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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 13 declined, 8 accepted (21 total, 38.10% accepted)

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Submission + - War and Nookd - Ebook regex gone haywire (futureoftheinternet.org)

PerlJedi writes: "

The Superior Formatting Publishing version isn’t a Barnes and Noble book, so this isn’t the work of a rogue Nook marketer from B&N. Rather, it’s likely that Superior Formatting Publishing ported its Kindle version of War and Peace over to the Nook — doing a search and replace to make sure that any Kindle references they’d inserted, such as in the advertising at the end of the book about their fine Kindle products, were simply changed to Nook.

"

Math

Submission + - Pi day is coming - but Tau day is better (tauday.com)

PerlJedi writes: "A few months ago, a tweet from Randal Schwartz pointed me to a you tube video about "Triangle Parties" made by Vi Hart. Between my nerdiness and my love of math, it was my new favorite thing on youtube. Now, with Pi day coming up later this week, I thought it would be a good time to point people to another of her you tube videos Pi is Wrong, and the website she mentions at the end Tauday with a full explanation of the benifits of using Tau rather than Pi.


The Tau Manifesto is dedicated to one of the most important numbers in mathematics, perhaps the most important: the circle constant relating the circumference of a circle to its linear dimension. For millennia, the circle has been considered the most perfect of shapes, and the circle constant captures the geometry of the circle in a single number.

"

Education

Submission + - Darpa + Makers + School = The future of innovation (makezine.com)

PerlJedi writes: "The future of innovation in America is the Maker movement. A new project being announced on the Makezine blog aims to bring the low cost innovation and alternative manufacturing processes to schools in hopes of turbo charging the next generation of inventors in the US.

The new Makerspace program, developed by Dale Dougherty of MAKE and Dr. Saul Griffith of Otherlab, will integrate online tools for design and collaboration with low-cost options for physical workspaces where students may access educational support to gain practical hands-on experience with new technologies and innovative processes to design and build projects. The program has a goal of reaching 1000 high schools over four years, starting with a pilot program of 10 high schools in California during the 2012-2013 school year.

"

Android

Submission + - Microsoft's rain of IP Terror claims another victi (informationweek.com)

PerlJedi writes: "Information week is reporting at LG is the latest in a string of company's whove have been bullied into paying "license fees" to Microsoft for its use of Android on its products.


Microsoft does not disclose how much revenue it's obtaining from Android, Chrome, and Linux licenses, but some analysts believe it may be substantial, to the point where the company is making significant profits from the mobile revolution even though its own offering, Windows Phone, commands a market share of less than 2%, according to Gartner.

I guess the old expression "those who can't do, teach" should be updated for the new millennium to "Those who can't do, sue"."

Android

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Best Android Tablet (google.com)

PerlJedi writes: "I am planing a long trip (to Ireland), and want to buy an android tablet to take along for the trip. I am a software engineer (I actually work for slashdot), a linux geek, and an android fan. I would like to get a tablet primarily to use for entertainment (when I'm not working or building robots in my workshop, I'm usually playing with my phone), but something I could get some work done from in a pinch would be a major plus (all I need to be able to work is a web browser, and an ssh terminal, preferably with a keyboard). My current cell phone is the Samsung Charge, rooted running GummyCharge 2.1, and it is a good bet I'll want to root whatever tablet I get, if not right away, soon after getting it. From an entertainment standpoint I want something that is large enough to watch high definition videos on, with a battery life that will make it pratical for use on a long flight. Having a decent camera would be a nice plus, but is not an absolute nessicity. Having a forward facing camera for video chat would also be good, but is also not a nicessity. My brief initial search has yielded the following initial conteders:
  • Asus Transformer Prime
    This is currently my favorite, for a few reasons: Tegra 3 quad core processor (that's just plane cool); Its designed with a docking station in mind, making it perfect for using for work; Sleek thin design; light weight; available with up to 64 GB. It is on the pricey side though.
  • Toshiba Thrive
    I must admit, I know very little about this one. Unlike the others, I have not heard much hype around it. From what I've read thus far, pros include: full size SD slot; full USB support; Full HDMI support. Cons: Bulkier and heavier than its opponents.
  • Motorola XOOM
    This one has been available for some time, which can be both good and bad. Its problems should be known, and understood by now, but its lost some of the sex appeal of the new product.
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab
    The Galaxy tab line has also been on the market for a while. It does have some added appeal to me because my phone is also from samsung, so the rooting processes, and available ROM's will be more familiar to me.
  • Sony Tablet S
    Like the Toshiba, I have heard less hype about this tablet. Its feature set also seems similar to the toshiba. I must admit here, I may be a bit biased against sony over some of their recent treatment of the hacker/maker community.
"

Power

Submission + - In Nuclear Power, Size Matters (sciencedaily.com)

PerlJedi writes: "Most nations with nuclear power capabilities have been re-assessing the risk/benefit of nuclear power reactors following the Fukushima plant melt down, a newly released study suggests the U.S. should expand its nuclear power production using "Small Modular Reactors".

The reports assessed the economic feasibility of classical, gigawatt-scale reactors and the possible new generation of modular reactors. The latter would have a generating capacity of 600 megawatts or less, would be factory-built as modular components, and then shipped to their desired location for assembly.

"

Science

Submission + - Out of Sight, Out of Mind (scientificamerican.com)

PerlJedi writes: "Researchers at the University of Notre Dame have conducted a very simple study, with some surprising (or at least amusing) results about how our short term memory works.

"Sometimes, to get to the next object the participant simply walked across the room. Other times, they had to walk the same distance, but through a door into a new room. From time to time, the researchers gave them a pop quiz, asking which object was currently in their backpack. The quiz was timed so that when they walked through a doorway, they were tested right afterwards. As the title said, walking through doorways caused forgetting: Their responses were both slower and less accurate when they'd walked through a doorway into a new room than when they'd walked the same distance within the same room."

"

Hardware

Submission + - Man made Lightning (makezine.com)

PerlJedi writes: "There is a very cool write up on the Make blog on an effort to build the world's largest tesla coils.

“Somehow lightning can generate huge discharges with only about a fifth of the voltage per foot that lab discharges require,” Leyh explains. “The part that especially fascinates me is that this mysterious ability kicks in around 200 in length, which is right at the edge of what we can produce with a practical machine.”

"

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