i_like_spam - Slashdot User

Comment Apples and oranges (Score 1) 942

by i_like_spam on Sunday November 04, 2007 @01:55PM (#21232955) Attached to: Cell Phone Jamming on the Rise

Cellphone conversations are very different from ambient conversations.

It's easier to filter out ambient conversations because you can hear all of the dialog. With cellphone conversations, however, you hear only one side. Your brain then works to fill in the missing dialog. Because your brain is working harder, cellphone conversations are more intrusive and annoying.

I suggest that you spend a fair amount of time in Japan, where public cellphone conversations are frowned upon (especially in trains). After coming back to the U.S., you'll realize how annoying cellphone chatters really are.

Submission + - '55 Science Paper Retracted to Thwart Creationists

Submitted by i_like_spam on Thursday October 25, 2007 @12:55PM

i_like_spam writes: The New York Times has an interesting story about a paper published in 1955 by Homer Jacobson, a chemistry professor at Brooklyn College. The paper, entitled "Information, Reproduction and the Origin of Life", speculated on the chemical qualities of earth in the Hadean time, billions of years ago when the planet was beginning to cool down to the point where, as Dr. Jacobson put it, "one could imagine a few hardy compounds could survive." Nobody paid much attention to the paper at the time, but today it is winning Dr. Jacobson acclaim that he does not want — from creationists who cite it as proof that life could not have emerged on earth without divine intervention. So after 52 years, he has retracted it.

Submission + - Brain Differences In Democrats and Republicans

Submitted by i_like_spam on Monday September 10, 2007 @12:24PM

i_like_spam writes: Scientists from NYU and UCLA report in Nature Neuroscience that the brains of Democrats and Republicans process information differently. This new study finds that the differences are apparent even when the brain processes common information, not just political topics. From the study, liberals were more likely to be accurate and showed more brain activity in the region associated with analyzing conflicts. A researcher not affiliated with the study stated, liberals 'could be expected to more readily accept new social, scientific or religious ideas.' Moreover, 'the results could explain why President Bush demonstrated a single-minded commitment to the Iraq war and why some people perceived Sen. John F. Kerry ... as a flip-flopper.

Submission + - High School Students Forced To Declare A Major

Submitted by i_like_spam on Thursday August 16, 2007 @12:03AM

i_like_spam writes: As reported in the NYTimes, high school freshmen at many high schools across the nation are now being forced to pick a major. Starting this Fall, 9th graders in Florida will have to choose to major from among a set of state-approved subjects, while some students in Mississippi will have to follow one of nine designated career paths. High school administrators hope that having students declare majors will lead to greater student interest in school until graduation. College administrators think otherwise: 'youngsters should instead concentrate on developing a broad range of critical thinking and communication skills,' says Debra Humphreys from the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Submission + - New Theory Explains Periodic Mass Extinctions

Submitted by i_like_spam on Thursday August 02, 2007 @02:07PM

i_like_spam writes: The theory that the dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid impact, the K-T extinction, is well known and supported by fossil and geological evidence. Asteroid impact theory does not apply to the other fluctuations in biodiversity, however, which follow an approximate 62 million-year cycle. As reported in Science news, a new theory seems to explain periodic mass extinctions. The new theory found that oscillations in the Sun relative to the plane of the Milky Way correlate with changes in biodiversity on Earth. The researchers suggest that an increase in the exposure of Earth to extragalatic cosmic rays causes mass extinctions. Here is the original paper describing the finding.

Submission + - Higher Tuition For An Engineering Degree

Submitted by i_like_spam on Sunday July 29, 2007 @12:18PM

i_like_spam writes: The NYTimes is running a story about a new trend in tuition charges at public universities throughout the country. Differential pricing schemes are being implemented, whereby majors in engineering and business pay higher tuition rates than majors in arts and humanities. Last year, for instance, engineering majors at the University of Nebraska starting paying an extra $40 per credit hour. One argument in support of differential pricing is that professors in engineering are more expensive than in other fields. However, others argue that engineering students '... who are charged more for their major will stick to the courses in their field to feel that they are getting their money's worth.'

Submission + - Our ATM is broken, so you go to jail? (myway.com)

Submitted by Actually, I do RTFA on Sunday July 29, 2007 @03:39AM

Actually, I do RTFA writes: A short while ago, slashdot featured an article about possible criminal prosecution for people who took advantage of faulty slot machine software. At the time, many people drew an analogy to an ATM that dispensed too much money. Well, apparently, that too may result in criminal charges. Interestingly, although they suspect that someone may have tampered with the ATM, they are considering charging anyone who withdrew money from the ATM.

This also provides an interesting rejoinder to 'if they can build a secure ATM, why cannot Diebold build a secure electronic voting machine.'

Submission + - Historical Look At First Linux Kernel (kerneltrap.org)

Submitted by LinuxFan on Thursday July 26, 2007 @04:59PM

LinuxFan writes: KernelTrap has a fascinating article about the first Linux kernel, version 0.01, complete with source code and photos of Linus Torvalds as a young man attending the University of Helsinki. Torvalds originally planned to call the kernel "Freax", and in his first announcement noted, "I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones." He also stressed that the kernel was very much tied to the i386 processor, "simply, I'd say that porting is impossible." Humble beginnings.

Submission + - Change Google Background Color To Save Energy?

Submitted by i_like_spam on Thursday July 26, 2007 @04:44PM

i_like_spam writes: Recent commentary at Nature Climate Change describes an on-going debate about the energy savings associated with the background colors used by high-traffic websites such as Google and the NYTimes. A back of the envelope calculation has suggested energy savings of 750 Megawatt hours per year if Google switched their background from white to black. In response, a new version of Google called Blackle was created. However, other calculations by the Wall Street Journal suggest minimal energy savings. Who is right in this debate? Should web designers also consider potential energy savings when choosing colors for their sites?

Submission + - Microsoft launches open source site (microsoft.com)

Submitted by

prostoalex

on Thursday July 26, 2007 @02:02PM

prostoalex writes: "Microsoft launched a site dedicated to collaboration between Microsoft and open source community. The site helps developers, IT administrators, and IT buyers find out what Microsoft's product offerings are, and read articles about open source such as "Open Source Provider Sees Sales Doubling After Moving Solutions to the Windows Platform.""

Submission + - Toyota Unveils Plug in Hybrid Prius (extremetech.com)

Submitted by phlack on Thursday July 26, 2007 @12:45PM

phlack writes: Toyota has announced a plug in hybrid vehicle, based on their popular Prius. So far, it will only have a range of 8 miles on the battery (13km). They are going to test this vehicle on the public roads...a first for the industry.

Submission + - New Hack Exploits Common Programming Error (techtarget.com)

Submitted by

buzzardsbay

on Monday July 23, 2007 @09:37AM

buzzardsbay writes: "TechTarget's security editor, Dennis Fisher is reporting that researchers at Watchfire Inc. have discovered a reliable method for exploiting a common programming error, which until now had been considered simply a quality problem and not a security vulnerability. According to the article, the researchers stumbled upon the method for remotely exploiting dangling pointers by chance while they were running the company's AppScan software against a Web server. The good folks at Watchfire will detail the technique in a presentation at the Black Hat Briefings in Las Vegas in August, Fisher writes."

Submission + - Wikipedia corrects Enciclopaedia Britannica (wikipedia.org)

Submitted by

javipas

on Monday July 23, 2007 @08:27AM

javipas writes: "Despite all the controversy about Wikipedia's work model, no one can argue the potential of a project that has demonstrated the usefulness of the "wisdom of crowds" concept. And that wisdom has been able to detect several mistakes on one of the most relevant references on human knowledge: the Enciclopaedia Britannica. All kind of data has been spotted as wrong, such as the birthdate of Bill Clinton or the definition of NP problems in Mathematics."

Submission + - University of Kansas strict copyright infringement 1

Submitted by

NewmanKU

on Friday July 20, 2007 @03:12PM

NewmanKU writes: "Eric Bangeman at Ars Technica writes that the University of Kansas has adopted a new strict copyright infringement policy for the students on the residential network that are sharing copyrighted files. The university's ResNet website states that, "Violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is against the law. If you are caught downloading copyrighted material, you will lose your ResNet privileges forever. No second notices, no excuses, no refunds. One violation and your ResNet internet access is gone for as long as you reside on campus." According to a KU spokesperson, KU has recieved 345 notices in the past year from organizations and businesses regarding complaints about copyrighted material downloading."

Submission + - Storing CERN's Search for God (Particles) (cio.com)

Submitted by

Chris Lindquist

on Friday July 20, 2007 @01:06PM

Chris Lindquist writes: "Think your storage headaches are big? When it goes live in 2008, CERN's ALICE experiment will use 500 optical fiber links to feed particle collision data to hundreds of PCs at a rate of 1GB/second, every second, for a month. "During this one month, we need a huge disk buffer," says Pierre Vande Vyvre, CERN's project leader for data acquisition. One might call that an understatement. CIO.com's story has more details about the project and the SAN tasked with catching the flood of data."

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