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Comment Re:Do we have to be nasty? (Score 1) 583

by uniqueUser (#30299774) Attached to: Black Screen of Death Not Microsoft's Fault

Grovelling? How sad it is that an honest apology gets an insult. If you find "We apologize to Microsoft for any inconvenience our blog may have caused." as grovelling[...]

I agree with you @Eevee, I did not detect any "grovelling" either. Unfortunately for some, if every sentence does not begin and end with "M$ Sucks" then you are labeled a M$ Fanboy. While I admit I have my own Microsoft frustrations at times, MS not the root of all evil.

Comment Re:No - there are plenty of safer alternatives (Score 2, Interesting) 486

by uniqueUser (#27969427) Attached to: Microsoft To Banish Memcpy()

In the same way that having a seat belt and an air bag in my car, doesn't change my driving habits

I consider myself a safe driver. Seat belts and air bags don't really affect my driving habits either (as far as I know). But what If there was a 7 inch (~18cm) spike sticking out of your steering wheel and 100lbs (~45kg) of high explosives attached to both bumpers, would your driving habits change? Me? Maybe. Sometimes a little danger can make things a little safer. I once heard of a study that showed some poorly painted and poorly lit roads had an increased accident rate when lighting was added and the yellow lines were re-painted. Apparently people began speeding b/c of the perceived increase in safety. I don't remember the source. Maybe Uncle Google can help me later, but I have to get back to work now.

Comment Depends.... (Score 1) 834

by uniqueUser (#27906069) Attached to: Go For a Masters, Or Not?
Do you have good expectations of finding a job right now? If so, I would say go get the job and then work on masters in two to three years.... But, if you have the ability to stay in school or think that you might get lazy and not go back to school, then get the masters now. Perfect thing to keep you busy while the economy turns around.

Comment Re:priorities, priorities... (Score 1) 133

by uniqueUser (#27628649) Attached to: DHS Seeks "Ethical Hackers" To Protect Federal Net Infrastructure

they're training tens (hundreds?) of thousands of various kinds of soldiers each year, and they're aiming to train only 250 "cyberexperts" a year by 2011?

250 is plenty! I swear, if one more cyber- anything is created, I will rip off my fucking nose. Regular experts will do just fine thank you.
Transportation

Computer-Controlled Cargo Sailing Vessels Go Slow, Frugal 210

Posted by timothy from the using-up-all-the-wind dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Big container ships are taking it very slow these days, cruising at 10 knots instead of their usual 26 knots, to save fuel. This is actually slower than sailing freighters traveled a hundred years ago. The 1902 German Preussen, the largest sailing ship ever built, traveled between Hamburg (Germany) and Iquique (Chile): the best average speed over a one way trip was 13.7 knots. Sailing boats need a large and costly crew, but they can also be controlled by computers. Automated sail handling was introduced already one century ago. In 2006 it was taken to the extreme by the Maltese Falcon, which can be operated by one man at the touch of a button. We have computer-controlled windmills, why not computer-controlled sailing cargo vessels?"
Medicine

"Microsaccades" Help To Refresh Your Field of View 96

Posted by Soulskill from the adding-a-new-word-to-the-spellchecker dept.
Ponca City, We love you writes with news of research from the Salk Institute into small, unconscious eye movements called "microsaccades," the purpose of which has been in question for many years. A recent study showed that those movements were essentially responsible for maintaining a coherent image for interpretation by the brain. They are also the cause of a famous optical illusion in which a still image appears to move. '"Because images on the retina fade from view if they are perfectly stabilized, the active generation of fixational eye movements by the central nervous system allows these movements to constantly shift the scene ever so slightly, thus refreshing the images on our retina and preventing us from going 'blind,'" explains Hafed. "When images begin to fade, the uncertainty about where to look increases the fluctuations in superior colliculus activity, triggering a microsaccade," adds Krauzlis.'"

Comment Re:Using ISS for research, finally (Score 1) 161

by uniqueUser (#26862539) Attached to: Russia Aims Towards Mars
Maybe the retirement of the ISS in 2020 can be a good thing? I wonder how likely it would be for a non-governmental group take take ownership? It would be a ridiculous cost just to get an equivalent amount of mass up there again. I hope we can take advantage of it and not let the ISS's fate be that of Mir.
Space

Fly Me To Which Moon? 183

Posted by kdawson from the life-don't-talk-to-me-about-life dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "NASA and the European Space Agency are expected later this week to settle an ongoing debate on whether to send a robotic mission to Jupiter's moon Europa or Saturn's moon Titan. Both are difficult places to get to — a mission to either would cost several billion dollars/euros to build and execute — and both have become alluring targets in the quest to learn whether Earth alone supports life. On the one hand, Europa is believed to have liquid oceans beneath its frozen crust which (on Earth at least) are a source of life-supporting chemistry. Scientists would like to scan Europa's surface for bits of material that may have seeped up from beneath the ice. 'Imagine if there were microbes entrained in material that has exuded onto the surface of Europa and they've been sitting there for maybe three million years,' says planetary scientist Dr. Brad Dalton. On the other hand, Titan has two enticing features in the search for life: liquids on the surface, and a thick atmosphere that can be used to slow down a spacecraft and help put it into orbit. Titan's surface water is locked into the crust as ice, but scientists suspect there may be a subsurface ocean where water mingles with ammonia. The mission will not get to the launch pad before 2020. 'It's unfortunate that there has to be a decision,' says NASA/JPL astrobiologist Dr. Kevin Hand. 'It's important to go to both. They are both such amazing and tantalizing worlds in terms of finding life.'"
Businesses

China Aims To Move Up the Food Chain 257

Posted by kdawson from the empty-the-cage-and-remove-the-bird dept.
krou notes reporting in the Christian Science Monitor that the current economic crisis is helping China's push into higher-end manufacturing by shaking out low-profit companies. The hope is that, instead of just assembling iPods, Chinese companies will be able to invent the next big thing instead. In this move China is following the well-worn path taken by Japan and the Asian tigers before it. "Last month, the National Development and Reform Commission announced revised plans to transform Guangdong and neighboring Hong Kong and Macau into a 'significant innovation center' by 2020. One hundred R&D labs will be set up over the next three years. By 2012, per-capita output in the region should jump 50 percent from 2007, to 80,000 yuan ($11,700). And by 2020, the study predicts, 30 percent of all industrial output should come from high-tech manufacturing."
Power

Universal Power Adapter Struggling For Support 277

Posted by Soulskill from the currently-a-shocking-resistance-to-unfulfilled-potential dept.
Ian Lamont writes "Last year, there was a lot of hopeful discussion surrounding an initiative to have the consumer electronics industry standardize their products on a USB-based universal power adapter devised by Green Plug. Eight months later, the effort has stalled. The reason: manufacturers have balked from using Green Plug's technology. '... Gadget makers seem to have no compelling financial incentive to adopt Green Plug's technology. It would require them to add Green Plug's chip, or similar hardware and software, into every phone, camera, or music player they build, making them more expensive and more complicated to build. Another stumbling block for manufacturers: A universal power supply would kill the market for replacement power supplies. Manufacturers sell these at a steep markup price to customers who lose or break the original one that came with the device, and aren't tech-savvy enough to procure a low-cost generic replacement.' Green Plug is now trying to drum up public outcry through a (slow) website, but the number of supportive comments and votes remains relatively low."
IBM

IBM Offers to Send Laid-Off Staff to Other Countries 493

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the employees-aren't-people dept.
TheAmit writes to tell us that many recently laid off IBM employees have been offered jobs if they will only move somewhere it is cheap to employ them. IBM's new Project Match program offers some financial assistance for moving and immigration help for visas. "However, the move has not gone well with the IBM staff union. Slamming the offer, a union spokesperson said that not only were jobs being shipped overseas, but Big Blue was trying to export the people for peanuts too. He added that at a time of rising unemployment IBM should be looking to keep both the work and the workers in the United States. "

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