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Comment Re:Independant Press in America (Score 3, Interesting) 188

That's patently untrue. Unless you're looking hard for it, there really isn't much in the way of extreme-left-wing news out there. Unless you're counting those bearded men handing out poorly xeroxed socialist newsletters. The vast majority of the media is centrist or right wing.

Really vastly right leaning? Did you read about the Pew Research study that showed MSNBC to be even mored biased, and opinionated than Fox News?

Submission + - How The Outdated TI-84 Plus Still Holds a Monopoly on Classrooms

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Electronics almost universally become cheaper over time, but with essentially a monopoly on graphing calculator usage in classrooms, Texas Instruments still manages to command a premium for its TI-84 Plus. Texas Instruments released the TI-84 Plus graphing calculator in 2004. Ten years later, the base model still has 480 kilobytes of ROM and 24 kilobytes of RAM, its black-and-white screen remains 96×64 pixels, and the MSRP is still $150. "Free graphing calculator apps are available," notes Matt McFarland. "But smartphones can’t be used on standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT. Schools are understandably reluctant to let them be used in classrooms, where students may opt to tune out in class and instead text friends or play games. So for now, overpriced hardware and all, the TI-84 family of calculators remains on top and unlikely to go anywhere." So, to paraphrase Prof. Norm Matloff, is it stupid to buy expensive TI-8x milk when the R cow is free?

Comment Re:Proper motivation (Score 1) 72

by lister king of smeg (#47820583) Attached to: Google To Build Quantum Information Processors

Here's a solid prediction, to boot:

Sites already know when we are using plug-ins like Adblocker and some either ask us to exempt their site or refuse to let us in at all. That will continue and render ad blockers useless.

We've already seen that with cookies.

Turn cookies off in your browser and have fun with that bad idea and stuff.

that can be gamed by loading the scripts but not executing them there are similar schemes for cookies.

Submission + - Cellphone towers could predict flooding (sciencemag.org) 1

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Because raindrops both scatter and absorb radiation traveling through a storm, several teams have proposed monitoring variations in the strength of signals bounced between cell towers as a way to measure rainfall. Now, a field test shows the technique works in western Africa. Signals were measurably degraded on 95% of the days when more than 5 millimeters of rain fell at a weather station located between the two towers, the researchers report. Also, the amount of signal degradation was highly correlated with rainfall measurements at the weather station, the team notes. These results suggest the monitoring signals throughout a network of cellphone towers could help meteorologists, even those where rain gauges are few and far between, compile regional rainfall maps and provide early warning of flooding.

Submission + - Reno Selected for Tesla Motors Battery Factory (cnbc.com)

Submitted by Mikenan
Mikenan writes: Tesla has finally decided that it will build its battery "gigafactory" in Nevada, sources say.

"That's a go, but they are still negotiating the specifics of the contract," a source within the Nevada's governor's office told CNBC Wednesday afternoon. The source noted that it could be a week before the deal is official.

Nevada is planning a press conference Thursday in Carson City, according to a Dow Jones report.

Submission + - Verizon pays $7.4 million to settle FCC privacy investigation

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Verizon has agreed to pay $7.4 million because it did not notify customers before using their personal information in marketing campaigns. The FCC discovered that Verizon failed to alert around two million customers of rights that include telling customers how to "opt out from having their personal information used." "In today's increasingly connected world, it is critical that every phone company honor its duty to inform customers of their privacy choices and then to respect those choices," Travis LeBlanc, Acting Chief of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau said.

Submission + - Dangerous sodium reactor spent fuel dissolved at Savannah River Site (augusta.com)

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: Dangerously corroded spent nuclear fuel stored at Savannah River Site has been dissolved after a federal report indicated it needed immediate processing.

The fuel was from the Sodium Reactor Experiment, which launched in California in the 1950s to determine whether nuclear power could provide household electricity. The sodium-cooled reactor made history in 1957 by powering homes, and two years later, it became the first U.S. reactor to experience a meltdown.

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the site’s management and operations contractor, dissolved 147 bundles of the fuel stored in the L-Area Disassembly Basin. The work took about two years to complete.

It was processed at the H-Canyon facility, the nation’s only operating hardened nuclear chemical separations plant where certain types of plutonium, highly-enriched uranium and aluminum-clad spent fuel can be processed for disposal.

The sodium reactor material was prepared for disposition in the late 1970s and then shipped to SRS. The fuel was made of a thorium-uranium alloy that made it unsuitable for use in fabricating fuel for nuclear energy power plants such as the Tennessee Valley Authority.

In 2011, the Sodium Reactor Experiment material was singled out by a federal oversight panel as needing urgent attention. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board warned that at least three of the 36 cans of material had ruptured from corrosion; and that uranium fuel in one can was so corroded that it left 36 kilos of oxide sludge at the bottom, according to The Augusta Chronicle archives.

The fuel was dissolved with other high-aluminum fuel from L-Area. The solution will be transferred to the Defense Waste Processing Facility at SRS where it will be mixed with glass and “vitrified” before permanently sealed in steel canisters.

Comment Re:What's wrong with Windows Server? (Score 1) 613

by lister king of smeg (#47818859) Attached to: You Got Your Windows In My Linux

Not just the sound guy, the sound guy that wrote the broken sound framework. Pulseadio is a horrible horrible system.

Sound on Linux was useless before pulseaudio.

Initial pulseaudio was crap.

Now it works.

Tell that to my laptop where it used to (before I replaced it with alsa) crap out when things like head phones were unplugged, or where I would have to go kill the pulse audio’s daemon every few hours because it decided to just start garbling sound for no reason.

Submission + - Tesla's Fighting Back In Georgia

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: Elon Musk isn't just changing the way our cars work, no, he's changing the way we buy our cars too. At least, he's trying to. Musk and Tesla's biggest hurdle in the U.S. has been bypassing conventional dealerships and selling directly to customers. This concept is something that's illegal in many states thanks to a nationwide patchwork of decades-old franchise laws. Tesla's latest battle is taking place in Georgia where dealers allege that the start-up company is in violation of the state's franchise laws. Not surprsingly, Tesla's fighting back. To sell cars in the state Tesla had to agree to sell fewer than 150 vehicles directly to consumers in the state. Last week Georgia Automobile Dealers Association complained that Tesla sold 173 vehicles. Tesla hasn't publicly commented on how many vehicles it has sold in Georgia. We've seen time and time again how this story ends, and the writing is clearly on the wall for this case.

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