Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Movie/Video search aggregation?

Submitted by raolin on Friday April 13, 2012 @11:39AM

raolin writes: I have been running without television service for the last few years, relying instead on Netflix Streaming, Hulu Plus, Amazon, and my personal video library. I have the latter indexed and easily searchable, but I have not managed to find a good aggregator for the streaming services that I use, so when I have friends over and the question "Can we see X?" is asked, I have to search three streaming sources, which is kind of a drag. I know Netflix has a search API that I could work with, and it seems at least possible that Hulu and Amazon do as well, but before I try to build something myself I thought I'd ask the community. Any thoughts?

Submission + - Voyager and the Coming Great Hiatus in Deep Space (txchnologist.com)

Submitted by

MatthewVD

on Friday April 13, 2012 @10:52AM

MatthewVD writes: "Some time in the next decade, the Voyager probes will run out of juice and finally go silent after almost a half century of exploration. John Rennie writes that the lack of any meaningful effort to follow up with a mission to interstellar space shows the "fragile, inconsistent state of space exploration." It's particularly frustrating since the Voyagers have tantalized astronomers with a glimpse into about how the sun's magnetic field protects us from (or exposes us to) cosmic rays. Have we gone as far as we’re willing to go in space?"

Submission + - Canada Post Files Copyright Lawsuit Over Crowdsourced Postal Code Database (michaelgeist.ca)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13, 2012 @10:05AM

An anonymous reader writes: Canada Post has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Geolytica, which operates GeoCoder.ca, a website that provides several geocoding services including free access to a crowdsourced compiled database of Canadian postal codes. Canada Post argues that it is the exclusive copyright holder of all Canadian postal codes and claims that GeoCoder appropriated the database and made unauthorized reproductions. GeoCoder compiled the postal code database by using crowdsource techniques without any reliance on Canada Post's database and argues that no copyright in postal codes and no infringement.

Comment Re:mDesktop works great... (Score 2) 359

by raolin on Thursday March 22, 2012 @05:29PM (#39445231) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Which Multiple Desktop Tool For Windows 7?

I forgot to mention that this handles dual monitors without issue, and goes from docked w/two monitors to undocked with one monitor seamlessly. If you decide to exit it, all applications collapse to your single desktop.

The one issue I have noticed is that if you have an open dialogue box it will likely die on desktop switching. This is a minor annoyance, but not one that has caused me much heartburn (and believe me, I have lots open, two and three copies of visual studio, and similar instances of SSMS running at a given time).

Sorry, should have thought all that through in my first post.

Comment Re:mDesktop works great... (Score 1) 359

by raolin on Thursday March 22, 2012 @05:24PM (#39445169) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Which Multiple Desktop Tool For Windows 7?

I too am using mDesktop. It has proven easy to use and configure. I particularly like that I can set windows with certain title text as visible in all desktops, so Trillian is always around but my various tasks can be separated. I recommend it and have gotten a bunch of guys at the office using it too.

Comment Re:Wrong question (Score 1) 589

by raolin on Friday March 10, 2006 @03:28PM (#14892968) Attached to: eBooks - What's Holding You Back?

I can summarize in one word why I like the idea of an eBook: "Light." Reading lights suck. They are awkward, easily broken, and provide inconsistent light over even a single page. I like the ideal of eBooks because they provide a means of reading with a backlight. In cars, airplanes, trains, buses, or even movie theaters during the previews (yes, I read there) it is nice to not worry about bad lighting, and the 100 or so books I have in pdf would be hard to carry around in these places. I can lose a book

What prevents me from using ebooks? Largely the formatting/drm. I like pdf. I have a very workable system by which I read pdf content, but when last I checked, the adobe eBook format required a special reader that, while trying to make life easier, imposed artificial restrictions on the control I was given over the content. I can even read a large text file, but the MS and Adobe ebook readers are terrible. Next in line is selection, but that should improve once it comes out in a useable format.

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