jediknil - Slashdot User

Comment "Productivity" (Score 2, Interesting) 619

by jediknil on Monday November 10, 2008 @12:53PM (#25706151) Attached to: Is Windows 7 Faster Or Just Smarter?

I would argue that the speed and responsiveness of the interface is increasing productivity in some way. Having a responsive interface is not just nice window dressing, particularly if I'm doing several things at once.

It is also possible that it is faster instead of just appearing faster. What might have been sped up is the constant factors, the smaller functions, that are usually dwarfed by the time it takes to complete an "actual" task. That is, you might not be able to encode video any faster, because while the act of opening and writing to the video file on the filesystem could have been sped up, the limiting factor is encoding speed. (I'm not saying that's necessarily true about Windows 7, but it could be.

3D Self-Replicating Printer to be Released Under GNU License 313

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday April 07, 2008 @06:25PM from the damned-recursion-damned-recursion dept.

Rob O'Neill writes "A Kiwi open source developer is working on a self-replicating 3D printer, RepRap, to be made available under the GNU license. 'The 3D printer works by building components up in layers of plastic, mainly polylactic acid (PLA), which is a bio-degradable polymer made from lactic acid. The technology already exists, but commercial machines are very expensive. They also can't copy themselves, and they can't be manipulated by users, says Vik Olliver. RepRap has a different idea. The team, which is spread over New Zealand, the UK and the US, develops and gives away the designs for its much cheaper machine, which also has self-copying capabilities. It wants to make the machine available to anybody — including small communities in the developing world, as well as people in the developed world, says Olliver. Accordingly, the RepRap machine is distributed, at no cost, under the GNU (General Public License).'"

Submission + - In Soviet US, Comcast watches YOU (newteevee.com) 4

Submitted by cayenne8 on Thursday March 20, 2008 @05:06PM

cayenne8 writes: Ok, this is interesting. At the Digital Living Room conference recently, Gerard Kunkel, Comcast's senior VP of user experience stated that the cable company is experimenting with different camera technologies built into devices so it can know who's in your living room — According to this article from Newteevee.com. They're experimenting with cameras on the settop boxes that while apparently NOT using facial recognition software, can still somehow figure out who is in the room, and customize user preferences for cable (favorite channels, etc).

While this sounds 'handy', it also sounds a bit like the tv sets in 1984, where Big Brother watches you, as you watch tv. I am sure, of course, that Comcast wouldn't tap into this for any reason, nor let the authorities tap into this to watch inside your home in real time without a warrant or anything.

I don't think even my tinfoil hat would help with this...

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