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Comment Base Loads (Score 2) 835

What the article fails to mention, and what most people fail to understand, is that renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar are not suitable to replace the majority of conventional power sources. Your average pro-renewable energy advocate would have you believe you can throw a bunch of turbines and solar panels onto the grid and solve all your problems: unfortunately you need to supply your base load with guaranteed sources.

It sounds simple enough when you think about it, but you can't replace a coal, nuclear (or hydro power plant in certain cases) with solar or wind because those plants supply a large amount of power all of the time. If the wind isn't blowing or the sun isn't shining, nobody is getting electricity. This relegates these sources of power as contributors, not dominant supplies of electricity.

Comment Re:Good luck with that in Canada (Score 1) 133

Actually they're already 'playing in the sandpit': you can use a 360 with Telus Optik TV, since they already use Microsoft Mediaroom as their digital TV platform software. They were even giving away 360s as a signup bonus a while back.

Maybe this article is suggesting Microsoft's intent to bypass incumbent providers, otherwise it's missing the mark, at least for Canada: if you were signed up for any content like HBO (through Telus) you can already view it using your 360.

Comment Re:We need a national science and engineering agen (Score 5, Insightful) 308

The problem with 'scaling back' NASA is that it's not like a factory or a bunch of servers that you can just switch back on in 5 years with a bit of maintenance.

If you cut funding and they have to cut engineering jobs, you're going to lose talent: experience that may not return when you decide you're in another space race.

Comment Re:Why is this News? (Score 1) 951

Are you kidding me? War is news worthy, why shouldn't a "natural extension" of a war be news worthy to the people who are interested in that particular extension, case in point: /. and a web war.

I'm not sure how you got rated as insightful.

It's funny.  Laugh.

Today Is International Talk Like a Pirate Day! 287

lucabrasi999 writes "Ahoy! Drink up the Grog, me hearties! Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Grab yer wenches and stop being a bilge-rat." Cap'n Slappy and Ol' Chumbucket have even provided a short YouTube video to help those who might be a bit more pirate-speak challenged. Even Google is getting in on the action, those swarthy dogs.

Corporate Behemoth Keeps Ripping "Real" 121

Slashdot contributor Bennett Haselton has written in with a tale of media rippers and corporate giants "In 2001 RealNetworks sued and blocked Streambox from distributing the Ripper, a program that let users rip and save RealAudio and RealVideo streams even if the stream contained a proprietary "do not copy" flag. Then one year ago this month, RealNetworks caused a stir by releasing a beta of RealPlayer 11 that similarly let the user record and save streams from sites like YouTube and Pandora. YouTube rippers and the like had existed before, but this was the first time a major company had included a stream ripper in its media player. And while RealPlayer 11 didn't explicitly ignore any copy protection flags, the release still provoked legal rumblings: in a Variety article by Scott Kirsner, an anonymous network exec said accused RealNetworks of 'aiding and abetting piracy' and said that they would 'more likely than not' take action against RealNetworks. But now that the feature has stayed in RealPlayer for a year, its real impact will be not on piracy but on the perceived legitimacy of ripping programs. The corporate behemoth, raked over the coals in the past for privacy violations and nuisance-ware, strikes a blow for free-culture hackers." The rest of Bennett's essay is available by following that magical link right below these words.

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