Comment Re:Hey come on, gotta hate on MS! (Score 1) 153
Windows cant power the laptop up.
Technically, no. But Windows (or Linux) can program a wake-up alarm into the RTC chip. See for example http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/ACPI_Wakeup .
Comment Poor Ming :( (Score 3, Funny) 366
That was a merciless thing to do to a clam.
Comment Let's not forget... (Score 4, Insightful) 191
Let's also not forget that North Korea successfully launched a satellite into a stable polar orbit (higher than the ISS). That first payload was a bit of a dud, but they have a proven ability to send a package over any part of the Earth's surface.
Submission + - Slashdot blocked in Switzerland (Possibly other parts of Europe) 1
Wattos writes: On my daily commute to work, it is my habit to check several websites for the latest news. Imagine how surprised I was that when slashdot.org was not accessible anymore. Instead I received a 403 Restricted error page. Initially I thought that this would have been a simple mistake by my mobile ISP, so I connected to my home VPN. Slashdot was blocked including many links to websites with vpn services. After connecting to a VPN provider outside of the country (in Poland) slashdot was accessible again.
Comment Re:Build a wall (Score 1) 555
Just a reminder that the terrorist pilots entered the US through Canada.
Comment Tigers? (Score 4, Funny) 119
Does the rock also keep tigers away? Because if so, SOLD!
Comment Or this? (Score 1) 258
The words 'Elon Musk' and 'Loop' make me think of the Lofstrom variety, not underground tunnels.
Submission + - NSA recruitment drive goes horribly wrong
An anonymous reader writes: The Guardian is running a story about a recent recruitment session held by the NSA and attended by students from the University of Wisconsin which had an unexpected outcome for the recruiters.
Attending the session was Madiha R Tahir, a journalist studying a language course at the university. She asked the squirming recruiters a few uncomfortable questions about the activities of NSA: which countries the agency considers to be 'adversaries', and if being a good liar is a qualification for getting a job at the NSA.
Following her, others students started to put NSA employees under fire too. A recording of the session is available on Tahir's blog.
Comment Re:This is stupid (Score 5, Informative) 164
Ferdinant Magellan did it in 1520.
No, Magellan only made it as far as the Philippines and then he was killed. It was Juan Sebastian Elcano who completed the voyage.
Comment Canada (Score 3, Informative) 396
Last I heard, Canada was still OK with it as long as you pay taxes on any applicable transactions. I don't know how long it will last.
Comment Re:AR, cyberpunk style (Score 1) 456
Easy-peasy [xkcd.com]
User Friendly did it first.
V&A Scraps Napalm Death Gig For Fear Decibel Levels Will Damage Sculptures 79
An anonymous reader writes "The Victoria and Albert Museum has cancelled an 'experimental' concert by a death metal rock band amid fears that the high decibel levels could destroy some of its most treasured artefacts, including Ming vases and priceless sculptures. The British band planned to play inside a specially-constructed ceramic sculpture with the idea that the piece would explode under the force of hits such as Order of the Leech and Fear, Emptiness, Despair"
I believe this "death metal rock" is known as "grindcore." Maybe they should book Manowar next.
Submission + - Bitcoin Trading Crashes To $38 After Block Chain Fork Bug Announced (lagunabeachcomputer.com)
Laguna Computer writes: "Today Bitcoin BTC$ crashed to $38 from $48 following news that a block chain fork has occurred. According to realtime chat on the official Mt.Gox Chat Room, the bug occurred after the .8 Bitcoin software version was released. While sources maintain that digital currency wallets are safe, they have asked certain bitcoin miners to cease operation until the block chains can merge. More information to come."
Submission + - Bitcoin blockchain forked by backward-compatibility issue (bitcointalk.org)
jhantin writes: The Bitcoin blockchain has forked due to a lurking backward-compatibility issue: versions older than 0.8 do not properly handle blocks larger than about 500k, and Slush's pool mined a 974k block today. The problem is that not all mining operations are on 0.8; blocks are being generated by a mix of several different versions of the daemon, each making its own decision as to which of the two forks is preferable to extend, and older versions refuse to honor or extend from a block of this size.
The consensus on #bitcoin-dev is damage control: miners need to mine on pre-0.8 code so the backward-compatible fork will outgrow and thus dominate the compatibility-breaking one; merchants need to stop accepting transactions until the network re-converges on the backward-compatible fork of the chain; and average users can ignore the warning that they are out of sync and need to upgrade.
The consensus on #bitcoin-dev is damage control: miners need to mine on pre-0.8 code so the backward-compatible fork will outgrow and thus dominate the compatibility-breaking one; merchants need to stop accepting transactions until the network re-converges on the backward-compatible fork of the chain; and average users can ignore the warning that they are out of sync and need to upgrade.
Comment Re:Butane (Score 1) 204
In this case, the fuel cell is powered by butane. Butane is not readily available, in pure form, in large, easily transferable quantities all over the world. Gasoline, however, is.
Automotive propane is also widely available, and should be equivalent to butane as far as a fuel cell is concerned.
