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Submission + - "Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine" gets Air Force nod (theengineer.co.uk)

Submitted by LeadSongDog
LeadSongDog writes: The US Air Force Research Lab has been looking at the SABRE concept from the UK maker Reaction Engines, which has already been endorsed by the European Space Agency. The hybrid runs as a jet from stationary to Mach 5.5, then it becomes a rocket for all the way up to Mach 25. The magic is all in keeping the heat exchanger from icing up. This now clears the way for funding the next step: build and test demonstrator engines.

Submission + - Ames Labortory scientists create cheaper magnetic material (ameslab.gov)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Karl A. Gschneidner and fellow scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory have created a new magnetic alloy that is an alternative to traditional rare-earth permanent magnets.

The new alloy—a potential replacement for high-performance permanent magnets found in automobile engines and wind turbines--eliminates the use of one of the scarcest and costliest rare earth elements, dysprosium, and instead uses cerium, the most abundant rare earth.

The result, an alloy of neodymium, iron and boron co-doped with cerium and cobalt, is a less expensive material with properties that are competitive with traditional sintered magnets containing dysprosium.

Comment Re:BAh, (Score 1) 124

So to clarify the question, if a developer writes a program on their own time and self publishes it, should they not reap the rewards of the program and only get paid for writing it?

When one sets out to fix someone's grammar, one should tread carefully. In English usage it is unclear whether your "not" is distributive over your "and". It is therefore better to write: "So to clarify the question, if a developer writes a program on their own time and self publishes it, should they get paid only for writing it and not reap the rewards of the program?"

Submission + - Imagination to Release Open MIPS Design to Academia (linuxgizmos.com)

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: Imagination Technologies has developed a Linux-ready academic version of its 32-bit MIPS architecture MicroAptiv processor design, and is giving it away free to universities for use in computer research and education. As the MIPSfpga name suggests, the production-quality RTL (register transfer level) design abstraction is intended to run on industry standard FPGAs. Although MIPSfpga is available as a fully visible RTL design, MIPSfpga is not fully open source, according to the announcement from Robert Owen, Manager of Imagination’s University Programme. Academic users can use and modify MIPSfpga as they wish, but cannot build it into silicon. 'If you modify it, you must talk to us first if you wish to patent the changes,' writes Owen.

Comment Get out of there (Score 1) 1

Since you can log in, start by forwarding all new incoming email to an address that you control. Then get two copies of the old traffic on seperate servers. Verify you can read it. Delete everything from the AOL mailbox. From then on, just forget AOL has a mailbox, it'll always stay empty until they finally, inevitably, go out of business.

Comment Re:TIL (Score 1) 124

by LeadSongDog (#49560539) Attached to: When Exxon Wanted To Be a Personal Computing Revolutionary
The Osborne, the original "Compaq portable", the original "IBM Portable", and the Hyperion were all classed as "luggable" by the real people who didn't work for marketting. It was roughly the 20 to 30 pound range (yes, we were still using pounds back then) with a fat-briefcase form factor. The Osborne product was first, but 8-bit g.p. machines were doomed by then. To my mind the Hyperion was the best of them, but they were months too late in the "IBM BIOS compatibility" race and it cost them the business.

Submission + - Smart headlights adjust to aid drivers in difficult conditions (thestack.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute are developing smart headlights that not only trace a car’s movement around bends, but are programmable to assist a driver in a wide range of driving conditions. The research team, at the institute’s Illumination and Imaging Laboratory, is looking into designing headlights which do not highlight raindrops and snowflakes in bad weather, instead passing light around the individual drops and improving visibility. Its near-future design would also be able to avoid glare even when the high beam is in use, detecting up-coming vehicles and disabling the range of light that is directed at it. They also hope to incorporate GPS data to adjust the direction of the headlights according to the lane that a driver is occupying, illuminating it more brightly compared to surrounding lanes. The technology is supported by a looped system which will constantly read, assess and react to driving conditions. The prototype also features a built-in camera to capture visual data before transferring it to a computer processor installed in the vehicle, where it can be analysed.

Submission + - Audi creates 'fuel of the future' using just carbon dioxide and water (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by EwanPalmer
EwanPalmer writes: German car manufacturer Audi says it has created the "fuel of the future" made solely from water, carbon dioxide and renewable sources.

The synthetic "e-diesel" was made following a commissioning phase of just four months at a plant in Dresden, Germany. Germany's federal minister of education and research, Dr Johanna Wanka, said she has already used the fuel in her Audi A8, and the company hopes to produce at least 160 liters of the crystal clear fuel every day in the coming months.

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