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Businesses

Submission + - GM Admits to Losing Money on Every Volt Built (greencarreports.com)

Submitted by thecarchik
thecarchik writes: Doug Parks, vehicle line executive for the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, GM's range-extended electric vehicle, confirmed Tuesday that the company loses money on every Volt it sells. The expensive 16-kilowatt-hour battery pack, which likely costs GM somewhere between $8,000 and $12,000, is clearly too expensive to let the company build hundreds of thousands of Volts right away. Just 10,000 Volts will be built in 2011, though GM is working to increase that number. GM plans to chip away incrementally to lower the costs of the specialized components in the Volt, especially the power electronics. The price of consumer lithium-ion cells has fallen 6 to 8 percent annually since their 1989 launch; the large-format cells in automotive packs seem likely to follow the same curve and as costs are lowered the Volt may stop being a loss for the company/
Hardware

Submission + - MoNETA: A Mind Made from Memristors (ieee.org)

Submitted by Csiko
Csiko writes: Researchers at Boston University's department of cognitive and neural systems work on an artificial brain implemented with Memristors. A Memristor is a new class of electronic device that completes the two-terminal passive elements resistor, capacitor and inductor. Also theoretically described, solid state versions of memristors have not been implemented until recently.
Now researchers in Boston claim that memristors are the new key technology to implement highly integreated powerful artificial brains on cheap and widely available hardware within five years.

Comment Re:How Does a Refund Fix Anything? (Score 1) 353

by Valtor (#31790858) Attached to: PS3 Owner Refunded For Missing "Other OS"

I've been doing a lot of reading up on these things recently (I'm the PS3 owner mentioned in the story, and quite embarassed to be front page news on Slashdot when all I actually did was send a mail to Amazon asking them to clarify where they stood on this whole affair) - the relevant EU directive (1999/44/EC) states that where the retailer pays out but the lack of conformity was caused by the producer (or someone else further up the supply chain) the retailer has the right to go after the person responsible for the lack of conformity to get their money back - in this case, Sony. I'm hoping Amazon will end up doing this, because they're not the ones to blame for this.

Thank you. This is much appreciated.

Patrick

Comment Re:F-China (Score 1) 197

by Valtor (#30911224) Attached to: Evidence Weakens That China Did the Recent Cyberattacks

I agree. Right now I'm training an army of American hackers that are going to roll over China. Check out this video of my protege at work. That madd h4xx iz a freebie for you, the more advanced stuff (like photoshopping a cat's head onto a dog's body) will cost ya. USA #1 baby.

While you are at it, you should try to implement The Daemon. ;-)

Valtor

PS: Great book by the way.
NASA

Submission + - Nasa Reveals It's New Modular Spacesuit (technologyreview.com) 1

Submitted by TechRev_AL
TechRev_AL writes: As part of its Constellation program, NASA has set about creating a completely new space suit. David Clark Company, in partnership with Oceaneering International, is designing suit, which could be used for missions to the space station, the moon, and eventually Mars. It has interchangeable parts, so the arms, legs, boots, and helmet can be switched. The first configuration, shown here, is designed for launch, descent, and emergency activities, while the second design is meant for lunar exploration. To put the new suit in perspective, this gallery looks back at all of NASA's previous space suits.

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