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Comment Pro Version (Score 1) 238

by jswinth (#37713208) Attached to: Look Ma, I'm Getting Arrested!

I bet the soon to come pro version will do a secure wipe of the phone so that the police can't perform a warrantless search on it. Obviously this version will be targeted at mobsters, drug dealers, and the tinfoil hat crowd.

Comment We were unable to send an alert.. (Score 1) 168

by jswinth (#35616884) Attached to: Univ. of Illinois Goes War-of-the-Worlds On Students

"We are working with the provider of the Illini-Alert service to implement additional security features in the program to prevent this type of error."

After implementing the "additional security" we will hear how they were unable to send an alert for an actual event because the Chief of Police was dealing with the problem and couldn't come in to put his code in.
The Matrix

The Matrix Re-Reloaded 640

Posted by CmdrTaco from the you-know-you'd-watch-it dept.
derGoldstein writes "According to Keanu Reeves: ' Matrix 4 and 5 are coming.' At an event that took place at the London International School of Performing Arts, 'Reeves revealed that he met with the Wachowskis around Christmas. They told him that they completed script treatments for two more Matrix installments. They are planning to make the films in 3D and have already met with James Cameron to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the technology. Reeves added that he's excited to return as Neo and promised that the treatments will truly revolutionize the action genre like the first Matrix film did.'"
Science

How To Cut a Nanotube? Lots Of Compression 38

Posted by timothy from the stabbing's-so-personal dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A pipefitter knows how to make an exact cut on a metal rod. But it's far harder to imagine getting a precise cut on a carbon nanotube, with a diameter 1/50,000th the thickness of a human hair. In a paper published this month in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A, researchers at Brown University and in Korea document for the first time how single-walled carbon nanotubes are cut, a finding that could lead to producing more precise, higher-quality nanotubes. Such manufacturing improvements likely would make the nanotubes more attractive for use in automotive, biomedicine, electronics, energy, optics and many other fields."
Intel

Intel's Sandy Bridge Processor Has a Kill Switch 399

Posted by timothy from the no-mr-chip-I-expect-you-to-die dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors have a new feature that the chip giant is calling Anti-Theft 3.0. The processor can be disabled even if the computer has no Internet connection or isn't even turned on, over a 3G network. With Intel anti-theft technology built into Sandy Bridge, David Allen, director of distribution sales at Intel North America, said that users have the option to set up their processor so that if their computer is lost or stolen, it can be shut down remotely."

Comment Standard Print Model (Score 1) 347

by jswinth (#32624960) Attached to: Best Browser For Using Complex Web Applications?

Only home users should be printing (usually PDF) via the browser. This is usually just some really big barcode where it doesn't matter if the layout changes.

If you are trying to print precise documents then you will need to develop a printout direct to the printers. If you are issuing passenger tickets then I'd recommend an industrial printer like a Zebra. The printing language is not that difficult to learn and those printers will just keep printing for years day-in day-out.
Classic Games (Games)

OpenTTD 1.0.0 Released 107

Posted by Soulskill from the and-so-soon dept.
Gmer writes "Eming.com reports that OpenTTD, the open source clone of the Microprose game Transport Tycoon Deluxe, has reached a milestone. OpenTTD 1.0.0 has been released 6 years after work started on the first version, with the help of hundreds of contributors and thousands of testers/players. Over 30 language translations are considered complete, and OpenTTD is available for *BSD, Linux, Solaris and Windows. OpenTTD is a business simulation game in which the player is in control of a transport company and can compete against rival companies to make as much profit as possible by transporting passengers and various goods by road, rail, sea or air."
Robotics

Android Copy of Young Woman Unveiled In Japan 264

Posted by Soulskill from the but-can-she-serve-as-a-floatation-device dept.
An anonymous reader writes "According to IEEE Spectrum, Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, who had previously built a robot copy of himself, has now created a new android — and it's a 'she.' Geminoid F, a copy of a woman in her 20s with long dark hair, exhibits facial expressions more naturally than Ishiguro's previous android. 'Whereas the Geminoid HI-1 has some 50 actuators, the new Geminoid F has just 12. What's more, the HI-1 robot requires a large external box filled with compressors and valves. With Geminoid F, the researchers embedded air servo valves and an air servo control system into its body, so the android requires only a small external compressor.' It's also much better looking. Has the Japanese android master finally overcome the uncanny valley?"
Programming

How Software Engineering Differs From Computer Science 306

Posted by Soulskill from the read-comprehend-debug dept.
cconnell sends in a piece he wrote for Dr. Dobb's which "argues that software development will never be a fully formal, rigorous discipline, and the reason is that software engineering involves humans as central to the process." Quoting: "Software maintainability, for example, is the ability of people to understand, find, and repair defects in a software system. The maintainability of software may be influenced by some formal notions of computer science — perhaps the cyclomatic complexity of the software's control graph. But maintainability crucially involves humans, and their ability to grasp the meaning and intention of source code. The question of whether a particular software system is highly maintainable cannot be answered just by mechanically examining the software. The same is true for safety. Researchers have used some formal methods to learn about a software system's impact on people's health and property. But no discussion of software safety is complete without appeal to the human component of the system under examination."
Privacy

In Istanbul, Cameras To Recognize 15,000 Faces/sec. 221

Posted by kdawson from the for-your-own-good dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Istanbul's popular (and crowded) Istiklal shopping, cafe, and restaurant street is being outfitted with 64 wirelessly controlled, tamper-proof face-recognition cameras attached to a computer system capable of scanning 15,000 faces per second in a moving crowd for a positive match. The link from Samanyolu, badly translated by Google, states that 3 cameras are in place so far and that if trials are successful, this will mark the first time such a system, previously used by Scotland Yard and normally reserved for indoor security use, will be put to use in a public outdoor setting. It also notes that each camera controlled by the system is capable of 'locking onto' the faces of known criminals and pickpockets detected in the crowd and 'tracking' their movements for up to 300 meters before the next, closer placed camera takes over." Hit the link for more of this reader's background on the growing electronic encroachment on privacy in this city, which will be the European Capital of Culture in 2010, causing him to ask, "Is the historic city of Istanbul turning into the new London?"
Communications

The First Phone Call Was 133 Years Ago 196

Posted by kdawson from the come-here-mister-watson dept.
magacious writes "March 10 is the 133rd anniversary of the first telephone call. It occurred between Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant Thomas Watson back on this day in 1876. But there is some debate about whether Bell is actually the rightful owner of the crown for such invention. Having worked on the idea of transmitting speech using electricity for some time, Bell filed his patent on 14 February 1876, either just before or just after his main rival for the title of inventor of the telephone, Elisha Gray, filed his own. Bell won the patent and Gray died in obscurity."

Comment DRM (Score 2, Insightful) 508

by jswinth (#23855761) Attached to: Netflix To Eliminate Profiles Feature
My guess would be that this is DRM related. It probably became very difficult to limit or explain the limit per account. When little Johnny with a separate profile installed the Watch Now feature on 5 of his friends' computers then Dad would be upset with Netflix when he called up trying to make his new Roku work. Or worse, the profiles where allowing people to get around the Watch Now limits. I don't know what the limits are but you can bet that the movie studios require them. With Netflix's push into streamed content, anything that gets in the way is likely to be cannibalized.

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