thx1138_az - Slashdot User

The First Photograph of a Human 138

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday October 27, 2010 @07:58PM from the fist-cheese dept.

wiredog writes "The Atlantic has a brief piece on what is likely to be the first photograph (a daguerreotype) showing a human. From the article: 'In September, Krulwich posted a set of daguerreotypes taken by Charles Fontayne and William Porter in Cincinnati 162 years ago, on September 24, 1848. Krulwich was celebrating the work of the George Eastman House in association with the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. Using visible-light microscopy, the George Eastman House scanned several plates depicting the Cincinnati Waterfront so that scholars could zoom in and study the never-before-seen details.'"

New Linux Petabyte-Scale Distributed File System 132

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday May 05, 2010 @08:14PM from the check-it-out dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A recent addition to Linux's impressive selection of file systems is Ceph, a distributed file system that incorporates replication and fault tolerance while maintaining POSIX compatibility. Explore the architecture of Ceph and learn how it provides fault tolerance and simplifies the management of massive amounts of data."

Do Gamers Want Simpler Games? 462

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday May 05, 2010 @03:20AM from the i'd-say-no-but-i-used-to-love-frogger dept.

A recent GamePro article sums up a lesson that developers and publishers have been slowly learning over the last few years: gamers don't want as much from games as they say they do. Quoting: "Conventional gaming wisdom thus far has been 'bigger, better, MORE!' It's something affirmed by the vocal minority on forums, and by the vast majority of critics that praise games for ambition and scale. The problem is, in reality its almost completely wrong. ... How do we know this? Because an increasing number of games incorporate telemetry systems that track our every action. They measure the time we play, they watch where we get stuck, and they broadcast our behavior back to the people that make the games so they can tune the experience accordingly. Every studio I've spoken to that does this, to a fault, says that many of the games they've released are far too big and far too hard for most players' behavior. As a general rule, less than five percent of a game's audience plays a title through to completion. I've had several studios tell me that their general observation is that 'more than 90 percent' of a game's audience will play it for 'just four or five hours.'"

Man Spends 2,200 Hours Defeating Bejeweled 2 179

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday May 01, 2010 @10:44AM from the wins-complimentary-straight-jacket dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A California steel contractor spent 2,200 total hours over the last three years racking up a high score in Bejeweled 2. He exceeded the 2^31-1 maximum score programmed for the score display, proving that there is, in fact, an end to the game. I suppose congratulations or condolences are in order."

Comment Re:Shrimp free zone? (Score 1) 643

by thx1138_az on Saturday January 09, 2010 @12:52AM (#30704662) Attached to: Air Canada Ordered To Provide Nut-Free Zone

I'm sorry, if you think he's an idiot why do you request that he kill himself? As the obvious intellectual that you are (note the sarcasm here), you'd be held accountable if he does. Perhaps the mentally defective people who lack empathy should consult someone as well.

NASA To Cryogenically Freeze Satellite Mirrors 47

Posted by Soulskill on Friday January 08, 2010 @10:12PM from the ain't-it-cool dept.

coondoggie writes "NASA said it will soon move some of the larger (46 lb) mirror segments of its future James Webb Space Telescope into a cryogenic test facility that will freeze the mirrors to -414 degrees Fahrenheit (~25 K). Specifically, NASA will freeze six of the 18 Webb telescope mirror segments at the X-ray and Cryogenic Facility, or XRCF, at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, in a test to ensure the critical mirrors can withstand the extreme space environments. All 18 segments will eventually be tested at the site. The test chamber takes approximately five days to cool a mirror segment to cryogenic temperatures."

Air Canada Ordered To Provide Nut-Free Zone 643

Posted by samzenpus on Friday January 08, 2010 @07:09PM from the no-nuts dept.

JamJam writes "Air Canada has been told to create a special 'buffer zone' on flights for people who are allergic to nuts. The Canadian Transportation Agency has ruled that passengers who have nut allergies should be considered disabled and accommodated by the airline. Air Canada has a month to come up with an appropriate section of seats where passengers with nut allergies would be seated. The ruling involved a complaint from Sophia Huyer, who has a severe nut allergy and travels frequently. Ms. Huyer once spent 40 minutes in the washroom during a flight while snacks were being served."

Submission + - Trojan found in brand new HD sold in Taiwan (taipeitimes.com)

Submitted by

GSGKT

on Saturday November 10, 2007 @11:40PM

GSGKT writes: "About 1800 of these brand new 300GB or 500GB external HD made for Maxtor in Thailand have Trojan Horse malwares (autorun.inf and ghost.pif) pre-installed. When the HD is in use, these will forward information on HD to two websites in Beijing, China): www.nice8.org or www.we168.org. Potential users of these large HD would be mid/small business, the military, and the government in Taiwan, although no one can prove this to be the continuing war/spying efforts on Taiwan by the People's Liberation Army. /. has a story on Russian Business Network moving to China recently (http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/09/1957239). Together, these two stories make an interesting new cyber-crime model: Infecting the HD at the manufacturing sites is far more efficient than to phish the end-users!"

Submission + - SETI: Is It Worth It? 1

Submitted by njdube on Thursday November 08, 2007 @07:44PM

njdube writes: It's a risky long shot that burns up money and might never, ever pay off. So is searching for intelligent creatures on unseen worlds worth the candle? After all, aren't there better ways to use our monies and technical talents than trying to find something that's only posited to exist: sentient beings in the dark depths of space?

Submission + - The World's Biggest Botnets

Submitted by ancientribe on Thursday November 08, 2007 @05:25PM

ancientribe writes: There's a new peer-to-peer based botnet emerging that could blow the notorious Storm away in size and sophistication, according to researchers, and it's a direct result of how Storm has changed the botnet game, with more powerful and wily botnets on the horizon. This article provides a peek at the "new Storm" and reveals the three biggest botnets in the world (including Storm) — and what makes them tick and what they are after.

http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=138610&WT.svl=news1_1

Submission + - Dvorak on the gPhone, DOOMED says he! (pcmag.com) 3

Submitted by drewmoney on Thursday November 08, 2007 @04:15PM

drewmoney writes: Speaking with his usual frustrated crankiness, John C. Dvorak (from CNET fame, not to be confused with the good Doctor), rants, cries, and laughs his way through an article explaining why the gPhone will never work. Yes, this is the same Apple basher that made fun of the company when they included a mouse with their systems in 1984.

"There is no evidence that people want to use these things.", he said.

And, yes, this is the same person that made fun of the iBook, saying it looked like it was made for a child. And of course, who could forget when he said that people were making judgment on a product they haven't even used yet, referring to the praise that the iPhone got before its release.

Try to ignore the parts where Mr. Dvorak makes judgement on a product that he hasn't even used yet. And when you're done, feel free to make your own judgements.

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