Comment Re:Mod parent up (Score 1) 1799
Came out of a long Slashdot slumber to say that all of your advice is solid and holds.
Comment Re:I was asked to join this .. (Score 1) 275
you get some letters after your name...
Comment Radar not laser (Score 1) 351
Typically a better solution is to use radar or infrared, laser tends to have problems penetrating cloud cover and the like. Space based radar altimeters are nothing new, and yes you could theoretically set up a tsunami warning system in space. Radar technology has come a long way in terms of power and range. I work in the radar altimeter industry so maybe I am biased.
Comment SEU tolerant hardware (Score 1) 437
What's the problem, there are open source SEU tolerant CPUs you can use out there
http://www.gaisler.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=section&id=4&Itemid=33
Leon FT, space grade, VHDL IP cores available.
Comment Re:Spotify not ITunes will be the big competitor (Score 1) 277
I hear what you are saying and I agree of course, although there are higher quality streams available in the paid service (the free streams sound better than an average MP3 to me though!).
The plan is that for the free service they will get paid enough via advertising to make money, so the paid or free is included in their model. I have noticed more frequent adverts in the free service lately though, I think they are tryin to make the free service somewhat less attractive.
Who wants to "own" music these days anyway, I don't want to buy CD's or files, I want instant access to everything ever recorded at superb quality and with a nice interface wherever I want - as you say with some help for me to find the things I might like.
They seem to be adding things fast so expect the music you might like to work better in the near future.
Comment Spotify not ITunes will be the big competitor (Score 4, Insightful) 277
Here in Sweden 1 in 5 of the population has a Spotify account. I think Google would do themselves a service by coughing up a huge sum of money and buying Spotify which already has pretty much all music you would want, android, ipod, apple, pc applications, high quality ogg vorbis streams and a very loyal user base.
Spotify is the next big thing, the US just hasn't seen it yet, their business model is great, and their software works really well.
Spotify may not be for sale, but Google has deep pockets and a link up would knock out MS and Apple easily I think.
Submission + - Conficker to Create Dark Google? 1
The Narrative Fallacy writes: "John Markoff has a story on the NY Times speculating on what will happen on April 1 when the conficker worm is scheduled to activate. Already on an estimated 12 million machines, conjectures about Conficker's purpose ranges from the benign — an April Fool's Day prank — to far darker notions. Some say the program will be used in the "rent-a-computer-crook" business, something that has been tried previously by the computer underground. "The most intriguing clue about the purpose of Conficker lies in the intricate design of the peer-to-peer logic of the latest version of the program, which security researchers are still trying to completely decode," writes Markoff. According to a paper by researchers at SRI International, in the Conficker C version of the program, infected computers can act both as clients and servers and share files in both directions. With these capabilities, conficker's authors could be planning to create a scheme like Freenet, the peer-to-peer system that was intended to make Internet censorship of documents impossible. On a darker note, Stefan Savage, a computer scientist at the University of California at San Diego, has suggested the possibility of a "Dark Google." "What if Conficker is intended to give the computer underworld the ability to search for data on all the infected computers around the globe and then sell the answers," writes Markoff. "That would be a dragnet — and a genuine horror story.""
Submission + - UFO spotted on moon by Italian astronomers
morpheus83 writes: During routine observations of the cosmos, Italian astronomers have recently spotted and tracked on video an Unidentified Flying Object or UFO. Though it may look as a bug on the lens it is not because if zoomed than the object would look much bigger.
Submission + - Xbox 360 Repairs Will Cost Microsoft $1B (ap.org)
* * Beatles-Beatles writes: "http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MICROSOFT_X BOX_WARRANTY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
the company says it is planning to spend at least $1 billion to repair serious problems with its Xbox 360 video game console.
Microsoft declined to detail the problems that have caused an onslaught of "general hardware failures" in recent months but said Thursday it will extend the warranty on the consoles to three years."
the company says it is planning to spend at least $1 billion to repair serious problems with its Xbox 360 video game console.
Microsoft declined to detail the problems that have caused an onslaught of "general hardware failures" in recent months but said Thursday it will extend the warranty on the consoles to three years."
Submission + - Tesla Roadster (timesonline.co.uk)
orbitalia writes: Who says electric cars have to be boring, Jay Leno test drives a new electric car based on the Lotus Elise that can do 0-60mph in 4 seconds for the UK Times. The Tesla shows sports cars can be electrifying. The sports car needn't die once oil runs out. I guess this is the first car that means we as sports car aficionados can see beyond the end of the internal combustion engine. Will electric, hydrogen or bio be the drive of the future?
