IhuntCIA - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Commodore BASIC (Score 1) 213

by IhuntCIA on Wednesday November 05, 2008 @04:43AM (#25637779) Attached to: Scripting In Commodore BASIC For Windows & Linux

The integer math was way slower than floating-point in Commodore BASIC V2.0. It was basic interpreter fault, so no one really wanted to use integer variables in basic.
A lot more high level constructs were added on Commodore 128, but most of them were quite limiting.
Programing on 1MHz CPU using BASIC to do more than text input / output was hard, but one could toggle some sounds, sprites or graphic modes poking RAM. For anything more complicated was way to slow. Commodore 128 had built in assembler, unlike C64.
Basic commands were tokenized. Example:
hit SHIFT + C= to switch to lowercase mode. Following text is caps sensitive:

10 fO x= 0 to 15: pO 646,x: ? "Hello world.": nE lI 10 for x= 0 to 15: poke 646,x: print "Hello world.": next ready. This example uses 46 bytes of RAM and some more for the x variable. If typed without spaces a lot more bytes could be freed, but it would make the program hard to read. Also the Commodore BASIC v2.0 offered some typing optimization, example one could type IF X=Y THEN 300 instead of THEN GOTO 300. I guess it all was an effort to save RAM. I did not consider BASIC v2.0 bad, I used to code in assembler when I needed speed.

IBM Threatens To Leave ISO Over OOXML Brouhaha 200

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday September 23, 2008 @02:16PM from the brouhaha-is-a-funny-word dept.

barnackle writes "In addition to threatening to leave certain standards organizations over the OOXML shenanigans, IBM created new guidelines for its own participation in those organizations in an attempt to pressure the ISO and ECMA to be more fair in their approval procedures."

EA Patches Spore, Eases DRM 161

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday September 20, 2008 @01:03AM from the slowly-but-surely dept.

EA has released the first patch for Spore, the purpose of which is to fix a number of bugs and tweak some gameplay settings to be more entertaining. Some of the visual effects were upgraded as well. They've also officially responded to the complaints about Spore's DRM, stating their intention to increase the number of allowed installations to five and to set up a system to "de-authorize" systems in order to reclaim the installation credit. They plan to allow multiple screen names per account, which was an issue for many families trying to play the game. This comes not long after EA made similar changes to the DRM of upcoming RTS Red Alert 3, and after Spore's DRM protest spread to in-game creature designs. Reader SoopahMan notes that users in EA's Spore tech support forum are reporting a number of new issues caused by the patch.

Report is Critical of US For Dumping E-Waste Overseas 152

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday September 18, 2008 @03:10AM from the not-in-my-backyard dept.

coondoggie writes "In what may be the least astonishing news of the day, some major US companies who say they are environmentally recycling electronic waste — aren't. Rather more startling — they are dumping everything from cell phones and old computers to televisions in countries such as China and India where disposal practices are unsafe to people and dangerous to the environment. Controlling the exportation of all of the e-waste plops on the doorstep of the US Environmental Protection Agency which is doing a woeful job, according to a scathing 67-page report issued by the Government Accountability Office today."

City Uses DNA To Sniff Out Dog Poop Offenders 252

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday September 18, 2008 @12:16AM from the take-a-bite-out-of-crime dept.

An Israeli city is using DNA analysis of dog droppings to reward pet owners who clean up after their pets and punish those who don't. A six-month trial program launched this week, in the city of Petah Tikva, to tackle the dog mess problem in a high tech way. The program asks dog owners to take their pets to a veterinarian, who then swabs its mouth and collects DNA. The city will use the DNA database it is building to match droppings to a dog and identify its owner. Owners who scoop up their dogs' droppings and place them in specially marked bins will be eligible for rewards of pet food coupons and dog toys. Those who leave the poo on the street face fines. I wonder what sin you had to commit in a previous life to find yourself the official dog poop examiner of Petah Tikva, Israel.

Stanford To Offer Free CS and Robotics Courses 247

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday September 17, 2008 @10:15PM from the now-everyone-will-know dept.

DeviceGuru writes "Stanford University will soon begin offering a series of 10 free, online computer science and electrical engineering courses. Initial courses will provide an introduction to computer science and an introduction to field of robotics, among other topics. The courses, offered under the auspices of Stanford Engineering Everywhere (SEE), are nearly identical to standard courses offered to registered Stanford students and will comprise downloadable video lectures, handouts, assignments, exams, and transcripts. And get this: all the courses' materials are being released under the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license."

Human-Powered Vehicle Speed Competition 102

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday September 17, 2008 @04:59PM from the faster-than-common-sense dept.

nsasch writes "Over at Battle Mountain, NV on SR-305, for the 2008 Battle Mountain World Human Powered Speed Challenge (mirror), some of the best cyclists will be competing in human-powered vehicles to break speed records. The current world record was set in 2002 at the same location with a speed of 129.6 km/h (81 mph) by Sam Whittingham in a custom-made recumbent bike. A lot of advanced aerospace engineering goes into these machines to reach highway speeds on less than one horsepower. Take a look around their site for pictures of the event and this year's records. It ends 20 September, so more pictures and results will be coming."

Bavarian Police Seeking Skype Trojan Informant 252

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday September 17, 2008 @04:09PM from the heavy-hand dept.

Andreaskem writes "Bavarian police searched the home of the spokesman for the German Pirate Party (Piratenpartei Deutschland) looking for an informant who leaked information about a government Trojan used to eavesdrop on Skype conversations. (The link is a Google translation of the German original.) There is a high probability that the Trojan is used illegally. A criminal law specialist said, 'The Bavarian authorities worked on the Trojan without a legitimate basis and now try to silence critics.' The informant need not worry since 'every information that could be used to identify him' is protected against unauthorized access by strong encryption. The Trojan is supposedly capable of eavesdropping on Skype conversations and obtaining technical details of the Skype client being used. It is deployed by e-mail or in place by the police. A Pirate Party spokesman said, 'Some of our officials seem to want to install the Big Brother state without the knowledge of the public.'"

PCMark Memory Benchmark Favors GenuineIntel 298

Posted by kdawson on Friday August 01, 2008 @09:31AM from the not-what-you'd-call-neutral dept.

javy_tahu writes "A review by Ars Technica disclosed that PCMark 2005 Memory benchmark favors GenuineIntel CPUID. A VIA Nano CPU has had its CPUID changed from the original VIA to fake GenuineAMD and GenuineIntel. An improvement of, respectively, 10% and 47% of the score was seen. The reasons of this behavior of FutureMark product are not yet known."

Workings of Ancient Calculating Device Deciphered 268

Posted by timothy on Wednesday July 30, 2008 @03:40PM from the nearly-unbelievable dept.

palegray.net writes "Scientists have discovered new meaning behind the functions of the Antikythera Mechanism, which has been referred to as the oldest known analog computing device. In addition to providing a means to calculate the dates for solar eclipses, the device apparently tracked the four-year cycles of the Olympiad. From the New York Times article: 'Only now, applying high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography, have experts been able to decipher inscriptions and reconstruct functions of the bronze gears on the mechanism. The latest research has revealed details of dials on the instrument's back side, including the names of all 12 months of an ancient calendar.'"

IOC Admits Internet Censorship Deal With China 380

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday July 30, 2008 @12:29PM from the shut-up-it's-patriotic dept.

Dave writes "BEIJING (Reuters) — Some International Olympic Committee officials cut a deal to let China block sensitive websites despite promises of unrestricted access, a senior IOC official admitted on Wednesday. Persistent pollution fears and China's concerns about security in Tibet also remained problems for organizers nine days before the Games begin. China had committed to providing media with the same freedom to report on the Games as they enjoyed at previous Olympics, but journalists have this week complained of finding access to sites deemed sensitive to its communist leadership blocked. 'I regret that it now appears BOCOG has announced that there will be limitations on website access during Games time,' IOC press chief Kevan Gosper said, referring to Beijing's Olympic organizers. 'I also now understand that some IOC officials negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked on the basis they were not considered Games related,' he said." But yet somehow the mainstream media will ignore this because the Olympics are patriotic or something.

Gene Study Supports Single Bering Strait Migration 289

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday November 27, 2007 @01:41PM from the nice-to-know-what-the-relatives-have-been-up-to dept.

Invisible Pink Unicorn writes "One of the most comprehensive analyses of genetic variation ever undertaken supports the theory that the ancestors of modern native peoples throughout the Americas came from a single source in East Asia across a northwest land bridge some 12,000 years ago. One particular discovery is of a 'unique genetic variant widespread in natives across both continents — suggesting that the first humans in the Americas came in a single migration or multiple waves from a single source, not in waves of migrations from different sources.' The full article is available online from PLoS."

Submission + - Has Science Become Corrupted?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 20, 2007 @10:07AM

An anonymous reader writes: Has Science Become Corrupted?

An award winning science author, Gary Taubes has written a book that pans the medical community's treatment of the obesity epidemic. By itself, that isn't particularly worth our time. Diet books are a dime a dozen and we don't cover them on Slashdot anyway.

What is interesting is that it looks like the medical community is behaving in a very unscientific manner. Taubes points out that the current medical orthodoxy has no basis in research. In fact, all the available research points in quite another (more traditional) direction. Here is BoingBoing's take on the story. You can follow the link from there to an excellent podcast of an interview with Taubes on CBC's 'Quirks and Quarks'.

The medical community seems to defer unthinkingly to authority. For instance, when Britain's most respected paediatrician Sir Roy Meadow came up with a crackpot theory (which I thought we have covered on Slashdot but can't find) that sent innocent people to jail, the courts and the medical community bought it hook line and sinker. Of course, he isn't the only one in that boat. Pathologists all over the world have sent innocent people to jail. There's a case in Ontario, Canada right now of a pathologist who screwed up more than twenty cases and sent several people to jail.

People who study expert behavior have found that people need feedback to maintain their expertise. If they don't get the feedback by the nature of the system or because others are too intimidated/lazy to disagree with them, their behavior becomes non-expert. Ericsson points out that surgeons get better as they get older but mammographers don't. Surgeons get feedback immediately. The patient lives or dies. Mammographers may never find out if they are right or wrong.

So, has medicine become a non-science? Is it mostly a non-science? Somewhat? Can physicists feel smug with their repeatable experiments or do they have some 'splainin to do about string theory?

South Korea to Build Robot Theme Parks 125

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday November 14, 2007 @03:58AM from the a-robot-may-not-let-a-human-ride-unless-they-are-at-least-this-tall dept.

coondoggie writes "South Korea officials today said they hope to build two robot theme parks for $1.6 billion by 2013. The parks will feature a number of attractions that let visitors interact with robots and test new products. "The two cities will be developed as meccas for the country's robot industry, while having amusement park areas, exhibition halls and stadiums where robots can compete in various events," the ministry said. The theme parks are not a big surprise because South Korea loves its robots. Earlier this year the government of South Korea said it was drawing up a code of ethics to prevent human abuse of robots — and vice versa."

Game Reviews are Broken? 168

Posted by Zonk on Wednesday October 31, 2007 @12:08PM from the plz-fix-k-thnks dept.

Kotaku is running an opinion piece looking at the process of reviewing videogames, and comes to the conclusion that the whole system is entirely broken. Author Mark Wilson takes potshots at the concept of assigning a numerical valuation to a game, and the emphasis on product reviews rather than content reviews. "If there is no such thing as a perfect game, when why the hell are you scoring out of 100? It's not just PC Gamer that thinks this way--most publications, even those who do give out 'perfect' scores, do so begrudgingly. It's as if the developer has somehow cheated and broken their system. The movie reviewers solved this problem a long time ago. That's why most adopted a simpler rating system in which a 4-star movie didn't imply 'perfection' but supreme excellence. In most cases, games are penalized through being divided by a sum that they can never possibly reach."

Slashdot Top Deals