pfunk - Slashdot User

Comment Balance (Score 2) 698

by pfunk on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @01:27PM (#49129397) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Terminally Ill - What Wisdom Should I Pass On To My Geek Daughter?

To everyone that says "forget the video's spend time with her now".

Spend time with her now, obviously and make some memories. But later on in life, those video's will become important. She may be too young to appreciate them now, or even in a few years, but as time goes on and her memories fade, they will take on a new importance. What you looked like, how you sounded. Being able to show those to her husband or kids will mean a lot.

When it comes to topics, don't focus on trying to impart "life lessons." Tell her about your life. The good, the bad and the ugly. The time you lost your job. The first/last fight you got into as a child. A fun birthday. The weirdest job you ever had. The girl you had a crush on that never knew you existed. Your first girlfriend. Your first breakup. Things that will help her know you. Those will impart the life lessons.

And the one piece of advice I wish I had listened to, "If you go to college, don't skip class."

The Twitter Book 88

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday July 01, 2009 @12:15PM from the read-all-about-it dept.

stoolpigeon writes "Microblogging service Twitter has undeniably been a hit, with growth rates that were at times in excess of 1400%. The growth was rapid enough that the site became well known for its periodic, and, at times, extensive downtime. Even with these issues, the service continued to grow rapidly, and with celebrities getting into the mix Twitter was quickly on the radar of mainstream media. The ubiquity of Twitter and ever-increasing coverage of 'tweets' has also brought the inevitable backlash. As with anything that gains high-profile popularity, there are plenty of Twitter haters out there, though the role Twitter has played in the recent Iranian elections seems to have brought more legitimacy to Twitter in the eyes of many. With popularity come books, and quite a few are already out there about and for Twitter, but my favorite so far is The Twitter Book by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein." Read below for the rest of JR's review.

Battlefield Heroes Goes Into Open Beta 43

Posted by Soulskill on Friday June 26, 2009 @07:34AM from the theme-song-already-stuck-in-my-head dept.

EA Digital Illusions CE has quietly opened up the beta of Battlefield Heroes, their long-delayed, free-to-play shooter. After gradually scaling up the number of players in the closed beta, they've now made the game available to everyone and lifted the NDA. EA has not yet mentioned this in an official announcement, probably hoping to keep their servers from being overwhelmed. The game's website is now accepting signups. IGN ran a hands-on preview of Battlefield Heroes back in April.

Comment Re:I prefer (Score 1) 210

by pfunk on Wednesday May 13, 2009 @03:30PM (#27943345) Attached to: Artificial Ethics

Asimov himself stated that the 3 Laws of Robotics were really a plot device that wouldn't work in the real world. In fact, just about every Robot story he wrote that incorporated the 3 Laws were really about how one or more of the laws failed or were inadequate in one situation or another, and the consequences of that failure.

Comment He should have put in a blank hard drive (Score 5, Insightful) 181

by pfunk on Thursday May 07, 2009 @02:05PM (#27864787) Attached to: Repairman Steals Hard Drive And Charges To Reinstall It

He should have replaced the hard drive with a blank formatted hard drive. Then when the realty office tried to start the system and it wouldn't boot, take the computer back to his office or shop and retrieve the "lost" data.

Sophisticated Balloons Could Help Steer Spacecraft 96

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday April 16, 2009 @10:32AM from the 51%-of-turns-are-right dept.

coondoggie writes "Getting spacecraft traveling at hypersonic speeds to slow down and land or achieve a particular orbit on a dime is no easy feat. But researchers are developing a tool that will let engineers model and ultimately build advanced flight control systems that meld balloon and parachute technologies known as a ballute (BALLoon-parachUTE). Basically a ballute is a large, inflatable device that takes advantage of atmospheric drag to decelerate and capture a spacecraft into orbit around a planet, according to NASA who is funding Global Aerospace to build such a tool."

Visualizing Data Inside the 30-ft Allosphere 131

Posted by timothy on Wednesday April 15, 2009 @03:49PM from the bah-I've-seen-bigger dept.

TEDChris writes "The Allosphere, being created at UC Santa Barbara, is the most ambitious attempt yet at creating powerful 3d visualizations of raw scientific data, such as the structure of a crystal, or how quantum effects take place. Researchers watch from a bridge inside the 30-foot sphere, looking at data projected 360 degrees around them and listening to 3D sound. The first major public demo of the facility has just been posted at TED.com. Optimists would argue that many of the greatest scientific breakthroughs happened through a new visual way of imagining data. Penicillin and relativity come to mind. So this is either a killer new research vehicle, an incredible toy, or just an insanely expensive art project."

Followup To "When Teachers Are Obstacles To Linux" 626

Posted by kdawson on Friday December 12, 2008 @01:42PM from the more-sides-to-the-story dept.

An couple of anonymous readers wrote in to let us know about a followup to last Wednesday's story of the teacher who didn't believe in free software. The Linux advocate who posted the original piece has cooled off and graciously apologized for going off half-cocked (even though the teacher had done the same), and provided a little more background which, while not excusing the teacher's ignorance, does make her actions somewhat more understandable. Ken Starks has talked with the teacher, who has received a crash education in technology over the last few days — Starks is installing Linux on her computer tomorrow. He retracts his insinuations about Microsoft money and the NEA. All in all he demonstrates what a little honest communication can do, a lesson that all of us who advocate for free software can take to heart. "The student did get his Linux disks back after the class. The lad was being disruptive, but that wasn't mentioned. Neither was the obvious fact that when she saw a gaggle of giggling 8th grade boys gathered around a laptop, the last thing she expected to see on that screen was a spinning cube. She didn't know what was on those disks he was handing out. It could have been porn, viral .exe's...any number of things for all she knew. When she heard that an adult had given him some of the disks to hand out, her spidey-senses started tingling. Coupled with the fact that she truly was ignorant of honest-to-goodness free software, and you have some fairly impressive conclusion-jumping. In a couple of ways, I am guilty of it too."

What if Michael Bay did "The Dark Knight"? 1

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday September 03, 2008 @01:39PM from the more-explosions dept.

Lisandro writes "We all know that Nolans' two takes on the caped avenger were excellent. But ... what if Michael Bay wrote and directed "The Dark Knight"? The guys at Spill.com apparently got hold of a rejected Bay script for the film. This is not something to be missed." Those aren't idea's Michael, they're special effects.

A Talk With Dad NSFW 1

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday August 28, 2008 @01:39PM from the wrong-answer dept.

School can be hard when you have to deal with a bully.

Cat Talk 14

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday August 27, 2008 @02:47PM from the thin-walls dept.

I guess you have to watch next week to find out how Muffins got her name and whether or not she likes wet food.

Comment Re:AVG Camp (Score 2, Informative) 499

by pfunk on Monday May 22, 2006 @01:48PM (#15382612) Attached to: Best of the Free Anti-virus Choices?

After I helped my dad manually remove a trojan horse from his computer, I had him uninstall Norton Antivirus (which was completely updated and current) and install AVG Free Edition. The only reason he even found out he had a Trojan Horse to begin with was because Norton crashed every time it tried to fix it. On the first virus scan AVG did, AVG found 4 other viruses that Norton totally missed.

I have used AVG for a couple years now and whenever I get a new computer or work on a family member's computer, the first thing I do is uninstall the commercial Anti-Virus and install AVG Free Edition

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