Comment Re:How about... (Score 1) 617
If you are not giving credit for D's, explain the difference between a D and an F.
LHC To Idle All Accelerators In 2012 117
sciencehabit writes "Particle physicists and science fans everywhere knew that the European particle physics laboratory, CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland, would shut down the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest atom smasher, for all of 2012 for repairs. Many expected that the shutdown would stretch to more than a year, which CERN officials confirmed today. But most probably did not expect CERN to idle all its other accelerators at the same time, shutting down a variety of smaller projects and forcing hundreds of scientists not working on the LHC to take an unanticipated break in data taking. The longer shutdown could be a chance for US scientists working on the Tevatron at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, if researchers there can persuade lab management to keep the machine going instead of shutting it down in 2011 as currently planned."
Reader suraj.sun notes other CERN news making the rounds right now about plans for the International Linear Collider, a 31-kilometer-long collider designed to complement the LHC. Construction on the ILC could begin as soon as 2012.
Comment Re:Back of the envelope power cost calculation (Score 1) 316
You beat me to posting this calculation. However you are calculating revenue as the ROI and not profit. They still have to operate the plant and pay the distribution costs. This will lower their ROI significantly. If they are making a 10% profit, which I think may be high, then the profit at $.10 becomes 1 cent per KWH. If you wanted your money back in 20 years, you would have to make a profit of $.17 per KWH.
60Million/20 years = 3M per year
3M/365 Days = $8,220 Profit a day.
$8220/ capacity of 50,000 KWH per day = $.16
This means you have to charge more than twice the going rate for electricity. Eventually, as fossil fuels become more scarce, this will be a cheaper way to make power. I suppose that it is 60M well spent on R&D.
Comment Re:I have to say (Score 2, Informative) 93
They are not dreaming. Look at the Arduino project (http://www.arduino.cc/). This is an open source hardware project. All OSHW means is that anyone can make it.
Open Source Hardware Definition Hits 0.3 93
ptorrone writes "A group of open source hardware makers have put together a draft of the open source hardware definition, now at version 0.3, which hopes to further define the making, sharing and selling of hardware within an 'Open Source Hardware license.' This fall, the day before Maker Faire New York City, the group hopes to have the license finalized for v1.0, and they are holding the first Open Source Hardware Summit. There are currently dozens of companies making open source hardware, altogether worth millions of dollars."
Man Claims 84% of Facebook, Gets Order Blocking Assets 326
Cyrus writes "According to a Bloomberg scoop, a New York man claiming to own a majority of Facebook has gotten a signed court order to block Facebook from transferring assets."
Apple Censors Consumer Report iPhone4 Discussions 588
An anonymous reader writes "Apple has done it again. All threads about Consumer Report's iPhone4 non-recommendation are removed or deleted.
If it happened once, maybe you'd say it was a glitch. But what if it happened twice? Three times? Four times, five, six?"
South Korea Deploys Killer Robot In DMZ 243
shikaisi writes "Not content with just killing people in computer games, South Korea has gone one better and is deploying remotely controlled sentry robots on the border with the north. According to the article 'If the command centre operator cannot identify possible intruders through the robot's audio or video communications system, the operator can order it to fire its gun or 40mm automatic grenade launcher.'"
Comment Why this is a good decision (Score 1) 780
An example in hyperbole:
I have a petition in my hot little hands that asserts that I should be made supreme commander of the earth with authority to decide who lives and who dies. It is signed by over 4 Billion people, all of whom wish to remain anonymous. Can I have my throne now?
Submission + - MonkeyPaw Games bringing Japanese classics to USA (thekartel.com)
almehdaaol writes: It looks like import gamers will have it easier as new company MonkeyPaw Games plans to bring over a slew of Japanese titles to all three of the major console's digital distribution stores. The first set of games will be PS one imports for the PlayStation Network (PSN). In a JoyStiq interview, MonkeyPaw president and former Hudson Entertainment president John Greiner also discusses projects with the XBLA, Virtual Console and Nintendo 3DS in the future.
Submission + - Civ 5 will let you import and convert Civ 4 maps (bitmob.com) 1
bbretterson writes: From an interview Bitmob conducted with Civilization 5 Lead Designer Jon Shafer:
You can import Civ 4 maps into the world builder and convert them into Civ 5 maps, including all the units and cities and stuff on it — the conversion process will just do that for you automatically. We’re hoping that the first week Civ 5 is out, people will use that function and port all of the Civ 4 stuff over to Civ 5, so everything will be out there already.
You can import Civ 4 maps into the world builder and convert them into Civ 5 maps, including all the units and cities and stuff on it — the conversion process will just do that for you automatically. We’re hoping that the first week Civ 5 is out, people will use that function and port all of the Civ 4 stuff over to Civ 5, so everything will be out there already.
Submission + - The Fastest ISPs in the U.S
adeelarshad82 writes: PCMag recently put internet browsing speeds to test to see which ISP was the fastest. The result was based on a quarter million tests which were run between May 1, 2009 and April 30, 2010 by over 6,000 users. The test was carried out using SurfSpeed which takes into account the complete, real-world download time of a web page to a browser. According to the results Verizon's FiOS took the top spot as the nations fastest ISP, with a SurfSpeed score of 1.23 Mbps. Interestingly though, off all the regions where Verizon's FiOS is available it's dominance is only seen in Northeast and West, where as Cox's and Comcast's cable service dominated in the south region. Moreover Cox's and Optimum Online's cable service also dominated over AT&T's fiber optic service in the nationwide results with surf SurfSpeed of 1.14Mbps, 1.12Mbps and 1.06Mbps respectively. The bottom of the table mostly consisteny of DSL service providers with the lowest speed of 544 Kbps from Frontier and going up to 882Kbps by Earthlink. Other interesting facts noted in the test were that the broadband penetration was the highest in Rhode Island and lowest in Mississippi, where as the average internet bill was the highest in Delaware and lowest in Arkansas.
Submission + - Google/YouTube Defeat Viacom in $1 Billion US suit (reuters.com)
Yungoe writes: Google and YouTube are victorious over Viacom in a $1 Billion (US) lawsuit over copyright infringement. According to the ruling:
"Mere knowledge of prevalence of such activity in general is not enough," and "The provider need not monitor or seek out facts indicating such activity."
Naturally, Viacom says they will appeal.
"Mere knowledge of prevalence of such activity in general is not enough," and "The provider need not monitor or seek out facts indicating such activity."
Naturally, Viacom says they will appeal.
Submission + - Google Spy-fi Timeline and Investigation Overviews (p2pnet.net) 1
An anonymous reader writes: Google's sneak view Street View advertising hook has been a major centre of controversy ever since it reared its ugly head. But there are so many reports and so much Google counter-spin, there's a distinct danger of not being able to see the wood for the trees.
However, "Epic seems to have a semi-decent time line of events on gargoyle streetview and it's mass invasion of communications privacy", says a Reader's Write.
It does indeed.
"Many countries around the world have launched investigations of Google Street View", it says in the intro, going on:
"The number of investigations increased dramatically once it was determined that Google was collecting Wi-Fi data in addition to digital images. The purpose of this page is to provide an overview of the various investigations. We will update the page as information is received. Please send updates to streetviewwatch@epic.org."
And:
"When Google began the Street View project in 2007, many privacy concerns were raised, but the debates focused almost exclusively on the collection and display of images obtained by the Google Street View digital cameras."
But "It turns out that Google was also obtaining a vast amount of Wi-Fi data from Wi-Fi receivers that were concealed in the Street View vehicles. Following independent investigations, Google now concedes that it gathered MAC addresses (the unique device ID for Wi-Fi hotposts) and network SSIDs (the user-assigned network ID name) tied to location information for private wireless networks. Google also admits that it has intercepted and stored Wi-Fi transmission data, which includes email passwords and email content. As of June 18, 2010, investigations are going forward in 18 countries and five states in the US."
The collection is worth a look, and to get you started, below are Epic summaries of recent reports centering on the scandal
However, "Epic seems to have a semi-decent time line of events on gargoyle streetview and it's mass invasion of communications privacy", says a Reader's Write.
It does indeed.
"Many countries around the world have launched investigations of Google Street View", it says in the intro, going on:
"The number of investigations increased dramatically once it was determined that Google was collecting Wi-Fi data in addition to digital images. The purpose of this page is to provide an overview of the various investigations. We will update the page as information is received. Please send updates to streetviewwatch@epic.org."
And:
"When Google began the Street View project in 2007, many privacy concerns were raised, but the debates focused almost exclusively on the collection and display of images obtained by the Google Street View digital cameras."
But "It turns out that Google was also obtaining a vast amount of Wi-Fi data from Wi-Fi receivers that were concealed in the Street View vehicles. Following independent investigations, Google now concedes that it gathered MAC addresses (the unique device ID for Wi-Fi hotposts) and network SSIDs (the user-assigned network ID name) tied to location information for private wireless networks. Google also admits that it has intercepted and stored Wi-Fi transmission data, which includes email passwords and email content. As of June 18, 2010, investigations are going forward in 18 countries and five states in the US."
The collection is worth a look, and to get you started, below are Epic summaries of recent reports centering on the scandal
Submission + - Solar's Great Leap Forward (technologyreview.com)
TravisTR writes: Suntech CEO Zhengrong Shi made China a powerhouse in photovoltaic technology--and became a billionaire in the process. His next ambition: to make solar power as cheap as conventional electricity.
