StRex - Slashdot User

Home-Built Turing Machine 123

Posted by Soulskill on Friday March 26, 2010 @01:31PM from the i'll-order-a-dozen dept.

stronghawk writes "The creator of the Nickel-O-Matic is back at it and has now built a Turing Machine from a Parallax Propeller chip-based controller, motors, a dry-erase marker and a non-infinite supply of shiny 35mm leader film. From his FAQ: 'While thinking about Turing machines I found that no one had ever actually built one, at least not one that looked like Turing's original concept (if someone does know of one, please let me know). There have been a few other physical Turing machines like the Logo of Doom, but none were immediately recognizable as Turing machines. As I am always looking for a new challenge, I set out to build what you see here.'"

Comment Bork bork pizza (Score 1) 920

by StRex on Friday December 11, 2009 @10:45PM (#30410170) Attached to: The best pizza I have ever had, I found ...

I've eaten pizza both in Stockholm and in Uppsala (no idea where; the in-laws ordered carryout) and very much enjoyed it both places. Sure, it doesn't taste exactly like American pizza, but I'd be disappointed if it did.

Submission + - Open Source Cloud Monitoring (zenoss.org) 2

Submitted by MyRottenHell on Wednesday October 28, 2009 @01:36PM

MyRottenHell writes: After beta testing Zenoss Core for the last month yesterday version 2.5 went live yesterday. It's the first monitoring tool I found that gives me Amazon EC2 cloud monitoring. My sites are running Drupal and I was using a synthetic transaction plug-in to monitor website responses and and an ODBC plugin to test MySQL. The only thing I need now is something to monitor Amazon S3 does anyone know of a open source (or at least free) tool that does this.

Submission + - Latest Boston Dynamics robot is a biped (bostondynamics.com)

Submitted by Beezlebub33 on Wednesday October 28, 2009 @01:31PM

Beezlebub33 writes: Boston Dynamics is probably best known for its BigDog (video). They have just release a video of their latest robot called PETMAN which is a bipedal robot, video here. It shows some of the same dynamics as BigDog, including reaction to perturbations (see video at 24 sec), though it's a push rather than a kick. Boston Dynamics says that the robot is for "testing chemical protection clothing". I'd like to know what it's really for.

Submission + - Open-sourcers back Oracle takeover of MySQL

Submitted by CWmike on Wednesday October 28, 2009 @01:25PM

CWmike writes: A number of influential members of the open-source community are raising their voices about Oracle's pending takeover of the open source MySQL database. Surprisingly, many are not opposing the shift in ownership that would come with the close of Oracle's $7.4 billion deal to acquire Sun Microsystems Inc., contending that it would not wound the open source database. Those supporters say that MySQL co-founder Monty Widenius, free software advocate Richard Stallman and others are whipping up unfounded fears about the future of MySQL in order to get the European Commission to either quash the entire deal or at least force Oracle to sell off MySQL. The EC launched an in-depth investigation into the planned merger this fall, citing "serious concerns" about how the deal would affect database competition. "I may be a contrarian on this, but I don't think Oracle will have any dramatically-enhanced market power," said Mark Shuttleworth, founder and CEO of Canonical, maker of the Ubuntu Linux. The latest Ubuntu Server 9.10 version includes a copy of MySQL. "The EU's sophistication on open-source matters may make them inclined to overreact. In fact, they have little to worry about," Shuttleworth said.

Submission + - Sequoia to publish source code for voting machines (wired.com)

Submitted by cecille on Wednesday October 28, 2009 @01:11PM

cecille writes: Voting machine maker Sequoia announced on Tuesday that they plan to release the source code for their new optical-scan voting machine. The source code will be released in November for public review. The company claims the announcement is unrelated to the recent release of the source code for a prototype voting machine by the Open Source Digital Voting Foundation (http://osdv.org). According to a VP quoted in the press release, "Security through obfuscation and secrecy is not security."

Submission + - Poll: What continent are you on?

Submitted by NevarMore on Wednesday October 28, 2009 @12:38PM

NevarMore writes: Poll: What continent are you on?

One that starts with an A
One that starts with a vowel
I'm a sailor you scruvy prick
I'm an astronaut you insensitive clod

Submission + - Russia Develops Spaceship with Nuclear Engine (spacefellowship.com)

Submitted by Matt_dk on Wednesday October 28, 2009 @12:21PM

Matt_dk writes: The Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos has developed a design for a piloted spacecraft powered by a nuclear engine, the head of the agency said on Wednesday. “The project is aimed at implementing large-scale space exploration programs,” Anatoly Perminov said at a meeting of the commission on the modernization of the Russian economy. He added that the development of Megawatt-class nuclear space power systems (MCNSPS) for manned spacecraft was crucial for Russia if the country wanted to maintain a competitive edge in the space race, including the exploration of the Moon and Mars.

Submission + - More developments in the Reiser murder case

Submitted by

Fahrvergnuugen

on Friday May 04, 2007 @02:47PM

Fahrvergnuugen writes: "Wired is running a story about how an ex-lover of the missing wife of accused spouse killer Hans Reiser has confessed to killing eight people unrelated to the case.

Reiser will stand trial for the murder. This development will undoubtedly complicate things."

Submission + - Overclocking at Intel

Submitted by

NordicHardware

on Friday May 04, 2007 @02:29PM

NordicHardware writes: "A while back we got an offer we simply couldn't refuse; come to Stockholm and take a tour of Intel's office and finish off with some hardcore overclocking. Intel's used to be rather anti-overclocking back in the NetBurst era, but today they even promote it. We spent a few days at Intel's laboratory in Kista, Stockholm, and even though the really hardcore results weren't achieved we had an experience we would not soon forget. In respect of our host the article was delayed a bit, but is now available and it shows a little more than just two of the world's best overclockers at work. Besides that we also learned the true meaning of the saying "It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.""

Submission + - IBM May Layoff 150,000 IT Workers.

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 04, 2007 @01:49PM

An anonymous reader writes: Robert Cringely reports that IBM may be laying off close to 150,000 workers, primarily in their North American operations.

Submission + - Scientists mash data up using Google Earth

Submitted by on Friday May 04, 2007 @01:29PM

An anonymous reader writes: New Scientist has an interesting story about the many different ways planetary scientists are using Google Earth, World Wind and other global mapping tools. As well as providing a simple way to visualise data, these programs let scientists combine their work. For example, check out this video combining Katrina's path with ocean temperature data.

Submission + - US Keeps All SWIFT Payment Details

Submitted by

Michael

on Thursday May 03, 2007 @09:45AM

Michael writes: "I just got this email from smile.co.uk, a UK online bank which explains why every SWIFT payment is now recorded by the US even if it is not to/from America.

"As from the start of business Monday 14th May 2007, there will be a change to the way we process international payments.

What's the background?

The USA Government requires that all international transfers processed through the USA be provided with all the transfer details. As all SWIFT payments worldwide are processed through the USA, any SWIFT transfer requested by you will have the full transfer details disclosed to the USA Government. This also applies to TIPANET payments that are sent to the USA.

The Data Protection Authority in Belgium has ruled that this is a breach of the Data Protection Directive and so the sender of the money must be made aware of this and be given the option not to proceed with the transfer if they are not in agreement to this sharing.

What does this mean to me?

If you ask us to send a SWIFT payment to anywhere in the world or a TIPANET payment to the USA, you will need to agree to a declaration about how the transfer details could be used.

We'll need you to agree to the declaration each time you ask us to do a SWIFT payment to anywhere in the world or a TIPANET payment to the USA. Unfortunately, we can't process your request in these circumstances without your agreement to the declaration.

TIPANET payments to other parts of the world and euroCHAPS are not affected by this change.

What does the declaration say?

Below is the declaration that we'll need you to agree to each time you request a SWIFT payment to anywhere in the world or a TIPANET payment to the USA:

'In order to make this payment, personal information relating to the individuals involved in the transfer may be processed for the purposes of:

a) Complying with applicable laws, including without limitation anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism laws and regulations,
And
b) Fighting crime and terrorism,

And disclosure to any Government entity, regulatory authority or to any person we reasonably think necessary for these purposes. This may mean that personal information will be transferred outside the EEA to countries, which do not provide the same level of data protection as the UK.

I agree to the above: Yes/No? (Delete as appropriate)'

Additional information

If you'd like to find out more information about our foreign services, go to: http://www.smile.co.uk/foreign
For more information on Data Protection, go to: http://www.ico.gov.uk/

If you have any questions about your account, please send us a secure message.

Thanks

smile

This e-mail is intended solely for the addressee and is strictly confidential. If you are not the addressee, please do not read, print, re-transmit, store or act in reliance on it or any of its attachments. Instead please e-mail it back to the sender and delete the message from your computer. E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error free and The Co-operative Bank accepts no liability for changes made to this e-mail (and any attachments) after it was sent or for viruses arising as a result of this e-mail transmission. Any unauthorised reproduction, dissemination, copying, disclosure, modification, distribution and/or publication of this e-mail message is strictly prohibited. The Co-operative Bank may intercept any e-mail or other communication which you send to or receive from smile via the Bank's telecommunications systems for certain permitted lawful purposes. By so corresponding you also give your consent to Bank monitoring and recording of any correspondence using these systems. The registered office is at PO Box 101, 1 Balloon Street, Manchester, M60 4EP. As part of The Co-operative Bank p.l.c. , smile is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (No. 121885), subscribes to the Banking Code, is a member of the Financial Ombudsman Service and is licensed by the Office of Fair Trading (No.006110). Please refer to our Ethical Policy for further information.""

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