring around Saturn hosts the moon Enceladus while the Uranus ring contains the moon Mab."

Comment Feasability of this Crypto System (Score 1) 265

by GretaGarbo on Friday March 31, 2006 @01:33AM (#15032049) Attached to: Totally Random One Time Pads

The article that first suggested this approach to one time pads can be found at:

http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/maurer92conditionallyp erfect.html

The basic idea is that is infeasible to store all of the random bits being broadcast, hence even once you learn what the two parties are sampling, the random bits they recorded are already long gone.

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