Journal Journal: Aaargh I'm so jet-lagged
I feel like a zombie.. I swear this must be what it feels like. Aaargh... 'cept I don't want to eat brains.
Comment Re:So THEY invented "RTFM!" (Score 1) 293
Waite! Let me do a man on that!
Submission + - Zodiac Re-Org (startribune.com) 1
asheller writes: The Star Tribune tells us the zodiac signs have shifted. Earths wobble has shifted the signs, a new one added and many of us have changed signs. Formally a Cancer, I've apparently been upgraded to Gemini and am now married to an Ophiuchus, a new sign. What's yor sign? The new Zodiac Chart is pretty interesting.
Journal Journal: Double Eclipse Post -- Good one
Read the post on the Double Eclipse and thought that was so cool. Heard (radio) about the single eclipse this morning on the way to work but it was a gray day so couldn't see anything. But '''Double''' with the ISS was really cool -- made my day! http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/01/04/1924245/Double-Eclipse-Photographed-Sun-Moon-and-ISS.
Not to mention we had an Earthquake last night -- we thought an airplane had flown a bit too low over the house.
Artist Photoshops Scenes From WWII Into Present Day 150
Russian photographer Sergey Larenkov has taken old World War II photos and photoshopped them over the locations in present day. The scenes from places like Prague, Vienna, and Moscow are incredibly well done and a neat way to appreciate history.
Timberwolf (a.k.a. Firefox) Alpha 1 For AmigaOS 152
An anonymous reader writes "We're happy to announce the availability of the first alpha release of Timberwolf, the AmigaOS port of the popular Firefox browser. Timberwolf needs AmigaOS 4.1 Update 2 installed. Please read the documentation for information about usage and limitations. This is an alpha release, meaning it will have a lot of problems still, and be slower than it should be. We are releasing it as a small 'Thank you' to all those that have donated in the past to show that development is still going on. Timberwolf is available on os4depot.net. For further information and feedback, check the Timberwolf support forum on amigans.net."
Official Kanji Count Increasing Due To Electronics 284
JoshuaInNippon writes "Those who have studied Japanese know how imposing kanji, or Chinese characters, can be in learning the language. There is an official list of 1,945 characters that one is expected to understand to graduate from a Japanese high school or be considered fluent. For the first time in 29 years, that list is set to change — increasing by nearly 10% to 2,136 characters. 196 are being added, and five deleted. The added characters are ones believed to be found commonly in life use, but are considered to be harder to write by hand and therefore overlooked in previous editions of the official list. Japanese officials seem to have recognized that with the advent and spread of computers in daily life, writing in Japanese has simplified dramatically. Changing the phonetic spelling of a word to its correct kanji only requires a couple of presses of a button, rather than memorizing an elaborate series of brush strokes. At the same time, the barrage of words that people see has increased, thereby increasing the necessity to understand them. Computers have simplified the task of writing in Japanese, but inadvertently now complicated the lives of Japanese language learners. (If you read Japanese and are interested in more details on specific changes, Slashdot.jp has some information!)"
Game Devs Migrating Toward iPhone, Away From Wii 143
A new report by Game Developer Research reveals that the number of developers working on games for the iPhone continues to rise, roughly doubling in number from last year. At the same time, the amount of work done on games for Nintendo's Wii dropped significantly:
"Just over 70 percent of developers said they were developing at least one game for PC or Mac (including browser and social games), rising slightly from last year; 41 percent reported working on console games. Within that latter group, Xbox 360 was the most popular system with 69 percent of console developers targeting it, followed by 61 percent for PlayStation 3. While those console figures stayed within a few percent of last year's results, the change in Wii adoption was much more significant: reported developer support for the system dropped from 42 percent to 30 percent of console developers, supporting numerous publishers' claims of a recent softening of the Wii market."
Danish Expert Declares Vinland Map Genuine 210
MBCook writes "A Danish conservation expert named Rene Larsen has finished a 5-year study of the infamous Vinland Map and declared it genuine. 'All the tests that we have done over the past five years — on the materials and other aspects — do not show any signs of forgery,' he said at the press conference. He and his team studied the ink, the paper, and even insect damage. They believe that the ink, which was discovered in 1972 to contain titanium dioxide and thus supposedly was too new for the map to be genuine, was contaminated when sand was used to dry the ink."
Can New Game Control Schemes Hope To Match the PC Keyboard? 202
An opinion piece on Gamasutra discusses how, in spite of the fancy new motion control systems that have come to console gaming, the PC's keyboard and mouse setup is still unreplaceable for many titles and genres. Quoting:
"With over 100 keys to choose from (back of the box quotation right there), the possibilities are near endless, if you start to think of shift and control functions altering the purpose of keys. It means that, when the developers start to make their game, they don't have to worry about the limitations of the interface, knowing that, if all else fails, they can always assign the compass to K, even if that's a bit of a stretch to all but the pianists. The keyboard is the friend of ambition, and ArmA 2 is the testament to that, in all its surrealist, broken glory. ... It's the same reason RTS games have found a home on the PC for so long, able to use the skills people accumulate moving around windows and clicking on icons to command troops and manipulate their battle lines. Developers taking advantage of what we already know to teach us something we don't is what gaming is all about."
The Ultimate "Doll House" For WoW Players 44
BoyIHateMicrosoft! writes "A friend of mine sent me this link today about a group of MIT students who have created something called a WoWPod. It's like a playhouse for WoW players. It has everything from Refreshing Spring Water, to food (Like Crunchy Spider Surprise of course!) to a toilet and of course the appropriate gaming gear."
Black Hat Presentation Highlights SSL Encryption Flaws 152
nk497 writes "Hackers at the Black Hat conference have shown that SSL encryption isn't as secure as online businesses would like us to think. Independent hacker Moxie Marlinspike showed off several techniques to fool the tech behind the little padlock on your screen. He claimed that by using a real world attack on several secure websites such as PayPal, Gmail, Ticketmaster and Facebook, he garnered 117 email accounts, 16 credit card numbers, seven PayPal logins and 300 other miscellaneous secure logins."
Choosing a Replacement Email System For a University? 485
SmarkWoW writes "The university I attend is currently looking to change the way in which is provides its students with an email service. In the past they used a legacy mail system which can no longer fit their needs. A committee has narrowed the possibilities down to three vendors: Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Representatives from these three vendors will be coming to our college and giving a presentation on the advantages of their systems. We're looking at other services these companies provide such as calendaring and integration with existing software that our university runs. What questions would Slashdot readers ask during these Q&A sessions? Which of these three companies would you recommend? Why? What advantages would each have that college-level students would take advantage of? What other aspects should we consider when making our decision?"
Comment DOOM (Score 1) 718
I was at University, walking around the computer lab looking for somewhere to sit down and do some work. These guys were playing DOOM on the computers. Enthralled, I sat down at a warm seat just vacated by one and proceeded to get motion sickness. It was great, I couldn't stop! The 3D interface was amazing!
My homework never got done but I did discover something great and of course its all history after that.
My homework never got done but I did discover something great and of course its all history after that.
Journal Journal: Bathrub Reactor uses Ceramic Pills to contain radiation
The Bathtub Reactor can be stored in a smaller NIMBY than most Nuclear power solutions. If we stagger production over time, we can replace them in future as they go offline. At that time, we can store them by drilling a hole 6 KM deep in the desert, and drilling spokes out from the hole. These things look pretty earthquake resistant. Yo
