Comment Re:but but the MPAA is for the artists? (Score 1) 427
You're saying the accounting was creative?
Comment Re:If you see flicker in taillights (Score 4, Informative) 303
The flicker is not in his head, it's in the taillights. I've seen the flicker, it's caused by a pulse width modulation circuit to make the taillight mode of a combination taillight/stoplight appear dimmer. A quick google search pulls up this article http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2006_Nov_8/ai_n27039046 about an automotive product specifically designed to address this issue and stop the flicker by eliminating the pwm circuit. It works by reducing the DC drive to the LEDs in taillight mode instead of using pulse width modulation to reduce the average current and effective brightness.
Comment Re:so we get cheaper, better antennas? (Score 1) 265
The referenced Wikipedia article indicates the use at cell sites needs a reference. Many sites on the internet quote the exact same phrase without any justification and to me, that raises a red flag.
I was curious to know why Golomb spacing would be used for antennas and found this article: http://kevingong.com/Math/GracefulGraphs.html. Scroll down to the bottom to the 'Significance' section. In short, a receiver with Golomb spacing of the antenna elements maximizes the phase angle information in the output of the array allowing the angle of the sender to be extracted with an FFT.
I should be possible to use this capability to transmit along a particular angle, but I would expect a more practical antenna for transmitting would have elements with equidistant spacing at a fraction of the wavelength. See here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phased_array.
Cell antennas I'm familiar with are sector antennas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sector_antenna optimized for coverage in a particular pattern (i.e. 90, 120 degrees) and not for transmitting or receiving along a particular angle.
I was curious to know why Golomb spacing would be used for antennas and found this article: http://kevingong.com/Math/GracefulGraphs.html. Scroll down to the bottom to the 'Significance' section. In short, a receiver with Golomb spacing of the antenna elements maximizes the phase angle information in the output of the array allowing the angle of the sender to be extracted with an FFT.
I should be possible to use this capability to transmit along a particular angle, but I would expect a more practical antenna for transmitting would have elements with equidistant spacing at a fraction of the wavelength. See here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phased_array.
Cell antennas I'm familiar with are sector antennas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sector_antenna optimized for coverage in a particular pattern (i.e. 90, 120 degrees) and not for transmitting or receiving along a particular angle.
Submission + - Latest PSP Firmware Now Downgradeable
Croakyvoice writes: PSP Hackers Fanjita and Ditlew have released a downgrader
for the latest PSP firmware v3.03, all Sony PSP consoles can now be downgraded
to Homebrew friendly firmware including the full speed hacked PSX custom firmware.
The Privacy Candidate 593
Alsee writes "Wired News reports 'electronic civil libertarians' hearts are a-twitter' over US Presidential hopeful Senator Hillary Clinton's bold stance on the right to privacy. Wired quotes Clinton: 'At all levels, the privacy protections for ordinary citizens are broken, inadequate and out of date.' Clinton gave a speech last June to the American Constitution Society (text, WMF) in which she addressed electronic surveillance, consumer opt-in vs. opt-out, cyber-security, commercial and government handling of personal data, data offshoring, data leaks, and even genetic discrimination." Would you consider a candidate's stand on privacy important enough to sway your vote?
Submission + - BBC releases video of Hampster's 288mph crash
An anonymous reader writes: The BBC has released video footage of Hampster's (Richard Hammond's) 288mph jetcar crash. The webpage for today's episode is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/show/episodes/series9 episode1.shtml and you need to select "Hammond's accident" in the right hand column. Maybe you can use this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/topgear/h ammond?size=16x9&bgc=AFD8D0&nbram=1&bbram=1 but you'll not get the full page. Richard Hammond is one lucky guy!
(Ed — please test this works from outside the UK, it may be ip restricted.)
Submission + - MS admits to embrace-extend-extingish strategy
walterbyrd writes: "According to Microsoft filings in Comes v. Microsoft : "OSS projects have been able to gain a foothold in many server applications because of the wide utility of highly commoditized, simple protocols. By extending these protocols and developing new protocols, we can deny OSS projects entry into the market.""
Submission + - Vista upgrade requires old OS currently installed
edmicman writes: "No clean install for you! Ars is reporting that Vista upgrades will require the old OS to be currently installed; no longer can you do a "clean" install from a Vista upgrade disc, pop in the old XP disc to prove it's an upgrade, and go on your merry way.
I was already waiting before trying out Vista, but as a computer enthusiast I've usually gone the way of buying the "upgrade" version, and doing the clean install from that. Now I'm expected to purchase the full version of Vista? How often has a standing upgrade from one version of Windows to another actually worked?"Upgrade versions of Windows Vista Home Basic, Premium, and Starter Edition will not install on any PC unless Windows XP or Windows 2000 is already on the machine in question. In years previous, upgrade versions of Windows could be installed on any PC. If a PC did not have an older version of Windows installed, users could provide an older installation CD of Windows for verification. After dropping a qualifying CD in the CD-ROM drive, the installation routine would verify the disc and you'd be on your way. With this approach, one could use an "upgrade" copy of Windows to lay a new Windows install on a computer.
Submission + - Uncle Sam spoils dream trip to space
gollum123 writes: "Brian Emmett's childhood fantasy came true when he won a free trip to outer space ( http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/01/28/free.ride .ap/index.html ). But the 31-year-old was crushed when he had to cancel his reservation because of Uncle Sam. Emmett won his ticket to the stars in a 2005 sweepstakes by Oracle Corp., in which he answered a series of online questions on Java computer code. For the self-described space buff who has attended space camp and watched shuttle launches from Kennedy Space Center, it seemed like a chance to become an astronaut on a dime. Then reality hit. After some number-crunching, Emmett realized he would have to report the $138,000 galactic joy ride as income and owe $25,000 in taxes. Unwilling to sink into debt, the software consultant from the San Francisco Bay area gave up his seat. Since the Internal Revenue Service requires winnings from lottery drawings, TV game shows and other contests to be reported as taxable income, tax experts contend there's no such thing as a free spaceflight. Some contest sponsors provide a check to cover taxes, but that income is also taxable."
Journal Journal: Missing link in global warming found!
Like many I've found that Anthropogenic caused global warming to be a bit too easy, and the leap from contributing factor to causality to be across a chasm a bit too wide. Researcher Henrik Svensmark's* work on cosmic rays seeding low cloud formation seems to suggest the the influence of the solar magnetosphere in shielding the Earth from cosmic rays and the clouds they form is
Submission + - Will Ruby on Rails survive?
palmerj3 writes: "As a Ruby on Rails developer, I have to wonder if Ruby on Rails will survive. With Java becoming open-source, and other MVC frameworks such as DJango and CakePHP, I wonder if Ruby on Rails will be able to compete much longer. Ruby is notoriously slow and Ruby on Rails' lack of database connection pools make running Rails apps difficult. I personally love the powerful, compact expressions and 'readable' syntax that a RoR application allows. I'd like to ask the Slashdot community how the Ruby language and Ruby on Rails framework should grow in order to stay competitive in the enterprise world."
Submission + - Doom fans petition Raven for GPL Hexen source
sfraggle writes: "Doomworld is reporting about a group of Doom enthusiasts petitioning Raven to GPL the source code to Heretic and Hexen. Although the source code was released several years ago, the license is so restrictive as to be next to useless. Now over 30 programmers working with projects derived from the Doom source have drafted an open letter to Raven in the hopes of getting the source finally re-released under the GPL. The letter is backed by a petition signed by over 300 people."
Submission + - ENLIGHTENMENT needs your help!
xsst4 writes: "Enlightenment needs your help! They need a to get this story to reach the home page so that they can get the donations thats they need.
Please help us by donating here!
"Why donate?
In order to provide better services to our users, the Enlightenment team would like to ask that the Enlightenment user community pull together and help us raise funds for a new server. We are therefore requesting donations so that we may purchase our own dedicated server. If you would like to contribute to the Enlightenment project, but can't code, this is a great way to help out. We would like to thank our current hosting provider, the cAos Foundation , who have generously donated access to their CVS services. Long-time Enlightenment users are probably well aware of some of the service issues we've experienced in recent years. The CVS services improved considerably with the move to our current provider, but the web site has remained with SourceForge. The restrictive permissions have prevented us from providing many of the services to our users that we feel are necessary. Services such as integrating CVS content with the website, bug tracking, wiki access, and reasonable CMS services are simply too difficult to provide with the access levels available on SourceForge. In addition, external CMS access to SourceForge has proven to be unreliable and very slow. As a result, the website has gone relatively unmaintained for months, much of the content has moved to edevelop.org and get-e.org, and hosted copies of API documentation have not been updated to reflect significant changes which are documented in CVS. These issues hurt the projects image, discourage new users, and frustrate existing users. We feel a dedicated server is the best way to address these issues with the level of quality expected from this project. As a last note, we would like to extend our thanks to the people who have already donated the current funds of $1600 to the Enlightenment project. Your charity has not been forgotten, and your donations will be applied towards the server fund. ""
"Why donate?
In order to provide better services to our users, the Enlightenment team would like to ask that the Enlightenment user community pull together and help us raise funds for a new server. We are therefore requesting donations so that we may purchase our own dedicated server. If you would like to contribute to the Enlightenment project, but can't code, this is a great way to help out. We would like to thank our current hosting provider, the cAos Foundation , who have generously donated access to their CVS services. Long-time Enlightenment users are probably well aware of some of the service issues we've experienced in recent years. The CVS services improved considerably with the move to our current provider, but the web site has remained with SourceForge. The restrictive permissions have prevented us from providing many of the services to our users that we feel are necessary. Services such as integrating CVS content with the website, bug tracking, wiki access, and reasonable CMS services are simply too difficult to provide with the access levels available on SourceForge. In addition, external CMS access to SourceForge has proven to be unreliable and very slow. As a result, the website has gone relatively unmaintained for months, much of the content has moved to edevelop.org and get-e.org, and hosted copies of API documentation have not been updated to reflect significant changes which are documented in CVS. These issues hurt the projects image, discourage new users, and frustrate existing users. We feel a dedicated server is the best way to address these issues with the level of quality expected from this project. As a last note, we would like to extend our thanks to the people who have already donated the current funds of $1600 to the Enlightenment project. Your charity has not been forgotten, and your donations will be applied towards the server fund. ""
Submission + - Greenland, or why you might care about ice physics
Prof. Goose writes: "http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2005/12/9/31522/59 10
"What is clear after going through all of this research is that the Greenland icesheet melting very urgently needs to be understood. In particular in contemplating tar-sands, coal-to-liquids, etc, as solutions to peak oil, we need to understand what gamble with the ice sheet we are making, exactly. Many of these solutions, especially CTL, can make the problem oh so much worse.
Submission + - Valentine's Day on a Dime
NewsToob writes: "Managing to make it through the Christmas holidays with a new girl on your arm can be difficult, especially if her family was involved. Talk about pressure to perform! You might think your home free, but did you realize that Valentine's Day (VD) is February 14th, again! I know what you're thinking. This has to be some kind of cruel joke, right? The holidays are over and you are strapped for cash money, that holiday credit card bill just came in the mail, and guess what, it's time to shell out some serious coin for your honey on VD! Here are NewsToob's 5 tips to help you make your new girl feel like the one for not a lot of loot. Read more. "
