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Comment For time-lapses (Score 1) 111

by alphakappa (#33978938) Attached to: Cheap Software Tools Give New Life To Stop-Motion Animation
What has worked out really well for me is a simple Python script that uses QT to generate movies from individual frames. I've used it for time-lapses, but it could probably be used for stop-motion movies too. Of course, you don't get all the composing features of these tools, but it's free and works exceedingly well.

http://www.ecogito.net/anil/2010/09/howto-create-a-time-lapse-movie-from-a-sequence-of-images/

Comment Re:Two words for you... (Score 1) 479

by alphakappa (#32905702) Attached to: iPhone 4 Reception Recall Ruckus Roundup
Android encourages hackers? I'm not sure what phone you are talking about. If it's the Nexus One, then yes. If it's an Android phone from any of the other makers, what you get is a phone that's just as locked down as an iPhone. Parts of it may be open source, but don't fool yourself. If you are going to hack it anyway, what's the difference between that and jailbreaking an iPhone?
Canada

Dead Pigs Used To Investigate Ocean's "Dead Zones" 106

Posted by samzenpus from the big-ocean-long-pig dept.
timothy writes "As places to study what happens to corpses, the Atlantic Ocean is both much larger and much more specialized than the famous 'body farm' in Knoxville, TN. But for all kinds of good reasons, sending human bodies into Davy Jones' locker just to see where they float and how they bloat is unpopular. Pigs don't pay taxes, and more importantly, they don't vote. So Canadian scientists have taken to using them as human-body proxies, to study what happens when creatures of similar size and hairlessness (aka, us) end up 86ed and in the drink."

Comment Re:uhg silverlight works in linux (Score 1) 133

by alphakappa (#31317712) Attached to: Google Enhances Street View With User Photos
Cool demos are great, but Google has a product that is used by many millions of people at the same time. They need something that is scalable and usable over realistic internet connections. I'm sure that a company like Google could create a mind blowing demo like that quite easily, (and they might have something like that internally), but I doubt if they will make a released product out of it until it's a practical idea.

Comment Re:WTF? We're doomed (Score 1) 434

by alphakappa (#28642155) Attached to: Recovery.gov To Get $18 Million Redesign
It's easy to overlook costs - the main cost will not be for actually making the website, but for maintaining it. By maintaining it, I mean, actually having useful data in the website. The whole trillion dollar stimulus will generate humongous amounts of data which will have to be processed so that we can make sense of it. Collecting it from all the various agencies around the country, processing it and then putting it up on the website will require a lot of employees and that's where the $18 million tag for 5 years comes from. Don't underestimate the cost of data collection.

I could code up a website that looks like Google Maps pretty easily, but it would take a lot of money and time to get all the data that actually makes it useful.
Image

Using Drupal 122

Posted by samzenpus from the read-all-about-it dept.
Michael J. Ross writes "After installing and learning the basics of the content management system Drupal, many Web developers do not know how to best proceed from there. They may realize that much of the programming potential of Drupal — and thus the earning potential of Drupal developers — is derived from the use of community-contributed modules that greatly extend Drupal's power. But there are thousands of such modules, with no objective direction as to which ones are best suited for particular tasks, and what bugs and other flaws could trip up the developer. These programmers need a thorough guide as to which modules are the most promising for the development of the most common types of Web sites. A new book, Using Drupal, aims to fill this need." Keep reading for the rest of Michael's review.
Entertainment

Penny Arcade On NPR 128

Posted by CmdrTaco from the stuff-to-hear dept.
This morning on the NPR shuffle podcast, they included a segment about Penny Arcade. Seems only fair since NPR did Achewood a few months ago. If they just get XKCD on there, then the universe can rest.
Movies

Netflix Extends "Watch Instantly" To Mac Users 205

Posted by kdawson from the instant-grats dept.
CNet is reporting that Netflix has opened up its "Watch Instantly" feature to Mac users (here is Netflix's blog entry). They accomplished this by using Microsoft's Silverlight technology on both platforms, abandoning the Windows Media Player solution that had been employed in the first, Windows-only, version. Silverlight's DRM capabilities meet Netflix's needs, apparently. Netflix warns that this is beta software. Mac users can opt in here, then watch instantly with Safari or Firefox 2+, with the Silverlight plugin in place. Movie selection is somewhat limited.
Hardware

Recovering Moldy Electronics? 512

Posted by kdawson from the moldy-oldies dept.
cookiej writes "We just completed having our basement gutted and our house decontaminated from mold. The finished basement is gone, my office floor has been removed as well as 24' of drywall around the base of the room. So, we had a full home theater downstairs along with a couple of computers in the electronics closet that were completely immersed (rainwater, not sewage). We moved them to a sheltered area outside and covered them with a plastic tarp. Since the electronics were off when the water hit them, 1) do I have a chance of recovering them? 2) If so, is there a way to clean them with some sort of liquid bath that would not damage the electronics? and 3) I don't want to bring moldy pieces back in the clean house. How could I decontaminate the electronics themselves, pre-bath? Not looking to save the speakers, just the amp, DirecTV box, video switch, etc. Thanks for any help, here, Slashdot." Read on for more details of this reader's plight.

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