warpSpeed - Slashdot User

Why Overheard Cell Phone Chats Are Annoying 344

Posted by timothy on Thursday May 20, 2010 @05:26PM from the they-drown-out-the-bark-of-my-gun dept.

__roo writes "American researchers think they have found the answer to the question of why overhearing cell phone chats are annoying. According to scientists at Cornell University, when only half of the conversation is overheard, it drains more attention and concentration than when overhearing two people talking. According to one researcher, 'We have less control to move away our attention from half a conversation (or halfalogue) than when listening to a dialogue. Since halfalogues really are more distracting and you can't tune them out, this could explain why people are irritated.' Their study will be published in the journal Psychological Science."

3rd-Grader Busted For Jolly Rancher Possession 804

Posted by samzenpus on Monday May 10, 2010 @10:10AM from the step-away-from-the-candy dept.

theodp writes "A third-grader in a small Texas school district received a week's detention for merely possessing a Jolly Rancher. Leighann Adair, 10, was eating lunch Monday when a teacher confiscated the candy. Her parents said she was in tears when she arrived home later that afternoon and handed them the detention notice. But school officials are defending the sentence, saying the school was abiding by a state guideline that banned 'minimal nutrition' foods. 'Whether or not I agree with the guidelines, we have to follow the rules,' said school superintendent Jack Ellis."

JPL Background Check Case Reaches Supreme Court 112

Posted by timothy on Friday March 12, 2010 @11:43PM from the faster-boys-if-you-want-your-pay dept.

Dthief writes "A long-running legal battle between the United States government and a group of 29 scientists and engineers of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, has now reached the US Supreme Court." At issue: mandatory background checks for scientists and engineers working at JPL, which they allege includes snooping into their sexual orientation, as well as their mental and physical health.

Submission + - Why Dell won't offer Linux on its PCs.

Submitted by

derrida

on Sunday March 11, 2007 @03:41PM

derrida writes: "Jack Schofield explains in his article why Dell won't offer Linux on its PCs. Quoting from there: "The most obvious is deciding which version of Linux to offer. There are more than 100 distros, and everybody seems to want a different one — or the same one with a different desktop, or whatever. It costs Dell a small fortune to offer an operating system (it involves thousands of driver compatibility, peripheral testing, certification, staff training, administration, advertising and support issues) so the lack of a standard is a real killer. The less obvious problem is the very high cost of Linux support, especially when selling cheap PCs to naïve users who don't RTFM (read the friendly manual) and wouldn't understand a Linux manual if they tried. And there's so much of it! Saying "Linux is just a kernel, so that's all we support" isn't going to work, but where in the great sprawling heap of GNU/Linux code do you draw the line?""

Submission + - BlackBerry Orphans

Submitted by

theodp

on Friday December 08, 2006 @03:19PM

theodp writes: "The WSJ reports that the growing use of email gadgets is spawning a generation of resentful children. In addition to feeling neglected, kids say BlackBerrys and Treos can put their lives in jeopardy as Mom and Dad type away while driving. The chairman of Research In Motion will have nothing of the whining, saying children should ask themselves, 'Would you rather have your parents 20% not there or 100% not there?'"

Journal Journal: Download-To-Burn Standards Approved

Journal by Copy Counsler on Friday December 08, 2006 @03:17PM

A major hurdle in the legitimate download-to-burn services taking off has been removed: At its Nov. 29 meeting, the DVD Forum gave formal approval to a new type of recordable disc that will accept movies encrypted with CSS, the same copy-protection system used on retail discs, for playback on set-top DVD players. http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/download-to-burn-standards-approved-launching-early-

Feed Moon Base Plan Masks Cuts at NASA (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed on Friday December 08, 2006 @03:12PM

A nifty moon colony sounds so very exotic. But the dreamy mission comes at a terrible price: slashing funding for Earth science. In Beyond the Beyond.

Feed Debating Traveler Terror Ratings (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed on Friday December 08, 2006 @03:12PM

Two prominent lawmakers call a controversial program that assigns risk scores to international travelers secret and unlawful. The Bush administration disagrees, saying it's talked about the program repeatedly. In 27B Stroke 6.

Bookmark Slashdot | Judge Rules Offering != Distributing (slashdot.org)

by bliz1985 on Friday December 08, 2006 @02:51PM

Submission + - RV processes own fuel in cross country trip

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Friday December 08, 2006 @12:44PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "Frybrid has realized the dream of Dr. Emmet Brown's Delorea: putting garbage directly into your vehicle, and have it be turned into directly into fuel. This fall, Frybrid installed a system into a 40' luxury RV that will suck up waste vegetable oil from the back of restaurants, remove the water and filter it, and then burn the dry and cleaned vegetable oil as fuel. The family drove their converted RV from Seattle to Rhode Island on $47 worth of diesel fuel. Plans are underway for a smaller version of the system to fit in the bed of a pickup truck."

Journal Journal: Would you admit this? 5

Journal by smooth wombat on Friday December 08, 2006 @12:28PM

I'm not sure if I would be brave enough to admit what this article says. I have what I have and there isn't anything I can do change what I have but I'm not sure I'd be willing to admit it.

Submission + - What code DOESN'T do in real life

Submitted by

Billosaur

on Friday December 08, 2006 @12:18PM

Billosaur writes: "As with anything, Hollywood has a weird way of viewing computer code. On Drivl.com, they have an article entitled "What code DOESN'T do in real life (that it does in the movies)", a list of ten things that occur to code in Hollywood movies that doesn't happen when you're sitting at your terminal scrolling through it. It's sad to think that as Hollywood is becoming more dependent on coders to produce special effects and such for movies, that they are completely overlooking what coders do and how they do it. But then again, not every NYPD officer acts like Bruce Willis in "Die Hard," so why should any of this be a shock?"

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