Comment What's with the "editing" today? (Score 3, Insightful) 202
Rouge satellites?
Are the slashdot editors drunk? This is only the latest of several simple grammatical and spelling errors in the summaries today.
Comment Re:Yeah (Score 1) 348
Because they took a bunch of open source BSD code and then kept the important "value added" parts like the windowing system closed.
Comment A true renewable power solution (Score 1) 164
How soon can we hook them up to The Matrix?
Comment Re:hp48 (Score 1) 289
"me too".
The documentation bites huge donkey balls. Even the "advanced" guides could use some help. It's a good command reference, but it doesn't help much if you don't know the command to do specific things.
The hp48 guides were light years better.
for example, enter in polar coordinates:
( 6 40 )
the (angle) is right shift alpha 6. Not labeled on the keyboard. ARGH!
Too many ARGH moments with the 50. Where's the ROT key? buried in some menu.
I'll probably like it more after I figure out how to customize the crap out of it.
Comment Re:hp48 (Score 2, Informative) 289
I am taking a circuits class with 20 other students, all of whom are using ti-89s.
doing AC steady state circuit analysis is loads faster with the hp.
for example, find the parallel equivalent for a 20, 30, and 40 ohm resistor:
HP:
20 inv 30 inv 40 inv ++ inv
ti:
1/(1/20+1/30+1/40))
11 keypresses vs. 19
When you get to complex numbers (inductors and capacitors) it's not even close. I finish calculations in well less than half the time it takes the TI users. And not because I'm some sort of superwhiz with the calculator- it just works better.
The TI is a good calculator, but you can't really appreciate the speed of RPN until you've taken the time to get practiced with it.
The HP also has an algebraic mode, fwiw, if you want the "how it looks on paper" effect. It can be helpful if you are working with a complex equation and want to make sure you have done it correctly.
So.. RPN isn't god's gift to calculation for everything, but it can be very handy in many situations.
Comment Re:hp48 (Score 1) 289
The previous version of the "post-48" series was the hp49g+.
Absolutely godawful keys. Really horrible and also not great.
The hp50 is _much_ better, and I agree with other posters (on other forums) that it is the first calculator to be "better" than the hp48gx.
But it's not much better, and some things are less intuitive.
If you get one the bible (aka advanced user/programmers guide) from hpcalc.org is mandatory.
Comment Re:G-forces ???? (Score 1) 384
What if the structural entity was immersed in a liquid? That might cancel out the "mashing" effect.
Comment Re:And then what? (Score 1) 580
LOAD "$", 8
DIR
Actually have access to the filesystem, how dare we!
Just a guess.
Comment Mod parent troll (Score 0) 91
| "you just can't fucking write." as AC-
how about a little decorum? Normal person (though that may not apply here) + anonymity + audience = exactly what again?
Submission + - Cheney Exempts Self From Presidential Orders (speaker.gov) 1
cybermage writes: "Even in the face of Cheney's office's involvement in the leaking of information related to national security, such as the Valerie Plame incident, vice president Cheney has exempted his office from complying with a presidential order that sets out procedures for the safe handling of national security information."
Submission + - Windows Genuine Advantage Authenticated on Ubuntu
mikus writes: "Just more proof how worthless Microsoft's security is for even their "Genuine Advantage" program, WGA was defeated using Ubuntu, IEs4Linux, and their non-ActiveX authentication to download patches or such from the beast. Ubuntu forums cover the shenanigans with video!
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=475709"
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=475709"
Submission + - The Comparison Shopper (blogspot.com)
samsonovster writes: "There are so many mfrs.: Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Sony, Samsung etc. One makes sensors; the others make LCD-panels and some of them only assemble devices, which is best? What's I need — a DSLR or Compact Camera? What should buy first: HD-camcorder or LCD-panel with 1980x1080 resolutions? And they all try to persuade us they make what we need — buy it! How to make a right choice and not to pay for useless gadgets? There are my own experience of using these gadgets and many interesting images."
Submission + - 40% of all electricity used by turned off devices (i-hacked.com)
WWMPCDD writes: The Department of Energy estimates that in the average home, 40 percent of all electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off. Add that all up, and it equals the annual output of 17 power plants, the government says.
Submission + - Sand Holes Trump Sharks for Deadly Danger (cnn.com)
iocat writes: Just in time for summer comes a new threat at the beach... the beach itself. According to a story on CNN , which sites an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, sand holes have killed more Americans (16) than shark attacks (12) in the period from 1990 — 2006. They can quickly collapse and crush or suffocate victims.
According to the article, one victim was " Matthew Gauruder, who died from a collapse at an after-prom beach party in Westerly, Rhode Island, in May 2001. The 17-year-old was playing football with friends when he jumped for a pass and fell backward into an eight-foot-deep hole someone had dug earlier. Would-be rescuers made the problem worse by caving in more sand as they tried to approach him. People at the scene said he may have been buried 15 minutes, said his mother, Mavis. "
A crusading father and son duo of doctors has pursued the issue for years, after the son witnessed a dangerous collapse while working a summer job as a life-guard on Martha's Vineyard. Apparently life-guards on the Vineyard are now instructed to kick people out of holes deeper than a child's waist.
According to the article, one victim was " Matthew Gauruder, who died from a collapse at an after-prom beach party in Westerly, Rhode Island, in May 2001. The 17-year-old was playing football with friends when he jumped for a pass and fell backward into an eight-foot-deep hole someone had dug earlier. Would-be rescuers made the problem worse by caving in more sand as they tried to approach him. People at the scene said he may have been buried 15 minutes, said his mother, Mavis. "
A crusading father and son duo of doctors has pursued the issue for years, after the son witnessed a dangerous collapse while working a summer job as a life-guard on Martha's Vineyard. Apparently life-guards on the Vineyard are now instructed to kick people out of holes deeper than a child's waist.
Submission + - Global Cooling - The other shoe drops (canada.com)
fyngyrz writes: "As always, there are rumbles of discontent from the scientific community with regard to global warming. This article from R. Timothy Patterson, professor and director of the Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Centre, Department of Earth Sciences, Carleton University, lays the overriding mechanism of climate change squarely at the feet of the various solar cycles. In the article, he explains that solar energy impacting the earth is part of the mechanism, while the sun's solar wind drives cloud formation in a complementary cycle that enhances the effect of the actual heat input. But that's not the kicker. The interesting part is he is predicting global cooling, rather than warming."
