Comment Prior Art from the 80s (Score 2, Funny) 64
Wasn't this solved in Galaga?
Comment The Reason Slashdot Posted (Score 1) 202
We're all missing why this was posted to slashdot. I too was outraged by the numbers and finally realized that this post was about the *RESPONSE* to the Wall Street article, not the article itself.
I'll bet not one of us has read the response at http://mashable.com/2010/01/13/app-store-piracy/ . Let's do that before hanging someone.
Comment Retaliation? (Score 1) 591
Break out the tin foil, but is there any chance that this could be retaliation for being involved in the "anti-cap" campaign?
Submission + - The last DC power grid shutdown in NYC (nytimes.com)
cell-block-9 writes: Today the section of the old Edison DC power grid will be shutdown in Manhattan. I guess Tesla finally won the argument.
Submission + - Police swoop on 'hacker of the year' (smh.com.au)
AcidAUS writes: The Swedish hacker, Dan Egerstad, who perpetrated the so-called hack of the year, has been arrested in a dramatic raid on his apartment, during which he was taken in for questioning and several of his computers confiscated. Egerstad broke into the global communications network used by embassies around the world in August and gained access to 1000 sensitive email accounts.
Submission + - Russia to Build New Spacecraft by 2020 (techluver.com)
Tech.Luver writes: "Russia has launched a project to create a new generation of spacecraft and boosters, the head of national space administration said on Friday, making clear that they would not appear on orbit before 2020.
"A tender to design a new booster and spaceship has been announced," Itar-Tass news agency quoted Roskosmos chief Anatoly Perminov as saying. Leadership in space exploration was an issue of national pride in the Soviet Union, which was the first to launch a satellite and a human into space.
Although badly hit in the years of post-Soviet political and economic turmoil, the space sector remains one of a few where Russia remains competitive and on which it pins hopes to diversify its economy heavily reliant on oil and gas exports.
( http://techluver.com/2007/11/09/russia-to-build-new-spacecraft-by-2020/ )"
Submission + - Germany just decided to implement data retention (kreativrauschen.com) 3
G'Quann writes: "Starting next year, all communication providers in Germany will have to store all connection data for six months. This includes not only phone calls but also IP-addresses and e-mail headers. There had been a lot of protest against the new law, but it was ignored by the government. This sucks...
Here's a short summary with links to more detailed (but German) sources."
Here's a short summary with links to more detailed (but German) sources."
Submission + - MLB Fans Who Bought DRM Videos Get Hosed
Billosaur writes: "Found via BoingBoing, Major League Baseball has just strengthened the case against DRM. If you downloaded videos of baseball games from MLB.com before 2006, apparently they no longer work and you are out of luck. MLB.com, sometime during 2006, changed their DRM system. Result: game videos purchased before that time will now no longer work, as the previous DRM system is no longer supported. When the video is played, apparently the MLB.com servers are contacted and a license obtained to verify the authenticity of the video; this is done by a web link. That link no longer exists, and so now the videos will no longer play, even though the MLB FAQ says that a license is only obtained once and will not need to be re-obtained. The blogger who is reporting this contacted MLB technical support, only to be told there are no refunds due to this problem."
Submission + - Chefs as Chemists
circletimessquare writes: "Using ingredients usually relegated to the lower half of the list of ingredients on a Twinkies wrapper, some professional chefs are turning themselves into magicians with food.
Ferran Adrià in Spain and Heston Blumenthal in England have been doing this for years, but the New York Times updates us on the ongoing experiments at WD-50 in New York City. Xanthan Gum, agar-agar, and other hydrocolloids are being used to bring strange effects to your food. Think butter that doesn't melt in the oven, foie gras you can tie into knots, and fried mayonaise. Time for a snack."
Submission + - TV Links raided, operator arrested
NetDanzr writes: TV Links, a Web site that provided links to hundreds of movies, documentaries, TV shows and cartoons hosted on streaming media sites such as Google Video and YouTube, has been raided by UK authorities, which also arrested the site's operator, The Guardian reported. Even though the site has not hosted any pirated content, it was a thorn in the side of movie and TV studios, thanks to having links to newest movies and TV shows. As the largest site of its kind, it showcased the power of user-driven Internet, with the site's visitors helping to keep links to content constantly updated.
Submission + - John Udell on the Geeks' Spreadsheet (amoral.org)
rcs1000 writes: "John Udell has a interesting article on a new type of spreadsheet: one targetted specifically at geeks. The skinny — if I get this right — is that any spreadsheet is actually a computer program, only in Udell's piece this is explicit (and IronPython rather than VBA), rather than implicit. There are some other cool things it does — allowing cells to contain objects, and allowing spreadsheets to back-end websites. The screencast is particularly fun."
Submission + - Cockroaches are morons in the morning (vanderbilt.edu)
Science_afficionado writes: "A new study has found that cockroaches are morons in the morning and geniuses in the evening in terms of their learning capacity. Previous studies suggest that the learning capacity of both people and rats are also affected by their internal biological clocks. But the effect is far more dramatic in cockroaches and it is the first time it has been found in insects. And, no, the researchers didn't try giving their cockroaches a sip of coffee to see if it revived them! For the details, go to http://www.vanderbilt.edu/exploration/stories/cockroach.html."
Submission + - The handheld calculator turns 40 (computerworld.com)
Ian Lamont writes: "The handheld calculator turns 40 years old this year, and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History has officially added to its collection examples of the first two programmable calculators, the TI-58 and TI-59. The museum already has the original 1967 "Cal-Tech" prototype, which weighs three pounds. At a ceremony at the Smithsonian yesterday, Jerry Merryman, one of the members of the TI team which developed the calculator, said that the project was started without a set budget and was something that "we did in our spare time." Antique calculators have a devoted following; news of a contest celebrating the 35th anniversary of the HP-35 slide rule calculator brought hundreds of fans out of the woodwork to reminisce about the pros and cons of various 70s' era calculators. There are a lot of Web resources devoted to these devices, including the Old Calculators Web Museum, where you can see pictures of everything from the Bohn Contex Model 10 Mechanical Calculator ("apparently the design of the machine caught the attention of the Soviets") to TI's first scientific calculator, the SR-20 ("keyboards were prone to bounce even when new")."
Submission + - Experiment involving rope trick in space goes awry (gulfnews.com)
Tjeerd writes: "Quote from the site:
"Moscow: An experiment that envisaged sending a parcel from space to Earth on a 30-kilometre tether fell short of its goal yesterday when the long fibre rope did not fully unwind, Russian Mission Control said.
It was intended to deliver a spherical capsule, called Fotino, attached to the end of the tether back to Earth — a relatively simple and cheap technology that could be used in the future to retrieve bulkier cargoes from space.""
Submission + - MIT hacks John Harvard for Halo 3 release (mit.edu)
yonari writes: Early on the morning before the Halo 3 release, John Harvard donned a Mjolnir helmet and a beaver emblem, and carried an assault rifle on his left shoulder, apparently acquired from the UNSC Engineering Division.
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