Comment Will it blend? (Score 0, Offtopic) 289
More importantly... Will it blend?
Comment Re:ID information available to the public (Score 4, Funny) 234
If you are afraid of forgetting your passwords and to remember passwords like "d8u*mF@3KowcCR", use an encrypted password keeper.
Shit, now I have to change all my passwords AGAIN, just like after someone else posted my old one, 09:F9:11:02:9D:74:E3:5B:D8:41:56:C5:63:56:88:C0
Journal Journal: The end does NOT justify the means 43
Jews, Jehovah is pissed. Arabs, Allah is furious. Christians, God shall smite thee.
You're all a bunch of assholes. That includes me, too -- I admit it, I'm an asshole.
The last shall be the first, Christians. And like I said, I'm one of you, but even though I won't deny Christ, I'll deny YOU. Have you no brains? Will none of you pray for what Soloman prayed for? Do none of you ever read the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John? Don't you even know what Jesus was all about?
Carefully Timed Jerks Could Power Space Elevator 270
Hugh Pickens writes "BBC has an interesting article on the long-standing issue of how to power the 'climber' that would ascend a space elevator into space. Previous ideas have included delivering microwave or laser power to the climber beamed from the Earth's surface, but now European Space Agency ground station engineer Age-Raymond Riise has demonstrated a device that could provide a "lift into space" for cheaper space missions along a 100,000-km long tether anchored to the Earth. Riise demonstrated sending power mechanically by providing carefully timed jerks of the cable at its base with a broomstick to represent the cable held in tension, an electric sander to provide a rhythmic vibration to the bottom of the stick, and three brushes representing the climber with their bristles pointing downwards allowing the climber assembly to slide upward along the broomstick as it moved slightly downward, but grip it as it moved slightly upward. 'It would be possible to make a suspension system that completely decouples the cabin where the passengers are,' says Riise. 'For them it would be a linear movement with very little disturbance.' Riise says that he has been approached by commercial elevator companies, who are researching new ideas for elevators in superscrapers where the simplicity of the approach makes it attractive when compared to other ideas for powering lifts, such as compressed air."
Amtrak Photo Contestant Arrested By Amtrak Police 675
Photographer Duane Kerzic was standing on the public platform in New York's Penn Station, taking pictures of trains in hopes of winning the annual photo contest that Amtrak had been running since 2003. Amtrak police arrested him for refusing to delete the photos when asked, though they later charged him with trespassing. "Obviously, there is a lack of communication between Amtrak's marketing department, which promotes the annual contest, called Picture Our Trains, and its police department, which has a history of harassing photographers for photographing these same trains. Not much different than the JetBlue incident from earlier this year where JetBlue flight attendants had a woman arrested for refusing to delete a video she filmed in flight while the JetBlue marketing department hosted a contest encouraging passengers to take photos in flight." Kerzic's blog has an account of the arrest on Dec. 21 and the aftermath.
"See-Through" Touchscreen Solves Fat Finger Problem 170
Urchin sends along a New Scientist writeup on Microsoft Research's nanoTouch prototype, a way of operating a touch screen from the rear (video here). The prototype will be presented at the Computer and Human Interaction conference in Boston, Mass., in April 2009. Coming soon to a wristwatch or neck pendant near you. "Electronic devices have been shrinking for years, but you might be forgiven for thinking that one that's only a centimeter across would be just too difficult to operate. Microsoft Research's new nanoTouch device suggests otherwise. Touch-screens are difficult to control with any precision — the fingers get in the way of the tiny targets you're trying to hit. But putting the touch interface on the rear of the screen instead gives users more precision because they can still see the whole screen as they interact with it. Microsoft Research has produced a prototype device called nanoTouch with a rear-mounted touch interface. User tests show it lets users accurately and reliably hit targets just 2 millimeters across on a screen under a centimeter across."
Researchers Test Whether Sharks Enjoy Christmas Songs
142
Scientists plan to test whether sharks enjoy listening to Christmas pop songs, after US research showed fish could recognize melody. Chris Brown, senior marine biologist at the Loch Lomond aquarium, said seasonal music would be played through walkthrough underwater tunnels where they can be heard by dozens of nurse sharks, black-tip reef sharks, and ray species. Experts will then monitor the sharks' reactions to different songs. We'll play everything from Kim Wilde and Mel Smith's Rocking Around the Christmas Tree and Merry Christmas Everybody by Slade to Wham's Last Christmas. We may find they prefer something softer like White Christmas by Bing Crosby," Brown said. Thank you for answering this question science.
The Wackiest Technology Tales of 2008 97
coondoggie writes "Despite the daily drumbeat of new and improved hardware or software, the tech industry isn't all bits and bytes. Some interesting things happen along the way too. Like floating data centers, space geekonauts, shape shifting robots and weird bedfellows (like Microsoft and Jerry Seinfeld). What we include here is an example of what we thought were the best,
slightly off-center stories of 2008."
Comment Re:One of the first posts (Score -1, Offtopic) 907
A merry red and green
Comment Overhaul (Score 1) 3
As a young guy (22), I am at a fork in the road. I would love to go into teaching - I've done tutoring and been told I would make a great teacher - but at the same time, I feel that a teacher's salary does not adequately compensate for the amount of work that they do. I'm currently finishing an engineering degree where, in the province I live in, will get me double what most teachers make on my first year out, and that's sad.
It is truly unfortunate that there are many others out there who are intelligent and excel at conveying knowledge, but get drawn in by the dollars. As per your experiences, I've only had three or so teachers that were willing to teach me (or allow me to go at my own speed), the rest wanted me to slow down and get back in with the herd. School was, for the most part, extremely frustrating because I was constantly being held back.
Warner Music Pushing Music Tax For Universities 375
An anonymous reader writes "Warner Music is pitching the idea of a 'music tax' for various top universities. The idea is that students would be free to file share, but the university needs to monitor and track everything, create a pool of money, hand it over to a recording industry entity that promises to distribute the proceeds fairly. In exchange, the university gets a 'covenant not to sue' from the music labels. It's not a full license, just a basic promise that they won't sue. It's also claimed that this is 'voluntary' but the Warner Music guy says that they need to include all universities and all ISPs to really make it work. It's basically a music tax, where the recording industry gets to sit back and collect money."
Comment Re:Early Cryogenics & Ethical Problems (Score 4, Informative) 501
In TFA it mentions that
It's called Ikaria, after the island with regenerative sulfur springs mentioned by Herodotus.
Comment Re:facepalm.jpg (Score 1) 4
Here's what I have to say about all the idle complaints:
Image Reply
Comment Re:Frame rate (Score 2, Interesting) 603
We just bought a new tv not too long ago (Sony Bravia) with the option af setting the refresh rate to 120Hz, makes an amazing difference watching sports or anything with fast motion, but makes regular tv shows very eerie - almost cheap looking. I don't know how anyone could not tell the difference with fast motion, maybe if you were watching the fireplace channel...
Comment Re:like all of them? (Score 1) 463
Mountain Crest is pretty good stuff.
