Comment Re:Another reason not to fly via Heathrow (Score 2, Insightful) 821
Is there any chance at all that the skies are safer due in, at least in some part, increased security measures?
Comment Re:Fifty votes from "executives"? (Score 2, Insightful) 189
"That's the kind of thinking that destroys companies." [Citation Needed]
Comment Re:A HRM is a really REALLY valuable exercise aid. (Score 1) 950
Also, exercise heart-rate monitors aren't THAT precise: you can detect a gross abnormality like atrial fibrilation, but nothing subtle.
Its worth noting that the number of grade-school aged children with atrial fibrillation is pretty close to 0.
Painting The World's Roofs White Could Slow Climate Change 712
Hugh Pickens writes "Dr. Steven Chu, the Nobel prize-winning physicist appointed by President Obama as Energy Secretary, wants to paint the world white. Chu said at the opening of the St James's Palace Nobel Laureate Symposium that by lightening paved surfaces and roofs to the color of cement, it would be possible to cut carbon emissions by as much as taking all the world's cars off the roads for 11 years. Pale surfaces reflect up to 80 percent of the sunlight that falls on them, compared with about 20 percent for dark ones, which is why roofs and walls in hot countries are often whitewashed." (Continues, below.)
Comment Re:Wow... (Score 2, Insightful) 629
How about this: I'm a paramedic, I work on an ambulance. One of the cities I work in has red-light cameras (that will also get you for speeding) setup along the main roads leading to two of the largest hospitals in the state. In ambulance, when we are running lights and sirens, the law permits us to proceed through a red light after stopping at the intersection, and confirming that other traffic is yielding to us. However, if one of our ambulances proceeds through a red light with a camera, we will automatically receive a ticket in the mail. So far, we've been able to get it dropped by mailing in a copy of our run report, and explaining that we were in an emergency response, but that's still a hassle for our office staff, and then there's the issue where we're being ticketed for an offence that is not even against the law! I'm not entirely opposed to red light cameras; however, I'd like to see a more accurate process for issuing tickets.
Submission + - How to erase your Facebook data?
0ffTheGr1d writes: My 'mate' found something and now needs to drop off the grid.
I have searched far and wide, for a method to remove 'my friend' from Facebook. Is a time machine required?
I am not the only one to see that if you need to be found, your presence on facebook will make it very easy to be found/targeted by anyone with means. Any privacy statement counts for very little in this day and age. Never mind the fact that this opinion exists.
Or am I just paranoid?
I am not the only one to see that if you need to be found, your presence on facebook will make it very easy to be found/targeted by anyone with means. Any privacy statement counts for very little in this day and age. Never mind the fact that this opinion exists.
Or am I just paranoid?
Submission + - Implementing OOXML: One Developer's Nightmare (arstdesign.com)
Just Some Nobody writes: "While Microsoft likes to play up just how well-documented the 6,000+ page OOXML specification is, the independent developers implementing it don't have things so easy. Stéphane Rodriguez, one of the top non-Microsoft experts on the binary Excel file format, has been documenting the difficulties in working with the new OOXML format for Excel. It seems that one of the biggest difficulties is that Excel-produced documents don't even conform to Microsoft's own OOXML standard, ECMA 376."
Submission + - Another Battery Fire in AT&T's Network
Submission + - Users Bash and Trash Wal-Mart on its Facebook Site (computerworld.com)
hhavensteincw writes: "Only two weeks after Wal-Mart launched its latest forway into Web 2.0 land, Facebook users have hijacked a page aimed at selling back-to-school supplies to college kids to instead post a tirade of rants about the company's labor practices. Computerworld has the scoop http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?com mand=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9032718&intsrc=new s_ts_head
about the latest battering the company is taking from Facebook users. Of the 100-plus comments, none relate to dorm decorating as Wal-Mart had originally envisioned."
Submission + - Wine 0.9.44 released (winehq.org)
jshriverWVU writes: "This is release 0.9.44 of Wine, a free implementation of Windows on Unix.
What's new in this release: — Better heuristics for making windows managed. — Automatic detection of timezone parameters. — Improvements to the builtin WordPad. — Better signatures support in crypt32. — Still more gdiplus functions. — Lots of bug fixes."
Submission + - Lunar Eclipse Next Tuesday Morning (space.com)
Raver32 writes: "Tuesday morning, Aug. 28 brings us the second total lunar eclipse of 2007. Those living in the Western Hemisphere and eastern Asia will be able to partake in at least some of this sky show.
The very best viewing region for viewing this eclipse will fall across the Pacific Rim, including the West Coast of the United States and Canada, as well as Alaska, Hawaii, New Zealand and eastern Australia. All these places will be able to see the complete eclipse from start to finish.
Europeans will miss out on the entire show, as the Moon will be below the horizon during their mid and late morning hours."
Submission + - How SBC (AT&T) pillaged South Africa's economy (busrep.co.za)
Kifoth writes: For 8 years, SBC and Telekom Malaysia controlled South Africa's only telecommunications company, Telkom. Telkom had a government granted monopoly in order for it to connect the large parts of South Africa which had been neglected under apartheid. Instead of helping, SBC abused their position and raised Telkom's prices to amongst the highest in the world. The billions they made here ultimately went to fund their AT&T merger.
"SBC, described as "congenitally litigious", is said to have played a major role in the failure of South Africa's telecoms policy to develop a competitive telephone service. Under SBC's control Telkom not only failed to meet its roll-out obligations but behaved "as a tax on industry and a drag on economic growth"."
"SBC, described as "congenitally litigious", is said to have played a major role in the failure of South Africa's telecoms policy to develop a competitive telephone service. Under SBC's control Telkom not only failed to meet its roll-out obligations but behaved "as a tax on industry and a drag on economic growth"."
Submission + - Develop multitasking applications with PHP V5
An anonymous reader writes: Many PHP developers believe that because standard PHP lacks threading capabilities, it's impossible for a practical PHP application to multitask. Not true... PHP doesn't support threading in the way other languages like the Java programming language or C++ do, but the examples in this article show that PHP can exploit in-process multitasking and has more potential for speed-ups than many realize.
Submission + - "How Experts Fail" book-in-progress (howexpertsfail.com)
Thomas David Kehoe writes: "I've set up a wiki website for the book I'm writing, "How Experts Fail: The Patterns and Situations in Which Experts Are Less Intelligent Than Non-Experts." I would appreciate contributions from your readers, especially stories in which a non-expert was right when an expert was wrong.
The website is at http://howexpertsfail.com/."
The website is at http://howexpertsfail.com/."
Submission + - FREE Open Source Enterprise Magazine re-launched (o3magazine.com)
buswellj writes: "The popular Enterprise Open Source Magazine — o3 magazine re-launched today with Issue 6. The latest issue of the magazine looks at globally distributed Rails applications and building global content data networks. The magazine itself is deployed on a pure Open Source Solution, that commercially would have cost over US$261,000. The magazine is built with Scribus, Open Office and The Gimp."
