jogafu - Slashdot User

Hank Chien Reclaims Donkey Kong High Score 122

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday January 11, 2011 @07:36AM from the barrels-of-fun dept.

An anonymous reader writes "If you can say anything about Hank Chien, it's that he evidently doesn't take defeat very well. Sure, he knew not so deep down that his Donkey Kong World Record score wouldn't last forever, but he couldn't have foreseen that it would have been toppled so quickly. Twice, even. But he also knew that more Kong competition would be coming his way; namely Richie Knucklez Kong-Off in March. So Hank had something to prove, and prove he did. Scoring a massive 1,068,000 points in less than three hours, Hank has officially reclaimed the high score in Nintendo’s 1981 arcade classic."

US Colleges Say Hiring US Students a Bad Deal 490

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday August 13, 2009 @09:27AM from the talking-to-you-cliff dept.

theodp writes "Many US colleges and universities have notices posted on their websites informing US companies that they're tax chumps if they hire students who are US citizens. 'In fact, a company may save money by hiring international students because the majority of them are exempt from Social Security (FICA) and Medicare tax requirements,' advises the taxpayer-supported University of Pittsburgh (pdf) as it makes the case against hiring its own US students. You'll find identical pitches made by the University of Delaware, the University of Cincinnati, Kansas State University, the University of Southern California, the University of Wisconsin, Iowa State University, and other public colleges and universities. The same message is also echoed by private schools, such as John Hopkins University, Brown University, Rollins College and Loyola University Chicago."

Human Exoskeletons Getting Closer 198

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday March 10, 2009 @02:27AM from the forever-war dept.

ColdWetDog writes "It's not Sigourney Weaver tossing aliens about, but The Register has an interesting blurb about a real human-capable exoskeleton that looks pretty cool (Lockheed-Martin press release). Runs for three hours at 3 mph on internal batteries; max speed is 7 mph. Of course, no price is listed but I suppose if you have to ask you can't afford it. Team this up with a Big Dog and you've got the ultimate high-tech cross-country team. Bring your own batteries. Or just wait for your jetpack to arrive."

Comment Re:Twelve Digits (Score 1) 388

by jogafu on Tuesday August 13, 2002 @03:47PM (#4063959) Attached to: Longer Bar Codes Coming in 2005

I work for a company that provides data and images for cpg (consumer packaged goods) products for advertising purposes. The twelve digit break down like this:
1st digit identifies the numbering system being used (regular, coupons, and such). The next 5 digits identify the manufacturer, assigned by the UCC (Uniform Code Council). The next 5 identify the product, assigned by the manufacturer. The last is a checksum.

There are lots of problems that we run into with UPC's (also known as UCC-12). A company might own several of the 5 digit manufactuer identifiers due to mergers, aquisitions, whatever. A company might have a given product use different upc's in different regions to allow them to break sales down by region. A company might give the same upc to different products that are in different regions. A six pack of beverage will have the same upc as a single can. So UPC isn't really a unique product identifier.

As the article said, the two reasons to go to more digits are more space and compliance with the rest of the world. All the standards are ecompassed in the new GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) which is 14 digits. Those standards with less digits are left filled with zeroes.

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