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Comment Re:3rd world countries (Score 1) 558

by srlapo (#32015336) Attached to: The Mystery of the Mega-Selling Floppy Disk

They have to do it on front of you actually.
But that is not the point. I am not the only one that has to pay that tax, so everyone else is in the same boat regarding the purcharse of floppy disks. All because a comitee of provincial politicians can't be bothered to accept electronic payment of this particular tax. Every other tax can be paid with online banking.
So one of the reasons the purchase of outdated floppy disks keeps going, at least in Argentina, is because of a comitee of politicians. That was the intent of my original post.

Comment Re:3rd world countries (Score 4, Informative) 558

by srlapo (#32014366) Attached to: The Mystery of the Mega-Selling Floppy Disk

Yes, I have to use them actually. It is the only way to pay multilateral income taxes in Argentina. You have to stand in line at an actual bank for an hour and present the teller with some printed forms and a diskette with the form file (and the money of course). And no, you can't use a flashdrive, electronic transfer or anything else. You have to use a freaking 3.5 inch dikette. It's like going back to the last century. Of course the damned things keep failing every other month so I have to buy more and more.
It doesn't help that the software to make those forms is the old DOS version with some library changes to make it work on windows. UAC sure loves it... (not)

Comment Weird... (Score 2, Informative) 433

by srlapo (#27828231) Attached to: Seven Arrested After Protesting Army Video Game Recruiting Center

The twitter feed was boring as usual, but it has an interesting observation...

# A few in crowd have donned plain white masks... Not sure but they seemed to come from inside the aec

And later...

# Wow, about a half-dozen of the protesters in the white masks just got arrested. Hooked up with plastic cuffs and led away by police.

# I think they planned to get arrested for symbolic reasons... Leader just announced that 7 were arrested. All in plain white msks

So it was a publicity stunt? And why the people arrested came from within the army recruiting facility?
Privacy

World Privacy Forum's Top Ten Opt-Outs 162

Posted by kdawson from the do-not-want dept.
Ant writes in to mention the World Privacy Forum's top ten information collector/user list, which shows opt-out instructions (or at least a starting point): "As privacy experts, we are frequently asked about 'opting out,' and which opt outs we think are the most important. This list is a distillation of ideas for opting out that the World Privacy Forum has developed over the years from responding to those questions. ... Many people have told us that they think opting out is confusing. We agree. Opting out can range from the not-too-difficult (the FTC's Do Not Call list is a fairly simple opt out) to the challenging (the National Advertising Initiative (NAI) opt out can be tricky). Our hope is that this list will clarify which opt out does what, and how to go about opting out. In this list, some opt outs can be done by phone, some have to be sent in a letter via postal mail, and some can be accomplished online. Some opt outs last forever, some have time limits, and others can be changed at will. If an opt out is on this list, it is because we thought it might be important enough to be worth whatever annoyance it may pose. "
Space

Sophisticated Balloons Could Help Steer Spacecraft 96

Posted by CmdrTaco 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."
Space

Using Lasers and Water Guns To Clean Space Debris 267

Posted by CmdrTaco from the super-soaker-one-million dept.
WSJdpatton writes "The collision between two satellites last month has renewed interest in some ideas for cleaning up the cloud of debris circling the earth. Some of the plans being considered: Using aging rockets loaded with water to dislodge the debris from orbit so it will burn up in the atmosphere; junk-zapping lasers; and garbage-collecting rockets."
Image

Robot Love Goes Bad 101

Posted by samzenpus from the become-my-robot-bride dept.
hundredrabh writes "Ever had a super needy girlfriend that demanded all your love and attention and would freak whenever you would leave her alone? Irritating, right? Now imagine the same situation, only with an asexual third-generation humanoid robot with 100kg arms. Such was the torture subjected upon Japanese researchers recently when their most advanced robot, capable of simulating human emotions, ditched its puppy love programming and switched over into stalker mode. Eventually the researchers had to decommission the robot, with a hope of bringing it back to life again."
Power

Distributed "Nuclear Batteries" the New Infrastructure Answer? 611

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the not-in-my-backyard dept.
thepacketmaster writes "The Star reports about a new power generation model using smaller distributed power generators located closer to the consumer. This saves money on power generation lines and creates an infrastructure that can be more easily expanded with smaller incremental steps, compared to bigger centralized power generation projects. The generators in line for this are green sources, but Hyperion Power Generation, NuScale, Adams Atomic Engines (and some other companies) are offering small nuclear reactors to plug into this type of infrastructure. The generator from Hyperion is about the size of a garden shed, and uses older technology that is not capable of creating nuclear warheads, and supposedly self-regulating so it won't go critical. They envision burying reactors near the consumers for 5-10 years, digging them back up and recycling them. Since they are so low maintenance and self-contained, they are calling them nuclear batteries."
Biotech

Repairing Genetic Mutations With Lasers? 65

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the shed-a-little-light-on-your-genes dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "German researchers at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (CAU) think they've proved that genetic information can be controlled by light. The group studied the interaction between the four DNA bases — adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T) — by using femtosecond time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. The researchers think that they've demonstrated that DNA strands differ in their light sensitivity depending on their base sequences. The team thinks that it might be possible in the future to repair gene mutations using laser radiation. One of the project leaders said that 'it might even be possible under some circumstances to make transistors from DNA that would work through the hydrogen bonds.' It's not the first time I've heard about DNA computing, but this new approach looks promising."
Image

OpenGL ES 2.0 Programming Guide 48

Posted by samzenpus from the read-all-about-it dept.
Martin Ecker writes "Mobile phones and other embedded devices are getting more and more powerful each year. The availability of dedicated hardware for 3D rendering is becoming increasingly ubiquitous, and the latest mobile phones come with 3D hardware acceleration that rivals the power of desktop graphics hardware. OpenGL ES 2.0 is the latest version of a cross-platform, low-level graphics API to utilize these new resources available in embedded devices. The OpenGL ES 2.0 Programming Guide published by Addison-Wesley Publishing aims to help the reader make use of the full power of OpenGL ES 2.0 to create interesting 3D applications." Keep reading for the rest of Martin's review.

Comment Re:This only punishes the foolish (Score 2, Insightful) 438

by srlapo (#24222025) Attached to: Gmail Reveals the Names of All Users

That's just paranoia. Everyone with administrative/root access to the mail server could read them, not that they care what's in there usually. The fact that someone is paying for their mailbox or not has nothing to do with that. You are probably safer with the big names, at least they have established protocols and guidelines for privacy...
Besides you can have your @yourdomain.com email with google too, for free. Ever heard of google apps? http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/index.html

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