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Submission + - Ask Slashdot: What was your favorite web comic of 2012? 3

Submitted by skade88
skade88 writes: Its that time of the year again! You guessed it! Its time to do another year-end best-of roundup! Today's topic is web comics. What was your favorite web comic of 2012? Feel free to use the following categories or make up your own.

1) Best overall web comic series of 2012. (Any web comic that produced content in 2012)

2) Funniest web comic of 2012. (This one represents the single funniest comic of any web comic series.)

3) Best art in a web comic of 2012. (Web comic from 2012 with the most amazing art ever)

4) Web comic that was most relevant to you in 2012. (This one is even more subjective than the others)

I will post my choices along with why in the comments. I can't wait to see y'all's!
Microsoft

Microsoft Bids $44.6 Billion For Yahoo 784

Posted by kdawson from the big-deal dept.
The news is everywhere this morning about Microsoft's $44.6B offer to buy Yahoo. The offer represents $31 a share, a 62% premium over Thursday's closing price; and Yahoo's stock price has been rising in after-hours trading. Microsoft has been making overtures to Yahoo since 2006, according to the CNet article, including a buyout offer last February that was rebuffed. Mediapost.com has some perspective on the deal from the point of view of ads and eyeballs. Such an acquisition, which would be Microsoft's largest by far — it bought Aquantive last year for $6 billion — would need approval by US and EU authorities. A European Commission spokesman declined to comment.
Role Playing (Games)

Submission + - World of Warcraft Gold Limit Reached, Its 2^31 (wowinsider.com) 1

Submitted by
Mitch
Mitch writes: "From Wow Insider: Blizzard apparently users signed integers for their World of Warcraft gold values as some people have recently hit the limit of 2^31. "Apparently that amount is 214,748 gold, 36 silver, 48 copper. After you reach that lofty sum, you'll no longer be able to receive money from any source in the game. While some responses to the original posts claim that this exact limit had previously been theorized to exist, there have been no reports of anyone in the game actually achieving this amount via legal means.". I guess Blizzard didn't expect anyone to ever get close to that much gold in game."
Power

Switchgrass Makes Better Ethanol Than Corn 560

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the seemingly-easy-choice dept.
statemachine writes to mention that the USDA and farmers took part in a 5-year study of switchgrass, a grass native to North America. The study found that switchgrass ethanol can deliver around 540 percent of the energy used to produce it, as opposed to corn ethanol which can only yield around 24 percent. "But even a native prairie grass needs a helping hand from scientists and farmers to deliver the yields necessary to help ethanol become a viable alternative to petroleum-derived gasoline, Vogel argues. 'To really maximize their yield potential, you need to provide nitrogen fertilization,' he says, as well as improved breeding techniques and genetic strains. 'Low input systems are just not going to be able to get the energy per acre needed to provide feed, fuel and fiber.'"
Biotech

Speedy DNA Test for 12 Viruses Approved by FDA 17

Posted by timothy from the hey-12-at-a-time-everybody-12-at-a-time dept.
SoyChemist writes "Last week, the FDA approved a test that can check for twelve viruses at once. The device is made by Luminex which has a long history of building instruments that can check for almost anything — bacteria, viruses, antibodies, disease genes. In this case, doctors can simply swab their patient's nose or throat then send the sample to a lab where the viral genetic material is copied and stuck down to color-coated beads. Each type of bead recognizes a different virus. A scanner reads off which beads have DNA on them — thus identifying the pathogens. The new test can detect several types of influenza, but not H5N1, and is the first system approved to detect human metapneumovirus. It is a good step towards taking the guesswork out of medicine, which is desperately needed since viral infections are extraordinarily hard to diagnose, and antiviral medications like Tamiflu only work on some types of virus."
Security

Competition Open for New Hash Algorithm

Posted by CmdrTaco from the this-is-new-math-right dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has opened a competition to develop a new cryptographic "hash" algorithm (pdf), a tool that converts a file, message or block of data to a short "fingerprint" for use in digital signatures, message authentication and other computer security applications. In recent years, several non-NIST approved cryptographic hash functions have been successfully attacked, and serious attacks have been published against SHA-1. In response, NIST held two public workshops to assess the status of its approved hash functions and has now decided to develop additional hash functions through a public competition. NIST is open to submissions of hash functions that differ from the traditional Merkle-Damgard model, using other structures, chaining modes, and possibly additional inputs. However, if a submitted algorithm cannot be used directly in current applications of hash functions, the submitted algorithm must define a compatibility construct with the same input and output parameters as the SHA hash functions such that it can replace the existing SHA functions in current applications. Entries for the competition must be received by Oct. 31, 2008."
Handhelds

Wearing a Computer at Work 92

Posted by Zonk from the practically-do-anyway dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "The European Union has funded an ambitious project related to wearable technology. The project, named WearIT@work, will end in one year and invested funds are expected to exceed 23 million euros. The goal is to replace traditional interfaces, such as screen, keyboard or computer unit, by speech control or gesture control without modifying the applications. This wearable system is currently being tested in four different fields including aircraft maintenance, emergency response, car production and healthcare."
Patents

Submission + - Portable Nuclear Reactor to Power Homes (sfreporter.com) 1

Submitted by
Xight
Xight writes: "Santa Fe Reporter article about a portable nuclear reactor is the size of a hot tub, but is big enough to power 25,000 homes claims the company Hyperion Power Generation. Thing is they don't want to call it a reactor, but a really big battery since it is self-contained with no moving parts. If all goes according to plan, Hyperion could have a factory in New Mexico by late 2012, and begin producing 4,000 of these reactors."
Censorship

Submission + - creationists violate copyright (blogspot.com)

Submitted by The_Rook
The_Rook writes: the discovery institute copied Harvard University's BioVisions video, "The Inner Life of the Cell", stripped out Harvard's copyright notice, credits, and narration, and inserted their own creationist friendly narration and renamed the video "The Cell as an automated city". pretty insidious, as suggesting that a cell is like a city is to suggest that it was designed rather than evolved. it should also be of interest because the discovery institute, really more of a lawyer mill than a scientific institution, engaged in a particularly egregious example of copyright infringement.

Comment Re:played online games much? (Score 1) 245

by Xight (#21189917) Attached to: Today's Gamers, Tomorrow's Leaders?
I have to agree with having the leadership abilities from before the game. Sometimes you get the position handed to you, and you have to step up. Its a lot more common for people having to fill in, and step up to guild master situations in Wow, than it is to have to step up and handle things for the president of a company. Its good life experience to have to step up to take over something, and well it might make you more comfortable in real life if the opportunity arose.

If in doubt you can always use WoW as a job reference too like the guy who got hired for Yahoo's Senior Management in engineering. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.04/learn.html/
User Journal

Journal Journal: Only took 9 years

Journal by Xight
Well I've been ghosting around reading /. for the last 8-9 years. Usually most of the interesting stuff gets posted days before I ever come across it, but the Bill Gates Visa story (http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/13/2121250) never did. Hopefully I'll find another one sometime before 2020 next time.
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Bill Gates Denied Visa to Nigeria (gizmodo.com) 1

Submitted by
Xight
Xight writes: "Gizmodo recently wrote an article about Nigeria recently denying Bill Gates a visa to travel there on his recent trip to Africa proving that money can't get you everything. Whats even more amusing is that he was at "initially denied the Microsoft kingpin's application on the premise that they required proof he would not reside in Nigeria indefinitely, causing a strain on social services and a general nuisance for immigration.". I guess those Nigerian 419 scams really do pay off for them."

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