Comment Late 1990s (Score 1) 177
Kozmo.com
The defense rests.
Your Next TV Interface Will Be a Tablet 210
waderoush writes "You can forget all the talk about 'smart' and 'connected' TVs: nobody, not even Apple, has come up with an interface that's easy to use from 10 feet away. And you can drastically curtail your hopes that Roku, Boxee, Netflix, and other providers of free or cheap 'over the top' Internet TV service will take over the world: the cable and satellite companies and the content owners have mounted savvy and effective counterstrikes. But there's another technology that really will disrupt the TV industry: tablet computing. The iPad, in particular, is the first 'second screen' device that's good enough to be the first screen. This Xconomy column argues that in the near future, the big-screen TV will turn into a dumb terminal, and your tablet — with its easy-to-use touch interface and its 'appified' approach to organizing content — will literally be running the show in your living room." Using a tablet as a giant remote seems like a good idea, and a natural extension of iPhone and Android apps that already provide media-center control. Maybe I'm too easily satisfied, but the 10-foot interface doesn't seem as hopeless as presented here; TiVo, Apple, and others been doing a pretty good job of that for the past decade.
Moglen: Facebook Is a Man-In-The-Middle Attack 376
jfruh writes "In an email exchange with privacy blogger Dan Tynan, Columbia law professor Eben Moglen referred to Facebook as a 'man in the middle attack' — that is, a service that intercepts communication between two parties and uses it for its own nefarious purposes. He said, 'The point is that by sharing with our actual friends through a web intermediary who can store and mine everything, we harm people by destroying their privacy for them. It's not the sharing that's bad, it's the technological design of giving it all to someone in the middle. That is at once outstandingly stupid and overwhelmingly dangerous.' Tynan is a critic of Facebook, but he thinks Moglen is overstating the case."
Is American Innovation Losing Its Shine? 625
kenekaplan writes "American ingenuity and innovation, the twin engine of the country's economy since World War II, is in danger of losing steam and job growth potential if federal legislators allow 'automatic' spending cuts to kick in next year rather than earmarking federal funds to advance education, research and manufacturing, according Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Susan Hockfield."
Don't Fly If You Just Had Surgery! 453
mcgrew writes "The Chicago Tribune is reporting that the TSA is now worried about surgically implanted bombs. Are they trying to get everyone to stop flying entirely? I know there's no way they'd get me in an airliner these days. I'll drive, even though it is far, far more dangerous."
Black Hat, DEFCON Founder Named CSO of ICANN 41
ancientribe writes "Jeff Moss, aka 'The Dark Tangent,' and founder of the Black Hat security conference and DEFCON, the world's largest hacker conference, has been named VP and CSO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Moss will take on the position of Black Hat Conference Chair, where he will continue to play a key role in the development of conference and training content."
Ubuntu 11.04, Slackware 13.37 266
Approximately one billion Slashdot readers wrote in to tell us today that one of two distributions had releases:
the new Ubuntu sports the Unity interface, marking a 'radical departure' from its UI of old. Now the more ancient and bearded amongst you might be interested in Patrick announcing the latest Slackware release which clearly has the most 1337 version number to date.
Comment Map Warper (Score 1) 235
For the second operation -- georectifying scanned images -- Map Warper is a great tool:
It will let you rectify map images by placing control points. Maps can be made public so you can get help with this task from friends and strangers. Finally, you can export to PNG, TIFF, and WMS.
Comment Get Your Pynchon On! (Score 1) 199
Thomas Pynchon's Mason & Dixon describes the 1761 transit of Venus, written in period-ish language:
"The girls have also been observers of the Transit, having cajol'd a Sailor of their Acquaintance into lending them a nautickal Spy-Glass, and smoak'd with Sheep-tallow Candles their own Darkening-Lenses,-- taking turns at the Glass, even allowing their Parents a Peep now and then,-- Jet breathing, "She's really there," Greet adding, "Right on time, too!" and Els,-- hum,-- we may imagine what Els was up to, and what transpir's just as the last of the Black Filament, holding the Planet to the Inner Limb of the Sun, gave way, and she dropp'd, at last, full onto that mottl'd bright Disk, dimm'd by the Lenses to a fierce Moon, that Eyes might bear."
Who says telescopes won't get you laid? The book was much published, but seldom sold; it can be had remaindered for $5. Or you could spare yourself the 750+ pages and just stare at the sun for wisdom. Good fun all the same.
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