Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Re:Odds are low, but prize is big (Score 1) 301

I may only have a 1 in 28,633,528 chance of having a winning ticket, but really it's the only realistic chance I'll ever have to get $50 million.

Anyway I can afford to occasionally gamble the $5 for the minuscule chance of that $50 million.

If those are the odds, and a game cost $5, and you could win over $500M, then buying a lottery ticket starts to make statistical sense. I don't know anything about the lottery in question though... are those the actual odds or just a number you made up for illustrative purposes?

Those odds are for the Lotto MAX in Canada I believe. Top prize is capped at $50M with any extra being more $1M draws.

Comment Re:Man is an intriguing being... (Score 1) 140

I just wonder why someone would be willing to live in a place that is by all measures a risky place to establish a life. Why? When I think of the polar bear, the weather, the isolation and so on, I fail to see the reason why I would want to live there. Man is surely intriguing.

The same could be said for those living in Tornado Alley. People are weird, and they'll live anywhere on this planet.

Submission + - Laptop rescued by "Twitter posse" and Prey (www.cbc.ca)

An anonymous reader writes: Bad news: a Canadian who visited New York had his laptop stolen. Good news: it was outfitted with Prey, the open-source computer tracking application. Better news: a group in NYC made a "geek squad intervention", faced the culprit and retrieved the laptop safely.

This case naturally raises the usual sorts of questions about the "Twitter posse" culture.

Facebook

Submission + - U.S. To Issue Terror Alerts On Facebook, Twitter (computerworld.com)

CWmike writes: "The U.S. government may start issuing terror alerts using Facebook and Twitter, which were thrust again in the spotlight recently as lifelines in Japan. An AP report Thursday, based on a 19-page draft of the plan that the news service obtained, said DHS is working to overhaul the current color-coded terror alert system. 'The new terror alerts would ... be published online using Facebook and Twitter 'when appropriate,' AP reports, 'but only after federal, state and local government leaders have already been notified.' Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at the Yankee Group, said the government entrusting something as critical as terrorist alerts to Facebook and Twitter shows how important social networking sites have become to people's lives. 'There are hundreds of millions of people using Facebook and Twitter. For many of them, it's their primary communication tool,' Kerravala said. 'That means it's a great way to get information to a massive number of people. Maybe the best.'"

Submission + - Wi-Fi proven to interfere with aircraft (zdnet.com.au) 1

lukehopewell1 writes: "It's official: using Wi-Fi on a plane can interfere with a pilot's navigational equipment, according to airline equipment manufacturers Honeywell Avionics and Boeing today.

Boeing confirmed to ZDNet Australia this afternoon that the issue does exist, but said that it has not delivered any planes suffering the fault.

"Blanking of the Phase 3 Display Units (DUs) has been reported during airline EMI (electromagnetic interference) certification testing of wireless broadband systems (Wi-Fi) on various Next-Generation 737 aeroplanes," Boeing told ZDNet Australia in a statement."

Slashdot Top Deals

"Open the pod bay doors, HAL." -- Dave Bowman, 2001

Working...