Comment Re:SSDD (Score 2) 494
Europe has not put an end to homelessness. I have seen people sleeping on the streets in London.
Comment Re:Full review (Score 1) 117
um how do the penises mutilate themselves???? forget it I really don't want to know...
Pouring Water Into a Volcano To Generate Power 321
Hugh Pickens writes "Until recently, geothermal power systems have exploited only resources where naturally occurring heat, water, and rock permeability are sufficient to allow energy extraction. Now, geothermal energy developers plan use a new technology called Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) to pump 24 million gallons of water into the side of the dormant Newberrry Volcano, located about 20 miles south of Bend, Oregon, in an effort to use the earth's heat to generate power. 'We know the heat is there,' says Susan Petty, president of AltaRock Energy, Inc. of Seattle. 'The big issue is can we circulate enough water through the system to make it economic.' Since natural cracks and pores do not allow economic flow rates, the permeability of the volcanic rock can be enhanced with EGS by pumping high-pressure cold water down an injection well into the rock, creating tiny fractures in the rock, a process known as hydroshearing. Then cold water is pumped down production wells into the reservoir, and the steam is drawn out. Natural geothermal resources only account for about 0.3 percent of U.S. electricity production, but a 2007 Massachusetts Institute of Technology report projected EGS could bump that to 10 percent within 50 years, at prices competitive with fossil-fuels. 'The important question we need to answer now,' says USGS geophysicist Colin Williams, 'is how geothermal fits into the renewable energy picture, and how EGS fits. How much it is going to cost, and how much is available.'"
Solo Explorer Begins Bicycle Journey To South Pole 144
Hugh Pickens writes "Helen Skelton, the first person to solo kayak the length of the Amazon, has set for herself another difficult task — to travel up to 14 hours a day battling 80mph winds and -50C temperatures 800km across Antarctica in an attempt to reach the South Pole by bicycle. It's no average ride, and Skelton, 28, is not using your average bike. Her specially-built Hanebrink 'ice bike' took designers in Los Angeles three months to finish. It features a seamless frame made of aluminium aircraft tubing, heat-treated to withstand harsh environments, and fat, tubeless, rubber tires designed to bulge over the rim to provide maximum stability and traction. The bike is designed to be as minimalist as possible, to make it aerodynamic and very low maintenance. 'The bike is designed specifically to cycle in soft snow or sand,' says polar guide Doug Stoup. 'We trained together in the desert this past summer. It helps because the temperatures are so cold the snow has little moisture and has a sand-like consistency.' Explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes commends Skelton for taking on 'incredibly tough and grueling challenge.' 'Like Captain Scott, Helen is attempting something that has never been tried before and I applaud her pioneering efforts.'"
Comment Re:correct response: "OK, put me on the list." (Score 1) 508
Other US industries are backing the legislation. SOPA is intended to block distributors of ALL pirated/counterfeit goods...so clothing manufacturers, for example, like it because they want to be able to block sites selling cheap knockoffs of designer clothing, bags, sneakers, etc.
Comment Re:need vs want (Score 1) 851
PS I also own the rights to the acronym Plain Old Only a Phone Service (POOPS). So don't even try it...
Comment need vs want (Score 2) 851
Most people don't NEED a smartphone. However they WANT a smartphone. Most people also don't know the difference between the two. When enough people have them, the carriers will convince/dictate to you that you NEED a smartphone too. When plain old device service (PODS) is discontinued by the carriers, you will not have a choice but to have a smartphone.
BTW, I claim patent, copyright, and trademark on that acronym. I will sue everyone and Steve Jobs' corpse for 1 Billion dollars if you do not pay my license fee for using that acronym. Even if you are quoting me, you violate the EULA for my acronym.
BTW, I claim patent, copyright, and trademark on that acronym. I will sue everyone and Steve Jobs' corpse for 1 Billion dollars if you do not pay my license fee for using that acronym. Even if you are quoting me, you violate the EULA for my acronym.
Comment Re:How about Fedora? (Score 1) 685
Come over to sid. It's "unstable" in terms that it changes a lot. Sid is almost ALWAYS newer than Ubuntu. Because every 6 months Ubuntu draws a line in the sand and says "Nope, we're stopping here." Sure you get bug fixes and can go through and find a ppa that backports. As long as that ppa developer doesn't stop. Then you find another PPA. But it has a different naming convention and it's a (@#* nightmare.
I would go to Sid except for exactly what you described...it's called unstable for a reason, one day I will try to update my system and it will break. Only reason Sid works so well as the baseline for Ubuntu is because they take that unstable and manage it as it if was a stable branch, keeping it patched, dependencies working, etc. Running Ubuntu is like having a happy medium between debian stable and unstable.
Comment Re:Great (Score 1) 392
We do have national and local roads, also state roads and county roads. Each type can get funding from any variety of sources for many reasons. However I think the previous poster is commenting on how a nationally collected tax would provide disproportionate funding to federal infrastructure on a state by state or local level. There might be more online shoppers in areas of higher population and wealth, but that federal internet tax money would be applied to federal projects in areas that may not be contributing to the pot as much...in other words, like every other federal program in existence.
Comment Re:The Creator has complete Control (Score 1) 425
You don't see people messing with The Iliad
I'll see your Iliad and raise you an "Odyssey"
O Brother, Where Art Thou? - Starring George Clooney
Comment Why would the community care... (Score 1) 591
...about porting Linux apps to the Cloud? TFA talks about how OpenOffice/LibreOffice will never make it to the cloud in time to be competitive vs Google Docs/Office Live...but if the Linux/FOSS crowd wants their software to remain open, why would they use such applications in the cloud? Would providing the app via the cloud into a browser be considered "distribution" of the application or binary, and if so would the cloud provider be required to provide their modified source to interested parties? If not, I see no reason why OSS advocates would even want to use such applications in the cloud...and without those who are most feverishly supportive of Open Source, what real market would "Cloud LibreOffice" or "GIMPCloud" have?
Comment fixed that for you... (Score 0) 100
ORACLE Unleashes Most Powerful Flare Since 2006. Jeez, editors....
Comment Re:If they're not operating illegally (Score 1) 65
That's not true. Congress can not pass any law that would cause freedom of speech to be abridged. That also means any government entity created by a law Congress passes is held to the First Amendment. That also includes funding of other government entities, including state or municipal entities which accept federal funding which happens to violate someone's freedom of speech. My point still stands. I can tell you to be silent, I can tell you I will sue you if you do not silence yourself. It is not a violation of your freedom of speech. There are no legal ramifications to that. If I own a company, and my company tells you that we will sue if you disclose xyz, we would be within our legal right to say that.
What happens in court if you actually disclose xyz and it goes in front of a judge may be another matter, but the threat is not a violation of your freedom of speech.
What happens in court if you actually disclose xyz and it goes in front of a judge may be another matter, but the threat is not a violation of your freedom of speech.
Comment Re:If they're not operating illegally (Score 1) 65
Amendment I
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
The government can not violate your freedom of speech. A private person or organization can do whatever the hell they want.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
The government can not violate your freedom of speech. A private person or organization can do whatever the hell they want.
Comment Re:If you want a bleeding edge Linux distro ... (Score 2) 729
... then maybe it's time to switch to Fedora?
or Arch.
Ah yes, Arch, the distro that tries to convince its users that it's a BSD (hint: aur is NOT the same as ports), and contributes nothing upstream. Are you guys still throwing everything in
I would say Arch is trying to be a blend of BSD/Gentoo without all that compiling everything nonsense. Very easy to build/maintain a minimal system, no release cycles, and piece of cake to unofficially distribute your own software packages to the rest of the Arch community. Arch is probably one of the most promising ideas for a distro we have seen in a long time.
