Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror

Comment Re:Simple Solution (Score 1) 500

by roguenine19 (#27941959) Attached to: McDonalds Free Wi-Fi Users Soak Up Seating
What makes you think they don't already have that problem? Last time I was in Panera I saw someone sitting there typing on an external keyboard with his laptop hooked up to a 15" monitor!

He was there when we got there, and was still typing away when we left, half an hour later. He didn't have any food near him; he couldn't because his setup took up too much space.

I can't believe how shameless people can be in abusing a system other people put up in good faith.

Comment Re:Mobile Browsers (Score 1) 363

by roguenine19 (#27095855) Attached to: 9 Browsers Compared For Speed and Features
Here is a decent comparison of mobile phone broswers. But the conclusion they reach is basically that everything out there has some critical issues. It's understandable considering the problems: constrained inputs (and different means of input depending on the device), trying to render pages designed for 19" monitors at 800x600 resolution on 4" screens at 320x320 resolution on hardware and operating systems that are primitive by modern standards.

Things will get better of course (anything is better than Mobile IE), but in the meantime, it means the Web in your pocket isn't quite the same as it is at your desk.

Comment Re:KotOR sequal?? (Score 2, Interesting) 346

by roguenine19 (#25472909) Attached to: LucasArts, Bioware Announce Star Wars MMO
(KOTOR 2 Spoilers)

The big unresolved plot point in KOTOR 2 was the looming menace of a Sith army outside of known space that the main character of the first KOTOR game went out to stop. It could be that this is the Sith Empire in the new MMO. (End spoilers)

It probably is intentional to set this after the main characters of the previous games are dead, if only to make it feel like the players, and not the characters from previous games, are the heroes, and to stay away from the bits in Galaxies where you just felt like a tourist.
Sony

LittleBigPlanet Delayed Due To Qur'an-Sampling Audio 995

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the always-check-your-sources dept.
Several readers have pointed out that Sony's much-awaited LittleBigPlanet has hit a snag and will be delayed worldwide. The delay came after it was discovered that a song licensed for use in the soundtrack contained audio samples from the Qur'an. All advanced copies sent to retailers for the target release of October 21 in North America, 22 in PAL territories, and 24 in the UK and Ireland, have been recalled. "The post, by user 'Solid08', indicates of the specific references in the composition: 'In the 18th second: "kollo nafsin tha'iqatol mawt", literally: "Every soul shall have the taste of death' ... almost immediately after, in the 27th second: "kollo man alaiha fan", literally: "All that is on earth will perish."'"
Government

Can Static Electricity Generate Votes? 377

Posted by timothy from the dc-elections-crack-me-up-and-barry-too dept.
artgeeq writes "A recent local election in Washington, DC resulted in 1500 extra votes for a candidate. The board of elections is now claiming that static electricity caused the malfunction. Is this even remotely possible? If so, couldn't an election be invalidated pretty easily?"
The Internet

Submission + - Answer People in Online Discussions Visualized (cmu.edu)

Submitted by
Marc Smith
Marc Smith writes: ""Answer people", the folks who contribute most of the value in the Internet, are a small minority of all online users. Less than 2% of authors in Usenet newsgroups, a recent paper my co-authors and I (Howard T. Welser, Eric Gleave, Danyel Fisher and Marc Smith) have published in the Journal of Social Structure reports, are likely to be the helpful "answer person" type — authors who reply to many other people with brief replies. The paper Visualizing the Signatures of Social Roles in Online Discussion Groups contains social network visualizations of the ties created when authors reply to one another. These images highlight the difference between these helpful folks and other types of contributors. The findings may apply to other threaded discussions (maybe even Slashdot discussions!)."
AMD

Submission + - AMD Announces Release Date for Barcelona in Q3 (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Rumors said the release wouldn't be until late Q4 but an August ship date is now promised. They're only releasing up to 2.0 GHz processors at first, with the top speed devices coming out later in the year.
Intel

Submission + - Power consumption and the future of computing (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by mrdirkdiggler
mrdirkdiggler writes: ArsTechnica's Hannibal takes a look at how the power concerns that currently plague datacenters are shaping next-generation computing technologies at the levels of the microchip, the board-level interconnect, and the datacenter. In a nutshell, engineers are now willing to take on a lot more hardware overhead in their designs (thermal sensors, transistors that put components into sleep states, buffers and filters at the ends of links, etc.) in order to get maximum power efficiency. The article, which has lots of nice graphics to illustrate the main points, mostly focuses on the specific technologies that Intel has in the pipeline to address these issues.
Democrats

Submission + - John Edwards on IP and open source

Submitted by goombah99
goombah99 writes: John Edward, the presidential candidate and lawyer, is emerging as quite techno savy. He has been guest hosting on Lawrence Lessigs Blog, giving his view on the current imbalance between property right protection and the good of public access. And he has become the first presidential candidate to support "open source code" for election systems in addition to voter verified paper records. He's even personally using a twitter.
The Internet

Journal Journal: FTC nixes Net Neutraility 106

Journal by Bushido Hacks
SaveTheInternet.com reports that the Federal Trade Commission fumbled the Network Neutrality Act on June 27. However, the FTC defended it actions saying that their decision was not a give-in to the big telecom and cable companies. Instead, the FTC report urges caution on Network Neutrality Regulation.

Feed Engadget: Brando's USB-powered aquarium: for the fish owner to-be (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

If you've been eying one of those snazzy USB-enabled fish tanks of late, but are still a bit gun shy when it comes to taking care of a live animal, Brando's got you covered. The USB Interactive Aquarium looks to be the perfect device for the wannabe fish owner, as this completely USB-powered tank includes a pair of thoroughly fake fish that swim around using mechanical tails. The included software allows owners to feed, care for, and play with their robotic pets, and you can even get an underwater rave going by flipping the built-in LEDs off and on in rapid succession. Not a bad way to see if you're up to the real challenge, and for just $23, it's an inexpensive way to snag an office pet that's not needy on the weekends.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Programming

Good Ways To Join an Open Source Project? 282

Posted by Cliff from the a-journey-of-1000-steps-must-start-with-a-first-one dept.
Tathagata asks: "I'm a student, on my final year in a college in India, and I have been using GNU/Linux for quite sometime now. Though I'm from a Computer Science background, getting into a project that involves serious programming was not possible, as people (read teachers) run away if you utter the word 'Linux'. They are generally not bothered about mentoring someone on an exciting project, and they would suggest you to get settled with Visual Basic, .NET, — and would prefer a 24 hour solution when it comes to programming. So, my programming endeavors have remained limited to writing few lines of C/C++, or Java. For last few days, I've been googling, and trying to read how to join an existing Open Source project." What suggestions would you pass along to someone who is willing to join his first Open Source effort?

Feed Hands on: YouTube videos on Apple TV (macworld.com)

From feed by macworldfeed
Apple delivered a promised update to Apple TV that lets the set-top box show off content from the YouTube video-sharing Web site. Christopher Breen downloaded the software update and tells you what to expect from the YouTube-compatible Apple TV.

Slashdot Top Deals

Time is nature's way of making sure that everything doesn't happen at once. Space is nature's way of making sure that everything doesn't happen to you.

Close