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Comment: Re:EE (Score 1) 296

by mrmagos (#37297362) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Best Second Major For a Mechanical Engineer?
I would agree with this. Although, since you're considering CS, you may want to see if your school offers a Computer Engineering program. CompE is a mesh of EE and CS, and would be well-suited toward developing controllers, monitors, firmware, etc. for advanced (hybrid, etc.) drive systems. Alternatively, since you're interested in alternate forms of energy, ChemE may be a suitable match as well.

Comment: Wrong assumptions (Score 5, Informative) 251

by mrmagos (#37002638) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Overcoming Convention Hall Wi-Fi Interference?
Given this:

In the days leading up to the opening of the trade show, W-iFi connections are reliable and work as expected. However, as soon as the show opens none of our devices can reliable maintain a Wi-Fi connection to the router.

I doubt it's this:

I'm sure it is likely that there are poorly insulated electrical cabling, fluorescent lighting, and other issues that would contribute to Wi-Fi interference in the convention hall.

...and more likely this:

A quick scan shows dozens and dozens of discoverable Wi-Fi networks nearby.

I would recommend trying a few things:
- Reduce your RTS threshold, if your AP supports it.
- Reduce the fragmentation threshold, if your AP supports it.
- Play with data rates, reducing them if your AP supports it.

If your AP does not support any of those options, go out and get a real AP.

Comment: Re:Stability (Score 1) 305

by mrmagos (#35977048) Attached to: RIM Collapse Beginning?
The "won't sync" issue is not unique to Blackberry devices; I've seen the same issue with Android devices and iPhones, albeit much, much less often. Popping the battery out usually helps with Android phones, though you can't do that with an iPhone - you need to completely remove the account info, power down the device, then enter the account info back in before the ActiveSync connection can be reestablished.
AMD

First AMD Fusion notebook beginning to surface

Submitted by mrmagos
mrmagos writes "It looks like one of the first laptops sporting the new AMD Fusion APUs is beginning to surface on some retail sites. The Acer AS5253-BZ602 appears to have the Zacate E350 APU (1.6Ghz dual-core) with 2GB ram, a 250GB hdd and a 15.6 1366x768 display along with other standard trappings for a notebook of this size (Optical drive, 802.11b/g/n, 1.3Mpixel webcam and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit). I'm looking forward to some actual reviews and not just synthetic benchmarks on reference systems as we've seen in the past months."
Privacy

Social Media Can Help You Fake Your Own Death 146

Posted by timothy
from the you-never-read-this dept.
Julie188 writes "We are inundated with warnings that social media is systematically stripping away our privacy. But Frank Ahearn, the so-called 'Dear Abby' of disappearing, is attempting to show folks how to use those same technologies to regain your privacy, even helping you go as far as faking your own death. Ahearn is a professional skip-tracer who has hunted down people like Monica Lewinsky. In an interview with Ahearn on Network World, he says, 'One can legally disappear through the use of corporations and offshore corporations. The idea is to embrace technology and to become a virtual entity.' My favorite tip is that New Zealand is the place to land once you leap off the grid. Not only is it far from most of the rest of the English speaking world, he says, but it also has great beaches."
Television

MythTV 0.23 Released 214

Posted by kdawson
from the record-with-daring-and-whimsey dept.
An anonymous reader writes "After six months of our new accelerated development schedule, MythTV 0.23 is now available. MythTV 0.23 brings a new event system, brand new Python bindings, the beta MythNetvision Internet video plugin, new audio code and surround sound upmixer, several new themes (Arclight and Childish), a greatly improved H.264 decoder, and fixes for analog scanning, among many others. Work towards MythTV 0.24 is in full swing, and has be progressing very well for the last several months. If all goes according to plan, MythTV 0.24 will bring a new MythUI OSD, a nearly rewritten audio subsystem capable of handling 24- and 32-bit audio and up to 8 channels of output, Blu-ray disc and disc structure playback, and various other performance, usability, and flexibility improvements."
Image

Visually Demonstrating Chrome's Rendering Speed 140

Posted by kdawson
from the want-to-see-it-again dept.
eldavojohn writes "Recent betas of Google's Chrome browser are getting seriously fast. Couple that with better hardware, on average, and it's getting down to speeds that are difficult to demonstrate in a way users can appreciate. Which is why Google felt that some Rube Goldberg-ish demonstrations with slo-mo are in order. Gone are the days of boring millisecond response time metrics."
Classic Games (Games)

Nostalgic Elation — the Super Mario Crossover 67

Posted by Soulskill
from the it'sa-me-megaman dept.
eldavojohn writes "Sure, they're stepping all over proprietary rights and copyright, but something must be said about the amount of bliss-filled nostalgia inside Exploding Rabbit's Super Mario Crossover. If the plumbers never really did it for you, you can now kill those goombas as Link, Mega Man, Samus, Simon Belmont, or Contra's Bill. Goodbye jumping and spitting; hello slicing, whipping, and shooting. Is this one of the early firsts in the new genre of video game mashups?"

"Everyone is entitled to an *informed* opinion." -- Harlan Ellison