Comment So make the power reliable... (Score 5, Insightful) 293
and get a UPS. Why blow more money on a slightly more reliable SSD when a UPS is so much cheaper?
Comment DVR Fee (Score 0) 318
I currently pay $30 a month for a DVR device. This includes the TV listings service that enables the DVR to automatically record my schedule programs. Sp, I purchased a basic TiVO HD model at around $150. I then need to subscribe to TiVO service at $15 a month for a 1 year contract. But then I need the Cable M-Card (tuner decoder) to enable the TiVO to see the cable signal at $3.50 a month fee.
Another option is to get a 6 tuner DLNA ethernet device for around $300 which also requires the $3.50 monthly M-Card. I can then deploy Android set top devices to tune to the DLNA streams, with the bonus of Angry Birds, Chrome browser and Netflix. TV listing services are available for around $25 a year from Schedule Direct. This is where I am heading eventually (still searching couch for the cash).
In short, there is a LONG recovery time from the purchase price of the equipment to realize an actual cost savings on DVR rental fees.
Comment No more regulation = (Score 0) 358
More energy for everyone!!!! That is how it works right??
Comment Re:second hand e-smoke (Score 0) 314
yummy, I always like breathing in someone else's medicated ethylene glycol.
Propylene glycol. Not vehicle coolant (ethylene glycol). That would kill you. Propylene glycol has an antiseptic effect that *may* prevent lung infections.
Submission + - How one man turns annoying cold calls into cash (bbc.co.uk)
georgeaperkins writes: A man targeted by marketing companies is making money from cold calls with his own premium-rate phone number. So far he's made £300 profit following a £10+VAT initial investment. The premium rate regulator has "strongly discouraged" the practice, as it violates the code of practice. Nevertheless, the novel idea is sure to resonate with slashdotters worn down by mindless cold calling!
Comment Shina has difficulty upgrading... (Score 0) 520
when they can't easily pirate Windows 7.
Comment Equal number of studies proving efficacy (Score 0) 707
I hate to buy into the conspiracy / big pharma message but there are plenty of studies that suggest mega doses of certain vitamins can suppress or reverse certain auto immune diseases. But, since you can't patent a supplement, why would you cannibalize your other patented products with supplement research?
This is not my only source, but I am too lazy to find my original research: http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/health_medicine/vitamin_d/
Comment Non-Issue (Score 0) 280
It has been said before and I guess I will repeat it.
Who is going to buy a $7,000 3D printer to print a single shot gun? Yes, it may get to the point where composite printing materials will accommodate multi-round fire arms, but we aren't there yet.
Get a chunk of high impact plastic, drill a bore, insert round, nail and spring. You now have a low x-ray cross section zip gun. No 3D printer required.
This is a non-issue.
Comment Wait for the retraction (Score 0, Flamebait) 364
Faster than light speed is possible... but wait, we need "Exotic" materials that don't exists. We entangled particles to communicate across time and space, no wait. we measured it wrong. I give it a week before other scientists call bullshit.
Comment Open Closed Principle (Score 1) 256
You can keep your COBOL code closed for modification and OPEN for extension using the cloud services model. Then more recent languages can extend the tested and proven COBOL business layer through web services. COBOL can rest comfortably behind the scenes without one bit of modification save a rare bug fix.
Preserving Virtual Worlds 122
The Opposable Thumbs blog has an interview with Jerome McDonough of the University of Illinois, who is involved with the Preserving Virtual Worlds project. The goal of the project is to recognize video games as cultural artifacts and to make sure they're accessible by future generations. Here McDonough talks about some of the technical difficulties in doing so:
"Take, for example, Star Raiders on the Atari 2600. If you're going to preserve this, you've got a couple of problems. The first is that it is on a cartridge that is designed to work on a particular system that is no longer manufactured. And as long as you've got a hardware dependency there, you're really not going to be able to preserve this material very long. What we have been looking at is how feasible is it for things that fundamentally all have some level of hardware dependency there — even Doom has dependencies on DLLs with an operating system, and on particular chipsets and architectures for playing. How do you take that and turn it into something that isn't as dependent on a particular physical piece of hardware. And to do that, you need information about that platform. You need technical specifications that allow you to basically reproduce a virtualization that may enable you to run the software in its original form in the future. So what we're trying to do is preserve not only the games, but preserve the knowledge that you would need to create a virtualization platform to play the game."
Europe To Import Sahara Solar Power Within 5 Years 450
An anonymous reader writes "If just 1% of the Sahara Desert were covered in concentrating solar panels it would create enough energy to power the entire world. That's a powerful number, and the European Union has decided to jump on its proximity to the Sahara in order to reap some benefits from the untapped solar energy beaming down on Northern Africa. Yesterday, European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger announced that Europe will start importing solar energy from the Sahara within the next five years. It is estimated that the initiative will cost €400 billion ($495 billion). It's part of an EU goal to derive 20% of its power from renewable sources by 2020. From the article: 'The EU is backing the construction of new electricity cables, known as inter-connectors, under the Mediterranean Sea to carry this renewable energy from North Africa to Europe. Some environmental groups have warned these cables could be used instead to import non-renewable electricity from coal- and gas-fired power stations in north Africa.' To this the energy minister replied, essentially, 'Good question, we'll get back to you on that.'"
Comment Print Direct from Server (Score 1) 347
If your end users are known (Internal Customers) then what I do is use IPP to print direct to known printers using postscript. This is a rare situation though, but the plus is that it works across all platforms/browsers and you can guarantee consistent output.
