cnflctd - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Internet (Score 1) 770

by cnflctd on Friday July 05, 2013 @09:44PM (#44200473) Attached to: Why Are Japanese Men Refusing To Leave Their Rooms?

As long as I was buzzing on sugar and flour, I enjoyed myself, at a price. Slashdot gave me some feeling of fellowship. But coming to in the mornings was a bitch.

Some of us sought out sordid places, hoping to find understanding companionship
and approval. Momentarily we did -- then would come oblivion and the awful awakening to face
the hideous Four Horsemen -- Terror, Bewilderment, Frustration, Despair. Unhappy drinkers [eaters/isolators] who read this
page will understand

Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 151

Am I happier now? Sometimes I'm good, other times I'm beat up. I got two dogs who love me; they take me for walks. I wouldn't trade places with anybody.

Comment Re:Internet (Score 5, Interesting) 770

by cnflctd on Friday July 05, 2013 @02:16PM (#44196661) Attached to: Why Are Japanese Men Refusing To Leave Their Rooms?

I was too; From 1999 through 2003, I was on disability (U.S.) and eating enough to maintain my weight at 450 pounds (sticky keyboard anyone?). I left the house only to foodshop. I don't think I could lived like that without substantial chemical assistance (booze, drugs, or ice cream).

Overeaters Anonymous saved my ass; I'm at normal weight, married, in a 9-5 job. I'm still one shy dude, and can get antisocial at the drop of a hat, but I'm much better than I was.

Comment Re:Apartheid (Score 1) 591

by cnflctd on Friday November 23, 2012 @03:07PM (#42075775) Attached to: Saudi Arabia Implements Electronic Tracking System For Women

Our oil is more important than their women. If an older version of world trade was in still in force (and it in fact is), we might decide differently.

The "King of All Computer Mice" Finally Ships 207

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday June 29, 2010 @09:41AM from the there's-a-button-for-that dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The much-anticipated, much-mocked 18-button joystick mouse from WarMouse is now shipping. The press release features an impressive set of user quotes from game designer Chris Taylor, new SFWA president John Scalzi, and a doctor who runs a medical software company. Crazy or not, it's obviously more than just a gaming mouse."

Genetic Disorder Removes Racial Bias and Social Fear 319

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday April 14, 2010 @03:38PM from the all-you-need-is-love-and-different-genes dept.

People who suffer from a rare genetic disorder called Williams Syndrome have a complete lack of social fear. They experience no anxiety or concerns about meeting new people or being put into any social situation, and a new study by Andreia Santos suggests that they also don't have any racial bias. From the article: "Typically, children start overtly gravitating towards their own ethnic groups from the tender age of three. Groups of people from all over the globe and all sorts of cultures show these biases. Even autistic children, who can have severe difficulties with social relationships, show signs of racial stereotypes. But Santos says that the Williams syndrome kids are the first group of humans devoid of such racial bias, although, as we’ll see, not everyone agrees."

World's Smallest Superconductor Discovered 72

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday March 31, 2010 @07:26PM from the none-more-small dept.

arcticstoat writes "One of the barriers to the development of nanoscale electronics has potentially been eliminated, as scientists have discovered the world's smallest superconductor. Made up of four pairs of molecules, and measuring just 0.87nm, the superconductor could potentially be used as a nanoscale interconnect in electronic devices, but without the heat and power dissipation problems associated with standard metal conductors."

Anti-Gamer South Australian Attorney General Quits 104

Posted by timothy on Sunday March 21, 2010 @04:12AM from the usually-the-car-holds-more-clowns dept.

dogbolter writes "South Australian Attorney General, Michael Atkinson, infamous for the banning of R18+ rated games and the censoring of political comment in Australia, has quit. The recent South Australian election provided a massive swing against Atkinson's governing labor party. As a direct result of the South Australian election result, he is standing down. Hopefully someone with half a clue will assume the vacant post and overturn the decision to ban adult oriented computer games."

Dying Man Shares Unseen Challenger Video 266

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday February 02, 2010 @12:27PM from the new-perspective-on-an-old-tragedy dept.

longacre writes "An amateur video of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion has been made public for the first time. The Florida man who filmed it from his front yard on his new Betamax camcorder turned the tape over to an educational organization a week before he died this past December. The Space Exploration Archive has since published the video into the public domain in time for the 24th anniversary of the catastrophe. Despite being shot from about 70 miles from Cape Canaveral, the shuttle and the explosion can be seen quite clearly. It is unclear why he never shared the footage with NASA or the media. NASA officials say they were not aware of the video, but are interested in examining it now that it has been made available."

PS3 Hacked? 296

Posted by Soulskill on Monday January 25, 2010 @07:35AM from the another-one-bites-the-dust dept.

Several readers have sent word that George Hotz (a.k.a. geohot), the hacker best known for unlocking Apple's iPhone, says he has now hacked the PlayStation 3. From his blog post: "I have read/write access to the entire system memory, and HV level access to the processor. In other words, I have hacked the PS3. The rest is just software. And reversing. I have a lot of reversing ahead of me, as I now have dumps of LV0 and LV1. I've also dumped the NAND without removing it or a modchip. 3 years, 2 months, 11 days...that's a pretty secure system. ... As far as the exploit goes, I'm not revealing it yet. The theory isn't really patchable, but they can make implementations much harder. Also, for obvious reasons I can't post dumps. I'm hoping to find the decryption keys and post them, but they may be embedded in hardware. Hopefully keys are setup like the iPhone's KBAG."

Microsoft Patches "Google Hack" Flaw In IE 142

Posted by timothy on Thursday January 21, 2010 @05:40PM from the you-saw-this-coming dept.

An anonymous reader writes "As expected, Microsoft has issued an out-of-band security patch to address a remote code execution hole in Internet Explorer that was used in the recent Chinese attacks disclosed by Google. Ars Technica has all the download links you need."

Researchers Pooh-Pooh Algae-Based Biofuel 238

Posted by timothy on Thursday January 21, 2010 @04:56PM from the feed-it-pooh-pooh-undies dept.

Julie188 writes "Researchers from the University of Virginia have found that current algae biofuel production methods consume more energy, have higher greenhouse gas emissions and use more water than other biofuel sources, such as switchgrass, canola and corn. The researchers suggest these problems can be overcome by situating algae production ponds behind wastewater treatment facilities to capture phosphorous and nitrogen — essential algae nutrients that otherwise need to come from petroleum."

Apple Patches Massive Holes In OS X 246

Posted by timothy on Wednesday January 20, 2010 @05:23PM from the well-it-wouldn't-be-polite-to-patch-windows dept.

Trailrunner7 writes with this snippet from ThreatPost: "Apple's first Mac OS X security update for 2010 is out, providing cover for at least 12 serious vulnerabilities. The update, rated critical, plugs security holes that could lead to code execution vulnerabilities if a Mac user is tricked into opening audio files or surfing to a rigged Web site." Hit the link for a list of the highlights among these fixes.

Spectrum of Light Captured From Distant World 32

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday January 16, 2010 @12:40PM from the what-are-you-made-of dept.

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Cosmos: "Astronomers have made the first direct capture of a spectrum of light from a planet outside the Solar System and are deciphering its composition. The light was snared from a giant planet that orbits a bright young star called HR 8799 about 130 light-years from Earth, said the European Southern Observatory (ESO). ... The find is important, because hidden within a light spectrum are clues about the relative amounts of different elements in the planet's atmosphere. 'The features observed in the spectrum are not compatible with current theoretical models,' said co-author Wolfgang Brandner. 'We need to take into account a more detailed description of the atmospheric dust clouds, or accept that the atmosphere has a different chemical composition from that previously assumed.' The result represents a milestone in the search for life elsewhere in the universe, said the ESO. Until now, astronomers have been able to get only an indirect light sample from an exoplanet, as worlds beyond our Solar System are called. They do this by measuring the spectrum of a star twice — while an orbiting exoplanet passes near to the front of it, and again while the planet is directly behind it. The planet's spectrum is thus calculated by subtracting one light sample from another."

The Best Robots of 2009 51

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday December 23, 2009 @09:59PM from the best-of-show dept.

kkleiner writes "Singularity Hub has just unveiled its second annual roundup of the best robots of the year. In 2009 robots continued their advance towards world domination with several impressive breakouts in areas such as walking, automation, and agility, while still lacking in adaptability and reasoning ability. It will be several years until robots can gain the artificial intelligence that will truly make them remarkable, but in the meantime they are still pretty awesome."

Saboteur Launch Plagued By Problems With ATI Cards 230

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday December 09, 2009 @01:58AM from the more-or-less-finished dept.

An anonymous reader writes "So far, there are over 35 pages of people posting about why EA released Pandemic Studios' final game, Saboteur, to first the EU on December 4th and then, after knowing full well it did not work properly, to the Americas on December 8th. They have been promising to work on a patch that is apparently now in the QA stage of testing. It is not a small bug; rather, if you have an ATI video card and either Windows 7 or Windows Vista, the majority (90%) of users have the game crash after the title screen. Since the marketshare for ATI is nearly equal to that of Nvidia, and the ATI logo is adorning the front page of the Saboteur website, it seems like quite a large mistake to release the game in its current state."

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