Comment It's a question in Chinese (Score 1) 412
And the answer is supposed to be "42".
Comment Re:Exceptions (Score 1) 2288
There are however notable exceptions.
The UK is metric with the exception of speeds that are still marked and posted in miles / miles per hour.
I think the UK is a whole load more muddled up than that. I know my car does 50mpg, but I buy diesel in litres. I'll order a pint of beer, and what I buy in the supermarket is a two pint bottle of milk (but it's labelled as 1136ml) and a one litre carton of juice. I'll buy 6x2 (inch) timber and then chop in up into lengths measured in mm. I weigh 11 stone, but I eat margarine from a 1kg tub. I took window measurements in mm and was sold fabric in yards. Land area seems to be measured in acres or hectares variously. The only thing I think we've sorted is never to mention Fahrenheit, but then we haven't got as far as Kelvin on the whether forecast (but neither have the French).
Comment Re:Wrong logo (Score 1) 159
Intel's aquisitions may be changing that. See their quote on this recent press release.
Comment Re:No Windows 7 Mobile on ARM (Score 1) 159
Not sure what you mean by "Windows 7 Mobile" given:
- Windows Mobile - has long supported ARM, but has no version 7.
- Windows Phone 7 - only supports ARM.
- Windows CE - supports ARM.
- Windows Mobile - has long supported ARM, but has no version 7.
- Windows Phone 7 - only supports ARM.
- Windows CE - supports ARM.
The only thing that doesn't support ARM is "big" Windows 7, and this is changing:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2011/jan11/01-05socsupport.mspx
Comment Re:they suck and you will get burned out (Score 1) 997
I believe in Europe the proposal would violate the working time directive, and leave the company open to legal trouble. Of course, whether anyone would want that confrontation is another matter.
Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Benchmarked and Reviewed 164
tc6669 writes "Tom's Hardware just posted an interesting review of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. It includes an expanded set of OS benchmarks that they also performed on the previous LTS release (8.04), to see just how much the mainstream Linux distro has progressed in two years."
Simulation of Close Asteroid Fly-By 148
c0mpliant writes "NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have released a simulation of the path of an asteroid, named Apophis, that will come very close to Earth in 2029 — the closest predicted approach since humans have monitored for such heavenly bodies. The asteroid caused a bit of a scare when astronomers first announced that it would enter Earth's neighborhood some time in the future. However, since that announcement in 2004, more recent calculations have put the odds of collision at 1 in 250,000."
Comment Re:Important advice (Score 1) 1095
You might want to visit the Marmite shop on Regent Street to try some first. Also sells what must be the cheapest tea in London (£1).
Comment Re:The airport scanners are passive (Score 1) 279
Manchester airport is now using a scanner from Rapiscan Systems (ref: BBC).
Their Secure1000 system claims to be active (from here): "The Rapiscan Secure 1000’s patented technology is composed of an ultra low-dose X-ray source that images backscattered X-rays through to a remote operator’s workstation."
Michael Dell Says Windows 7 Will Make You Love PCs 627
ruphus13 writes "In a recent talk at the Churchill Club, Michael Dell addressed several topics, including the fact that Windows 7 is poised to take advantage of the upgrade cycle. Dell has always been a strong MS OEM ally and it is now hoping to cash in again from the impending upgrades. From the post: 'Dell made plain several times that he sees the installed base of technology as very old, and sees a coming "refresh cycle" for which he has high hopes. "The latest generation of chips from Intel is strong, particularly Nehalem," he said, adding, "and Windows 7 is on its way." (The operating system arrives Oct. 22nd, although Microsoft's large-volume licensees are already getting it.) He pointed out that many business are running Windows XP, which is eight years old. "I've been using Windows 7 for a long time now," he said, "and if you get the latest processor technology and Office 2010 with it, you will love your PC again. It's a dramatic improvement."'"
Improving the PlayStation Store 107
This opinion piece takes stock of Sony's PlayStation Store, examining its flaws and the areas Sony needs to improve as their gaming systems come to rely upon it more and more. The problems and suggested solutions involve everything from UI elements to demo availability to pricing inconsistencies.
"Some people may say that the Microsoft Points scheme is a little confusing, but it is consistent. If a game is 800MSP in the US, it's 800MSP everywhere else. What a MSP is worth is up to the store, but for the most part they're close. The PlayStation Store on the other hand can be all over the place. While most games in North America keep to the same price point — such as $9.99 or $14.99, converting that over to Europe is another thing entirely. For example, Flower came out earlier this year for $9.99USD. In Australia a $10USD game gets converted to $12.95AUD. Or does it? Bomberman Ultra just came out, and it's $15.95AUD. Heavy Weapon gets released for $12.95AUD, while Capcom’s previous efforts, like Commando 3, convert to $15.95. The same thing also happens for more expensive titles. Both Battlefield 1943 and Fat Princess were released for $14.99 in the US, but in Australia they're priced at $19.95AUD and $23.95 respectively."
Creating a Low-Power Cloud With Netbook Chips 93
Al writes "Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have created a remarkably low-power server architecture using netbook processors and flash memory cards. The server design, dubbed a 'fast array of wimpy nodes,' or FAWN, is only designed to perform simple tasks, but the CMU team say it could be perfect for large Web companies that have to retrieve large amounts of data from RAM. A set-up including 21 individual nodes draws a maximum of just 85 watts under real-world conditions. The researchers say that a FAWN cluster could offer a low-power replacement for sites that currently rely on Memcached to access data from RAM."
