Comment Still Kickin' (Score 2) 126
Still available, although I believe they are made in Malaysia.
The whole chip-set was not very expensive.
Comment What's Next For Watson? (Score 1) 674
I'd like to see Watson go head to head with Google. Intelligent search agents will replace today's search engines.
Comment Prior Art? (Score 1) 187
As a kid I went to Expo '67. I think that it was the Czechoslovakian pavilion featured an auditorium where the seats all had voting buttons, and a movie where the audience got to decide what happened next. We had a blast choosing our way through the interesting scenario. IMHO, IBM should have never been able to get this patent.
Submission + - Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern on EW Cover (examiner.com)
JamieIroc writes: Finally, the first confirmed image of Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern is available via the latest Entertainment Weekly
Submission + - NASA Hubble spots hot comet-like planet (networkworld.com) 1
coondoggie writes: Is it a planet or a comet? Astronomers are calling a newly explored scorched object a "cometary planet" because it has the components of a planet but with a tail like a comet. Astronomers from the University of Colorado in Boulder using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope say the planet, named HD 209458b, is orbiting so close to its star that its heated atmosphere is escaping into space, creating a tail-like appearance.
Submission + - New Droid X includes eFuse self destruct (zdnet.com)
matthock writes: In an effort to combat people loading modified versions of the Android operating system onto its new Droid X smartphone, Motorola has gone to the extreme step of including a "self destruct" mechanism in the phone. Should it detect an attempt to modify the boot loader or ROM, the phone will trip an eFuse, bricking the device by scrambling the ROM. The damage is repairable, but only by sending the phone back to Motorola to be serviced.
Submission + - Carbon Nanotubes Increase Lithium Battery Capacity (gizmag.com)
ElectricSteve writes: Researchers at MIT have found that using specially treated thin layers of carbon nanotubes in batteries can boost the amount of power delivered per unit of weight by up to ten times. While the technology still needs improving, its full development and large-scale employment would certainly revolutionize the way we use any electronic devices, from an iPod to an electric car. The electrode was fabricated with a layer-by-layer technique in which a base material is alternately dipped in solutions containing specially treated carbon nanotubes to either have a slightly positive or a slightly negative charge: when layers of the two kinds are put together, the opposite magnetic forces pull the parts tightly together, self-assembling an electrode that is porous at the nanometric scale and doesn't seem to deteriorate at all as the battery is subjected to over a thousand charge-discharge cycles.
'Weekly Episodes' Coming To Star Trek Online 62
As Star Trek Online ramps up for its Season 2 patch, the game's executive producer, Daniel Stahl, spoke in an interview about an interesting new feature: weekly episodes. Quoting:
"The team has wanted to capture the spirit of the TV shows by having something new to look forward to each week. We all remember when the various series were in full swing and there was the anticipation of tuning in every week to see what happened next. It wasn't always a continuing story, but it was always Star Trek in some way or another, and over time you became familiar with the characters and plots that developed. We are curious to see if this can be replicated through the game. Every week we plan to have something new for players to do. Sometimes it could be getting an assignment to resolve a trade dispute between two races. Other weeks it could be making First Contact with a new alien race. Other weeks you might find yourself deep in trouble and have to find a solution to your predicament."
A Flood of Stable Linux Kernels Released 105
Julie188 writes "Greg Kroah-Hartman has released five new stable Linux kernels, correcting minor errors of their predecessors and including improvements which are unlikely to generate new errors. As so often with kernel versions in the stable series, it remains undisclosed if the new versions contain changes which fix security vulnerabilities, although the number of changes and some of the descriptions of those changes certainly suggest that all the new versions contain security fixes."
Submission + - Sony Digital Reader Touch vs Kindle 2 (tablettweet.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Which one to buy ?, Sony Digital Reader Touch Edition 169 USD vs Kindle 2 global wireless new price 189 USD. First of all Let’s read the basic pros & cons of Sony Digital Reader Touch Edition 169 USD and Kindle 2 global wireless new price 189 USD.
Submission + - How to recover FAT partition data? (diskgetor.com)
noko23 writes: FAT file system is a commonly used file system of our PCs. Sometimes the data stored on FAT file system partition may be deleted, lost or FAT partition may be formatted, corrupted, etc. The better understanding of FAT will help you recover your FAT partition and data more easily.
What is FAT?
FAT is an abbreviation of File Allocation Table which is a computer file system architecture, it is used on computer systems and memory cards. FAT describes which clusters (the unit used by file allocation) are used by which files. There are three types of FAT: FAT12, FAT 16 and FAT 32:
A FAT12 file system contains 1.5 bytes per cluster within the file allocation table and the amount of data clusters is less than 4087 clusters.
A FAT16 file system contains 2 bytes per cluster within the file allocation table and the amount of data clusters is between 4087 and 65526 clusters, inclusive.
A FAT32 file system includes 4 bytes per cluster within the file allocation table and the amount of data clusters is between 65526 and 268,435,456 clusters, inclusive.
FAT partition data loss
Most situation of FAT partition data loss is unforeseen, for example, deleting a file or program accidentally or mistakenly, deleting data intentionally but find they are still useful later, improper computer shut down, power failure, operating system corruption, data corruption, virus attack, etc.
How to recover data stored on FAT partition?
There are two methods provided for recover FAT partition data:
1. When you find the FAT partition is inaccessible (the symptom is usually that the PC suggests that the partition is not formatted) or partition is lost when you are partitioning.
For this circumstance, your partition table is damaged by some errors, virus, and intentional active or unknown reasons. The data stored on the hard drive are still located where they used to be. You can recover your FAT partition table, and then get back your data.
For this circumstance, you can retrieve data from data recovery soft ware or manual data recovery.
Manual data recovery, compare with the data recovery soft ware, its higher price and long time waiting make itself to be the second choice.
DiskGetor Data Recovery is powerful FAT partition data recovery Software. It can also recover deleted, lost, damaged and formatted data from other types of file system hard drive or partition, for example: NTFS. Even if you have written new data into that hard drive or partition, DiskGetor Data Recovery still find its directory tree from hard drive. You may have a try.
You can find more information at: http://www.diskgetor.com
What is FAT?
FAT is an abbreviation of File Allocation Table which is a computer file system architecture, it is used on computer systems and memory cards. FAT describes which clusters (the unit used by file allocation) are used by which files. There are three types of FAT: FAT12, FAT 16 and FAT 32:
A FAT12 file system contains 1.5 bytes per cluster within the file allocation table and the amount of data clusters is less than 4087 clusters.
A FAT16 file system contains 2 bytes per cluster within the file allocation table and the amount of data clusters is between 4087 and 65526 clusters, inclusive.
A FAT32 file system includes 4 bytes per cluster within the file allocation table and the amount of data clusters is between 65526 and 268,435,456 clusters, inclusive.
FAT partition data loss
Most situation of FAT partition data loss is unforeseen, for example, deleting a file or program accidentally or mistakenly, deleting data intentionally but find they are still useful later, improper computer shut down, power failure, operating system corruption, data corruption, virus attack, etc.
How to recover data stored on FAT partition?
There are two methods provided for recover FAT partition data:
1. When you find the FAT partition is inaccessible (the symptom is usually that the PC suggests that the partition is not formatted) or partition is lost when you are partitioning.
For this circumstance, your partition table is damaged by some errors, virus, and intentional active or unknown reasons. The data stored on the hard drive are still located where they used to be. You can recover your FAT partition table, and then get back your data.
For this circumstance, you can retrieve data from data recovery soft ware or manual data recovery.
Manual data recovery, compare with the data recovery soft ware, its higher price and long time waiting make itself to be the second choice.
DiskGetor Data Recovery is powerful FAT partition data recovery Software. It can also recover deleted, lost, damaged and formatted data from other types of file system hard drive or partition, for example: NTFS. Even if you have written new data into that hard drive or partition, DiskGetor Data Recovery still find its directory tree from hard drive. You may have a try.
You can find more information at: http://www.diskgetor.com
Submission + - Bad code leads good developers to make mistakes? 2
LSU_ADT_Geek writes: While adding features to my company's application suite, I have continually found mistakes overlooked by previous developers (multiple in-line instances of data-access objects, half-hearted string equality logic, reproducing boiler plate utility code when it exists in a utility, etc). After constantly fixing these types of problems for over a year, I have begun to ask myself whether these mistakes were made because A) bad developers or B) good developers having to work with bad existing code. If it wasn't for the fact that I'm pedantic and know better, I believe I would probably make the some of the same mistakes just because the existing code base isn't the cleanest or most elegant.
Submission + - The unusual, obscure and useful Linux distros (goodgearguide.com.au)
angry tapir writes: "Most people will be familiar with some of the big names when it comes to Linux — distributions like Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Debian and Mandriva. Most of the well-known Linux distros are designed to be used as general purpose desktop operating systems or installed on servers. But beyond these distros are hundreds of others either designed to appeal to very specific audiences or to fulfil the somewhat niche needs of some users. We rounded up some of the most interesting Linux distributions out there that you might not have heard of."
Submission + - NASA Mars rover spies rare red planet rocks (networkworld.com)
coondoggie writes: NASA’s now hibernating Mars rover Spirit spotted rocks scientists say could offer key clues to whether or not life ever did or still does exist on the red planet. The weird thing for NASA is that the outcrop was examined by Spirit in 2005, but the data pointing to the discovery languished since then because one of the instruments that detected the carbonate minerals was partly blinded by dust, the space agency stated.
Submission + - Six Major 3G & 4G Networks Tested Nationwide
adeelarshad82 writes: PCMag recently tested six 3G and 4G networks to determine which ones were the fastest (and slowest) in 18 different U.S. cities. They focused on data, not calls, and used their own testing script and methodology combining various kinds of uploads and downloads. Using laptops, more than a dozen people ran over 10,000 tests; they found AT&T is both the fastest national 3G network, and the least consistent. Sprint's 3G system was the slowest of the "big four" carriers, but the most consistent. When the test results were broken down by regions, it was interesting to note that AT&T led on speed in the Southeast, Central and West, but T-Mobile took the crown in the Northeast region. Sprint's 4G network was fast where it was available, but it was surprisingly slower than 3G in some cities. The fastest AT&T download seen, at 5.05 megabits/sec, was right behind Apple's headquarters at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, CA. The fastest connection in any of the tests was a blazing 9.11 megabits down on Sprint 4G in the Midtown neighborhood of Atlanta, GA. The slowest city, on average, was Raleigh, with average 3G downloads of 880kbits/sec.
