Comment Crowdfunding? (Score 1) 31
When did "crowdfunding" replace the words "charity" or "sponsorship"?
Comment Re:Space station altitude.... (Score 3, Informative) 120
It's about 1 earth radius from the centre of the Earth.
Comment Re:$30 million dollars?!?!? (Score 1) 400
They'll have spent a ton of money reprinting content to include their link to Facebook. All their TV, radio, press and web adverts will have been changed to report it too. You could argue that's a one-off cost though.
Cheap Solar Panels Made With An Ion Cannon 395
MrSeb writes "Twin Creeks, a solar power startup that emerged from hiding today, has developed a way of creating photovoltaic cells that are half the price of today's cheapest cells, and thus within reach of challenging the fossil fuel hegemony. As it stands, almost every solar panel is made by slicing a 200-micrometer-thick (0.2mm) wafer from a block of crystalline silicon. You then add some electrodes, cover it in protective glass, and leave it in a sunny area to generate electricity through the photovoltaic effect. There are two problems with this approach: Much in the same way that sawdust is produced when you slice wood, almost half of the silicon block is wasted when it's cut into 200-micrometer slices; and second, the panels would still function just as well if they were thinner than 200 micrometers, but silicon is brittle and prone to cracking if it's too thin. Using a hydrogen ion particle accelerator, Twin Creeks has managed to create very thin (20-micrometer), flexible photovoltaic cells that can be produced for just 40 cents per watt; around half the cost of conventional solar cells, and a price point that encroaches on standard, mostly-hydrocarbon-derived grid power."
Comment Feel sorry for him (Score 1) 124
Such a shame, probably has the highest hopes for a better life and may not survive now.
Comment Not PCI compliant (Score 5, Insightful) 322
I believe this rules out all Android devices with CarrerIQ agents from being used to handle payment card numbers. There's no obvious mention on CarrerIQ's website of PCI compliance or how they protect the user's data. It probably also contravenes SOX, HIPAA and and host of other industry regulations. Bye bye lots of commercial use of Android handsets, especially Blackberry.
Comment Ship transfers? (Score 1) 357
I suppose a model for this is how passengers or crew are moved to and from large ships during travel since they can't easily slow down or change direction. How's that done at the moment?
Comment Scare quotes (Score 1) 967
Please God NO... it's bad enough seeing so-called news sites like the BBC peppered with scare quotes in headlines. Please don't start doing it here.
Comment Feynman lectures? (Score 1) 358
I hope this means that the Richard Feynman Messenger Series of lectures that are only available with Silverlight on the Project Tuva websites are soon going to be made available to Linux users.
Comment FaceTrackNoIR (Score 1) 96
FaceTrackNoIR have been doing this on the PC with just a webcam for a while. It's especially good in simulation games.
http://facetracknoir.sourceforge.net/home/default.htm
Comment FF4 is great. (Score 1) 435
So far FF4 has been great. I've moved back from Chrome. Only hiccup was the DirectDraw fonts under Vista but it was easily solved.
Comment Do I want hydrophobic or hydrophilic then? (Score 1) 146
I cycle and it rains here a lot so I want a hydrophobic coating on my lenses so the rain runs off. But it's also often cold and humid so I don't want fogged lenses and that needs a hydrophilic coating. Which one do I really want, or do I need different coatings on either side of the lenses?
Comment Where next? (Score 1) 218
In 2,000 years time will researchers claim to have found the locations of Lilliput and Blefuscu?!
Comment Re:That agrees with my figures (Score 1) 134
There always was real competition, tut when IE was bundled it because the majority of users' default browser and since people don't like to change they're unlikely to choose another browser simply because they now get the choice on startup.
Comment Swedish alternative (Score 1) 55
It's been a while since I last looked at this, but a company in Sweden came up with an, arguably, better method to both Google and Bing for 3d maps.
