Developages - Development and Technology Blog

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Have you always dreamed of a giant, wall-hanging iPod seemingly warped and twisted like a big, crappy, old television? Well, Russian artists Aristarkh Chernyshev and Alexei Shulgin have, and now they’re subjecting the world to it. Yes, say hello to the wowPOD, a fully functional iPod mutation which is absolutely worth whatever our business manager has been authorized to pay for it.

[Via TUAW]

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Hope you don’t mind two similar worlds running together, because today we’re asking about not one, but two of Cupertino’s latest. The iPod touch 2G and iPod nano 4G were both simultaneously (give or take a few minutes) announced back in early September, and after getting a chance to handle both, we felt that Apple did a stand-up job with the each of ‘em. That being said, there’s always a thing or two that could use tweaked, added or removed completely, but we’ll spare you any additional opinions from us on that. Instead, we want to know how you, dear reader, would change either of Apple’s freshest PMPs. What are you digging? What’s still not good enough? The floor is yours.

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Original post by Darren Murph

If you’re one of those fish-folk who can swim for hours on end and you need something to drown out the monotony of splish-splash-gurgle, then H20 Audio has just launched some new waterproof headphones and armbands for iPods, MP3 players and mobile phones. The Surge headphones and Amphibx armbands are guaranteed to 3.6 metres, and we like the way the armbands are not iPod-only. The headphones come with 5 different size earpieces to fit all lugs, and are sound isolating so you’ll never hear Jaws, or his theme music, coming. The use of waterproof 8mm neodymium drivers promise robust sound and they feature a gold plated 3.5mm jack. The Amphibx’s’ ‘unique shape and specialist materials’ are designed to comfortably grip your arm while you are ‘dropping in, cutting it back or wiping out’. The latch tight locking closures promise a 100% watertight and secure seal. It comes in medium and large sizes, with the former designed for smaller MP3 players and nanos and the larger one for regular iPods, iPhones or any other mobile phone. Uber-swimmers can avail of the iSH2 Shuffle Headset, a waterproof headphone that includes an integrated waterproof case for the iPod shuffle and which attaches to your goggles. The Surge headphones cost £50, the medium and large Amphibx bands £55 and £65, respectively, and the iSH2 Shuffle Headset is £60. You can get them at Harrods, The Kings Road Sporting Club or online here from mid-October.-Martin Lynch ipod music MP3 swimming

Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Portable Audio

Well it took three years, but Rockbox 3.0 has finally made it on the scene, with a major overhaul in the sound decoding department and support for several new players. This open source firmware replacement is chock full of tasty new features, including codec support for over 15 formats like FLAC and Ogg, 5-band parametric EQ, MPEG video, multilingual interface, Doom and a pile of other games, not to mention freedom from iTunes. Oh yeah, and it can talk to you via a spoken interface — which comes in handy for not driving off bridges and what not. iPod, iriver, Sansa, iAudio, Gigabeat and Archos models are all supported, though Archos didn’t get many of the major 3.0 improvements like expanded codecs.

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Original post by Stephanie Patterson

If you’re the kind of person that likes water-based or winter sports but doesn’t like being away from your MP3 collection for five minutes, then waterproofing your gear is clearly the way forward. This new design from specialists Overboard is a 100% waterproof sports headphones set with a supportive neckband and coiled cable to help prevent it getting in the way. There are a range of earbuds supplied for the perfect fit and if you’re successful the company claims great sound up to 6m beneath the surface. In addition it is offering the product with a waterproof iPod case that allows you to control your tunes through the transparent plastic window at the front. Both are available as a package for £44.99 or you can pick up the headphones by themselves for £24.99. Check out the official site link below for a range of other waterproofed bits and bobs for thrill-seekers and outdoor types. - Paul Lester [Overboard] waterproof headphones iPod

Original post by nafiz

Pittsburgh Public Schools officials have enacted a policy that sets 50 percent as the minimum score a student can receive for assignments, tests and other work. District spokeswoman Ebony Pugh said, the 50 percent minimum gives children a chance to catch up and a reason to keep trying. If a student gets a 20 percent in a class for the first marking period, he or she would need a 100 percent during the second marking period just to squeak through the semester. The district and teachers union issued a joint memo to ensure staff members’ compliance with the policy, which was already on the books but enforced only at some schools. At this rate, it won’t be long before schools institute double extra credit Mondays and Fridays to ensure students don’t take three day weekends.

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Original post by samzenpus

discards writes “I help run a student group at a Canadian University. For almost 15 years we’ve provided students with services such as web space, email, wireless internet on campus, cvs/svn, database access, mailing lists, etc., all using Linux and FOSS. In recent years, however, we have faced becoming obsolete. The university now provides wireless access, people get their email from other places such as Google, which also provides free svn access, web space, and so forth. Since we have a large amount of decent, usable hardware, as well as space, funding and a very fast internet connection, we are looking to possibly reform instead of just withering away and dying. We would like to ask Slashdot for ideas as to what we could do; preferably something that cultivates student research or provides an otherwise useful service to students, though all ideas are welcome.”

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Original post by Soulskill

theodp writes “Want to check out colleges without the bother of having to read about them? Well, my YouTube-loving friend, the NY Times reports that old-school elephantine dead-tree college guidebooks may be a thing of the past thanks to startup unigo.com, which has launched a free, gigantic, student-generated web-based guide to North American colleges that’s laden with photos, Flip-shot videos and reviews (OK, you may have to do some reading).”

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Original post by timothy

An anonymous reader writes “We’re in the process of submitting a scientific paper describing some techniques for data analysis. We’ll be releasing the associated code, so we’re faced with choosing an appropriate license. My supervisor insists there should be a citation clause, requiring any published article that uses results of the software to cite our paper. Of course, ideally, free software shouldn’t have such encumbrances, and I initially tried to talk him out of it. However, in academia, the issue of attribution and citation is very important. Also, it is not a restriction on use of the software per se, only on publication of results. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any such license. So I wondered: what do other academic Slashdotters do?”

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Original post by Soulskill

1-quack-4-malpractice writes “For the second time, the Wall Street Journal health blog has questioned whether premed students should be forced to suffer through organic chemistry. Dozens of doctors weighed in with comments, and many of them seem to think that the wry subject is almost useless rite of passage. Wired Science points out that there are not enough doctors who do research in addition to seeing patients, and they are the ones who benefit from a thorough grounding in basic sciences like organic chemistry.”

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Original post by timothy

Filed under: Displays

Researchers at Durham University in the UK are working hard to ensure that the academic sector isn’t left out of the multi-touch craze. The still-unnamed “interactive multi-touch desk” is a major part of the SynergyNet framework, an interactive classroom environment they’re building based on a gaming engine called jMonkey. There’s no word on how soon SynergyNet will change the world, but when it does the software will be open source — allowing anyone to get into the code and tweak it to their likeing. In the meantime, schools looking for a “high tech initiative” of their own will have to be content with throwing laptops at their students. Stunning video demonstration after the break!

[Via The Raw Feed]

Continue reading Classrooms of the future to have multitouch desks, probably a few Terminators

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Original post by Joseph L. Flatley

DeviceGuru writes “Stanford University will soon begin offering a series of 10 free, online computer science and electrical engineering courses. Initial courses will provide an introduction to computer science and an introduction to field of robotics, among other topics. The courses, offered under the auspices of Stanford Engineering Everywhere (SEE), are nearly identical to standard courses offered to registered Stanford students and will comprise downloadable video lectures, handouts, assignments, exams, and transcripts. And get this: all the courses’ materials are being released under the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.”

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Original post by samzenpus

mcgrew writes with news that a study done by the Pew Internet & American Life Project has found game playing is all but universal among teens, and it provides a “significant amount of social interaction and potential for civic engagement.” 97% of teens responding to the survey said they played games (75% played weekly or more often), and roughly two-thirds of teens use games as a social experience. The full report (PDF) and the questionnaire with answer data (PDF) are both available for viewing. From the report: “Youth who take part in social interaction related to the game, such as commenting on websites or contributing to discussion boards, are more engaged civically and politically. Youth who play games where they are part of guilds are not more civically engaged than youth who play games alone.”

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Original post by Soulskill

Chris_Keene writes in to let us know that the Prof. Michael Reiss, who recently caused a storm with comments about teaching creationism in schools, has resigned from his post as director of education at the Royal Society in the UK. This news coincides with word out of the Anglican church that it is ready to apologize to Charles Darwin, 150 years after it poured scorn on his theory of evolution by natural selection. “The Church of England will concede in a statement that it was over-defensive and over-emotional in dismissing Darwin’s ideas. It will call ‘anti-evolutionary fervor’ an ‘indictment’ on the Church.”

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Original post by kdawson

An anonymous reader writes “The Reverend Professor Michael Reiss, a biologist and Anglican priest, is the education director for the Royal Society, the venerable British science institution. He recently called for creationism to be discussed in science classes, not just in religion or philosophy classes. Science journals reacted with a world of ‘WTF’ and the Royal Society backpedaled furiously. Now Nobel laureates are gathering to get him fired: ‘The thing the Royal Society does not appreciate is the true nature of the forces arrayed against it and the Enlightenment for which the Royal Society should be the last champion.’ The blogs, of course, are loving it.”

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Original post by kdawson