Jaffa - Slashdot User

3D Display Uses Misted Water 65

Posted by Soulskill on Friday April 11, 2014 @09:11AM from the bring-an-umbrella dept.

An anonymous reader points out work at the University of Bristol into interactive, 3-D displays created by projecting light on misted water. "These personal screens are both see-through and reach-through. The see-through feature provides direct line of sight of the personal screen and the elements behind it on the tabletop. The reach-through feature allows the user to switch from interacting with the personal screen to reaching through it to interact with the tabletop or the space above it. The personal screen allows a range of customisations and novel interactions such as presenting 2D personal content on the screen, 3D content above the tabletop or supplementing and renewing actual objects differently for each user."

Apple Officializes Purchase of Motion-Sensor Firm PrimeSense 65

Posted by timothy on Monday November 25, 2013 @12:51AM from the have-it-wrapped-and-delivered dept.

The reports that Apple was to buy Israeli 3-D sensor maker PrimeSense have turned out to be correct; the BBC reports that Apple has confirmed the purchase, though it is mum both about the price it paid and about where 3D sensors are likely to show up first in the Apple lineup. Also at the Register and Apple Insider, among others.

Meet PRISM's English Little Brother: Socmint 76

Posted by timothy on Thursday June 27, 2013 @08:27AM from the do-you-know-winston-smith-in-real-life dept.

An anonymous reader writes with a story at Ars Technica, according to which "For the past two years, a secretive unit in the Metropolitan Police has been developing the tools for blanket surveillance of the public's social media conversations. Operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, a staff of 17 officers in the National Domestic Extremism Unit (NDEU) has been scanning the public's tweets, YouTube videos, Facebook profiles, and anything else UK citizens post in the public online sphere. ... Surveillance operations often require a ministerial sign-off or permission from a superior, but it is unclear whether targeting of public social media data requires the same level of oversight, as head of research at Privacy International Eric King points out."

Echolocation For Your Cell Phone 73

Posted by samzenpus on Monday June 17, 2013 @04:32PM from the map-it-out dept.

sciencehabit writes "In a few years, an iPhone app may give you a 3D layout of a room as soon as you step into it. Researchers have developed an algorithm that spits out the shape and contours of complex structures (including Switzerland's Lausanne Cathedral) using data compiled from four randomly placed microphones. The technology, which relies on the same sort of echolocation bats and dolphins use to navigate, could be used to develop more realistic echoes in video games and virtual reality simulations and to eliminate the echo from phone calls."

Comment Re:dayummm (Score 1) 229

by Jaffa on Monday October 01, 2012 @07:54AM (#41512191) Attached to: Thanks For Reading: 15 Years of News For Nerds

Think I signed up around 1997/8ish after I'd been reading for a while. Seems like so long ago. Because it was :-/

Comment Re:TARDIS (Score 3, Informative) 32

by Jaffa on Thursday September 13, 2012 @05:23PM (#41329107) Attached to: BBC Radiophonic Workshop Revived Online

How could you leave out the TARDIS sound? They started with a coin and an open string on a[n upright?] piano.

It was a house key on a piano string; although Wikipedia claims "house keys":

The distinctive accompanying sound effect – a cyclic wheezing, groaning noise – was originally created in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop by Brian Hodgson. He produced the effect by dragging a set of house keys along the strings of an old, gutted piano. The resulting sound was then recorded and electronically processed with echo and reverb.

I'm sure I remember hearing a programme where they described it - not only was reverb and echo added, it was also played backwards.

Comment Re:Google Rx glasses? (Score 1) 122

by Jaffa on Thursday May 31, 2012 @06:05AM (#40164843) Attached to: Sergey Brin Demos Google Glasses Prototype

I've got prescription glasses (and have had for many years) but find it's not the happy utopia you depict, so it's interesting to hear about the downsides to LASIK.

For example, scratched lenses => headache inducing; with high-powered lenses, not getting exactly sitting right all the time => headache inducing; dirty lenses => headache inducing; frames => far more limited field of view.

Comment Re:Looks familiar (Score 2) 83

by Jaffa on Sunday May 01, 2011 @02:21PM (#35992282) Attached to: Google Talk Enables Video Chat On Android Phones

Not just the N900 either. Both the N800 and N810 both allowed video chat over Google Talk; so we're going back 3 years for a feature that Nokia had on its Maemo devices built-in, out-of-the-box and fully integrated into the OS.

Groovy For Domain-Specific Languages 81

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday July 08, 2010 @12:11PM from the read-all-about-it dept.

RickJWagner writes "This is a book targeted primarily towards the Java programmer who doesn't yet know Groovy. Groovy is a dynamic scripting language that runs on the JVM and offers easy integration with the Java language. Groovy also offers dynamic language features that lend themselves to the creation of DSLs (Domain-Specific Languages). This book attempts to simultaneously teach the reader how to use Groovy and how to build a DSL." Keep reading for the rest of RickJWagner's review.

Comment Re:It is more like Nokia Linux (Score 1) 184

by Jaffa on Friday June 25, 2010 @03:51AM (#32688046) Attached to: Nokia Trades Symbian For MeeGo In N-Series Smartphones

Except that there -will- be, like there is for Maemo, a community repository where less stable software can be made available.

Sure you won't get into the Ovi store or whatnot, but you will be able to make your software available without having to pass strict checklists if you really, really want to put it out there.

Actually, there's lots of evidence that the community's QA process is a lot more stringent than Ovi's; and results in software which is better, doesn't drain the battery, doesn't waste rootfs space and generally behaves a lot better.

The biggest obstacle to Ovi inclusion (even with the recently announced opening of it to individuals) are:

VAT registration
No dependency on libraries in the community repos
No Python (a comparitively large number of third party apps for Maemo are written in Python

Wii 2 Delay Is Hurting Nintendo 310

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday May 06, 2010 @11:58PM from the hurting-all-the-way-to-the-bank dept.

BanjoTed writes "Michael Pachter's ongoing spat with Nintendo regarding the Wii 2 is well documented. Pachter is sure it's coming, Nintendo says it's not. Now the analyst has gone one further by claiming that the declining sales of the Wii documented in the platform holder's recent financial statements will only get worse unless it speeds up attempts to get its successor to market. He said, 'The reason for this is clear: the software being created is just not interesting enough or compelling enough to drive Wii owners to buy more than two [games] per year, and most of those purchases are first party software. We can blame the third party publishers for making shovelware, or for misjudging the Wii market, but the simple fact is that the publishers have to develop completely separate games for the Wii because its CPU is not powerful.'"

Are Complex Games Doomed To Have Buggy Releases? 362

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday December 16, 2009 @04:40AM from the where-did-my-face-go dept.

An anonymous reader points out a recent article at Gamesradar discussing the frequency of major bugs and technical issues in freshly-released video games. While such issues are often fixed with updates, questions remain about the legality and ethics of rushing a game to launch. Quoting: "As angry as you may be about getting a buggy title, would you want the law to get involved? Meglena Kuneva, EU Consumer Affairs Commissioner, is putting forward legislation that would legally oblige digital game distributors to give refunds for games, putting games in the same category in consumer law as household appliances. ... This call to arms has been praised by tech expert Andy Tanenbaum, author of books like Operating Systems: Design and Implementation. 'I think the idea that commercial software be judged by the same standards as other commercial products is not so crazy,' he says. 'Cars, TVs, and telephones are all expected to work, and they are full of software. Why not standalone software? I think such legislation would put software makers under pressure to first make sure their software works, then worry about more bells and whistles.'"

Comment Old ThinkPad + Ubuntu Netbook Remix + Firefox (Score 1) 556

by Jaffa on Thursday November 27, 2008 @11:18AM (#25909293) Attached to: Computer For a Child?

My son's nearly 3 and has an old (slightly broken) ThinkPad loaded with Ubuntu Intrepid, and some parts of the NetBook Remix:

maximus - ensures all windows are full screened
window picker applet - gives a titlebar and better window picker
Firefox set to autostart and has speed dials to his favourite sites with the address bar hidden.

At 2.5, I'm not worried about him typing in an address and seeing something he shouldn't, and the speed dials are big enough to get him to Thomas and Friends, CBeebies, Kneebouncers and a few other sites.

The mouse pointer size is bumped up to maximum (Preferences > Appearance > Themes > Advanced, IIRC) and the speed dials have really helped him with his mouse control, and he can now navigate pretty much unaided around the CBeebies website, playing the Flash games there.

And no, we don't use this as an electronic babysitter.

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