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Biotech

Newly Discovered Bacteria Could Aid Oil Cleanup 167

Posted by Soulskill from the quick-somebody-come-up-with-a-stupid-name dept.
suraj.sun passes along news from Oregon State University, where researchers have discovered a new strain of bacteria that may be able to aid cleanup efforts in the Gulf of Mexico. The bacteria "can produce non-toxic, comparatively inexpensive 'rhamnolipids,' and effectively help degrade polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs — environmental pollutants that are one of the most harmful aspects of oil spills. Because of its unique characteristics, this new bacterial strain could be of considerable value in the long-term cleanup of the massive Gulf Coast oil spill, scientists say." In related news, Kevin Costner's centrifugal separator technology has gotten approval for deployment; now it is only waiting on funding from BP.
Earth

Intel Sucks Up Water Amid Drought In China 386

Posted by kdawson from the nor-any-drop-to-drink dept.
An anonymous reader sends along a Bloomberg piece on Intel and the coming water wars. "Intel is going head-to-head with businesses like Coca-Cola to swallow up scarce water resources in the developing world. According a 2009 report ... 2.4 billion of the world's population lives in 'water-stressed' countries such as China and India. Chip fabrication plants in those countries, as well factories such as the soft drink giant's bottling plants, are swallowing up scarce resources needed by the 1.6 billion people who rely on water for farming. ... Li Haifeng, vice president of sewage treatment company Beijing Enterprises Water Group, told Bloomberg, 'Wars may start over the scarcity of water.' China's 1.33 billion citizens each have 2,117 cubic meters of water available to them per year.... In the US, consumers can count on as much as 9,943 cubic meters."

Comment Re:Saab (Score 2, Insightful) 264

by Sehnsucht (#30913474) Attached to: GM Is Selling Saab To Spyker Cars

This along with some other design features originated with the fact it was designed by people who were in cold places.

It's far easier (in theory, I don't own a SAAB) to get the key into that location and start the car wearing large gloves, than behind the steering wheel..
Power

Plug vs. Plug — Which Nation's Socket Is Best? 1174

Posted by timothy from the one-vote-for-three-prong-american dept.
CNETNate writes "Is the American mains socket really so much worse than the Italian design? And does the Italian socket fail at rivaling the sockets in British homes? This feature explores, in a not-at-all-parodic-and-anecdotal fashion, the designs, strengths and weaknesses of Earth's mains adapters. There is only one conclusion, and you're likely not to agree if you live in France. Or Italy. Or in fact most places." (For more plug pics and details, check out Wikipedia's list of the ones in current use.)
Upgrades

Some Users Say Win7 Wants To Remove iTunes, Google Toolbar 570

Posted by timothy from the you-choose-the-teapot-you-choose-the-tempest dept.
Foofoobar writes "Due to a strike with the UK's postal system, people in Great Britain are getting copies of Windows 7 early and have already posted their experiences about the install process. Some have an easy time but others post installs taking 3 hours including Windows asking them to remove iTunes and Google toolbar prior to installation." The article indicates that many of these early users, though, are having better luck.

Comment Android not limited to just Java (Score 1) 211

by Sehnsucht (#29743813) Attached to: Game Development On Android

But if you want it to be cross (CPU architecture) platform easily, you'll want to stick to it.

You can actually build native code with the Native Development Kit using C/C++/whatever, and so far all the current phones are pretty well compatible as far as native code goes, but if someone rolls out an Android device with a different CPU architecture than the current ARM incarnation, you'd have to rewrite or at least recompile your native code for it, and either distribute multiple versions of the app or include the native code for all versions and dynamically pick the correct one at run time.

Comment Re:Different Audiences? (Score 1) 399

by Sehnsucht (#29087431) Attached to: Are Game Consoles Ruining DLC?

I myself use EASDF for movement, and surrounding keys

E / D for Forward / Backward
A / F for Strafe Left / Right
S for Sprint / Run
X for Crouch
Spacebar for Jump

The above lets me move in any direction combination and run faster or crouch without contorting. Obviously running and crouching doesn't work too well, but I'm not aware of any games where that would actually do anything.

Z for zoom or zoom in, C for zoom out or reset zoom (assuming these are applicable)
R for reload, Q for flashlight toggle, W for quick weapon switching to last weapon
G for grenades, V for secondary grenades
B for bandage/heal

I don't assign T to any chat due to accidental activation of chat sometimes
I move chat to Y and teamchat to U to get them out of accidental activation range

Then, I've got my Razer mouse with more buttons than I can generally put to use in a game :D
Mouse handles firing, alt firing, open/use, etc. PTT for voice chat is assigned here as well.

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