Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Christchurch Shooting Video (Score 2) 318

I live in Australia, and have seen the awful video. I do not know if the video I saw had been modified, edited or otherwise messed with. Either way, the video appeared to show that the shell casings after being ejected were disappearing in mid air like in a video game. I would not be surprised if some people who saw that same video, came to the conclusion that it may have been a staged false flag attack. I absolutely, do not know what actually happened. The targeted censorship of the video when there is plenty of similarly violent footage on the net, makes it suspicious that some sort of cover up may be involved, to those inclined toward conspiracy. Many governments have been caught in false flag operations (and I am not saying this is one) and secrecy and censorship only tends to reinforce conspiratorial beliefs. https://washingtonsblog.com/20...

Comment Spot the obvious mistake (Score 1) 376

Regardless of your views on vaccination, Facebook did not exist for the first five or six odd years of this childs life. He claims to have been completely unvaccinated. This is not something you can land on facebook. As the provax forces push ever more draconian demands, it only reinforces the perception that they may have something to hide. They have no idea of PR how to, and I suspect it's all going to blow up in their faces when the informed consent issue is properly ventilated. If you believe in vaccination, remove the exemption from liability from the manufacturers, do actually independent multi site, double blinded controlled clinical trials using actual placebos and earn your trust like any other medical product. Hide behind the law or lie and people will smell a conspiracy (even if their isn't one).

Comment LISP (Score 1) 263

To quote Albert van der Horst (Feb 17 '14 at 13:23) "I would rephrase the question as "what features of a language are necessary for hard AI?" This is a valid and useful question, and the outcome will be that only Lisp, Forth & assembler have what it takes to do hard AI. – "

Comment Re:My feeds are pretty busy... (Score 3, Insightful) 210

This is true for me too, all my serious content is privately available to curated circles on google plus, while all the meaningless social chit chat is done through my facebook account. I would create the equiv of a Facebook Circle if enough friends were also on google plus, but the network effect is such that its not viable yet. Facebook is the lowest common denominator, and most people dont have the time or mental space, to make a change, if they think the current system (Facebook) is good enough. As more tools support posting the same content to multiple networks simultaneously, this may change, but only if laziness and familiarity with current clients is overcome. This same issue will slow the adoption of Win 10 as well.

Comment I assume the truth is an absolute defense ... (Score 1) 223

"I assume the truth is an absolute defense even in the Soviet Republic of Australia" Whilst IANAL, my understanding for both libel & defamation that truth is NOT previously considered a valid defence everywhere. Truth (from http://www.thenewsmanual.net/Resources/medialaw_in_australia_02.html) Truth (which is also called justification) is probably the best defence. Formerly in some states (such as NSW, Queensland, Tasmania and the ACT) truth was only a defence if you could prove that a ‘public interest’ was served by publishing the defamatory words. This requirement has been dropped from the Uniform Defamation Law and now there is a defence if the defendant can prove that the defamatory imputations are substantially true.

Comment Re:x86 port (Score 2) 149

Android already had partial multi user support built in, and this will be complete soon, maybe even as early as 4.2 Remember the underlying OS kernel and filesystem support is linux. a quick google search https://www.google.com.au/search?q=android+multiuser returns over 2.5 M matches. The x86 support is already surprisingly complete and functional, and is being given direct development assistance from Intel itself.
Power

Tapping the Earth For Home Heating and Cooling 215

suraj.sun recommends a CNet post giving details of a still little-known energy technology: the ground source heat pump or geo-exchange system. This is distinct from so-called geothermal energy, which taps the heat in the earth to provide energy. Geo-exchange is suitable in scale for small industry — the article describes one commercial re-development of an old mill into apartment and commercial space that put in a geo-exchange at about half the cost of traditional fossil fuel-based alternatives. Even some individual homeowners are opting for this green method of heating and cooling, at a premium in price of about 50 percent (but costs are very much per-project, largely because drilling is involved). "Rather than use underground heat, geothermal heat pumps attached to buildings capitalize on the steady temperature of the ground or deep water wells. In effect, they treat the Earth like a giant energy savings bank, depositing or withdrawing heat depending on the time of year. "
Robotics

The Best Robots of 2008 57

An anonymous reader writes "Robot innovation continued its relentless advances during 2008. SingularityHub has a showcase of the best robot videos of the past year. These robot videos are really amazing, and they show just how far we have come in the field of robotics in recent years." The videos include toy robots, robot musicians (which we've discussed in the past), modular robots that work together to move around, robots doing synchronized martial arts, the BigDog robot that can walk on almost any type of terrain, and robot soccer. We've also recently talked about a couple of robots that will bring you beer.
Google

Google Terminates Six Services 195

Jonah Bomber writes with this excerpt from Information Week: "In addition to Google's announcements about the elimination of 100 recruiting positions and the shutdown of offices in Austin, Texas; Trondheim, Norway; and Lulea, Sweden, the company said it would close Dodgeball, Google Catalog Search, Google Mashup Editor, Google Notebook, and Jaiku. It also said it's discontinuing the ability to upload videos to Google Video. ... Jaiku, however, will live on as an open source project. Gundotra said that Google engineers have been porting the microblogging service to Google App Engine and that when the migration is completed, the company plans to make the code available under the Apache license."
The Courts

RIAA Walks Away From Another "Discovery" Case 164

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "You may recall that the RIAA walked away last week from one of their 'discovery' cases seeking the identities of 'John Does' who attended Rhode Island College. We have just learned that they walked away from another one, BMG Music v. Does 1-14, in Greensboro, North Carolina. 2 of the 14 John Does had settled, but the other 12 — who hung tough — will never be identified to the RIAA lawyers and will not have to pay any 'settlement.' This adds fuel to the debate over whether the RIAA has finally seen the light or is still sneaking around in the dark."

Comment Re:Install Ubuntu (Score 1) 823

Also highly recommend Ubuntu especially Xubuntu for seniors, for its simpler menu structure and less cluttered interface. Whilst placing icons for all commonly used applications in the launcher and sensible preconfiguration of the browser bookmark toolbar is good. A little basic training goes a long way. For older folks, care with fonts selection and colours can help greatly (esp for men). I have performed eleven Xubuntu installs for over sixties and they have required minimal post install support. I always get a kick out seeing the confidence and new lease of life that accompanies it, when they start receiving and sending email / photos etc from their family who previously did not have time to write. The mental, emotional and self esteem benefits of a well setup Xubuntu system for a senior can change lives. If its a friend or relative, the world you will open up for them, will enhance your life as well. I have had many attempts at configuring Windows for the same job, but eventually the virii & malware inevitably take them down. The last of those eleven was a Vista install that had become fatally infested after only being connected to the net for two days. The elderly lady owner was not only delighted with Xubuntu (prev Win98 user) but was amazed at how fast her new computer was compared to when it ran Vista.

Slashdot Top Deals

Center meeting at 4pm in 2C-543.

Working...