Comment Re:Hoarding (Score 1) 309
I have a P3 1GHz laptop on my workbench for the USB Oscilloscope and sound recording for the radio scanner and some HAM radio experiments, but the rest of my obsolete stuff just sits there, quietly in the closet.
Comment Hoarding (Score 1) 309
In what used to be a walk-in wardrobe when I had a girlfriend living here:
Mac SE (occationally brought out for Tetris, ShufflePuck Café, etc), Mac II, 2xMacIIsi, Mac LCII Mac LCIII, some 68k PowerBooks, PowerMac 6100/60, PowerMac 7200/90, iMac G3/400, b&w G3/400, PowerBook G3/350 iBook G4/1.2, PowerBook G4/1.6...
Sun SparcStation LX with enormous CRT
Couple of random pentium3 laptops, half scavanged hulls of old workstations...
Apple LaserWriter II NT
And of course my C64 with floppy drive, Atari 600XL, MSX and NES..
All in piles..
I need a smaller apartment so I can't keep all of this... or get a new girlfriend
Comment Re:300M (Score 2) 166
"Does it seem strange to anyone else that Verizon is releasing their upgraded video service just a month or so after introducing bandwidth caps? Or at the same time they're field testing 300 MB, $20/month data plans?"
Comment 300M (Score 1) 166
um... the more expensive $20/mo option is ***300M*** ? what the heck are you doing over in that development country you call the states?
I have no problem hitting 300M/day just using the mobile web browser when I'm away from home.... a few gigs on a slow/rainy day.
Not to mention tethering.
Submission + - Why Don't Some People Have Fingerprints? (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit writes: A small number of people in the world don't have fingerprints. The condition is known as adermatoglyphia, and one scientist has dubbed it the "immigration delay disease" because sufferers have such a hard time entering foreign countries. In addition to smooth fingertips, they also produce less hand sweat than the average person. Now researchers have identified the genetic mutation behind the condition.
Submission + - Best Evidence Yet of Liquid Water on Mars (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit writes: Using the most powerful camera ever to orbit Mars,researchers are reporting the strongest evidence yet for water on Mars that's flowing, not frozen—and the water is flowing today, not a millennium or an eon ago. At a few spots, the meager warmth of martian summer seems able to coax enough liquid water out of the ground to darken the soil in streaks. The marks, which sometimes number in the hundreds, grow downhill hundreds of meters only to fade with the winter cold. And where there is liquid water, as they say, there could be life.
Submission + - NASA finds liquid water on Mars (nasa.gov)
An anonymous reader writes: During a live (web)cast NASA scientists confirmed that thanks to images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter taken over a period of a few years, they have found proof of what they suspect to be "liquid salty" water in some Martian craters. An article will be published today in science magazine...
Submission + - Geomagnetic storm predicted in next 12 hours (networkworld.com)
coondoggie writes: "The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center today issued a geomagnetic storm bulletin for the next 12 hours. Such storms can cause problems with Global Positioning Systems and power grids.
NOAA stated: "Great anticipation for the first of what may be three convergent shocks to slam the geomagnetic field in the next twelve hours, +/-. The CME with the Radio Blackout earlier today is by far the fastest, and may catch its forerunners in the early hours of August 5 (UTC) — at earth. Two impacts are expected; G2 (Moderate) to G3 (Strong) Geomagnetic Storming on August 5, and potentially elevated protons to the S2 (Moderate) Solar Radiation Storm condition, those piling up ahead of the shock."
NOAA stated: "Great anticipation for the first of what may be three convergent shocks to slam the geomagnetic field in the next twelve hours, +/-. The CME with the Radio Blackout earlier today is by far the fastest, and may catch its forerunners in the early hours of August 5 (UTC) — at earth. Two impacts are expected; G2 (Moderate) to G3 (Strong) Geomagnetic Storming on August 5, and potentially elevated protons to the S2 (Moderate) Solar Radiation Storm condition, those piling up ahead of the shock."
Submission + - Rare Earth Deposit Discovered in US (businessinsider.com)
s31523 writes: With China having 97% of the market share of rare earth elements, many countries are nervous about being able to get supplies of key elements needed for high tech gear. Quantum Rare Earths Developments Corp. has reported they have discovered a potential huge source of rare earth elements, right in the middle of the U.S. While the USGS reports that the U.S. has an estimated 13 million metric tonnes available for mining (about 1/3 of China's reserves), finding another regular source is crucial to global stability. The potential yield of the deposit, found in Nebraska, could be the world's largest source for Niobium and other rare earth elements. Could this be the next gold rush?
Comment Lasers (Score 1) 174
You could never go wrong with lasers.
Mount mirrors and lenses on a small, sturdy table and have a few beams of 1mW laser bounce around in smoke from a small smoke machine and you'll impress the boss enough to keep your lair. (and job)
Comment My internet bill in Sweden (Score 1, Informative) 89
Including a small extra fee for access the municipal fiber network, for 1 month of 100/100Mbit with no caps or meters what so ever, I pay roughly 1.5 hours of my wage after taxes.. and I'm just above average for "low income".. I pay almost twice that for unmetered mobile 3G traffic on my phone though.. tethered to the laptop the gigs tend to run away so unmetered is the only way.
As far as I've seen from the latest Akamai state of the internet reports, Scandinavia is losing ground to South Korea and some other quickly rising countries... We'll see..
3rd-Grader Busted For Jolly Rancher Possession
804
theodp writes "A third-grader in a small Texas school district received a week's detention for merely possessing a Jolly Rancher. Leighann Adair, 10, was eating lunch Monday when a teacher confiscated the candy. Her parents said she was in tears when she arrived home later that afternoon and handed them the detention notice. But school officials are defending the sentence, saying the school was abiding by a state guideline that banned 'minimal nutrition' foods. 'Whether or not I agree with the guidelines, we have to follow the rules,' said school superintendent Jack Ellis."
Experts Closing In On Google Attack Coders 141
ancientribe writes "The targeted attacks out of China that hit Google, Adobe, and other US organizations are still ongoing and have affected many more companies than the original 20 to 30 reported. Security experts now say they are getting closer to identifying the author or authors of the malware used to breach Google and other organizations."
Six-legged Robot Teaches Itself To Walk 113
rabiddeity writes "An undergraduate at the University of Arizona has built a six legged robot from scratch. The robot, which is equipped with sensors on each foot, teaches itself to walk and orients itself via an onboard camera. A similar design might be used to explore unstable environments such as collapsed buildings or rocky landscapes."
Comment Non-dangerous black holes. (Score 1) 269
The Large Hadron Collider can definitely create microscopic black holes, the thing is that they are not dangerous as they would evaporate long before interacting with any matter.
