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Comment Re:"a fraudulent religious organization" (Score 1) 498

by JiffyPop (#39073453) Attached to: James Randi's Latest Debunking Operation
I will shamelessly plug my church which has a long tradition of liberal/atheist members. Services pull from various religious traditions as well as modern authors. The wisdom of words is not limited by their source. We may not be trying to debunk religion, but we are trying to sift out and use the best of it. Stop by if you are passing through Grand Rapids, MI.
Media

Does Mega Media Control 90% of Content? 231

Posted by samzenpus from the biggest-piece-of-the-pie dept.
smitty777 writes "FastCo has an intriguing article on the vast control of our media by the mega corporations. In the article, Cliff Kuang disputes such claims by the the Frugal Dad that the revenue for the Big Six was over $275.9 billion, and that these companies are in cahoots to control our viewing. Just how much do these companies control?"
Handhelds

Cisco's Tablet Act Like a Desktop 120

Posted by timothy from the as-long-as-you-have-a-desktop-already dept.
holy_calamity writes "Cisco's Cius tablet, due next month, is bulkier than the iPad 2 and has a smaller screen but it also brings tricks other tablets don't have. It can be connected to a keyboard, monitor and mouse to act like a desktop. Using an app to connect to a virtual desktop replicates a full PC experience, Cisco claims. The Cius also encrypts all data and is easily controlled by IT managers, who can control access to apps and other features."
Earth

Climate Skeptic Funded By Oil and Coal Companies 504

Posted by timothy from the not-that-I-can-recall-at-this-time-sir-no dept.
Honken writes with a report from The Guardian that "'One of the world's most prominent scientific figures to be sceptical about climate change has admitted to being paid more than $1m in the past decade by major US oil and coal companies.' This somewhat contradicts that [Harvard researcher Willie] Soon in a 2003 US senate hearing said that he had 'not knowingly been hired by, nor employed by, nor received grants from any organisation that had taken advocacy positions with respect to the Kyoto protocol or the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.'"

Comment Re:AC vs DC (Score 1) 468

by JiffyPop (#35575508) Attached to: University Switches To DC Workstations
You are right that the type of power doesn't matter (AC/DC), but the voltage does NOT dictate the gauge of wire needed. It can dictate the insulation used, however most wire I have seen is rated to 600V. The original post was probably correct - in this application - that the DC power distribution will need larger gauge wire. The AC/DC power supply normally in a computer is not terribly inefficient, so the DC power supplied to the computer will need to supply almost the same number of watts as the AC circuit. Unfortunately the DC power is supplied at a much lower voltage so the current must be raised to compensate for this. Of course it is possible that they are distributing high-voltage DC power (maybe ~250V?) and including a DC/DC power supply in each computer. This would let them run smaller gauge wire, but increase the cost of the components in the computers. Additionally it would eat into the efficiency of the system, which would seem to be the biggest benefit of a central AC/DC conversion. As for the trains, I would be surprised if they were running on low voltages. Copper is expensive, and thicker wire will also make a motor less efficient for a given frame size.
AI

Can You Beat a Computer At Rock-Paper-Scissors? 292

Posted by timothy from the why-do-you-feel-can-you-beat-a-computer? dept.
tekgoblin writes "The New York Times has created a game that uses artificial intelligence to outsmart you. It uses a simple game called Rock-Paper-Scissors which is pretty much known by everyone on the planet by now. The computer tries to mimic human reasoning by building on simple rules and statistical averages. So based on the rules of the game and your previous moves, the computer tries to make predictions on your next move. The game has 2 modes, the first being Novice, where the computer learns the game from scratch, and Veteran, where the computer has experience of over 200,000 rounds of previous experience."
Piracy

Piracy In Developing Countries Driven By High Prices 235

Posted by Soulskill from the hmm-how-can-we-blame-the-terrists-for-that dept.
langelgjm writes "The Social Science Research Council, an independent, non-profit organization, today released a major report on music, film and software piracy in developing economies. It's a product of three years of work, and the authors conclude that piracy is primarily driven by excessively high prices and that anti-piracy education and enforcement efforts have failed. Still, chief editor Joe Karaganis believes that businesses can survive in these high piracy environments. The report is free to readers in low-income countries, but behind a paywall for certain high-income countries, although the SSRC notes, 'For those who must have it for free anyway, you probably know where to look.'"
Government

HBGary Hack In Depth 65

Posted by timothy from the injectification-nation dept.
Udo Schmitz writes "Heise's UK site has the English translation of an article from the latest issue of their magazine c't about Anonymous's HBGary hack. It shows that there was much more involved than just social engineering to get passwords, and how anonymous evolved following OpTunisia and OpEgypt."

Comment Re:Great Page Turner for Miscreants ! (Score 1) 375

by JiffyPop (#35199370) Attached to: FBI Releases File On the Anarchist Cookbook
Was that recipe the gasoline and styrofoam or gasoline and dish soap? I can see how not adding enough of the thickener to the gasoline could easily leave a lot of fumes hanging around. It was really fun watching the foam disappear into the puddle of gasoline. Only tried it once (probably 15 years ago...), but kept my eyebrows intact. There were plenty of miscreant how-to manuals in the late 90's. I had a lot of fun comparing all of the slightly different instructions on making nitroglycerin. I was (thankfully) never dumb enough to try synthesizing it...
Image

Satellite-Based Laser Hunts Woodpeckers From Space 53

Posted by samzenpus from the where's-woody dept.
University of Idaho scientists have figured out a more effective way to track woodpecker populations than following the incessant laughter. They're using a laser onboard NASA's Icesat spacecraft to determine where the birds might be living. From the article: "NASA's Icesat satellite was initially intended for measuring glacial surfaces at the Earth's poles but has proven to be quite effective in measuring vegetation also. The satellite's laser bounces off of forest canopies, tree trunks and the ground making important characteristics about the forest easily measurable. For example, forest density is determined by the relative amount of light returned versus that which is returned from the ground. Once ideal woodpecker locations are identified 'we actually conduct ground-based woodpecker surveys in these locations as well to verify it,' says team-member Patrick Adam."
Image

Moodle 1.9 Extension Development 57

Posted by samzenpus from the read-all-about-it dept.
melbenson writes "Moodle 1.9 Extension Development by Jonathon Moore and Michael Churchward, published by Packt Publishing, definitely delivers what it says on the book cover — 'Customize and extend Moodle by using its robust plugin systems.' This book, intended for users with a solid knowledge of the Moodle software and Moodle technologies, does a great job of opening the doors to creative and useful ideas to take your Moodle site to the next level. The book takes the reader through many examples of customizing and editing the Moodle code in an easy to understand, user-friendly way but also presents the reader with challenging and advanced concepts." Read on for the rest of melbenson's review.
Science

LHC Scientists Create and Capture Antimatter 269

Posted by samzenpus from the I-want-my-warp-drive dept.
Velcroman1 writes "Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider have created antimatter in the form of antihydrogen, demonstrating how it's possible to capture and release it. The development could help researchers devise laboratory experiments to learn more about this strange substance, which mostly disappeared from the universe shortly after the Big Bang 14 billion years ago. Trapping any form of antimatter is difficult, because as soon as it meets normal matter — the stuff Earth and everything on it is made out of — the two annihilate each other in powerful explosions. 'We are getting close to the point at which we can do some classes of experiments on the properties of antihydrogen,' said Joel Fajans, a University of California, Berkeley professor of physics, and LBNL faculty scientist. 'Since no one has been able to make these types of measurements on antimatter atoms at all, it's a good start.'"
Biotech

Lizard Previously Unknown To Science Found On Vietnam Menu 133

Posted by samzenpus from the try-the-bigfoot-burger dept.
eldavojohn writes "A lizard long served on the menu in the Mekong Delta has recently caught the attention of scientists when it was noted that all animals in the species appeared identical as well as female. The species appears to be a hybrid of two other species (like a mule or liger). But the curious thing is that this hybrid isn't sterile — it reproduces asexually. The species, known for some time in Vietnam, has now officially been named Leiolepis ngovantrii."
Education

Simple Virus For Teaching? 366

Posted by samzenpus from the my-first-malware dept.
ed1023 writes "Currently I am teaching a 101 class on computers. It is more of a 'demystifying the black box' type of class. The current topic is computer viruses; I am looking for a virus with which I can infect the lab computers (only connected to local network, no outside network connection) that would be easy for the students to remove by hand. Can the Slashdot community point me in any directions? Is there an executable out there that would work, or do I try to write one myself, or is there one that is written that I can compile myself?"

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