JJman - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Not for my laptop (Score 1) 365

by JJman on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @04:48PM (#32817166) Attached to: Working Toward a Universal Power Brick For Laptops

Errr... The quote is:

"An ATX power supply for example will screw into certain mounting holes, have a maximum size and shape, and will take a standard 3-pin 'kettle cord' for incoming power."

I mean, seriously, can't you even fully read the first line of TFS?
I'm sorry I don't mean to flame, and I love my Apple products (MagSafe HELLS YEAH!), but the quote is talking about the standard for desktop power supplies.
Also, I somehow suspect that Apple will never adopt this standard. Rest easy my friend, your MagSafe is safe.

Film Studios May Block DVD Rentals For One Month 545

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday October 27, 2009 @05:12PM from the some-dare-call-it-collusion dept.

Ponca City, We love you writes "The LA Times reports that in an effort to push consumers toward buying more movies, some major film studios are considering a new policy that would block DVDs from being offered for rental until several weeks after going on sale. Under the plan, new DVD releases would be available on a purchase-only basis for a few weeks, after which time companies such as Blockbuster and Netflix would be allowed to rent the DVDs to their customers. 'The studios are wrestling with declines in DVD sales while the DVD rental market has been modestly growing,' says Reed Hastings the CEO of Netflix. 'If we can agree on low-enough pricing, delayed rental could potentially increase profits for everyone.' Three studios have already tried to impose a no-rental period of about a month on Redbox, the operator of kiosks that rent movies for $1 per night, believing that Redbox's steeply discounted price undercuts DVD sales. Redbox has responded by suing the studios, seeking to force them to sell it DVDs simultaneously with competitors. Meanwhile, the company is stocking its kiosks with DVDs it can't otherwise obtain by buying them from retailers."

Comment QOTD (Score 1) 93

by JJman on Saturday September 26, 2009 @02:46PM (#29549621) Attached to: The First Geek Wedding At a LinuxFest

Anyone else see the quote at the bottom?
"Marry in haste and everyone starts counting the months."
While it may not be appropriate, it does seem odd.

Bioreactors Engineer Tissue To Mend Heart Damage 46

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday August 26, 2009 @11:08PM from the make-yourself-better dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "Heart attacks usually cause irreversible damage to heart muscle and, because cells lost from the heart do not grow back naturally, leave the organ in a weakened and vulnerable state that may cause another serious condition — called heart failure — if the victim survives. Now a team of scientists led by Tal Dvir from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva has developed a tissue-engineering technique, using the body as a 'bioreactor,' to create a 'patch' made from heart muscle that can be used to fix scarring left over from a heart attack. First, a biodegradable 'scaffold' is seeded with immature cells taken from the hearts of newborn rats. For 48 hours, the scaffold is exposed to a cocktail of growth-promoting chemicals in the laboratory and is then transplanted into a rat's abdomen where it develops a network of blood vessels and muscle fibers. After seven days the patch is removed and grafted onto the animal's heart. A month later the patch has completely integrated itself into the heart, synchronizing its 'beat' with that of the surrounding tissue. 'Using the body as a bioreactor to engineer cardiac tissue with stable and functional blood vessel networks represents a significant improvement in cardiac patch performance over ex vivo (outside the body) methods currently used for patch production,' write the authors. The technique is also being developed for livers and bladders."

Comment Twist-Lock (Score 1) 711

by JJman on Wednesday July 29, 2009 @07:03PM (#28875145) Attached to: Favorite type of electical wall socket?

My favourite by a long stretch is the Twist-Lock style plugs.
Much more solid and less likely to fail than the American style plugs I've got to put up with here in Canada. And if you trip over the cable you break your nose instead of unplugging your equipment. Which (ow) is a great learning experience.
They're not designed for everyday use, due mostly to their size. But for something you want to stay plugged in despite the incompetence of everyone nearby, they're the best.

Comment Fools? (Score 3, Funny) 1010

by JJman on Tuesday April 14, 2009 @05:25PM (#27577565) Attached to: Vista Post-SP2 Is the Safest OS On the Planet

Checks current date. No, not the 1st.
Checks date on the article. No, still not the 1st (though eight days different).

Well, somebody's a fool.

Comment Youtube (Score 5, Interesting) 82

by JJman on Tuesday March 24, 2009 @04:11PM (#27317119) Attached to: HP's Free Adobe Flash Vulnerability Scanner

So naturally my first thought was, I wonder how well youtube does.
And lo: it's got 7 vulnerabilities.

It's interesting how this behemoth of a flash provider is still not secure.
*reaches for tinfoil hat*

Comment My .02 (Score 2, Informative) 386

by JJman on Saturday February 28, 2009 @02:26PM (#27024005) Attached to: Windows Server 2008 One Year On — Hit Or Miss?

We just switched to 2k8 in my shop (not my choice, AD and Exchange are "mandatory") and I've gotta say, I don't like it.
The only new feature that I've seen is DFS and even that is broken. The UI design team moved stuff for the sake of moving stuff and made everything bigger and chunkier. It also spams new windows that have a tendency to put themselves in the background like nobody's business. Also, the new DC's are giving all kinds of DNS errors.
Now maybe the DFS and DNS problems will be worked out in time (it's a new setup) but I still don't like the UI.
I don't see the point of switching.

Successful Stem Cell Replacement of Windpipe 116

Posted by timothy on Wednesday November 19, 2008 @04:59PM from the difficult-to-gasp dept.

thepacketmaster writes "In what is being hailed as a medical milestone, CNN reports a woman suffering from long-term tuberculosis had her lower trachea and bronchial tube replaced by tissue grown from her own stem cells. A team from the universities of Barcelona, Spain; Bristol, England; and Padua and Milan, Italy, decided to go ahead with the surgery instead of having to remove her left lung. The operation, reported Wednesday in the British medical journal The Lancet, has been hailed as a major leap for medicine that could offer new hope for patients suffering from serious illness."

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