Comment Ob (with a diagonal line through the o) (Score -1, Offtopic) 184
Foorst hurdy gurdy floody boody post.
Comment Re:Great but unusable? (Score 1) 641
To my mind C cannot simultaneously be a "great language" and be impossible for most people to use safely.
So the only great piece of music is 'chopsticks'?
Comment Re:Great but unusable? (Score 1) 641
A car where, if you want, you can disable traction control, ABS, the rev limiter and all that. Perl has something like this, IIRC.
Of course, if you decide to disable them and wrap yourself round a tree it's nobody else's fault.
High Temperature Superconductivity Record Smashed By Sulfur Hydride 80
KentuckyFC writes Physicists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany have measured sulfur hydride superconducting at 190 Kelvin or -83 degrees Centigrade, albeit at a pressure of 150 gigapascals, about the half that at the Earth's core. If confirmed, that's a significant improvement over the existing high pressure record of 164 kelvin. But that's not why this breakthrough is so important. Until now, all known high temperature superconductors have been ceramic mixes of materials such as copper, oxygen lithium, and so on, in which physicists do not yet understand how superconductivity works. By contrast, sulfur hydride is a conventional superconductor that is described by the BCS theory of superconductivity first proposed in 1957 and now well understood. Most physicists had thought that BCS theory somehow forbids high temperature superconductivity--the current BCS record-holder is magnesium diboride, which superconducts at just 39 Kelvin. Sulfur hydride smashes this record and will focus attention on other hydrogen-bearing materials that might superconduct at even higher temperatures. The team behind this work point to fullerenes, aromatic hydrocarbons and graphane as potential targets. And they suggest that instead of using high pressures to initiate superconductivity, other techniques such as doping, might work instead.
Court Orders Uber To Shut Down In Spain 280
An anonymous reader writes with word that a Spanish judge, after complaints from taxi associations that the competition Uber brings to the transportation market is unfair to existing firms' drivers, has ordered the company to cease operations in the country. From the BBC article:
In his ruling on the temporary ban, the judge said Uber drivers didn't have official authorisation to drive their cars and was "unfair competition." The move follows a complaint by the Madrid Taxi Association. The Spanish ban comes just a day after Uber was blacklisted in the Indian capital Delhi. Drivers "lack the administrative authorisation to carry out the job, and the activity they carry out constitutes unfair competition," the Spanish court services said in a statement after the ruling. In Thailand, too. And stateside, the government of Portland, Oregon thinks Uber's a big enough threat to justify a sting operation. Business Insider's keeping score.
Comment Yeah right (Score 1) 42
It all drained away in those canals, I suppose.
Pull the other one, it plays a tune.
Comment Re: It won't be long (Score 1) 325
Small calibre SAM? Right.
You're clearly an expert in these matters.
Comment Re:How this differs from birds (Score 1) 325
I know it's bad form, but did you RTFA?
Comment Re:It won't be long (Score 1) 325
It is a different thing. Old-school RC model is steered by a pilot who can - at all times - see it.
A drone isn't. It may use a camera link and/or have a certain degree of autonomy, i.e. it gets no signal it hovers.
Linux 3.18 Released, Lockup Bug Still Present 106
jones_supa writes As anticipated, Linus Torvalds officially released Linux 3.18. The new version is now out there, though that nasty lockup issue has still yet to be resolved. Dave Jones is nearing the end of dissecting the issue, but since it also affects Linux 3.17 and not too many people seem to get hit by the lockups, Linus Torvalds decided to go ahead and do the 3.18 release on schedule. Linus was also concerned that dragging out the 3.18 release would then complicate the Linux 3.19 merge window due to the holidays later this month. Now the Linux 3.19 kernel merge window is open for two weeks of exciting changes.
Comment Re:It won't be long (Score 1) 325
It did _almost_ happen. That means it did _not_ happen yet.
FTFY.
Comment Re: It won't be long (Score 1) 325
It is not relevant if it has not happened in a few decades of the technology being available.
I was wondering where the kids had gone and who that old woman is.
I've slept till 2025, haven't I?
Comment Are DeVry doing pilot training now? (Score 4, Informative) 325
Another point, TFS quotes an altitude of 700 feet for the aircraft. That would mean that a drone would not need to be operated at a very high (or technically 'illegal') altitude to be "near" the extremely low-flying aircraft.
Around an airport controlled airspace is shaped like an inverted wedding cake. The smallest layer - which contains the runways - touches the ground; therefore you can be knee height in there and still flying illegally if you don't have permission.
Comment Re:What in the hell was he thinking? (Score 1) 388
It is not known whether he accepted out of a sense of patriotism he felt for Egypt or for the boatload of money.
Apparently it was 3 grand. Not much of a boatload. A canoe load, maybe. Certainly not an aircraft carrier load.
Comment Re:U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford (Score 1) 388
My first thought when I saw the headline was "can it float and launch planes at the same time?"
Couldn't they have found someone better to name it after?
