Comment As NASA puts it... (Score 1) 398
Nothing we can afford to see here. Please move along.
Submission + - super cheap solar power within a few years?
tora201 writes: The Daily Telegraph has an article explaining that we should be able to expect super cheap solar power within a decade, as a new super thin polymer foil 200 times lighter than normal glass-based solar material comes on line.
From the article: Within five years, solar power will be cheap enough to compete with carbon-generated electricity, even in Britain, Scandinavia or upper Siberia. In a decade, the cost may have fallen so dramatically that solar cells could undercut oil, gas, coal and nuclear power by up to half. Technology is leaping ahead of a stale political debate about fossil fuels. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/ money/2007/02/19/ccview19.xml)
Submission + - Old islamic tile patterns show modern math insight
arbitraryaardvark writes: "Reuters reports Medieval Muslims made mega math marvel.
Tile patterns on middle eastern mosques display a kind of quasicrystalline effect that was unknown in the west until rediscovered by Penrose in the 1970s.
"Quasicrystalline patterns comprise a set of interlocking units whose pattern never repeats, even when extended infinitely in all directions, and possess a special form of symmetry."
It isn't known if the mosque designers understood the math behind the patterns.
page 2 of story."
Tile patterns on middle eastern mosques display a kind of quasicrystalline effect that was unknown in the west until rediscovered by Penrose in the 1970s.
"Quasicrystalline patterns comprise a set of interlocking units whose pattern never repeats, even when extended infinitely in all directions, and possess a special form of symmetry."
It isn't known if the mosque designers understood the math behind the patterns.
page 2 of story."
Submission + - The Ten Most Frequently-Guessed Passwords
darkreadingman writes: "IT people often create their own security problems by choosing administrative passwords that are easily hacked. Here's a list of hackers' ten most frequently-guessed passwords, along with some suggestions on better ways to create and maintain strong passwords.
http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=117 988&WT.svl=news1_1"
