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Comment Re:They Have A Point... (Score 2, Interesting) 419

No, cost is a big issue, along with ergonomics.
The active shutter glasses are pretty cheap and simple. They are basically a one-pixel display for each eye, where the pixel switches between clear and opaque.

Contrast this to your idea, which amounts to a miniaturized 1080p display per eye, per user. Your glasses would much larger, much more expensive, and would consume much more power. They also make it impossible see anything in the viewing room. You can still look around when wearing the active shutter glasses.

Keeping the TV also has the nontrivial benefit of using it to watch 2D content...

Operating Systems

FreeBSD 7.1 Released 324

Sol-Invictus writes "The FreeBSD Release Engineering Team is pleased to announce the availability of FreeBSD 7.1-RELEASE. This is the second release from the 7-STABLE branch which improves on the functionality of FreeBSD 7.0 and introduces some new features. Some of the highlights: The ULE scheduler is now the default in GENERIC kernels for amd64 and i386 architectures. The ULE scheduler significantly improves performance on multicore systems for many workloads. Support for using DTrace inside the kernel has been imported from OpenSolaris. DTrace is a comprehensive dynamic tracing framework. A new and much-improved NFS Lock Manager (NLM) client. Boot loader changes allow, among other things, booting from USB devices and booting from GPT-labeled devices. KDE updated to 3.5.10, GNOME updated to 2.22.3. DVD-sized media for the amd64 and i386 architectures."
Windows

Configuring a Windows PC For a Senior Citizen? 823

An anonymous reader writes "I would like to know if there are any resources on the Web or elsewhere describing how to configure a Windows PC for an older parent not living in the same household. Assume little computer familiarity or aptitude. Some stuff is obvious, like using only a few large icons for favorite Web sites, or an icon perhaps for composing email and another for checking email. Other considerations are eliminating nuisance messages from Windows update and antivirus/firewall. What works and what doesn't? Can anyone who has worked/volunteered at a senior center offer some insights?"

Comment Re:For certain values of certain (Score 1) 310

There is lots of mutual animosity between the Inquirer and NVIDIA. Let's just say that neither goes out of their way to say nice things about the other.

Chances are good that Wall Street has a less biased handle on the scope of the issue. The current stock price suggests that this problem, while plenty bad, is not even close to fatal.

Feed Science Daily: Breakthrough In Geological Dating Imminent (sciencedaily.com)

A breakthrough in geological dating can be expected within the next few years, combining existing methods to yield higher accuracy over longer time scales closer to the earth's origin. This will bring great benefits not just for earth sciences, but also for other fields that rely on accurate dating over geological time.

Feed Science Daily: Mice Provide Important Clues To Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (sciencedaily.com)

Mice born without a key brain protein compulsively groom their faces until they bleed and are afraid to venture out of the corner of their cages. When given a replacement dose of the protein in a specific region of the brain, or the drugs used to treat humans suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder, many of these mice seem to get better.
Operating Systems

Journal Journal: Using Vim more productively. 3

I am always trying to learn new things in Vim, since this is my editor of choice. Here are a few things that I have learned recently:

Mars

Submission + - Mars rovers moving after long winter of inactivity

jcasman writes: "After a long winter of inactivity, NASA's Spirit rover has stirred from its slumber. The intrepid spacecraft has moved from its perch for the first time in nearly 7 months, continuing its exploration of Mars' Columbia Hills. Read more..."
Television

Submission + - Analog TV is out Digital is in

db32 writes: At sfgate we have the story of the cutoff date for those rabbit ear antennas we all grew up with. Now while the story of analog vs digital TV has been beaten to death, and what it means for our future viewing I think there is something worse here. "The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) said it is setting aside $990 million to pay for the boxes. Each home can request up to two $40 coupons for a digital-to-analog converter box, which consumer electronics makers such as RCA and LG plan to produce." Beyond my disdain for most TV to begin with, I am blown away that with all of our current problems from the at home social issues of homelessness and crime, and our foreign policy and war fighting efforts that our government is seriously going to spend this much money on upgrading peoples TVs. So at $80 per household the government could buy most people a year long subscription to their local newspaper instead, but instead we get TV upgrades. Is this what our society has finally come to?
Security

Reverse Hacker Awarded $4.3 Million 171

jcatcw writes "Shawn Carpenter was awarded a $4.3 million award — more than twice the amount he sought and money he thinks he'll never see. Carpenter worked for Sandia National Labs as an intrusion detection analyst. He anayzed. He detected. He reported. He was fired — in Janurary 2005 after sharing his results with the FBI and the U.S. Army. Computerworld asked him what he hoped to achieve in that investigation. Answer: 'In late May of 2004, one of my investigations turned up a large cache of stolen sensitive documents hidden on a server in South Korea. In addition to U.S. military information, there were hundreds of pages of detailed schematics and project information marked 'Lockheed Martin Proprietary Information — Export Controlled' that were associated with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. ... It was a case of putting the interests of the corporation over those of the country.' Ira Winkler, author of Spies Among Us , said the verdict was 'incredibly justified. Frankly, I think people [at Sandia] should go to jail' for ignoring some of the security issues that Carpenter was trying to highlight with his investigation."

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