Comment Re:Left seat? (Score 1) 260
Strangely enough, I think that two of the Scaled Composites test pilots are brothers.
Comment Re:First Ship! (Score 1) 260
In Manchester there is a franchisee of the Virgin group that operates a store selling bridal apparel and accessories.
It's called "Virgin Brides".
Comment Re:You are all idiots (Score 1) 897
You sound like the author of the "Black Swan". You are both:
- correct on almost all points
- speaking in language that makes it hard to distinguish jargon, allegory and hyperbole
- going to be ignored
Such a shame.
Comment Re:Brilliant battery idea (Score 1) 897
This is going to be a little random.
A brillant battery idea, but it's not mine: Swap the battery rather than charging it in place. Replaceable battery modules can be swapped out quickly and recharged at leisure. Charging stations can have the infrastructure in place to robotically swap batteries in about the time it takes to pump gas. GPS systems can be programmed to route to swapping stations with an available battery for your vehicle. With reliably present battery swapping stations, road trips of any length become possible. It doesn't take a large surplus of batteries to make this work out given the statistical variation - and charging your battery with 220V AC is a good default solution. Forget 110V. That's not going to work. You're going to need more current than your typical wall outlet will provide.
.....
I'll just comment on the batteries issue. Hot-swapping batteries to speed up battery recharge times is unnecessary unless you insist on recharging from a standard household plug/voltage. Also, you should not run your electrical car until battery depletion. That means that most of the time you will be doing a top-up charge, going from about 20% to about 70% battery capacity, which is quicker.
Batteries need some improvement but they are not the only electricity storage solutions. Capacitor based systems may ultimately be the future direction.
I have personal reservations about hot-swappable batteries. If it is possible for someone to do at home, somebody will try it. The prospect of a fully/partially charged battery pack being accidentally discharged by a weekend tinkerer is frightening. Anything that can release that much energy that quickly should be left to experts.
Comment Re:SUVs (Score 0, Troll) 897
The first half of you post had merit, but you lost it (and my interest) from then on. The following quotes are the problem:
- British/American enlightenment devotion to the Rights of Man
- inflicts Hell on Earth on its own citizens because they might think there is a mystical element to some forms of exercise
- hardcore socialist (chortle) Barack Obama(snicker)
- Second Coming of Karl Marx
Each of those statements is factually wrong and would be misleading even if intended as hyperbole. You were doing well until then, stick with what you know.
Comment Re:Nice start... (Score 1) 305
I think the parent poster is confusing a memory protection feature with multi-tasking. With memory protection the independent tasks could be prevented from stomping on each others memory spaces.
Submission + - Serve a page for every HTTP Status Code (all 57)
produke writes: "WOW, I served a page for every single HTTP Status Code and saved Headers and Content
"There are 57 recognized HTTP Status Codes in the latest version of Apache. But chances are that you will only ever see or hear about 3-6 of them. Well I figured out a neat little hack by looking in the Apache Source Code that will let anyone setup Apache to send ANY HTTP status code for specific requests. I went ahead and performed the requests on all 57 of my special http status code spitting pages. I saved the headers and src for each one, so now you can use this page as a literal map for designing cgi, perl, and php scripts that have custom headers.. Now you will be able to find out what each of those 57 Status Codes do.. and copy them. All of this is possible if you have htaccess setup..
Submission + - Sony and Nintendo Make the Emulators of the Year
Croakyvoice writes: Sony and Nintendo are the arch enemies of Emulation with both over the years doing
their upmost to stop it, just ask the creators of Bleem and VGS. But this year
both companies have released what are the very best emulators of easily the last year, Sony`s Full speed PS1 Emulator for the PSP and Nintendo`s range of emulators for the Wii.
Submission + - Open Graphics Round Table
cranos writes: "In this fortnights episode of Open Source On The Air, I sit down with three Graphic Artists who have based their entire work flow on Free and Open Source Software.
We talk about the state of the current FOSS graphics toolset, how this has affected things like barriers to entry, as well as discussing the growing interaction between the audience and the graphic artists.
You can find the full show here: http://localfoss.org/OSOTA/Episode_16"
We talk about the state of the current FOSS graphics toolset, how this has affected things like barriers to entry, as well as discussing the growing interaction between the audience and the graphic artists.
You can find the full show here: http://localfoss.org/OSOTA/Episode_16"
Submission + - Robots for the Aging Population
QuantumCrypto writes: "University of Tokyo is exploring the possibility of making robots to be better servants. The researchers there are hoping to use these robots in the care of the fast aging population, as well as the sick and the bedridden. As a demonstration of their latest advancement, they showed off a robot that can serve tea. Interestingly, tea-serving robots have been around for 400 years."
Feed Directors' Dilemma: Cut or Not? (wired.com)
Submission + - Thorium the Key to Non-Prolfieration?
P3NIS_CLEAVER writes: Nuclear energy has been proposed as an alternative to coal power plants that generating carbon dioxide and emit mercury. As we are seeing now in Iran, the desire for nuclear energy has created a gray area that places peaceful civilian power generation at odds with nuclear non-proliferation. An article at Resource Investor claims that thorium reactors can be used to replace existing reactors without creating isotopes that may be used in nuclear weapons.
Submission + - Adobe To Take Photoshop Online
Mr. Linton writes: "In this CNET article Adobe is apparently planning to take Photoshop to the web. From the article: "the hosted Photoshop service is set to be free and marketed as an entry-level version of Adobe's more sophisticated image-editing tools, including Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Chizen envisions revenue from the Photoshop service coming from online advertising.""
Submission + - Big 'Ocean' Discovered Beneath Asia
anthemaniac writes: Seismic observations reveal a huge reservoir of water in Earth's mantle beneath Asia. It's actually rock saturated with water, but it's an ocean's worth of water ... as much as is in the whole Arctic Ocean. How did it get there? A slab of water-laden crust sank, and the water evaporated out when it was heated, and then it was trapped, the thinking goes. The discovery fits neatly with the region's heavy seismic activity and fits neatly with the idea that the planet's moving crustal plates are lubricated with water.
Submission + - Slashdot in a sci-fi book
An anonymous reader writes: I was reading 'Century Rain' by Alastair Reynolds and was very surprised to see Slashdot mentioned there. Apparently a powerful, technologically advanced human society in the future will be founded by Slashdotters. From the book:
"It's all right," Niagara said. "I won't be the least bit offended if you call me a Slasher. You probably regard the term as an insult."
"Isn't it?" Auger asked, surprised.
"Only if you want it to be." Niagara made a careful gesture, like some religious benediction: a diagonal slice across his chest and a stab to the heart. "A slash and a dot," he said. "I doubt it means anything to you, but this was once the mark of an alliance of progressive thinkers linked together by one of the very first computer networks. The Federation of Polities can trace its existence right back to that fragile collective, in the early decades of the Void Century. It's less a stigma than a mark of community."
