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Comment Re:Europa was discovered in 1610 by Galileo... (Score 2) 164

by tetrahedrassface (#43087307) Attached to: Discovery Increases Odds of Life On Europa

Right, well the Planetary Society has proposed the JEO, Jupiter Europa Orbiter. That would be a great start to actually close enough to really see what's going on. Then we don't need or even have to land a super heavy rover on Europa. If we took data from the JEO and were smart about it, we could land a few very small probes to sample the surface of the ice where the upwellings occur.

We have the capability to go there today, if we really wanted to. I guess it's just not politically expedient to go there, since Mars captures the interest of the population so well..... and that's a disappointing, because Europa or one of it's sister moons has water today.

I hope I live long enough to see a landing.

Comment Re:Whatever.... (Score 4, Informative) 815

by tetrahedrassface (#43086859) Attached to: Gnome Founder Miguel de Icaza Moves To Mac

Classy. This machine is working perfectly under Linux. I'm sitting 12 feet (3.5 meters) away from the *two* 50 inch TV's its running out to. Sound is perfect and it's been up for five months....... So yeah.. I like Linux. I like it a lot, and rarely have to fix *anything*. In fact my wifes I-Maxi_pad requires more attention than this machine.

i'm sticking with *nix. THANKSKBYE.
Space

Submission + - Europa Discovery Increases Odds of Life On Jovian Moon. (dailygalaxy.com)

Submitted by
tetrahedrassface
tetrahedrassface writes: "Observations of spectral emissions from the surface of Europa using state of the art ground based telescopes here on Earth have lent data that indicate the surface of the Jovian moon is not merely ice that is not dynamically linked with the vast ocean below. The observations carried out by Caltech's Mike Brown, and JPL's Kevin Hand show that water is making it from the ocean below all the way up to the surface of the moon. In their study they noticed a dip in the emission bands around lower latitudes of the moon, and quickly honed in on what they were seeing. The mineral of interest is epsomite, a magnesium sulfate compound that can only come from the ocean below. From the article: 'Magnesium should not be on the surface of Europa unless it's coming from the ocean," Brown says. "So that means ocean water gets onto the surface, and stuff on the surface presumably gets into the ocean water.

Not only does this mean the ocean and surface are dynamically interacting but it also means that there may be more energy in the ocean than previously thought. Another finding is that the ocean below the icy surface of Europa is basically very similar to an ocean on Earth, giving the neglected and premier solar body for life past Earth another compelling reason for being explored."

Comment Not good enough... (Score -1, Troll) 582

by tetrahedrassface (#42811537) Attached to: US Postal Service Discontinuing Saturday Mail Delivery

The USPS sucks. To say this Congresses fault for making them *gasp* fund the posh retirement funds is laughable. If their retirement funds are that difficult to fund, perhaps they need take on the unions that saddled them with these packages. I hope the fuckers go under. :) *flame away libtards*
Ubuntu

Submission + - Netflix Desktop Application for Gnu-Linux. (iheartubuntu.com)

Submitted by tetrahedrassface
tetrahedrassface writes: An app for Netflix-Desktop that is much cleaner and easier to install was released today. It is built for Ubuntu, but per the comments some .RPM builds are being worked on. The app runs well, looks native, and plays Netflix video nicely. Trust me, after building WINE via git 5 times to get the manual method method of Netflix running on LInux, the app is a godsend. Hop over and check it out. Hopefully it's the start of a great thing for us Linux users.
Power

Bruce Perens: The Day I Blundered Into the Nuclear Facility 181

Posted by samzenpus from the did-you-remember-to-lock-the-door? dept.
Bruce Perens writes "I found myself alone in a room, in front of a deep square or rectangular pool of impressively clear, still water. There was a pile of material at the bottom of the pool, and a blue glow of Cherenkov radiation in the water around it. To this day, I can't explain how an unsupervised kid could ever have gotten in there."
Power

Submission + - My Energy Company Won't Net Meter (Version 2). (vec.org)

Submitted by tetrahedrassface
tetrahedrassface writes: My energy company is a public electric cooperative servicing several counties in Tennessee. For the past few years they have been participating in TVA's Green Power initiative where a person applies for a solar installation, TVA approves it, and then TVA pays .12 cents/kWh for the solar energy produced at your home. During this time, I have been busy insulating and switching over 70 bulbs to LED's and generally lowering household usage in order to install a solar system. Last week I called Volunteer Electric to inquire about the application process and to inform them that we would soon be purchasing at least a 10KW grid tie system. The lady in charge of the VEC's solar department told me they would likely not be signing back up with TVA's Green Power Switch program, and that they did not have to provide net metering. Today I called again after ordering my inverter, and she again told me that the CEO of Volunteer Energy had two major issues with solar:



The first was safety.

The second was not making money on solar power fed back into the grid. She urged my to write a letter to the CEO stating my concern and basically begging him for leniency in his soon to be rendered decision on whether to continue with TVA's program. She also said they were not required to install net metering even though the Energy Policy Act of 2005 states that:'(11) NET METERING.—Each electric utility shall make available upon request net metering service to any electric consumer that the electric utility serves. For purposes of this paragraph, the term ‘net metering service’ means service to an electric consumer under which electric energy generated by that electric consumer from an eligible on-site generating facility and delivered to the local distribution facilities may be used to offset electric energy provided by the electric utility to the electric consumer during the applicable billing period.' She told me the utility was only required to pay me .02/kWh if they don't continue with the TVA program. This seems unfair. Since all grid tie inverters shut down when the POCO isn't transmitting on the line what safety issues could they be worried about, and does the Energy Policy Act of 2005 give me a fighting chance of having fair net metering even if my public utility doesn't want to do it?

Submission + - My Power Cooperative Doesn't Offer Net Metering. (vec.org) 2

Submitted by tetrahedrassface
tetrahedrassface writes: I'm a resident of rural Tennessee and love it. However despite the loow electricity rates, I'm wanting to install a 10KW grid tie solar system. Last week I spoke with the lady in charge of VEC's solar program that's in partnership with TVA's Green Switch program. The lady said that Volunteer Energy would likely not be renewing the contract with TVA for solar energy production and they were not required to do net metering. To be fare a call to TVA was then made by me and they were quite surprised thqat VEC would not be renewing their solar initiative. Today a call to Volunteer Energy again revealed that their CEO is holding out on renewing the contract with TVA, and that my request for net metering doesn't have to be honored. According to the Energy Law of 2005 every public electric company has to comply with a written request for net metering. Is my electric company willfully skirting the law in order to not support solar? How can I best broach the topic and the Federal mandate that all public electricity providers allow for net metering?
Privacy

Think Tank's Website Rejects Browser Do-Not-Track Requests 362

Posted by timothy from the at-least-the're-telling-you dept.
alphadogg writes "The website for the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) now tells visitors it will not honor their browsers' do-not-track requests as a form of protest against the technology pushed by privacy groups and parts of the U.S. government. The tech-focused think tank on Friday implemented a new website feature that detects whether visitors have do-not-track features enabled in their browsers and tells them their request has been denied. 'Do Not Track is a detrimental policy that undermines the economic foundation of the Internet,' Daniel Castro, senior analyst at the ITIF wrote in a blog post. 'Advertising revenue supports most of the free content, services, and apps available on the Internet.'"

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