Comment: Open Source Robot Skin (Score 1) 19
E-Textile based. Build it yourself today!
We're only at the prototype stage, but if you don't have any nanotubes lying around, try this out instead!
Comment: Tolerance for corporate hegemony (Score 1) 789
I find the tolerance for corporate greed and power in this thread really appaling, especially from the hacker crowd.
I've read a number of arguments that boil down to this: You should have read the contract. I don't care if you don't like it.
Well first off wireless carriers in this country do not offer contracts, they offer ultimatums. A proper contract is negotiated between parties who all have a say in the matter. Not only that but breaking a contract has consequences for both parties. This simply isn't what the monopoly in this case offers. You sign the paper they wrote without input or you get nothing. They get guaranteed revenue far in excess of their expenditure on the subsidy for a period of two years with no guarantee of service, reliability, or quality. You fail to pay and they terminate your account, they fail to provide coverage and you're stuck calling tech support.
To cut this to the bone, this is about power. They can dictate any terms they want unless the consumers act in a group to protest their policies. Remember this is a company that benefited multiple times from direct subsidies from the federal government, relies on access to public infrastructure to provide its service, cooperated in violating constitutionally protected private communications, and continues to make significant profit off of outrageously priced data fees despite the rest of the economy tanking.
If you're willing to sit back and get screwed by companies like this, then they will continue to screw not only you, but the rest of us. I'm not calling for boycott or anything stupidly overplayed like that, but for goodness sake, recognise when the system is not the peoples favor and have the compassion to voice your support for the rest of us getting screwed even if you personally enjoy the feeling.
Comment: 65% Women? Yeah that's accurate. (Score 5, Funny) 219
Researchers have also have discovered that Laura Croft's breast size does not significantly change the appeal of the character, Animal Crossing is just as fun as GTA, and female night elves are rarely created in WoW.
Comment: Here's a great course ... (Score 1) 452
Flat Panel Displays Stop Getting Cheaper
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by
mateomiguel
mateomiguel writes "Those sexy LCD and PDP monitors coming out of Asia seemed to have stopped dropping in price. Now might be a good time to buy that new HD-TV that you've been eyeing before it becomes more expensive. From the article:
""The price of LCD panels fell some 10% in the third and fourth quarter of last year, and the figure is expected to be around 5% in the first quarter of this year," said Cho Young-deok, managing director at Samsung Electronics. "Panels are now in tight supply after major TV manufacturers' zero stock policy targeting backlogs from November and December last year."
Nicotine Island, A Permanent Vacation for Smokers
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by
Kyla
Kyla writes "Nicotine Island was designed around your highest expectations. Spacious smoking areas, cigarette vending machines, fine dining; all secured in a twenty two million square foot space aged high performance glass bubble so you get the ultimate smoking experience. But that is just the beginning. Peace of mind, Filthy air, Room to breathe unlimited smoke, to continue your unhealthy lifestyle. That's what makes Nicotine Island different, and better. It's a community like Nicotine Island that offers security, freedom, and more. If you know somebody who should be sent to Nicotine Island, please Send a Smoker Today!"
Journal: TivoToGo Transfers broken.
Journal
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faedle
With all the chatter recently about TiVoToGo coming to Mac users, I'm a bit surprised that nobody mentioned the fact that a significant percentage of TiVo users have not been able to use TiVoToGo since a patch in November broke the functionality on a small (but significant) percentage of Series2 TiVos. This problem was discovered within days of the patch's release, and as of today there h
Journal: How The RIAA Is Like 17th Century French Button-Makers 150
Journal
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Alien54
Requiring permission to innovate? Feeling entitled to search others' property? Getting the power to act like law enforcement in order to fine or arrest those who are taking part in activities that challenge your business model? Don't these all sound quite familiar? Centuries from now (hopefully much, much sooner), the actions of the RIAA, MPAA and others that match these of the weavers and button-makers of 17th century France will
Journal: Seeking Intelligent Life on Earth 5
Journal
by
Chemisor
Suppose you walk into a room where a dozen people are gathered. Head for the third nearest person and engage him in conversation to determine what he knows and how smart he is. Let's leave aside for the moment the fact that you are breaking a social taboo by doing so and think about how likely this person is to be more intelligent than you are. By "intelligent" I mean "skilled at creating an manipulating abstract concepts", which is roughly what an IQ test would measure. If you have ever take
Intel to launch cheaper quad core
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Tommy Kino
Tommy Kino writes ""On January 21st, Intel will launch their first mainstream quad-core processor — the Core 2 Quad Q6600. Like the Core 2 Extreme QX6700, it is made up of two Conroe dies sitting on a single package.
As such, its 8MB Level 2 cache is not completely shareable between all four cores. Rather, it's split into two separate 4MB caches, each of which is shareable between their respective core pairs.
According to Intel, we will not see a true quad-core (four cores on a die) processor until the second half of this year. Codenamed Yorkfield, it will debut in the new 45nm process and come with a fully-shared 8MB L2 cache."
Full report at http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=379& pgno=0"
As such, its 8MB Level 2 cache is not completely shareable between all four cores. Rather, it's split into two separate 4MB caches, each of which is shareable between their respective core pairs.
According to Intel, we will not see a true quad-core (four cores on a die) processor until the second half of this year. Codenamed Yorkfield, it will debut in the new 45nm process and come with a fully-shared 8MB L2 cache."
Full report at http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=379