Comment Why is this not posted (Score 1) 1
Is my "ask slashdot" question not good enough?
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Submission + - How best to detect and display hard disk failure? 1
kiberovca writes: I'm planning on building an home file server, and the thing that bugs me the most is — how best to detect and then display hard disk failure? I like all of those nice lights that commercial server cases have, that shows you the state of each disk, but I haven't been able to find anything like this available for purchase, or DIY. Perhaps I'm lacking the proper term for that kind of equipment, and because of that I wasn't able to find it?
Comment Re:Samples (Score 1) 277
Shouldn't all of the Geiger counters come with exactly that - an small sample of radioactive material for calibration? I thought that is the norm even for today's devices. I guess the OP should ask in the shop where he/she is buying.
Submission + - Your Face Will Soon Be In Facebook Ads (itworld.com) 1
jfruhlinger writes: If you're planning on checking into Starbucks using Facebook Places, your friends may soon see your profile picture in a Facebook ad for Starbucks — and, it goes without saying, you won't be paid a dime. You can't opt out, unless, as Dan Tynan puts it, "studiously avoid clicking “Like” or checking into any place that has a six- or seven-figure ad budget." The ad will also include whatever text you use in your checkin, so Tynan suggests some judicious pranksterism ("Just checked into the Starbucks around the corner and this doppio mocha latte tastes like goat urine").
Comment Re:Open Pandora (Score 1) 195
Well, Pandora people started shipping the device. It all depends on the demand for it. If suddenly several thousand devices were to be ordered, I wonder if the Qi people would be able to supply all of the devices on demand. Since both projects are enthusiast based, I'd say the situation is still the same.
Comment Re:Open Pandora (Score 2, Insightful) 195
So is the MIPS. I'd say there is not so much difference between the two. Yes, the Qi has all of the blueprints, but the Pandora can be actually used for a bit more than just as an example of the open design. I applaud the people behind the Qi, but the device has to be usefull too.
Comment Open Pandora (Score 5, Interesting) 195
What about http://www.open-pandora.org/? It's a much better device than this one, has all of the stuff mentioned, and more.
Submission + - Bada Bing! Microsoft rolling out new search (pcworld.com) 3
An anonymous reader writes: PC World reports that Microsoft's new search engine, code-named Kumo, has tentatively been rebranded as "Bing" and will be rolled out shortly, backed by a US$80-$100 million ad campaign. The new engine will try to out-do Google with photos and links to related categories returned for popular searches. As the article suggests, perhaps Microsoft is hoping users will talk about "binging" this or that, instead of googling for everything.
Submission + - Using WiMAX to replace a phone? (lazyelegance.com)
vigmeister writes: "I've decided to explore the possibility of using a netbook/MID as a phone while eschewing the services of a cellphone provider. Now that Atlanta (where I live) has WiMAX from Clear, I ought to be connected everywhere within the city to the internet (once I sign up). Theoretically, this should mean that I will be able to use my netbook as a cell phone. Of course, there are some very real issues to overcome and I am simply putting this experiment together to see if it is something that is realistically possible.
This could possibly extend to uncapped 3G connections (if they exist anymore) as well. Are there any obvious problems you would foresee? Is there anything I have missed or any other questions I should attempt to answer in this 'experiment' of mine? A major issue is, of course, the fact that my pseudo-netbook has to be carried everywhere and left always on. I've asked slashdot for advice regarding the best OS for this machine. However, if the experment is somewhat succesful, it seems as if using your netbook/MID as a phone might require a relatively customized OS which could possibly be a 'remix' of a suitable Linux distro. Something like Maemo, but not as hardware specific. Thoughts, suggestions?"
Submission + - Microsoft's ad campaign proves unsuccessful
Afforess writes: "For the past several months, Microsoft has geared up it's advertising with the addition of the quirky Seinfeld ad's and the newer "Laptop Hunter" ads. The "Laptop Hunter" ads feature a mother and child comparing cheaper PC branded laptops against their more expensive Mac counterparts. Although these new Microsoft ads offer ammunition against Apple's more aggressive and open attacks of the Windows platform, they seem to be unsuccessful. Net Applications Inc data on operating systems market share shows that Windows overall market share has dropped 2.94% in the past 10 months, while Apple has gained 1.79% in the same time. Also interesting to note that Linux's market share grew the fastest relative to it's size, even though it lacked a marketing campaign; approximately 27.5% larger, equivalent to a .22% gain in market share during the same time period."
Submission + - Nanotech Memory May Hold Data For 1 Billion Years 1
Hugh Pickens writes: "Digital storage devices have become ubiquitous in our lives but the move to digital storage has raised concerns about the lifetime of the storage media. Now Alex Zettl and his group at the University of California, Berkeley report that they have developed an experimental memory device consisting of a crystalline iron nanoparticle enclosed in a multiwalled carbon nanotube that could have a storage capacity as high as 1 terabyte per square inch and temperature-stability in excess of one billion years. The nanoparticle can be moved through the nanotube by applying a low voltage, writing the device to a binary state represented by the position of the nanoparticle. The state of the device can then be subsequently read by a simple resistance measurement while reversing the nanoparticle's motion allows a memory "bit" to be rewritten. This creates a programmable memory system that, like a silicon chip, can record digital information and play it back using conventional computer hardware storing data at a high density with a very long lifetime. Details of the process are available at the American Chemical Society for $30."
Submission + - What free IDE do you use? 2
postermmxvicom writes: "I program only occasionally and mostly for personal interest. I went to update my favorite free IDE yesterday when I noticed that DEVCPP has not been updated since 2005! It was like I lost a friend :( So, I went looking for other free IDE's and came across Code::Blocks and visual studio express. I work from a windows machine and use C++. I make mostly console apps, but have written a few windows apps and D3D or OpenGl apps.
I wanted to know what free IDE's you use and recommend. What do you like about them? What features do they lack? What about them irritate you (and what do you do to work around these annoyances)? For instance, when I used Visual C++ 6.0 in college, there was an error in getline that had to be fixed and devcpp's code indenting needed to be tweaked to suit my liking."
I wanted to know what free IDE's you use and recommend. What do you like about them? What features do they lack? What about them irritate you (and what do you do to work around these annoyances)? For instance, when I used Visual C++ 6.0 in college, there was an error in getline that had to be fixed and devcpp's code indenting needed to be tweaked to suit my liking."
Massive Open Collaboration In Math Declared a Success 60
nanopolitan writes "In late January, Tim Gowers, a Fields Medal winner at Cambridge University, used his blog for an experiment in massive online collaboration for solving a significant problem in math — combinatorial proof of the density Hales-Jewett theorem. Some six weeks (and nearly 1000 comments) later, Gowers has declared the project a success, and some of the ideas have already been written up as a preprint."
The Realities of Selling Independently Developed PC Games 120
Not long ago, we discussed the realities of selling a game on the iPhone App Store. Now, spidweb sends in his experiences with a realistic level of success as an independent PC game developer. He writes
"There is a lot of excitement about casual gaming and Indie game development these days, but there's also very little public information about how many games actually get sold, or the sort of income one can reasonably expect in this line of work. We've released full sales figures for a recent product to illustrate what sort of earnings can be generated by a quality niche product that isn't a massive hit. From the post: 'I am not the first Indie developer to reveal this sort of information. However, most public sales figures come from projects that were either blockbusters or disasters. Our games have never landed in either pool. I have been doing this for a living for almost fifteen years.'"
Ontario Court Wrong About IP Addresses, Too 258
Frequent Slashdot contributor Bennett Haselton comments on a breaking news story out of the Canadian courts:
"An Ontario Superior Court Justice has ruled that Canadian police can obtain the identities of Internet users without a warrant, writing that there is 'no reasonable expectation of privacy' for a user's online identity, and drawing the analogy that 'One's name and address or the name and address of your spouse are not biographical information one expects would be kept private from the state.' But why in the world is it valid to compare an IP address with a street address in the phone book?"
Read on for Bennett's analysis.
