Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Power

Piston-Powered Nuclear Fusion 147

Posted by Soulskill from the tried-everything-else dept.
katarn writes "General Fusion is a startup proposing they can create commercially viable fusion using acoustic shock waves, triggered by 220 precisely controlled pneumatic pistons. Their approach is based on a US Naval research concept called 'Linus' and old research done by General Atomics. They feel we now have the high-speed, digital processing capable of pulling off this feat, where decades ago the technology was not available. I think we can hold off on the 'vaporware' claims for a bit; everyone is aware of the horrible track record for turning fusion concepts into reality, but they don't claim to be the first with the idea or that there are not substantial challenges in the way. If nothing else, it is a fascinating concept." Los Alamos National Laboratory has further details on this type of fusion, and longtime LANL researcher Ronald Kirkpatrick did an external assessment (PDF) of General Fusion's plans. Popular Science had a lengthy story about the company a while back. The reason they're back in the headlines now is that they've secured enough funding to begin work on a prototype reactor.
Space

Sunspots Return 276

Posted by kdawson from the try-this-proven-acne-cure dept.
We're emerging from the longest, deepest sunspot drought since 1913 (we discussed its depths here) with the appearance of a robust group of sunspots over the weekend. Recently we discussed a possible explanation for the prolonged minimum. The Fox News article quotes observer Michael Buxton of Ocean Beach, Calif.: "This is the best sunspot I've seen in two years." jamie found a NASA site where you can generate a movie of the recent sunspot's movement — try selecting the first image type and bumping the resolution to 1024. The magnetic field lines are clearly visible.
Mozilla

Firefox 3.5 Reviewed; Draws Praise For HTML5, Speed 436

Posted by timothy from the new-improved-dragon dept.
johndmartiniii writes "Farhad Manjoo has a review of Firefox 3.5 at Slate.com this week. From the article: 'Lately I've been worried about Firefox. Ever since its debut in 2004, the open-source Web browser has won acclaim for its speed, stability, and customizability. It eventually captured nearly a quarter of the market, an astonishing achievement for a project run by a nonprofit foundation. But recently Firefox seemed to go soft.' The worried tone in the beginning of the review gives way to excitement over the HTML5 features being implemented, saying that thus far Firefox 3.5 'offers the best implementation of the standard — and because it's the second-most-popular Web browser in the world, the new release is sure to prompt Web designers to create pages tailored to the Web's new language.'" The final version could be here at any time; Firefox 3.5 is still shown as a release candidate at Mozilla's home page. Update: 06/30 15:31 GMT by T : No longer marked as RC; the Firefox upgrade page now says 3.5 has arrived.

Comment ethanol scam? (Score 1) 894

by hagnat (#28089381) Attached to: The Great Ethanol Scam

weird... we use ethanol over here in Brazil for a long time already, and aside from one crisis on availability of fuel in the past, we never had any problems with our cars. And we blend 25% ethanol into our gas.

Comment Re:Uh, no (Score 1) 503

by hagnat (#27847589) Attached to: European Union Asks US To Free ICANN

Weren't the Soviets the first ones into Berlin?

yes they were, but that only happened in the end of WW2 (in the european front atleast), AFTER the US joined the war.

the point was that, without support from the US, the world would look a lot different.
The Internet

Yahoo Pulls the Plug On GeoCities 427

Posted by timothy from the myspace's-aesthetic-progenitor dept.
Mike writes "It's official: Yahoo is pulling the plug, and GeoCities is dead. GeoCities had suffered a long and drawn-out battle with its health over the past decade. An antiquated service model and outdated technology are widely blamed for the struggle. An official cause of death, however, has yet to be determined. Awful, eye-punishing graphics, lack of relevancy, and 'lowest-common-denominator design' are believed to have contributed to its demise. GeoCities was 15 years old." There is doubtless a lot of funny and informative stuff on there that's worth saving (not just Jesux, which pudge has now migrated). If some of it belongs to you, perhaps you should move it sometime in the next few months. Update: 04/24 18:10 GMT by T : And if you know some GeoCities page owners who aren't especially computer savvy, you could point out to them how easy it is to slurp down their pages for re-hosting elsewhere.

Comment distribution and price (Score 1) 1085

by hagnat (#24546841) Attached to: Game Developer Asks To Hear From Pirates

living in brazil, these usually are the reasons for piracy. Many games only reach our market several months after the game was released, and with a price most gamers can't afford to pay (prices like a quarter the average salary interns earn).

Personally, i have been avoiding piracy the most, yet distribution still forces me to go pirate. Recently i tried to purchase Civilization Chronicles directly from the US (since no store sells it in brazil), and no US company would deliver it to my country. So, my options are very limited, and priacy is the only one that looks reasonable.
Graphics

Linux Alternatives To Apple's Aperture 271

Posted by CmdrTaco from the linux-users-deserve-pretty-pictures-too dept.
somethingkindawierd writes "An experiment focusing on open source tools for Ubuntu Linux to compete with Aperture on the Mac. The author didn't think he would find a worthwhile open source solution, but to his surprise he found some formidable raw processing tools. A good read for any Linux fan or photographer looking for capable and inexpensive tools"
The Internet

Only One Quarter of the Planet To Be Online By 2012 206

Posted by CmdrTaco from the that's-not-really-that-much dept.
Stony Stevenson writes "Researchers are predicting that one quarter of the world's population will be connected to the internet within the next four years. According to the report by Jupiter Research, the total number of people online will climb to 1.8 billion by 2012, encompassing roughly 25 percent of the planet. The company sees the highest growth rates in areas such as China, Russia, India and Brazil. Overall, the number of users online is predicted to grow by 44 percent in the time period between 2007 and 2012." Is it just me or does that seem incredibly small?
Microsoft

Windows in Brazil Costs 20% of Per Capita Business Income 236

Posted by CmdrTaco from the hate-when-that-happens dept.
mjasay writes "Ever wonder why open source is so popular in Brazil and other BRIC nations? As one study suggests, one big reason may well be Microsoft's punitive pricing, which exceeds 20 percent of Gross National Income for businesses in Brazil (and 7.8 percent of consumer GNI). This leads to a second, related reason: At those prices, there's little hope that Brazil can build a home-grown software economy on the foundation of proprietary software. This factor is exacerbated by Brazil's widespread disdain for the United States, which also tends to favor software that is not perceived as American. Of late the free and open-source Brazilian dream may be fading a little but its importance to the long-term growth prospects of the Brazilian economy shouldn't be understated."
Space

Milky Way Black Hole Could Reignite 117

Posted by kdawson from the tinfoil-umbrellas-might-help dept.
sciencehabit sends us to Sciencemag.org for an account of a survey of nearby galaxies that points to the possibility that once-quiescent galactic nuclei could wake up and become active again. If the Milky Way's dormant black hole should become active, it could be bad news for life on Earth (and elsewhere in the neighborhood). The paper (PDF) is up on the arXiv.

Slashdot Top Deals

FORTRAN is not a flower but a weed -- it is hardy, occasionally blooms, and grows in every computer. -- A.J. Perlis

Close