Comment Re:Obscure services (Score 2, Funny) 195
Clearly this is a problem that can be fixed with appropriate AdWords
Comment Re:Grad School (Score 1) 372
At least in engineering and computer science, Lou Dobbs is completely wrong. Heck, as a grad student at a top-tier research university, you can get ~$24K (and a highly tax-advantaged $24K, at that). Depending on the location, that can mean a comfortable five years.
Comment Re:Deck Chairs (Score 1) 290
Sure, except Balmer thinks ahead: he ties a rope to the deck chairs. That way, he can pull up whatever muck gets dredged up, slap a dictionary word on it, and sell it as the next New Thing.
Comment Re:What is weird is... (Score 1) 320
I beg your pardon. It's typically all dead weight.
Comment Re:Oh bull (Score 1) 91
Finding these blips is the easy part. Any first year grad student can do it. They will even learn something from the process.
The interesting part is figuring out which blips are important and which don't matter, then explaining why. Pushing the identification part to an algorithm is a waste of time and I don't expect computers to be taking over research part any time in the foreseeable future.
Comment Re:crashing database == lost data (Score 1) 155
Good to see Rumsfeld invoked to explain databases. It really warms my heart.
If only he had remembered the unknown knowns--the data your DBMS just lost--the set would be complete.
Comment Re:Blowing doors of competition (Score 1) 164
I've worked with them before. They're a real bunch of knobs.
Comment Re:It's because staroffice is slow and a resource (Score 1) 135
Used Firefox or Thunderbird recently?
OpenSolaris 2008.11 – Year of the Laptop? 223
Ahmed Kamal writes "Is Linux getting too old for you? Are you interested to see what other systems such as OpenSolaris have to offer? OpenSolaris has some great features, such as ZFS and dtrace, which make it a great server OS — but how do you think it will fare on a laptop? Let's take an initial look at the most recent OpenSolaris 2008.11 pre-release on recentish laptop hardware."
Feed Science Daily: Cheap New Solar Cells Made Much More Efficient (sciencedaily.com)
A cheap alternative to silicon solar cells can be found in dye-sensitized solar cells. This type of cell imitates the natural conversion of sunlight into energy by, for instance, plants and light-sensitive bacteria. Researchers have now succeeded in substantially improving a process in this type of solar cell, which is similar to Graetzel cells.
Submission + - Google's Search within Search Alarms Some Sellers
Googling Yourself writes: "Bob Tedeschi at the New York Times writes about Google's new search-within-search feature that lets users stay on Google to find pages on popular sites like those of The Washington Post, Wikipedia, The New York Times, Wal-Mart and others. The problem, for some in the industry, is that when someone enters a term into that secondary search box, Google will display ads for competing sites, thereby profiting from ads it sells against the brand. "Why would I advertise on those other sites when I could just advertise on Google and piggyback on the equity of the other brands?" says Donna L. Hoffman, co-director of the Sloan Center for Internet Retailing. Some companies like Amazon have apparently chosen to ask Google to remove the search-within-search function from their sites, While Google has not received much negative feedback on the service, a Google spokesperson said, the company could change it in the future."
Journal Journal: UK Traffic Cams Abused for Political Purposes.
Two peace activists were stopped and harassed when traffic cameras claimed they were terrorists based on license plate ID.
Submission + - Why Microsoft won't have Blu-ray on the Xbox (thestandard.com) 1
Ian Lamont writes: "Ever since Toshiba stopped production of HD DVD players, many Xbox 360 owners have been wondering when Microsoft will offer some sort of Blu-ray option for the Xbox 360. The answer: Probably never. Microsoft's product manager for the Xbox 360 has told Reuters that Microsoft is not in talks with Sony or the Blu-ray Association. Why not? The Industry Standard points to HDi, an obscure Microsoft technology that was part of the HD DVD interactivity layer. HDi may be dead on physical media, but it could potentially be applied to other Microsoft HD-compatible technologies such as Xbox Live Arcade and Windows Media Center, and be part of a long-term play to own a big share of the market for HD content delivered over the Internet."
$2500 Tata Nano Car Unveiled in India 625
theodp writes "After months of rumors and tantalizing leaks, Tata Motors has finally unveiled the Tata Nano, its already legendary $2,500 car that promises to change the face of not only the Indian car market, but the global auto industry. The tiny car is a four-door, five-seat hatch, powered by a 30 hp engine that gets 54 miles per gallon."
The City of the Future 274
Ponca City, We Love You writes "One century ago, many Americans still had not seen a movie or ridden in an automobile. The New York World greeted its readers on January 1, 1908 with a stirring rumination about the past and future of America: 'We may have gyroscopic trains as broad as houses swinging at 200 miles an hour up steep grades and around dizzying curves,' the newspaper said. 'We may have aeroplanes winging the once inconquerable air. The tides that ebb and flow to waste may take the place of our spent coal and flash their strength by wire to every point of need.' Today the NY Times asked ten knowledgeable New Yorkers to imagine New York City a century from today. Their visions include archaeological excavations at the Fresh Kills landfill, the waterfront at Third Avenue and Seventh Avenue, a dome over Central Park, and a virtual reality grid superimposed over the city."
