Comment injection (Score 0) 292
i initially misread "injunction" to be "injection" and had a much more interesting summary as a result
Submission + - Smart Phones that Know Their Users by How They Wal
mirgens writes: Technology review has a short article on new work on doing gait analysis with the accelerometers built into many smart phones. The work was done at the Norwegian Information Security Laboratory ("Nislab"). The need for more security on mobile devices is increasing with new functionalities and features made available. To improve the device security Nislab proposed gait recognition as a protection mechanism — in other words, if somebody else walks away with your phone, it locks up. While previous work on gait recognition used video sources, for instance to identify people in airports or secure buildings, the Nislab researchers collected the gait data using a Google G1 phone containing the AK8976A embedded accelerometer.
Submission + - Interactive Text Adventures come to the Kindle (gamepron.com)
dotarray writes: I think I’ve just been convinced to buy a Kindle: you can now use it to play Zork (and other text-based adventure games specifically formatted for the platform).
Comment Re:If people are tossing their votes away . . . (Score 1) 210
In this case it doesn't say that much about the seriousness of the candidates, since the number of humorous votes are vanishingly small. In a country of 9 million people, 1580 voted on parties without preprinted ballots (which includes these examples) and 84.6% of the registered voters used their right to vote (http://www.val.se/).
Submission + - BBC Builds Malware For Testing Purposes (bbc.co.uk)
siliconbits writes: BBC News has shown how straightforward it is to create a malicious application for a smartphone. Over a few weeks, the BBC put together a crude game for a smartphone that also spied on the owner of the handset. The application was built using standard parts from the software toolkits that developers use to create programs for handsets.
This makes malicious applications hard to spot, say experts, because useful programs will use the same functions. While the vast majority of malicious programs are designed to attack Windows PCs, there is evidence that some hi-tech criminals are starting to turn their attention to smartphones.
This makes malicious applications hard to spot, say experts, because useful programs will use the same functions. While the vast majority of malicious programs are designed to attack Windows PCs, there is evidence that some hi-tech criminals are starting to turn their attention to smartphones.
Submission + - Inmates escape as guard plays Plants vs. Zombies (gamepron.com) 1
dotarray writes: Everybody knows that there'(TM)s a certain risk one takes when playing addictive, engrossing games when you’re meant to be doing something else. The prevalence of awesome games on the iPhone hasn'(TM)t helped that risk -" as a Philippines police officer has learned.
Gamer Plays Doom For the First Time 362
sfraggle writes "Kotaku has an interesting review of Doom (the original!) by Stephen Totilo, a gamer and FPS player who, until a few days ago, had gone through the game's 17-year history without playing it. He describes some of his first impressions, the surprises that he encountered, and how the game compares to modern FPSes. Quoting: 'Virtual shotgun armed, I was finally going to play Doom for real. A second later, I understood the allure the video game weapon has had. In Doom the shotgun feels mighty, at least partially I believe because they make first-timers like me wait for it. The creators make us sweat until we have it in hand. But once we have the shotgun, its big shots and its slow, fetishized reload are the floored-accelerator-pedal stuff of macho fantasy. The shotgun is, in all senses, instant puberty, which is to say, delicately, that to obtain it is to have the assumed added potency that a boy believes a man possesses vis a vis a world on which he'd like to have some impact. The shotgun is the punch in the face the once-scrawny boy on the beach gives the bully when he returns a muscled linebacker.'"
Submission + - Best OSS CFD package for high school Physics?
RobHart writes: I am teaching a "physics of flight" unit to grade 11 Physics students. Part of the unit will have the students running tests on several aerofoils in a wind tunnel. I also want to expose them to a Computational Fluid Dynamics package which will allow them to contrast experimental results with those produced by the CFD package. There are a number of open source CFDs available (Windows or Linux based are both fine), but I don't have much time to evaluate which are the simplest to use in terms of setting up the mesh, initial conditions etc — a very important issue as students do not have much time in this unit. I am hoping that the Slashdot community can provide some guidance here.
Submission + - 7th Graders Find Large Cave on Mars (cnet.com)
EMB Numbers writes: Cnet news http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20008507-1.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20 reports that "the science class from Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, Calif. found the opening while working on a research project with the Mars Space Flight Facility run out of Arizona State University in Tempe." "The students examined more than 200 images of Mars taken with the Thermal Emission Imaging System (Themis), an instrument on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter."
The only other similar opening near the volcano was found in 2007, when Glen Cushing, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, published a research paper on the surface anomalies.
The opening is estimated to be 620 feet by 520 feet and the hole to be at least 380 feet deep.
The only other similar opening near the volcano was found in 2007, when Glen Cushing, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, published a research paper on the surface anomalies.
The opening is estimated to be 620 feet by 520 feet and the hole to be at least 380 feet deep.
Submission + - New Zealand u-turns, will grant software patents (googleusercontent.com) 2
ciaran_o_riordan writes: Due to lobbying by a group called NZICT, New Zealand's parliament is now set to let go of its proposal to ban software patents. Patent attorney Steven Lundberg announced the details in a blog entry. This was quickly deleted, but not before it got stored in Google cache. Here we can read that "Hon Simon Power has asked MED [Ministry of Economic Development] to work with the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office to redraft the section along the lines of the European Patent Convention." Which is exactly the opposite of March's announcement that "computer software should be excluded from patent protection as software patents can stifle innovation and competition, and can be granted for trivial or existing techniques" The background to this case gives every reason to be hopeful, if computer users in New Zealand get active again.
Submission + - Bill Gates Doesn't Work at Microsoft Anymore (itworld.com)
itwbennett writes: The recent Fortune article on Bill Gates' post-Microsoft life made one thing very clear to blogger Steven Vaughan-Nichols: 'Bill Gates was, and still is, the face of Microsoft. What Microsoft doesn't want you to know though is that Gates has almost nothing to do with the company anymore.' The fact is that Microsoft doesn't want to draw attention to Gates' absence because the company 'has been tanking in recent years,' says Vaughan-Nichols. 'While Microsoft's last quarter was far better than it was a year ago, thanks largely to Windows 7 finally picking up steam, neither Microsoft's growth nor its profits are what they were like when Gates was at the helm.'
RPG Heroes Are Jerks 119
I have to give him credit for smashing the vases to get the medicine, and finding the legendary wedding dress among the rags. However, he forgot to kill the peasants for xp and you should always check the fireplace for any remaining food.
Submission + - Japanese turn to 'therapeutic mobile ringtones' to (indiavision.com)
indiavision writes: A host of young Japanese are drawn to the allure of "therapeutic ringtones" — a genre of melodies that promises to ease a range of day-to-day gripes, from chronic insomnia to a rotten hangover.
Developed by Matsumi Suzuki, the head of the Japan Ringing Tone Laboratory, an eight-year-old subsidiary of the Japan Acoustic Laboratory, the tones are a hit with housewives as well as teenagers.
Developed by Matsumi Suzuki, the head of the Japan Ringing Tone Laboratory, an eight-year-old subsidiary of the Japan Acoustic Laboratory, the tones are a hit with housewives as well as teenagers.
Submission + - Saturn moon could be hospitable to life
shmG writes: New detailed images of Saturn's icy moon released this week provide the latest evidence that the surface may be hospitable to life. NASA said on Tuesday that a flyby of planet's Enceladus moon showed jets of water spewing from the southern hemisphere, while infrared mapping of the surface revealed temperatures warmer than previously expected.
"And if true, this makes Enceladus' organic-rich, liquid sub-surface environment the most accessible extraterrestrial watery zone known in the solar system," said Carolyn Porco another NASA specialist.
"And if true, this makes Enceladus' organic-rich, liquid sub-surface environment the most accessible extraterrestrial watery zone known in the solar system," said Carolyn Porco another NASA specialist.
Submission + - Hungarian electric car splits into 2 smaller cars (wired.co.uk)
Lanxon writes: Hungary's Antro, which is developing a car that splits into two smaller cars, and plans to take it/them to market by 2012, assuming the Mayan phophecies fall through, reports Wired. Futuristic looking in itself, the grander plan for the car is much more audacious: Antro intends to allow users to be able to connect two Antro Solos to form a six-passenger Antro Duo. Or perhaps more interesting still, owners of a Duo could split the car into two smaller Solos should Mom have different weekend plans to Dad. Or if they divorce.
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There is no royal road to geometry. -- Euclid
