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ISS

Coolant Glitch Forces Partial Space Station Shutdown 49

Posted by samzenpus from the its-getting-hot-in-here dept.
astroengine writes "A coolant system glitch on the International Space Station has forced several of the orbital outpost's modules offline as astronauts and ground control manage the problem. The crew are not in danger and ground control teams are currently working to see how best to troubleshoot. The issue, that occurred early on Wednesday, focuses on one of the space station's two external ammonia cooling loops, along which the station's electrical systems use to regulate their temperatures. The loop 'automatically shut down when it reached pre-set temperature limits,' said NASA in a statement. It is thought that a flow control valve in the ammonia pump itself may have malfunctioned."
Data Storage

Ask Slashdot: Simple Backups To a Neighbor? 285

Posted by timothy from the good-fences-make-lousy-backup-devices dept.
First time accepted submitter renzema writes "I'm looking for a way to do near-site backups — backups that are not on my physical property, but with a hard drive still accessible should I need to do a restore (let's face it — this is where cloud backup services are really weak — 1 TB at 3-4mb downloads just doesn't cut it). I've tried crashplan, but that requires that someone has a computer on all the time and they don't ship hard drives to Sweden. What I want is to be able to back up my Windows and Mac to both a local disk and to a disk that I own that is not on site. I don't want a computer running 24x7 to support this — just a router or NAS. I would even be happy with a local disk that is somehow mirrored to a remote location. I haven't found anything out there that makes this simple. Any ideas?" What, besides "walk over a disk once in a while," would you advise?
Robotics

Cyborg Cockroach Sparks Ethics Debate 512

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the lightly-sand-the-carapace dept.
sciencehabit writes "A do-it-yourself neuroscience experiment that allows students to create their own 'cyborg' insects is sparking controversy amongst scienitsts and ethicists. RoboRoach #12 is a real cockroach that a company called BackyardBrains ships to school students. The students fit the insect with a tiny backpack, which contains electrodes that feed into its antennae and receive signals by remote control — via the Bluetooth signals emitted by smartphones. A simple swipe of an iPhone can turn the insect left or right. Though some scientists say the small cyborg is a good educational tool, others say it's turning kids into psychopaths." Fitting the backpack requires poking a hole in the roach's thorax and clipping its antennae to insert electrodes.

Comment Re:Third world countries have it right. (Score 1) 189

by Pikoro (#45044525) Attached to: Engineers Design Tornado Proof Home

True. I am sitting in Japan right now, and we are having a typhoon. We expect another one tomorrow. (seriously, check the weather reports). No issues with buildings blowing down here. Steel reinforced concrete will stop any problems with wind you might have. Granted, it won't float during a flood, but at least after the waters recede your house will still be there :)

The house I am in is constructed of wood. We used 2x6s instead of 2x4s and 2x10s instead of 2x6s. Hurricane ties on the roof, asphalt shingles, fiberboard siding. House has lasted through at least 20 typhoons in 10 years with zero damage. Just build your house right and it will survive.

Comment Re:Probably a good thing (Score 1) 729

by Pikoro (#44935283) Attached to: Middle-Click Paste? Not For Long

Exactly. I have completely gotten used to the 2 clipboard model. One on the right click copy, and/or ctrl+c, and one on the highlight then middle click mode which is good for more immediate uses. Would love it if Windows/OSX implemented something like that.

Comment Re:No thanks (Score 1) 729

by Pikoro (#44934605) Attached to: Middle-Click Paste? Not For Long

As much as I used CTRL+ALT+BKSP to kill X, CTRL+ALT++ or - were NOT to zoom in or out. Those keystrokes switched between desktop resolutions. From say, 1200x900 to 1024x760 to 800x600, etc... only switched between modelines specified in the config file. Yes handy, but they essentially redrew the screen but since most window managers couldn't handle it, things got messy quick.

I may be wrong, but I believe you can re-enable the C+A+B and C+A++ C+A+- by adding an /etc/X11/xorg.cfg file with the appropriate options enabled.
The Military

Air Force Wants Technology That Will Let Drones Sense and Avoid Other Aircraft 148

Posted by samzenpus from the spread-out dept.
coondoggie writes "With an eye toward letting drones share the nation's common airspace, the Air Force has set out to find the technology that will let unmanned aircraft sense and avoid other airplanes in flight. The ability to sense and avoid — common on all manned aircraft that fly the national airspace — is one of the trickier issues for drones which do not support such technology. It will be a major hurdle to jump as drone vendors and others press for common drone access to national airspace."
The Almighty Buck

Crowdfunding Platform For Drupal Development Launches 38

Posted by timothy from the not-just-a-money-laundering-scheme-any-more dept.
angry tapir writes "A team of developers has launched a new crowdfunding platform — Drupalfund.us — that's designed to help accelerate development work on the open-source Drupal CMS, as well as potentially fund new training material and other projects of interest to community members. I had a long-ish chat to one of the co-founders about the goals of the platform and how crowdfunding can be used to push forward open source development."

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