Comment Re:This is news? (Score 1) 232
I agree. 2 or 3 years ago the local Redboxes raised their first night fee to $2. Then the Blockbuster Express kiosks came to town and the rate hike was rescinded.
Comment Re:Reasons for raising (Score 1) 232
The debit card fee structure was changed to make it less expensive for larger transactions but more expensive for smaller transactions (e.g., those on the order of a dollar or so). This was discussed earlier.
20 Years of Commander Keen 152
angry tapir writes "This week marks the 20th anniversary of the release of the first Commander Keen game. For those too young to remember, Commander Keen was a series of shareware 2D platform games for the PC released by Apogee Software (aka 3D Realms) developed by no less than id Software — the developers of Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake."
Comment Re:Not autonomous... (Score 1) 298
Except you obviously missed the section labeled "Features" in which it says Autonomous Detection/Tracking/Targeting and Manual/Autonomous Firing with Safety
I'm not seeing that in the article or in the poster. The DODAAM website is slashdotted right now, but if it says that I'd be suspecting a bad translation. There's nothing in the feature set of this piece of hardware that supports automatic tracking or autonomous firing. Detecting a human size target at some distance only means the optics and camera has a certain minimum resolution.
I've actually done some work on integrating a similar US-designed device onto a semi-autonomous vehicle, so I can read the DODAAM poster with some background.
Building a Telegraph Using Only Stone Age Materials 238
MMBK writes "It's the ultimate salvagepunk experiment, building a telegraph out of things found in the woods. From the article: 'During the summer of 2009, artist Jamie O’Shea of the organization Substitute Materials set out to test whether or not electronic communication could have been built at any time in history with the proper knowledge, and with only tools and materials found in the wilderness of New Jersey.'"
Comment Re:It only works when you travel West (Score 1) 104
If you're not flying really fast (a bit over 1000 miles/hr) you'd still run into issues as daylight outran you. At least when flying east the night would be shorter...
Comment Doesn't this only work in a 1-D universe? (Score 2, Insightful) 222
The whole notion that some body that is on the other side of the sun from us half the time is protecting us doesn't really work in my mind. It seems that it only works if you imagine the universe is laid out on a line. Put the Sun at zero, the Earth at 3 and Jupiter at 10 and then anything heading your way from >11 has to get past Jupiter first. In reality we can't even rely on foreign objects coming in along the ecliptic.
