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Comment Re:They're all scams anyway. (Score 1) 225

by TXOgre (#41393843) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Best Protection Plan For Your Phone?
I just saw a sign today, $99 for front brakes up the street (install pads and turn the rotors). I can't imagine it jumping up that much for rear brakes, unless we're talking about replacing calipers, changing brake fluid, or replacing lines, I just can't see it costing that much. I may be in the wrong business.
Programming

Submission + - What Developers Can Learn From Anonymous (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "'Regardless of where you stand on Anonymous' tactics, politics, or whatever, I think the group has something to teach developers and development organizations,' writes Andrew Oliver. 'As leader of an open source project, I can revoke committer access for anyone who misbehaves, but membership in Anonymous is a free-for-all. Sure, doing something in Anonymous' name that even a minority of "members" dislike would probably be a tactical mistake, but Anonymous has no trademark protection under the law; the organization simply has an overall vision and flavor. Its members carry out acts based on that mission. And it has enjoyed a great deal of success — in part due to the lack of central control. Compare this to the level of control in many corporate development organizations. Some of that control is necessary, but often it's taken to gratuitous lengths. If you hire great developers, set general goals for the various parts of the project, and collect metrics, you probably don't need to exercise a lot of control to meet your requirements.'"
Games

Submission + - CPUs do affect gaming performance, after all (techreport.com)

Submitted by
crookedvulture
crookedvulture writes: "For years, PC hardware sites have maintained that CPUs have little impact on gaming performance; all you need is a decent graphics card. That position is largely supported by FPS averages, but the FPS metric doesn't tell the whole story. Examining individual frame latencies better exposes the brief moments of stuttering that can disrupt otherwise smooth gameplay. Those methods have now been used to quantify the gaming performance of 18 CPUs spanning three generations. The results illustrate a clear advantage for Intel, whose CPUs enjoy lower frame latencies than comparable offerings from AMD. While the newer Intel processors perform better than their predecessors, the opposite tends to be true for the latest AMD chips. Turns out AMD's Phenom II X4 980, which is over a year old, offers lower frame latencies than the most recent FX processors."
OS X

Submission + - OS X 10.8 vs. Ubuntu 12.04/12.10 Benchmarked (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: OS X 10.8 has been benchmarked against Ubuntu Linux with some interesting results. From the tests on a Apple Mac Mini and Apple MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion was clearly superior when it came to the graphics performance, but the rest of the time the operating systems performed quite closely with no clear winner. OS X also seems to have greater performance issues with solid-state drives than Linux.

Submission + - Alternative to QR code uses NFC and rectennas (bbc.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The BBC reports researchers in Korea have developed a technology that can be used as a viable alternative to QR codes. Made of plastic and electronic ink the rectennas cost less than one penny each to produce and use the NFC standards for wireless radio communication to devices. They are seen as a cheap, easy to print and environmentally friendly way to overcome the limitations and inconvenience of QR codes, whose usage has greatly increased in the last few years.
Science

Submission + - Landscape of Dead Bodies May Have Inspired First Mummies (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Trekking through Chile's Atacama Desert 7000 years ago, hunter-gatherers known as the Chinchorro walked in the land of the dead. Thousands of shallowly buried human bodies littered the earth, their leathery corpses pockmarking the desolate surroundings. According to new research, the scene inspired the Chinchorro to begin mummifying their dead, a practice they adopted roughly 3000 years before the Egyptians embraced it.
Education

Submission + - Creating a school computer lab with Ubuntu for $0 (ifixit.org) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Here is an interesting story of a school in Oakland that used old computers running Ubuntu and OpenOffice.org to provide a school computer lab for students.
Government

Submission + - Monitoring weapons bans with social media (thebulletin.org)

Submitted by __aaqpaq9254
__aaqpaq9254 writes: Kirk Bansak has a great article outlining a coming revolution in non-proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and bio-weapons, courtesy of smart phones and social media. Early theory on arms control foresaw "inspection by the people" as a promising method for preventing evasion of arms control and disarmament obligations and serves as a starting point for understanding "social verification." As Rose Gottemoeller recently stated: "[Cell phone-based] sensors would allow citizens to contribute to detecting potential treaty violations, and could build a bridge to a stronger private-public partnership in the realm of treaty verification." Exciting stuff for techies and activists.

Comment Re:Question (Score 5, Funny) 83

by TXOgre (#40950609) Attached to: Meet DARPA's New Militarized Earthworm
You know, a machine that mimics the motions of an earthworm probably would make a very effective bait. In fact there are several artificial worms out there that try to do exactly that by using the hydrodynamic forces created when reeling in the line. Someone should get on this right away!

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