Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - SpaceX rocket failure cost NASA $110 million (latimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: On June 28th, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded just over two minutes into its attempt to reach the International Space Station. It was a contracted mission from NASA to resupply the astronauts living there. Today, NASA associate administrator William Gerstenmaier said the price tag to taxpayers for that failed launch is $110 million. SpaceX is leading the investigation into the cause of the failure, and NASA officials faced tough questions about whether private companies should be allowed to direct investigations into their own failed launches. A similar inquiry is underway at Orbital ATK. NASA inspector general Paul Martin said his office is looking into it. Gerstenmaier added that NASA is thinking about making these companies take out insurance policies that would cover the cost to taxpayers in the event of another failure.

Submission + - Solar activity predicted to fall 60% in 2030s

Submitted by sycodon
sycodon writes: A new model of the Sun's solar cycle is producing unprecedentedly accurate predictions of irregularities within the Sun's 11-year heartbeat. The model draws on dynamo effects in two layers of the Sun, one close to the surface and one deep within its convection zone. Predictions from the model suggest that solar activity will fall by 60 per cent during the 2030s to conditions last seen during the 'mini ice age' that began in 1645.

Submission + - New Rooftops in France Now Must Be Covered in Plants or Solar Panels (themindunleashed.org)

Submitted by MichaelBrittt
MichaelBrittt writes: France has recently introduced an environmental law which makes it obligatory for new buildings in commercial zones to have their rooftops partially covered with either plants or solar panels.

Despite the fact that the primary goal of French environmental activists was to pass a law that would require making the entire surface of new roofs âgreenâ(TM), the potential benefits of commercial buildings with partially covered roofs are still very promising. The French government wanted to avoid approving a law that would impose too many additional costs on businesses, which could possibly have negative effects on the economy.

This draft law is a very positive step forward and a concrete lever for greener and smarter cities, James Watson, CEO of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association, told CBSNews. There are so many unused rooftops in our cities today and solar photovoltaics is the perfect solution to make the best out of them as it can be seamlessly integrated in an urban setting.

The application of this environmental law will help significantly reduce energy costs. The main reason for this is the isolating effect of green roofs, which results in the fact that buildings need less heat during the winter and less air-conditioning in the summer. Some other advantages of green roofs include the ability to retain rainwater and prevent the water runoff, as well as providing shelter for birds in urban surroundings. There is also some evidence that green roofs contribute to reducing the effects of so-called urban heat island , which is associated with the increased temperatures in metropolitan areas in summer.

As for solar panels, itâ(TM)s needless to say that with more buildings powered by renewable energy, it will be possible to mitigate negative environmental consequences of conventional electricity production. Moreover, solar panels have a similar isolating effect as the green roofs.

In a long-term perspective, not only will this law help solve some environmental issues and make a wider use of renewables, but it will also prove beneficial for building owners themselves, since they will be saving on the electricity bills.

Itâ(TM)s very inspiring to see the increasing number of countries that are becoming aware of the importance of environmental sustainability and favor the use of clean energy and environment-friendly initiatives. Some other examples of such countries are Germany and Australia, where green roofs have already become popular, or Norway, which recently started constructing the worldâ(TM)s first âbee highwayâ(TM) to help save the endangered bees. Letâ(TM)s hope that this trend will continue and we will soon see other countries adopt similar environmental laws and facilitate green projects.

Image source: Wikipedia

Submission + - Airbus first to Fly across English Channel, after dirty tricks delay rival. 1

Submitted by wolfguru
wolfguru writes: Airbus claimed the technical coup of being the first to fly and electrically powered plane across the English Channel today, with great fanfare. Unfortunately for Airbus, even though they were able to get rival Pipistrel denied the opportunity earlier this week, by behind-the-scenes pressure on Siemans to de-certify the electric motors Pipistrel uses for flight over water, another electric plane was able to make the flight about 12 hours earlier. French pilot Hugues Duval took his two-engine, one-seat Cricri plane from Calais to Dover and back. Because he was denied authorization to take off from Calais, another fuel-driven plane towed his 100-kilogram (220-pound) Cricri for the start of the trip. He then flew back to Calais and landed safely.
So what does Airbus get to actually claim, other than to have duplicated the acheivement with more media in attendance?

Submission + - Boeing patents a jet engine powered by lasers and nuclear explosions (businessinsider.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Last week, the US Patent and Trademark Office approved an application from Boeing's Robert Budica, James Herzberg, and Frank Chandler for a laser- and nuclear-driven airplane engine.

Shouldn't everything be powered by lasers and nuclear explosions? Technically, though, these are thermonuclear explosions, which of course only makes it cooler. . .

Submission + - WebAssembly and the Future of JavaScript (dice.com)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: WebAssembly is the next stage in the evolution of client-side scripting. In theory, it will improve on JavaScript’s speed. That’s not to say that JavaScript is a slowpoke: Incremental speed improvements have included the rollout of asm.js (an optimized subset) in 2013. But WebAssembly—while not a replacement for JavaScript—is intended as a “cure” for a variety of issues where JavaScript isn’t always a perfect fit, including video editing, encryption, peer-to-peer, and more. (Here’s a full list of the Web applications that WebAssembly could maybe improve.) If WebAssembly is not there to replace JavaScript but to complement it, the key to the integration rests with the DOM and Garbage Collected Objects such as JavaScript strings, functions (as callable closures), Typed Arrays and Typed objects. The bigger question is, will WebAssembly actually become something big, or is it ultimately doomed to suffer the fate of other hyped JavaScript-related platforms such as Dart (a Google-only venture), which attracted buzz ahead of a Minimum Viable Product release, only to quickly fade away afterward?

Submission + - Seasteading Institute aims to build floating city by 2020 (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Eloking
Eloking writes: An organization in which Paypal founder Peter Thiel is an investor is aiming to build a floating city-state by 2020. The Seasteading Institute says semi-independent floating cities would provide an opportunity to try out new modes of government and could also tackle a number of other problems.

Submission + - Airbus chating on competition in cross-channel e-flight challenge

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Aerospace giant Airbus has been accused of 'bad sportsmanship' after squashing the ambitions of light aircraft maker Pipistrel to be the first to fly an electric aircraft across the English Channel.
After Pipistrel acquired flight permissions, the German electronics company Siemens which supplies the electric motor used in the Pipistrel Alpha Electro contacted Pipistrel to say they could not use the motor over water (partly German).

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: How to get mother back into programming after long maternity leave

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: My wife has been on a maternity leave for 3 years now. She is starting to think about refreshing her coding skills and looking for a job. Before, she worked as a Java developer for around 2 years doing mostly Java Enterprise stuff.
However she is not very eager to go back to coding. I think she has the right mental skills to be a developer but she is just not very passionate about coding or IT in general. On the other hand, it's relatively easier to find a job in IT than starting a new career.
We live in Spain and with the current economic situation the market for software developers is not great but it's definitely better than other jobs.
I there anything else she might do, ideally Java (but could be anything IT related) that would be easier and more fun than the typical Java Enterprise stuff, while also giving her a good change to find a decent job?
Btw: I'm a Java developer myself with many years of experience but mostly doing boring Java Enterprise stuff.

Submission + - Bill Gates To Invest $2 Billion In Renewables (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Bill Gates has invested about a billion dollars in renewable energy, and now he's ready to double down. Gates announced he will increase his investment in renewable energy technologies to $2 billion in an attempt to "bend the curve" on limiting climate change. He is focusing on risky investments that favor "breakthrough" technologies because he thinks incremental improvements to existing tech won't be enough to meet energy needs while avoiding a climate catastrophe. "There’s no battery technology that’s even close to allowing us to take all of our energy from renewables and be able to use battery storage in order to deal not only with the 24-hour cycle but also with long periods of time where it’s cloudy and you don’t have sun or you don’t have wind. Power is about reliability. We need to get something that works reliably." At the same time, Gates rejected calls to divest himself and his charitable foundation of investments in fossil fuel companies.

Submission + - MIT's automatic software bug repairing without access to source code

Submitted by jan_jes
jan_jes writes: MIT researchers have presented a new system at the Association for Computing Machinery’s Programming Language Design and Implementation conference, that repairs the dangerous software bugs by automatically importing functionality from other, more secure applications. According to MIT, "The system, dubbed CodePhage, doesn’t require access to the source code of the applications. Instead, it analyzes the applications’ execution and characterizes the types of security checks they perform. As a consequence, it can import checks from applications written in programming languages other than the one in which the program it’s repairing was written."

Submission + - Mob Programming: When Is 5 Heads Really Better Than 1 (or 2)? (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: Proponents of Mob programming, an offshoot of Pair programming in which the whole team works together on the same computer, say that it increases both quality and productivity, but also acknowledge that the productivity gains might not be readily apparent. 'If you measure by features or other classic development productivity metrics, Mobbing looks like it's achieving only 75 to 85 percent of individual or Pair output for, say, a team of six or seven working for a week,' says Paul Massey, whose company Bluefruit Software is a heavy user of the Mob approach. So, where does the productivity come from? Matthew Dodkins, a software architect at Bluefruit says the biggest gains are in code merges. 'In a day spent using traditional collaboration, you would have to first spend time agreeing on tasks, common goals, deciding who's doing what... and then going away to do that, write code, and come back and merge it, resolve problems,' says Dodkins. By bringing everyone into the same room, 'we try to merge frequently, and try to do almost continuous integration.' Matt Schartman, whose company Appfolio also uses Mobbing and wrote about his experience, gave Mobbing high marks for producing a quality product, but didn't find that it improved productivity in any measurable way.

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 + - U.S. Army developing 173mph hoverbike (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Since Return of the Jedi, the concept of a hoverbike has been undeniably cool, but the flying machines may also have many practical advantages over standard helicopters—they’re cheaper, quieter and safer. For some time now there has been speculation that they could be useful in search and rescue missions and first-responder emergency scenarios. This has piqued the interest of the U.S. Department of Defense, who have brought U.K. hoverbike pioneers Malloy Aeronautics to Maryland to develop Malloy’s high-flying, 173mph carbon fiber craft for the Army.

Submission + - This Is What Happens When A State Seriously Invests In Clean Energy (huffingtonpost.com) 2

Submitted by mspohr
mspohr writes: "Solar farms are blooming across California’s deserts, wind turbines are climbing the Sierra, photovoltaic roofs are shimmering over suburbs, and Teslas are the Silicon Valley elite’s new ride. A clean energy rush is transforming the Golden State so quickly that nearly a quarter of its electricity now comes from renewable sources, and new facilities, especially solar, are coming online at a rapid rate. Last year, California became the first state to get more than 5 percent of its electricity from the sun."
This is a big turnaround:
"It’s difficult to remember that just 15 years earlier the state was experiencing an energy meltdown. Electricity prices skyrocketed, supply crashed and blackouts rolled, due mainly to a disastrous deregulation attempt and unscrupulous market manipulation. "

Slashdot Top Deals

Work is the crab grass in the lawn of life. -- Schulz

Close