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Comment: Re:December (Score 1) 559

by angel'o'sphere (#40175087) Attached to: Germany Sets New Solar Power Record

I did not neglect your facts.

I only pointed out: europe is already interconnected with AC lines. The losses are accepted and calculated into the costs/bills.

Regarding the PDF, keep in mind this is a very low yield decentralized power plant, not really a plant.

But that is what europe is going for: decentralizing power generation.

The "disturbing" or destabilizing effects are very local, on the level of a communal grid. However that is not the point. The point is: europe is working on thins "engineering problem". Most of the USA say: that is impossible. Makes me wonder. New weapons are never a problem, new energy technology is ;D

Google

How Hackers Listened Their Way Around Google's Recaptcha 52

Posted by timothy
from the listen-to-what-the-flower-children-scream dept.
An anonymous reader writes with this story at Ars Technica: "Three self-taught hackers from the DC949 hacker collective managed to use a combination of techniques to beat ReCaptcha with 99.1% accuracy (better than most humans!)" In short, the hackers skipped the visual part of the Recaptcha system entirely, focusing on the audio alternative, which gave them a few convenient angles of attack. Google responded with changes to the system, but that doesn't minimize their accomplishment.
Microsoft

Windows 8 Release Preview Now Available To Download 193

Posted by timothy
from the air-conditioning-for-me dept.
MrSeb writes "Microsoft has announced the immediate availability of Windows 8 Release Preview. Unfortunately there isn't a Consumer Preview > Release Preview upgrade path — you'll have to format and perform a clean installation. After downloading the ISO, simply burn Windows 8 RP onto a USB stick or DVD, reboot, and follow the (exceedingly quick and easy) installer. Alternatively, if you don't want to format a partition, ExtremeTech has a guide on virtualizing Windows 8 with VirtualBox. After a lot of fluster on the Building Windows 8 blog, the Release Preview is actually surprisingly similar to the Consumer Preview. Despite being promised a new, flat, Desktop/Explorer UI, Aero is still the default theme in Windows 8 RP. The tutorial that will introduce new users to the brave new Start buttonless Windows 8 world is also missing. Major features that did make the cut are improved multi-monitor support — it's now easier to hit the hot corners on a multi-monitor setup, and Metro apps can be moved between displays — and the Metro version of IE10 now has a built-in Flash plug-in. There will be no further pre-releases of Windows 8: the next build will be the RTM."
Games

Second NetHack Cross-Variant Summer Tournament

Submitted by
bhaak1
bhaak1 writes "The second installment of the annual NetHack Cross-Variant Summer Tournament called Junethack is starting Thursday at midnight UTC and will be running until the end of June.

This online tournament features Vanilla NetHack and several of its forks: SporkHack, UnNethack, AceHack, GruntHack, and NetHack4.

The last two forks are participating this year for the first time in Junethack.

This tournament is trying to also appeal to players that get constantly mangled and beaten to death in unrealistic brutal situations by this sadistic game (that means probably you) by offering various non-winning achievements.

For additional geek creds you can hack away at the GPL source code of the tournament software available on GitHub if you are too ashamed of having a multi-digit death count."
Security

Residential intrusion detection

Submitted by GodfatherofSoul
GodfatherofSoul writes "For the past 5 years that I've been in my house, I've noticed what I would call nuisance attempts to either peer into or enter my home. Before I secured my window wells and trimmed back some shrubs, I'd noticed on many occasions the covers would be completely removed *windows remain secure). Before I installed a motion sensor light, I'd find my backyard gates unlatched.

The last "hole" is my garage door opener. Very frequently when I've left the house for extended periods (over 24 hours), I'll come home to find the remote key pad with the cover open as if it were used. I've rigged the garage door before and I don't think anyone has ever entered through it, but I don't doubt someone has been plugging in random numbers trying to get in.

I'm in a good neighborhood with nosey neighbors, so I don't expect more than "industrious" teenagers at work. But, I would like to surreptitiously see who's doing it without them seeing me. I'm on a typical residential street, so I don't have options like a wildlife camera. Again, I'm not interested in installing some whole-house security camera system. What I want is a localized system that I can put in place to detect when someone is at the keypad using it and preferably record that content while I'm away. Any ideas, Slashdotters?"
Intel

Intel Ivy Bridge Processor Hits 7GHz Overclock Record 94

Posted by timothy
from the who-ordered-this-keg-of-nitrogen? dept.
MojoKid writes "Renowned Overclocker HiCookie used a Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H motherboard to achieve a fully validated 7.03GHz clock speed on an Intel Core i7 3770K Ivy Bridge processor. As it stands, that's the highest clockspeed for an Ivy Bridge CPU, and it required a steady dose of liquid nitrogen to get there. HiCookie also broke a record for the highest memory speed on an Ivy Bridge platform, pushing his G.Skill Trident X DDR3-2800 memory kit populated in four DIMM slots to 3,280MHz. Not for the faint of heart, the record breaking CPU overclock required that HiCookie pump 1.956V to the processor, according to his CPU-Z screenshot. The CPU multiplier was set at x63."

Comment: Re:Insurance? (Score 1) 292

I can totally see them raking folks over the coals on insurance premiums for building in the "One meter zone".

Why shouldn't they? People building that close to disaster are a giant liability payout waiting to happen. This is pretty much a textbook case of "preexisting condition". If someone chooses their home's location so poorly, why should I have to subsidize their stupidity with higher premiums on my non-poorly-located property? If those builders want to take the risk, let them pay for it.

Security

US warns users of new Citadel ransomware hit ->

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes "The nasty Trojan known as Citadel malware, which is based on Zeus, has typically been used to extort money from online banking users, but a new variant is making the rounds that tries to get your money by saying you looked at child porn sites and must pay a violation fee to the U.S. Department of Justice. This variation, called Reveton, lures the victim to a drive-by download website, at which time the ransomware is installed on the user's computer, says the U.S. Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). Once installed, the computer freezes and a screen is displayed warning the user they have violated United States Federal Law."
Link to Original Source

What is C++ AMP, really?->

Submitted by G3ckoG33k
G3ckoG33k writes "I read an article in The Inquirer: "However Robinson believes that more tools will mean better support of OpenCL on both Windows and Linux. Robinson said, "Now with the proliferation of OpenCL and certainly with the introduction of C++ AMP by Microsoft, you are seeing the actual tipping point where you've got a development environment, especially with C++ or OpenCL, whatever they [developers] want to choose and that makes much more sense. But we've got a bit more work to do with the Linux environment to open this up to workstations, but based on the success we've seen in the consumer it gives us the momentum in those areas." I had never heard of C++ AMP and on MS webpage it stands for "C++ Accelerated Massive Parallelism". But what is it really and is it any good?"
Link to Original Source
Wireless Networking

Spectrum segment for medical devices opened by FCC->

Submitted by
sarfralogy
sarfralogy writes "The average doctor’s phone and computer are likely both wireless — and soon many of his or her patients can be as well.
The FCC announced on May 24 that it’s assigning 40 megahertz (MHz) of spectrum for wireless medical tracking devices, called medical body area devices, or MBANs. This will be on a shared basis with, would you believe test pilots in the defense and aerospace sectors? It’s true. The announcement caps several years of negotiations between the FCC; two major manufacturers of medical monitors, General Electric and Phillips; and the flight industry’s Aerospace and Flight Test Radio Coordinating Council."
Link to Original Source

Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he'll invite himself over for dinner. -- Calvin Keegan