Learning Objects

Segway Riders Get High on Mount Washington

Posted by michael on Sunday August 31, @10:43PM
from the easier-to-walk dept.
TacticalJack writes "Rob Owen, a retired clown, and two other riders surged up Mount Washington at 12.5 mph, the AP reports. It took the Segway riders two and half hours to complete the 7.6 mile endurance test. The team used six batteries, fought off 50 mph winds and battled bitter cold to reach the 6,288-foot mountain summit. All of which begs the question, why not buy a motorbike?"

( Read More... | 99 of 144 comments )

Sunday Newspapers, Now With CDs

Posted by michael on Sunday August 31, @08:34PM
from the 1045-free-hours dept.
VirtualUK writes "The BBC news site has a story today about The Times news paper now distributing a CD along with the tree mass that comes with its Sunday edition. They cite that one of the main reasons is that Internet connection speeds have still yet to catch up on the whole in order to benefit from the rich multimedia content of the CD."

( Read More... | 83 of 134 comments )

Science: More on the Orbital Space Plane

Posted by michael on Sunday August 31, @06:57PM
from the now-30%-less-likely-to-explode dept.
AP has a decent piece looking at NASA's orbital space plane program, and describing it as a sedan compared to a tractor-trailer. National polls show that public support for the space program continues to be very strong.

( Read More... | 137 of 185 comments | science.slashdot.org )

2003 Hugo Award Winners Announced

Posted by michael on Sunday August 31, @05:44PM
from the fun-in-toronto dept.
securitas writes "For those that follow these sorts of things, the 2003 Hugo Award Winners list has been released (PDF). Robert Sawyer's 'Homonids' won Best Novel, fan favorite Neil Gaiman won Best Novella for 'Coraline', Geoffery A. Landis won Best Short Story for 'Falling Onto Mars', Buffy the Vampire Slayer's 'Conversations with Dead People' won Best Short Form Dramatic Presentation and predictably 'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers' won Best Long Form Dramatic Presentation. You can get all the details at the Torcon 2003 Hugo Awards section."

( Read More... | 79 of 117 comments )

Distribution of Wealth in a Robot-Driven World

Posted by michael on Sunday August 31, @04:30PM
from the when-robots-take-your-job dept.
An anonymous reader sent another piece by Marshall Brain. He continues his examination of a society where most manual labor is performed by machines, idling a large fraction of the current workforce. See his previous piece for background.

( Read More... | 456 of 574 comments )

Your Rights Online: Software Customer Bill of Rights

Posted by michael on Sunday August 31, @03:23PM
from the we-the-people dept.
Cem Kaner of Badsoftware.com has written up a Software Customer Bill of Rights. Very appropriate considering our recent stories about Microsoft viruses, Dell's BIOS-clickwrap licensing agreement, etc.

( Read More... | 174 of 222 comments | yro.slashdot.org )

Aethera 1.0

Posted by michael on Sunday August 31, @02:14PM
from the look-out dept.
gatch writes "theKompany.com released version 1.0 of their cross-platform PIM suite Aethera. KOrganizer is included as a calendar and todo list component. Check out these screenshots. According to Shawn Gordon, theKompany president, 'Actually we are about 2 weeks away from having Aethera work with Kolab [groupware server] - at least that is our sense of it at the moment.' Interesting discussion at KDE.news."

( Read More... | 91 of 150 comments )

Scientists Crack Silk's Secret

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday August 31, @01:10PM
from the screw-cotton dept.
AEton writes "Researchers at Tufts University have reportedly discovered the mechanism by which spidersilk is produced. Besides the obvious use as a Kevlar substitute in bulletproof vests, silk has applications in microprocessor production, nanoscale optical fiber, a and any other application requiring strength and flexbility. Scientists have long grappled with the issue of creating silk; artificial silk is inferior to the real stuff, and the spiders can't be farmed (when you put them too close together, they eat each other). The method these Tufts researchers have found makes "strong silk" production feasible; if they can make it economical, the impact on safety equipment alone makes this material a worthwhile investment."