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Comment I'll check my batteries... (Score 3, Insightful) 560

by Beau6183 (#29886881) Attached to: Laptop Fires On Airplanes
I'll check my batteries...when you give me 110v AC 60hz plugs in business class. Of course this wouldn't help the international traveler (where laptops REALLY help pass the time). Most airliners have 115v AC @ 400hz and 28vdc systems... Or perhaps a universal 12v DC plug. This would require laptop manufacturers to standardize power supplies and plug fittings (yay!). Not an immediate fix by any stretch, but probably the safest ("low" voltage) most efficient (no inverter inefficiencies).

Comment Re:Whats the issue Apple have with Flash? (Score 1) 154

by Beau6183 (#29664195) Attached to: Flash CS5 Will Export iPhone Apps
Adobe has worked with 50+ mobile device vendors (Open Screen Project) to improve Flash performance, power management and compatibility on mobile devices in yet-to-be-released Flash 10.1. At the MAX 2009 keynote yesterday, and they demoed Flash 10.1 (full flash, not flash lite) on several mobile devices, including the Pre. Adobe wants as much coverage as it possibly can with Flash, but Apple enjoys it's strong hold over it's App store and the sole publishing technology. Given Apple's lack of interest in allowing device interoperability with iTunes (Palm's Pre, for example), I'd be more inclined to think that it's Apple that is not willing to work with Adobe.
Power

Why Is Linux Notebook Battery Life Still Poor? 907

Posted by timothy from the have-seen-the-same dept.
Ganty writes "I recently purchased a Lenovo W500 notebook, and after 'downgrading' to XP and creating a dual partition, I found that I had a battery life of nearly three hours using the long-life battery, at this point I was a happy camper because it means that I can watch a DVD during a flight. I then tried various Linux distributions and found the battery life under FOS to be very disappointing, with an average of 45 minutes before a warning message. After settling on Ubuntu I then spent three days trying various hardware tweaks but I only managed to increase the battery life to one and a half hours. Unwanted services have been disabled, laptop mode has been enabled, the dual core CPU reduces speed when idle and the hard drive spins down when not needed. Obviously Apple with their X86 hardware and BSD based OS have got it right because the MacBooks last for hours, and a stock install of MS Windows XP gives me three hours of life. Why is battery life on notebooks so poor when using Linux? Some have suggested disabling various hardware items such as bluetooth and running the screen at half brightness but XP doesn't require me to do this and still gives a reasonable battery life."
Displays

Ink Breakthrough Heralds Bendy PC Screens 140

Posted by timothy from the 1001-positions-for-computing dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers claim to have developed a type of soluble semiconductor ink which could help to make bendable computer screens a reality. Developed at Polyera and BASF Future Business, the ink carries an N-Type negative charge. Previously, semiconductor inks have only been able to carry a positive charge. The new ink can be printed onto any flexible material, including plastic and paper, using only a modified ink-jet printer."
Privacy

White House Exempts YouTube From Web Privacy Rules 235

Posted by timothy from the but-other-than-this-one-thing dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The new White House website privacy policy promises that the site will not use long-term tracking cookies, complying with a decade old rule prohibiting such user tracking by federal agencies. However, Obama's legal team has quietly exempted YouTube from this rule. Visitors to the official White House blog will receive long-term tracking cookies whenever they surf to a web-page with an embedded YouTube video — even those users that do not click the "play" button. As CNET reports, no other company has been singled out and rewarded with such a waiver."

Generational Windows Multicore Performance Tests 228

Posted by CmdrTaco from the spinning-yer-wheels dept.
snydeq writes "Windows XP, Windows Vista, and (soon) Windows 7 all support SMP out of the box, but as InfoWorld's Randall Kennedy notes, 'experience has shown that multiprocessing across discrete CPUs is not the same thing as multiprocessing across integrated cores within the same CPU.' As such, Kennedy set out to stress the multiprocessing capabilities of Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 in dual-core and quad-core performance tests. The comprehensive, multiprocess workload tests were undertaken to document scalability, execution efficiency, and raw performance of workloads. 'What I found may surprise you,' Kennedy writes. 'Not only does Microsoft have a firm grasp of multicore tuning, but its scalability story promises to keep getting better with time. In other words, Windows Vista and Windows 7 are poised to reap ever greater performance benefits as Intel and AMD extend the number of cores in future editions of their processors.'"
Government

Obama Edicts Boost FOIA and .gov Websites 400

Posted by CmdrTaco from the breath-of-fresh-air dept.
Ian Lamont writes "The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the National Security Archive are praising President Obama's executive orders to make the federal government more open. Yesterday, Obama issued two memos and one executive order instructing government agencies to err on the side of making information public and not to look for reasons to legally withhold it. The moves are expected to make it easier for people to file Freedom of Information Act requests, and should also boost the amount of information that agencies place on their websites. The general counsel for the National Security Archive (an NGO that publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act) even predicts that agencies will use blogs to share information. Obama's directives reverse a 2001 memo from former US Attorney General John Ashcroft instructing federal agencies to generally withhold information from citizens filing FOIA requests."
Data Storage

RAM Disk Puts New Spin On the SSD 305

Posted by samzenpus from the old-disk-new-tricks dept.
theraindog writes "Although the solid-state storage market is currently dominated by flash-based devices, you can also build an SSD out of standard system memory modules. Hardware-based RAM disks tend to be prohibitively expensive, but ACard has built an affordable one that supports up to 64GB of standard DDR2 memory and features dual Serial ATA ports to improve performance with RAID configurations. And it's driver-free and OS-independent, too. The Tech Report's in-depth review of the ANS-9010 RAM disk pits it against the fastest SSDs around and nicely illustrates the drive's staggering performance potential with multitasking and multi-user loads. However, it also highlights the device's shortcomings, including the fact that SSDs are more practical for most applications."
Communications

Submission + - Hawaiian Moonbounce

Submitted by jrsumm
jrsumm writes: For the first time in more than 25 years an amateur radio operator in Hawaii has successfully bounced a signal off of the moon. Alex Benton, KH6YY, sent a signal from his backyard antenna tower 238,000 miles towards the moon, who had the good grace to send it right back to earth. About a dozen operators from around the world heard it by Saturday. He was planning on operating for several more days to give more amateurs a chance to listen in. The story was picked up by the Honolulu Advertiser.
Space

Submission + - Stephen Hawking Goes ZeroG in NASA's Vomit Comet

Submitted by
NewsCloud
NewsCloud writes: "The trip Slashdot described last month is complete. MSNBC reports that Cosmologist Stephen Hawking has experienced zero gravity: "Zero Gravity co-founder and chief executive officer Peter Diamandis, signaled with his fingers that the world-famous physicist went weightless eight times." Before the flight, Hawking said, "I have been wheelchair-bound for almost four decades, and the chance to float free in zero-G will be wonderful,". The article describes special precautions were taken to ensure his well-being. I thought it might kill him but I'm inspired by his accomplishment."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft profits on Vista sales

Submitted by gnuman99
gnuman99 writes: Microsoft seems to be doing better than analysts expected. In the first quarter of 2007, Microsoft earned almost $5 billion. Higher than expected.

Microsoft Corp. said late Thursday its fiscal third-quarter profit rose 65%, as the company benefitted from initial sales of heavily-marketed new products including its Vista operating system. The world's biggest software maker said it earned a record-high $4.93 billion, or 50 cents a share, in the period ended March 31, compared to $2.98 billion, or 29 cents a share, during the period a year earlier. Meanwhile revenue rose to $14.4 billion from $10.9 billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected Microsoft to earn 46 cents a share, on revenue of $13.89 billion.

Maybe the anoyance factor cited before is not indicative whether people actually buy Vista?
Wireless Networking

Submission + - 2.6sq/km hotspot opens in London

Submitted by
Liam Cromar
Liam Cromar writes: "The Cloud has opened a ubiquitous wireless mesh network in the City of London. Internet access is available for a reasonable £12/month, or £4.50/hour. A larger network to cover more of London is also planned by The Cloud. No word on connection speeds is provided in the article, however. Still, it will be interesting to see what sort of uptake there is — do people really want ubiquitous Internet?"
The Internet

China's New Internet Plan 259

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the i-don't-want-to-wash-the-people's-internet dept.
eldavojohn writes "The internet in China is diverging rapidly from the state that the rest of the world enjoys it. Recent news of China's leader, Hu Jintao, has revealed a strategy to distort it even further. Jintao is tackling the issue his Communist party is having with the youth of China that are too young to remember Chairman Mao and the fanaticism the populace had for him. A strategy he is proposing is 'cleaning up' China's internet & lacing it with a little propaganda like the need to 'Consolidate the guiding status of Marxism in the ideological sphere' online. The meeting notes also declared that 'Development and administration of Internet culture must stick to the direction of socialist advanced culture, adhere to correct propaganda guidance.'"

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