zanzibuz - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Please be a viable Blackboard competitor (Score 1) 143

by zanzibuz on Wednesday May 07, 2014 @03:45PM (#46942779) Attached to: Google Announces "Classroom"

I logged in for the first time in years to answer your question. I used D2L extensively in my graduate program. I will say that it was a horribly clunky, ugly, slow system. The thing that most got me was that it could not the space character correctly. It continually dropped spaces between words, spaces between sentences, spaces everywhere just >poof went away. It was not a hardware issue, it was completely software related, since no other web page nor application was affected similarly. I never saw the faculty side of it, but my professors complained about it regularly. They kept saying, "We were promised that X was supposed to work, but when we actually got it, it doesn't. Now we complain about it and nothing happens."

I will say, it's been two years since I used it last, and there is certainly a chance that it has been updated since then. I hope it has been fixed, but it left an incredibly sour taste with me.

Maine To Skip Vista, Go Directly To Windows 7 242

Posted by kdawson on Saturday October 04, 2008 @03:29PM from the should-have-hired-stephen-king dept.

Preedit writes "The State of Maine is the latest organization to skip Windows Vista, which has been a near-disaster for Microsoft. An internal state document (dated September 15) uncovered by Infoweek reveals that Maine will not be upgrading its more than 11,000 personal computing devices from XP to Vista — ever. Instead, it's going to wait until Windows 7 ships in 2010 and hope for the best. The news is in line with a survey that shows only 4% of businesses in the UK have upgraded to Vista, the story notes. So much for that $300 million Seinfeld campaign." A commenter on the article makes the point that Maine's signing an enterprise software license with Microsoft means that Redmond doesn't really lose out on this deal; it simply allows the state to upgrade its equipment and software on its own time.

Ancient Yeast Used To Brew Modern Beer 106

Posted by timothy on Wednesday September 24, 2008 @02:10PM from the turned-out-to-be-useful dept.

Kozar_The_Malignant writes "Yeast trapped inside a 45 million year old weevil, trapped inside amber has been extracted, activated, and used to brew beer. According to the report, the beer has 'a weird spiciness at the finish.' The brewer, Raul Cano, a scientist at the California Polytechnic State University, attributes this to the yeast's unusual metabolism. 'The ancient yeast is restricted to a narrow band of carbohydrates, unlike more modern yeasts, which can consume just about any kind of sugar,' said Cano. Cano brews barrels of Pale Ale and German Wheat Beer under the Fossil Fuels Brewing Co. label."

Slashdot's Disagree Mail 426

Posted by samzenpus on Friday September 05, 2008 @02:40PM from the unsubscribe-me dept.

Everyone likes to belong to something. Whether it be for fun, a sense of belonging, or a need for attention, a group gives you a feeling of solidarity. Surrounding yourself with people that share common goals and ideas can be comforting. Sometimes however, you realize that you hate the people you've surrounded yourself with. Your religion doesn't allow you to read anything that has profanity or you've subscribed to Slashdot thinking you could learn more about hockey. This week's collection is composed of people who don't want to play, read, or be associated with us anymore. Read below to find out how bad they want out.

Comment Re:Who knew? (Score 1) 1320

by zanzibuz on Tuesday June 10, 2008 @02:03PM (#23730661) Attached to: Efficiency? Think Racing Cars, Not Hybrids

Actually, the climate IS different. I live in Memphis. We've needed air conditioning for over a month now. I was in France last week. It was downright cold in Paris. Air conditioning wasn't even an option in the other hotel I stayed in--and it was along the southern coast. The best thing was that I didn't need it. Look at a map. See how so much of Europe is located at higher latitudes than New York?

For further evidence, consider this: One of the reasons why the southern US historically had such a lower population than the northern US is that it gets so bloody hot here in the summers.

48% of Americans Reject Evolution 1856

Posted by Zonk on Saturday March 31, 2007 @04:32PM from the we-need-just-a-touch-stronger-educational-standards- dept.

MSNBC has up an article discussing the results of a Newsweek poll on faith and religion among members of the US populace. Given the straightforward question, 'Is evolution well-supported by evidence and widely accepted within the scientific community?', some 48% of Americans said 'No'. Furthermore, 34% of college graduates said they accept the Biblical story of creation as fact. An alarmingly high number of individuals responded that they believe the earth is only 10,000 years old, and that a deity created our species in its present form at the start of that period.

NASA Think Tank to be Shut Down 132

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday March 21, 2007 @11:25AM from the ice-cream-dept-still-intact dept.

Matthew Sparkes writes "NASA will likely shut down its Institute for Advanced Concepts, which funds research into futuristic ideas in spaceflight and aeronautics. The move highlights the budget problems the agency is facing as it struggles to retire the space shuttles and develop a replacement. The institute receives $4 million per year from NASA, whose annual budget is $17 billion. Most of that is used to fund research into innovative technologies; recent grants include the conceptual development of spacecraft that could surf the solar system on magnetic fields, motion-sensitive spacesuits that could generate power and tiny, spherical robots that could explore Mars."

New Horizons Probe's Images of Jupiter 86

Posted by kdawson on Monday March 12, 2007 @08:51PM from the by-Jupiter dept.

SeaDour writes "The Pluto-bound New Horizons space probe, launched a little over a year ago, recently succeeded in passing through a narrow navigational keyhole by Jupiter. Using the gas giant's tremendous gravity, the craft now has a significant boost toward its final destination, shaving three years off the time it would otherwise spend en-route. As it passed through the Jovian system, the probe took some fantastic images of the neighborhood, including detailed observations of erupting volcanoes on Io, time-lapse photography of Jupiter's tumultuous atmosphere, and the faint ring system that was first discovered in Voyager photography. These new images prove the capabilities of the small probe, which is set to reach Pluto in 2015."

Vanishing Honeybees Will Affect Future Crops 322

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday February 27, 2007 @03:07PM from the bee-gone dept.

daninbusiness writes "Across the US, beekeepers are finding that their bees are disappearing — not returning while searching for nectar and pollen. This could have a major impact on the food industry in the United States, where as much as $14 billion worth of agriculture business depends on bees for crop pollination. Reasons for this problem, dubbed 'colony collapse disorder,' are still unknown. Theories include viruses, some type of fungus, poor bee nutrition, and pesticides."

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