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Comment Re:strangely, without my intervention (Score 1) 344

by fruity_pebbles (#37977936) Attached to: Setting the various household clocks ...
I have about half a dozen "atomic" (actually WWVB) clocks. Most of them change correctly for DST. One or two of them change the hour correctly, but for some reason also adjust the minutes ahead by one. And they're ahead by exactly 60 seconds. In a day or two they figure it out and set themselves to the correct time.

Comment Watch (Score 1) 334

by fruity_pebbles (#35280080) Attached to: How Many Solar Powered Devices Do You Own?
My Casio G-Shock Waveceptor is low maintenance: Solar powered; no batteries to wear out. Set time by WWVB; no manual adjustments needed for DST, and no worries about the watch running fast or slow.

I answered 0-1, but I do have a second solar powered device: a Casio scientific calculator. The calculator still works great, but I haven't used it in at least 15 years.
Power

Laser Blast Makes Regular Light Bulbs Super-Efficient 559

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the bright-ideas dept.
guruevi writes with news that a process using an ultra-powerful laser can crank up the efficiency of everyday incandescent light bulbs. Using the same laser process covered several years ago, the tungsten filament has an array of nano- and micro-scale structures formed on the surface making the resulting light as bright as a 100-watt bulb while consuming less electricity than a 60-watt bulb and remaining much cheaper to produce. "The key to creating the super-filament is an ultra-brief, ultra-intense beam of light called a femtosecond laser pulse. The laser burst lasts only a few quadrillionths of a second. To get a grasp of that kind of speed, consider that a femtosecond is to a second what a second is to about 32 million years. During its brief burst, Guo's laser unleashes as much power as the entire grid of North America onto a spot the size of a needle point. That intense blast forces the surface of the metal to form nanostructures and microstructures that dramatically alter how efficiently light can radiate from the filament."
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Recovering computers after house fire? (neulinger.org)

Submitted by
Nathan Neulinger
Nathan Neulinger writes: "Today, my family and I experienced (after the fact — we were not home) a house fire that completely destroyed our kitchen, and caused significant smoke and heat damage throughout the rest of the house. I believe that the two more important computer systems in the house shut themselves down automatically when the power was cut, but I don't know how much smoke and soot was pulled into them.

I'm not terribly concerned about the machines themselves, but I'd like to pull the data off onto new media. I'm a long time unix admin, so recovery tools themselves are not an issue, but I am concerned about the hardware itself. Are there any things to watch out for in terms of powering the drives back up on another machine, or is this a "don't touch it, leave it to the pros" type of thing? I have not been able to look at the drives up close yet — waiting on insurance adjuster to approve messing with house's contents first."
Google

Submission + - Two top Google engineers leave (venturebeat.com)

Submitted by
linumax
linumax writes: "Two more high-level Google engineers have left the Googleplex — this time to join well-known venture capital firm Benchmark Capital. According to a story on VentureBeat, Bret Taylor and Jim Norris, two of the masterminds behind Google Maps and several other Google products, have joined the firm as "Entrepreneurs in Residence." This gives them paid positions to hang out at Benchmark's offices on Silicon Valley's Sand Hill Road and think through starting a business. They have a specific idea in mind, but are secretive about it, telling VentureBeat only that it's a "consumer Internet" company. Is the final days of Google coming?"
Printer

Submission + - Xerox Develops New Way to Print Invisible Ink

Submitted by
scott3778
scott3778 writes: "Xerox said on Wednesday that its scientists have perfected a new method for printing hidden fluorescent wording using standard digital printing equipment. According to the company, the discovery paves the way for customers and businesses alike to add an additional layer of security to commonly printed materials such as checks, tickets, coupons, and other high-value documents. The hidden fluorescent words and letters show up only under ultraviolet light, said Reiner Eschbach, a research fellow in the Xerox Innovation Group, and the co-inventor of the patented process. What's more, the method for printing them doesn't require the use of special fluorescent inks. http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2138431 ,00.asp"
Businesses

Submission + - Why outsourcing is fading away

Submitted by operator_root2
operator_root2 writes: This article on outsourcing to India details several reasons as to why the outsourcing boom is no longer turning attractive. The main reasons being cited are 'puffed up projections by consultants', 'high rates of attrition and low productivity', and 'operational problems'. The article further notes that most companies are predicted to go slow on expansion plans and eventually exit. Further more, the article notes that some other locations are emerging as outsourcing centres. ""Russia is where India was a few years ago. At that time, Indians worked harder, for more hours, and at low salaries. Today, Indians think they can command any price."
Portables

A "Bill of Lights" to Restrict LEDs on Gadgets? 729

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the palm-flower dept.
PetManimal writes "Mike Elgan has had it with useless lights on gadgets and computers. He singles out the Palm Treo and the Dell XPS gaming laptops as being particularly bad with the use of unnecessary lights, and also cites the plethora of LEDs on desktop PCs and peripherals. 'My PC and other computing equipment make my office look like a jet cockpit. I have two LCD monitors, each of which has two indicator lights that flash even when the PC is turned off. The attached sound control has a light on it. My keyboard has multiple lights. The power cord has lights, the printer has lights, and the power button is illuminated. My cable modem and Linksys router flash like crazy all the time. Together, these useless lights create a visual cacophony of blinking, multicolored lights that make me feel like I'm taking part in a NASA stress test for astronaut candidates.' Elgan calls on manufacturers to respect his 'Gadget Bill of Lights' to restrict the use of nag lights and allow users to turn them off. He also says the industry should pay more attention to industrial design when creating new products."
Windows

Vista Eating Battery Life 379

Posted by CowboyNeal from the glutton-for-power dept.
LWATCDR writes "It looks like more issues with Vista drains notebook batteries. Using the Aero interface really eats into your notebooks battery life. Of course one of the new 'features' of Vista is supposed to be better power management. This provides a great opportunity for a showdown. How long until someone loads Vista on a MacBook and compares run time? It would provide a flat playing field now that Apple makes Intel-powered notebooks."

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