Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
The Almighty Buck

Hungary's Needy Given Money to Burn 95

Knowing that ideas are a dime a dozen and eager to think outside the box, Hungary's central bank is burning old currency to help the needy. The bank has found that the 40-50 tons of currency that needs to be burned every year is a blessing in disguise for people caught between a rock and a hard place due to the extreme cold sweeping across Europe.

Comment Well, Marvin Minsky was wrong too. (Score 4, Interesting) 280

I was in the AI lab at MIT, testing my wits against LISP. In walks Marvin Minsky.

I asked him if he could give me a tip or two about atoms.

His response to me was: "Well, why dont you wait until the computer speaks your language... Then program it in that?"

That was alot longer ago than 15 years...

Comment Searching & Indexing Capabilities (Score 1) 684

Does anyone have any experience with the searching and indexing capabilities in these devices?

I want to store my technical library in one of these, but have been resistant to switch, because I want searching and indexing that allows me to use this device as a decent replacement for that 'Technical Library Search' usecase, where someone asks some questions, and I can use this device to do one search and have the results, across all the documents that i have stored, displayed in a results list. for easy access.

Does anyone have any experience with these functions in a variety of readers?

Thanks.

Comment So, I have to think EACH letter? (Score 1) 262

Well,

This strikes me as time consuming to have to think the letters to type a word. I want to be able to think the word and have it appear. When do we get a semantic, bi-directional neural interface?

Think about this: When a person starts to think about a document I bet there is a planning part of my brain that is forming an outline of the document, before I even start to come up with the actual content in it. I'd LOVE to tap into that planning, and be able to lay out an outline, just by thinking about it, and then be able to fill that outline with content through thought alone.

Imagine applying this to code generation!

Comment Whats bugging me is... (Score 1) 111

I have this software running on my phone, and it does work.
What stuns me is that while this thing is in 'beta' and returning poor search results, they have the opportunity to 'train up' the AI, while also keeping hold of a bevy of images that they collect from a few thousand (or hundred thousand) phones that geeks like us were willing to install it on...

I bet that the corpus of images they collect during the next 4 years - the beta period - will be pretty impressive, and kind of scary. I bet that they claim rights on all of them. I guess we need to start watermarking the photos from our phonecams.

Just my thoughts...

Comment AT&T needed motivation (Score 1) 551

It really is about time that AT&T had motivation to actually upgrade their network so that it is usable. Considering the disparity between our infrastructure, and most of the rest of the world, I think this is progress that is along time coming.

I also think that it is very similar to the responses that AT&T had when DSL became a reality. Here in the Midwest, Southwestern Bell sat on DSL for YEARS before actually building it into their network. And they made close to the same excuse that AT&T is making about this.

Not amazed, not amused, just waiting...

Oh yeah, an Android phone would help to AT&T...

Mars

Mars Gullies Show Water Once Flowed 59

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "A new analysis of puzzling gullylike features on Mars offers further evidence that water flowed on the Red Planet's surface, perhaps as recently as several hundred thousand years ago. The findings bolster the case that melting snow from a departed Martian ice age carved these gullies, rather than shifting sands or other 'dry' phenomena."
Programming

QT 4.5 Released, Plus New IDE and Analysis Tool 62

stoolpigeon writes "QT 4.5 has arrived and is now available for download. This new release is quite significant due to licensing changes that now make it simpler to use QT in a wider range of products without cost as well as a number of new features. The latest version of Webkit is now integrated into the product. Qt 4.5 sees the introduction of QtBenchLib, a new component to make measuring the performance of the toolkit and checking for regressions easier. Mac developers who use Qt will note a major reworking of 4.5 on the Mac, now providing 64-bit support. QT Creator is a new IDE that looks to have combined a number of previously separate tools. And there is much more."
Biotech

Inside the New Science of Neuroengineering 83

palegray.net writes "Wired brings us a look into the world of neuroengineering, the science of hacking the brain to improve its function. Dr. Ed Boyden is the director of MIT's Neuroengineering and Neuromedia Lab, focusing on innovative methods of physically altering neuroanatomy for various purposes. As useful as discoveries in the field may be, the work certainly raises moral and ethical questions. From the article: '"If we surgically or electrically modify someone's personality... that raises many questions about personal identity, (of) who we are at our core," says Dr. Debra Matthews of The Berman Institute of Bioethics. "We place ourselves in the mind and therefore the brain. (Mood-altering surgery) feels like fundamentally modifying who a person is."'"
Image

PHP5 CMS Framework Development 72

Michael J. Ross writes "Most Web developers are familiar with one or more content management systems (CMSs), and how they can be used to create Web sites more efficiently than by hand. These developers may have deep knowledge of how to install, configure, customize, and extend a CMS. But far more rare is knowledge of how to develop a CMS of one's own, and the programming considerations required to do so successfully. These are the main themes of Martin Brampton's book PHP5 CMS Framework Development." Read below for the rest of Michael's review.
Power

Submission + - Cooler silicon lasers thanks to energy harvesting

Light Licker writes: UCLA researchers have developed a way to cut power use and heat output from a silicon laser used for optoelectronics. Both have been problems because silicon absorbs too much light — producing high-energy free electrons that make heat. One of Intel's best silicon lasers produced 125 times more heat than usable light. The UCLA team added a diode to their laser which can harvest free electrons and use them to help power the circuit — simultaneously cutting heat output and power use.

Slashdot Top Deals

"It is easier to fight for principles than to live up to them." -- Alfred Adler

Working...