zidane2k1 - Slashdot User

Comment OTA seems excessive...How about USB? (Score 1) 305

by zidane2k1 on Thursday February 20, 2014 @05:06PM (#46298659) Attached to: Why Your Phone Gets OTA Updates But Your Car Doesn't

How about firmware updates that a user can just download off the manufacturer's website, save on a USB stick, and insert it into a USB port somewhere on the dash?

A little less convenient than OTA, but with lesser risks, and still a whole lot more convenient than going to the dealer's service department.

Comment December 21, 2012 (Score 1) 520

by zidane2k1 on Saturday April 24, 2010 @03:59PM (#31968926) Attached to: What Happens When IPv4 Address Space Is Gone

The day we run out of IPv4 addresses.

Comment Re:EFS? (Score 1) 121

by zidane2k1 on Thursday March 19, 2009 @11:31PM (#27264685) Attached to: Windows Home Directory Encryption?

Yeah. It isn't open source, but the OP didn't seem to "require" it. Also, EFS isn't available on XP Home or Vista Home, but if he has the pricier editions then it's no problem.

Comment Re:Also CF Card (Score 1) 465

by zidane2k1 on Saturday January 24, 2009 @10:27PM (#26594901) Attached to: Long-Term PC Preservation Project?

2 + 2 = .... What? I can't read it anymore! 5? Yeah, must be 5, gonna write that in...

Back to flash memory cards, I really wasn't aware that the data could decay that quickly.

Hey, so does that mean that my Mario Kart 64 scores will actually fade away quicker than my Super Mario Kart ones (which are stored on battery-backed SRAM)? (Yeah, I know I'm really starting to go OT on this one)

Comment Re:I've thought about this (Score 1) 465

by zidane2k1 on Saturday January 24, 2009 @10:21PM (#26594871) Attached to: Long-Term PC Preservation Project?

Speaking of punch cards, I do wish I could have somehow had the opportunity to see how those things were created and used. I mean, I see pictures and text on the Internet describing that, but it would be nice to have seen it actually happening, even if it were just in a video.

Now back to the OP's actual topic, somehow I think only "geek" type people (like me) would really care all that much about PC preservation.

Comment Re:A day late and $40 Million Dollars Short (Score 1) 184

by zidane2k1 on Thursday October 30, 2008 @01:45PM (#25572421) Attached to: CueCat Patent Granted, Finally

Probably not. The company that ran the advertising service (Digital Convergence) is long gone, iirc. (You could still find these on eBay, though.)

Submission + - Couch Potato Gene Identified in Fruit Flies 1

Submitted by

Pickens

on Saturday October 25, 2008 @01:46PM

Pickens writes: "University of Pennsylvania biologists have discovered a mutation in fruit flies aptly named the "couch potato" gene that allows them to simply chill out — entering a mild state of quasi-hibernation known as diapause, when winter arrives. "It's not like they're bears sleeping in a cave," says Paul Schmidt. "They just look like they're a little bit more sluggish." The couch potato gene, first discovered in the early 1990s, got its nickname because flies with mutations in the gene became really sluggish and behaved abnormally. Little is known about the underlying evolutionary genetic architecture but in diapause, the slacking off is far less severe, the flies' bodily functions slow down, and they are better able to tolerate stress. The fruit fly gene may have implications for human health, as it can help biologists study the function of the nervous system and diseases such as epilepsy refuring a recent statement by a political candidate that fruit fly research has "little or nothing to do with the public good.""

The Walking House 304

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday October 23, 2008 @04:25AM from the baba-yaga-eat-your-heart-out dept.

What is 10' tall, has six hydraulic legs, and is powered by the wind and solar panels? The prototype pod house built by art collective N55 in Copenhagen, Denmark. With the help of MIT, N55 built the pod over a two-year period at a cost of £30,000. Designers say it provides a solution to the problem of rising water levels as the house can simply walk away from floods. One of the designers says, "This house is not just for travellers but also for anyone interested in a more general way of nomadic living." It won't be long now until the Japanese make Howl's Moving Castle.

Dead Goldfish Offered The Vote In Illinois 216

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday October 21, 2008 @03:32PM from the Mr.-Limpet dept.

Election officials in northern Chicago want to know why voter registration material was sent to Princess, a dead goldfish. "I am just stunned at the level of people compromising the integrity of the voting process," said Lake County Clerk Willard Helander, a Republican, who said she has spotted problems with nearly 1,000 voter registrations this year. Beth Nudelman, who owned Princess, said the fish may have got on a mailing list because the family once filled in her name when they got a second phone line for a computer. When will we recognize a goldfish's right to vote?

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