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Comment Global Climate != Local Climate (Score 3, Interesting) 385

by Flavianoep (#50131197) Attached to: 2014 Was Earth's Warmest Year On Record
If I recollect right, the figure that 2014 was the warmest year in record appeared in /. already. An if I recollect one more thing right, the winter in the East Coast of US was deemed exceptionally chilling. I think it's hard to convince human-related climate change sceptics within this situation.
I have noticed that here in São Paulo the best time to talk about greenhouse effect is during the hottest days of the Summer, even though the rise in temperature downtown has more to do with deforestation and concrete than with greenhouse effect.

Comment Re:magic is the same as science? (Score 1) 273

by Flavianoep (#50098023) Attached to: University of Toronto: Anti-vaccine Homeopathy Course Is Fine
It's a sad truth that too much people fail to perceive the fallacy in this train of reasoning: if scientists cannot explain, then it's beyond science; and if it's beyond science, then this esoteric explanation must be right. Now just because some aspects of quantum mechanics are counterintuitive, some folks think they can invocate "Quantum Physics" as if it was some kind of god that justify their theories.

Submission + - University Students Made a Working Model Hyperloop (vice.com)

Submitted by derekmead
derekmead writes: Elon Musk's Hyperloop gets people excited. Promise the ability to travel from San Francisco to Los Angeles in less than an hour, and you're going to get people salivating. But for as much as we've heard about it, we've had scarcely little to see—until a team of students at the University of Illinois decided to build their very own miniature hyperloop.

Mechanical engineering students at the university built a functioning 1:24 scale model of the Hyperloop, a “fourth mode of transportation” that sends pods through a partially pressurized tube at very high speeds, as part of a senior design project. It was designed to test some of the key components of Musk's design, which was outlined in a much-read, open source white paper published in August of 2013. That said, there are several key differences, which keep this from truly being a proof-of-concept as to whether or not the Hyperloop will ultimately work.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Is security-related slowness inevitable?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Our organization's PC's are growing ever slower, with direct hard-drive encryption in place, and with anti-malware scans running ever more frequently. The security team says that SSD's are the only solution, but the org won't approve SSD purchases. It seems most disk scanning could take place after hours and/or under a lower CPU priority, but the security team doesn't care about optimization, summarily blaming sluggishness on lack of SSD's. Are they blowing smoke?

Submission + - It just got a whole lot easier to switch broadband provider (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: Moving from one broadband provider to another has long been something of a chore. Starting this weekend (June 20), switchers in the UK will no longer have to go through the hassle of requesting a Migration Authorisation Code (MAC) from their current supplier, as their new ISP will be able to handle the entire process from start to finish.

This should not only help to speed up the process of switching provider, but also eliminate the pestering from ISPs to stay with them. The new rules do not cover all ISPs, just those that use the Openreach network — this includes major players such as BT, Plusnet, TalkTalk, and Sky — but it should still make life easier for a lot of people.

Submission + - Finnaly, ReactOS as a second OS in Russian government's software freedom effort (reactos.org)

Submitted by jeditobe
jeditobe writes: The Russian Federation along with the BRICS nations are pursuing measures to rid vendor lock-in of strategically important software (http://minsvyaz.ru/en/events/33237/) and substitute such software with free/open software (http://minsvyaz.ru/en/events/32967/).

As such an initiative would provide considerable benefits beyond that of any singular agenda, Aleksey Bragin decided to take part in that on behalf of ReactOS Foundation. Since October 2014 he has been a member of the Operating Systems workgroup formed by the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications (so-called "IT Ministry") and actively participating in its discussions.

The IT Ministry issued a request for proposals this April to find and help develop independent technologies in different categories (mobile, desktop, server operating systems, databases, office software, virtualization and cloud infrastructure). The ReactOS Foundation submitted two projects: ReactOS desktop operating system and RosServer — ReactOS-based server operating system.

After evaluations, various meetings and Aleksey's presentation to the CIO of several large Russian companies the results were published last week (http://minsvyaz.ru/ru/documents/4662/ — in Russian only) with ReactOS-based projects receiving second place in the OS category, with first place taken by ROSA Lab and ALT Linux consortium.

The selection process was pretty tough, full of meetings, filters, and time-pressure, but that was worth the effort. The skills and work of the ReactOS team made the whole process easier. Many other awesome projects couldn't make it in this and other categories, but the ReactOS Foundation is willing to help them by opening as many collaboration agreements as possible in order to create nice synergies.

We knew, when we submitted the two ReactOS-based projects, how difficult it would be to get a place among the selected projects, and we're very proud to announce this achievement as a sort of reward for the ReactOS Community, and to all the Developers and Testers who have contributed to making ReactOS what it is now: The best open source Windows alternative up to date.

We do not have details about what happens after these evaluations, but rest assured, we will keep you informed of any updates. Stay tuned!

Submission + - Intel-Powered Asus ZenFone 2 Review: A Solid, Affordable, Unlocked Android Phone (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: Asus recently launched their Android Lollipop-driven ZenFone 2 and with its Intel Atom Z3580 SoC with PowerVR graphics and 4GB of RAM. It's an interesting low cost alternative to the major flagship smartphones on the market. Its 5.5-inch Full HD display looks great and build quality is surprisingly high with minimalistic styling and a rear-mounted volume rocker and power button setup much like the LG G4. It also supports dual SIM functionality and handles surprisingly well in the benchmarks and general use. Though its Atom chip doesn't break any records, it offers middle of the pack graphics performance, solid standard compute throughput but feels nimble and responsive with 4GB of RAM minimizing lag. For the price of a 16GB model at $199 and a 64GB variant at $299, it's definitely one to consider, especially for those looking for an unlocked, contract commitment-free Android smartphone.

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