Comment The important question is... (Score 1) 84
But does it run Linux?
Oh wait, yes it does. Never mind then.
Oh wait, yes it does. Never mind then.
Google Releases Street View Images From Fukushima Ghost Town 63
mdsolar writes in with news that Goolge has released Street View pictures from inside the zone that was evacuated after the Fukushima disaster. "Google Inc. (GOOG) today released images taken by its Street View service from the town of Namie, Japan, inside the zone that was evacuated after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011. Google, operator of the world's biggest Web search engine, entered Namie this month at the invitation of the town's mayor, Tamotsu Baba, and produced the 360-degree imagery for the Google Maps and Google Earth services, it said in an e-mailed statement. All of Namie's 21,000 residents were forced to flee after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, about 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the town, causing the world's worst nuclear accident after Chernobyl. Baba asked Mountain View, California-based Google to map the town to create a permanent record of its state two years after the evacuation, he said in a Google blog post."
Submission + - Has this rendering from ActiVision left the uncanny valley? (youtube.com)
ceview writes: Some very remarkable digital rendering of a face from the team at Activision. Has this got past the uncanny valley?
Submission + - Electrolyzer Discovery Could Boost Use of Fuel Cells
theshowmecanuck writes: (Despite the misleading headline in the article) Researchers at the University of Calgary in Canada have discovered how to make highly efficient electrolyzers using common metals instead of rare earth metals. I think the key quote from the article is this:
Electrolyzers depend on rare, difficult-to-work-with and sometimes toxic metals, but the method developed by Chris Berlinguette and Simon Trudel uses metals as common as rust. It delivers results comparable to current techniques but costs about 1,000 times less.
This seems like it could make the use of fuel cells common place with an economical fuel source. If this pans out, what other hurdles might need addressing to get a fuel cell into every home?
United States Begins Flying Stealth Bombers Over South Korea 567
skade88 writes "The New York Times is reporting that the United States has started flying B-2 stealth bomber runs over South Korea as a show of force to North Korea. The bombers flew 6,500 miles to bomb a South Korean island with mock explosives. Earlier this month the U.S. Military ran mock B-52 bombing runs over the same South Korean island. The U.S. military says it shows that it can execute precision bombing runs at will with little notice needed. The U.S. also reaffirmed their commitment to protecting its allies in the region. The North Koreans have been making threats to turn South Korea into a sea of fire. North Korea has also made threats claiming they will nuke the United States' mainland."
4-Billion-Pixel Panorama View From Curiosity Rover 101
A reader points out that there is a great new panorama made from shots from the Curiosity Rover. "Sweep your gaze around Gale Crater on Mars, where NASA's Curiosity rover is currently exploring, with this 4-billion-pixel panorama stitched together from 295 images. ...The entire image stretches 90,000 by 45,000 pixels and uses pictures taken by the rover's two MastCams. The best way to enjoy it is to go into fullscreen mode and slowly soak up the scenery — from the distant high edges of the crater to the enormous and looming Mount Sharp, the rover's eventual destination."
GNOME 3.8 Released Featuring New "Classic" Mode 267
Hot on the heels of the Gtk+ 3.8 release comes GNOME 3.8. There are a few general UI improvements, but the highlight for many is the new Classic mode that replaces fallback. Instead of using code based on the old GNOME panel, Classic emulates the feel of GNOME 2 through Shell extensions (just like Linux Mint's Cinnamon interface). From the release notes: "Classic mode is a new feature for those people who prefer a more traditional desktop experience. Built entirely from GNOME 3 technologies, it adds a number of features such as an application menu, a places menu and a window switcher along the bottom of the screen. Each of these features can be used individually or in combination with other GNOME extensions."
Google Pledges Not To Sue Any Open Source Projects Using Their Patents 153
sfcrazy writes "Google has announced the Open Patent Non-Assertion (OPN) Pledge. In the pledge Google says that they will not sue any user, distributor, or developer of Open Source software on specified patents, unless first attacked. Under this pledge, Google is starting off with 10 patents relating to MapReduce, a computing model for processing large data sets first developed at Google. Google says that over time they intend to expand the set of Google's patents covered by the pledge to other technologies."
This is in addition to the Open Invention Network, and their general work toward reforming the patent system. The patents covered in the OPN will be free to use in Free/Open Source software for the life of the patent, even if Google should transfer ownership to another party. Read the text of the pledge. It appears that interaction with non-copyleft licenses (MIT/BSD/Apache) is a bit weird: if you create a non-free fork it appears you are no longer covered under the pledge.
Interviews: James Randi Answers Your Questions 217
A while ago you had the chance to ask James Randi, the founder of The James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF), about exposing hucksters, frauds, and fakers. Below you'll find his answers to your questions. In addition to his writings below, Randi was nice enough to sit down and talk to us about his life and his foundation. Keep an eye out for those videos coming soon.
The Man Who Sold Shares of Himself 215
RougeFemme writes "This is a fascinating story about a man who sold shares in himself, primarily to fund his start-up ideas. He ran into the same issues that companies run into when taking on corporate funding — except that in his case, the decisions made by his shareholders bled over into his personal life. This incuded his relationship with his now ex-girlfriend, who became a shareholder activist over the issue of whether or not he should have a vasectomy. The experiment continues."
The perils of selling yourself to your friends.
Comment Vote 3rd party in 2016 (Score 1) 405
It almost doen't matter who. We need to send Washington a message.
Comment Re:Nice work ... (Score 1) 89
Reusability, while a good idea, isn't too important for CRS—because reusable or not, NASA wants a new capsule for each mission.
CRS may well be Orbital's only ambition in the cargo delivery sphere (normally they launch satellites), while we know for a fact that SpaceX has... other plans.
CRS may well be Orbital's only ambition in the cargo delivery sphere (normally they launch satellites), while we know for a fact that SpaceX has... other plans.
Comment Re:Nice work ... (Score 5, Informative) 89
I think it's a throwaway. Looks like it burns up on re-entry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygnus_(spacecraft)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygnus_(spacecraft)
Comment Re:In other words .... ANOTHER failure .... (Score 2) 170
Wait, 7 of 12 catastrophic failures? I'm not sure that's right. I don't think they've even done that many launches, in fact.
Here's what I know:
0. Falcon 1: Failure. (Never flew; launch aborted & it imploded later on when a tank was drained)
1. Falcon 1: Failure. (First stage engine failure)
2. Falcon 1: Failure. (Second stage oscillation & engine failure)
3. Falcon 1: Failure. (Stage seperation issues)
4. Falcon 1: Success. (Deployed RatSat)
5. Falcon 1: Success. (Deployed RazakSat)
6. Falcon 9: Success. (Deployed dummy payload)
7. Falcon 9: Success. (COTS 1; Deployed & recovered Dragon)
8. Falcon 9: Success. (COTS 2; Dragon to ISS and back)
9. Falcon 9: Partial Failure. (CRS-1; Failed to deploy secondary payload)
10. Falcon 9: Too early to say. (CRS-2; Falcon 9 performed flawlessly, but Dragon is having issues.)
So yes, SpaceX has had some problems, but the failure rate only approaches 7/12 if you count every little mishap as a "catastrophic failure". The only total failures were with the Falcon 1, when the company was still figuring things out. Yes, CRS-1 had an engine failure and couldn't deploy its secondary payload, but the Dragon itself still got to the ISS in good shape. And as for the current flight, it could still go several ways:
Success (if the Dragon arrives Sunday and it's declared successful despite the hiccups and schedule delay)
Partial Failure (if the Dragon arrives late and it's consequently not considered a full success)
Failure (if the Dragon dies and doesn't survive re-entry or, heaven forbid, collides with the ISS)
Abort (if the Dragon re-enters and splashes down intact)
Okay I've gone on yakking way too long, I know.
tl;dr – SpaceX has had some issues in the past, most of which got ironed out with the Falcon 1. F9/Dragon has had some hiccups, but so far every primary mission has been successful—and the current one hasn't failed yet.
Comment Re:Anyone else sick of this guy? (Score 3, Interesting) 170
Oh come on, that's not really fair—I'm pretty sure the whole PayPal mess happened after Musk sold his portion of the company. Also, the guy uses plain English a lot more than technical jargon.
