Comment Re:So (Score 1) 284
$530 US is about the standard price for unlocked smartphones worldwide. It's about the same price as an unlocked iPhone.
Comment Re:Celsius: It's for telling temperature (Score 1) 1233
One cubic metre of water is actually 1000 litres. I'm not sure I'd want to be boiling a couple of cubic metres of water each time I turn the jug on, let alone try to drink a 2L bottle of Coke.
Comment Re:Compression (Score 1) 596
You do realise that 8 megapixels is the maximum amount of pixels?
I personally do not have any need for 8 megapixel images. I have my 5 megapixel camera set to take images at 3 megapixels. I don't need all of those extra pixels and the file sizes are much smaller.
Comment Re:Another reason not to go to the theatre (Score 2, Informative) 336
The assigned seats are generally only for when the theater is full, and you can make a claim for your assigned seats.
Otherwise nobody sticks to the plan.
Comment Re:Wrong Premise (Score 1) 1108
Quite frankly, the questions of whether global warming exists, and whether is is man made are irrelevant. What we do know is that we as a race are polluting the planet, and upsetting the natural 'carbon cycle' by emitting vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Surely it is our responsibility to clean up after ourselves?
Comment Re:Windows 7 non-starter (Score 1) 821
Mod parent up! Too true...
Comment Re:And What of the Others? (Score 1) 650
The idea about microsoft bundling a CD is a good one, however I don't think that it would be nesessary for them include applications from other providers on this CD.
The whole point is that these components are not installed by default as part of the operating system. It they came on an optional extra CD it should be okay. Customers would be able to have a Windows operating system without the bloat of IE, WMP etc, yet would still be able to optionally install them off a supplied CD.
This solution would allow OEMs and geeks to customise their OS without IE, WMP and the like.
Comment Re:The solution (Score 3, Insightful) 449
Then this decrease in demand will be blamed upon priacy, probably resulting in a blanket tax on internet connections, or blank media to make up for lost revenues.
Fat People Cause Global Warming, Higher Food Prices 1083
Stating the obvious: "Two scientists write that obese people are disproportionately responsible for high food prices and greenhouse gas emissions because they consume 18% more food energy due to their greater body mass -- and require increased quantities of fuel to transport themselves and the food they eat. 'Promotion of a normal distribution of BMI would reduce the global demand for, and thus the price of, food,' write the authors, Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts of the evocatively named London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine."
Submission + - Gabe of PA interviews his WWII vet Grandpa
Flange writes: Gabe earlier mentioned he had interviewed his grandfather's WWII Navy experiences but never transcribed and posted it. He now posts a recent interview about it: "I'm sharing it with you guys for a couple reasons. First, I hope it might motivate some of you that have veterans in your family to sit down with them and just listen for a little while. Second, his view of World War II games comes from a perspective that we don't often hear. I'm not posting this to change anyone's opinion of these games but his insight has certainly made me think about them in a different way" http://www.penny-arcade.com/2007/12/07
Submission + - Sliding Rocks Baffle Scientists (geology.com) 1
An anonymous reader writes: Scientists can't figure out why these rocks — weighing up to several pounds each — can slide across a dry lake bed. Some blame it on the wind — but it can't be that simple!
Submission + - The 110 Million Dollar Button
Reservoir Hill writes: "The "I'm Feeling Lucky" button on Google's search page may cost the company up to $110 million in lost ad revenue every year according to a report in American Public Media's Marketplace. Tom Chavez says that since the company makes money selling ads on its search results page, the 1% of users who use the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button never see Google's ads because the button automatically directs them to a non-Google site reducing Google's ad revenue. So why does Google keep the button? Marisa Mayer, Google's vice president responsible for everything on the search page, says that "it's possible just to become too dry, too corporate, too much about making money" and the "I'm Feeling Lucky," button reminds you that "people here have personality." Web usability expert Jacob Nielsen says the whimsy serves another business purpose: "Oh we're just two kind of grad students hanging out and having a beer and having a grand old time," not you know, "We are 16,000 people working on undermining your privacy.""
Submission + - Launching Satellites cheaply at light speed
Denis Joseph Barrow writes: "Before launching the Satellite launch around 50 bullet
shaped objects at a rate of probably 10,000 a second
each of successively larger radius. Probably
with conical tops starting at about 1cm in radius
& increasing in surface area linearly to about 1 meter
in radius. When the bullet stops accelerating vertically
have an accelerometer in the bullet to make it explode
in a horizontal direction & a put a fuse on it's
rear end to cause it to explode if a preceding bullet
crashes into it.
The idea of doing this is that a successively larger
& better vacuum hole will be created in the atmosphere
the bullets should I believe travel along the path
of least resistance & winds should make minimal effect
owing to the speed of the bullets & the speed at
which new bullets come along.
By the time the satellite is to be launched almost
a complete vacuum should be available for it & I'd
hope that the Satellite will be able to travel
hopefully at upto 97% the speed of light."
Submission + - Vote to Eliminate Leap Seconds 6
Mortimer.CA writes: As mentionted on Slahdot previously, there is a proposal to remove leap seconds from UTC (nee 'Greenwich' time). It wil be put to a vote to ITU member states, and if 70% agree, the leap second will be eliminated by 2013. There is some debate as to whether this change is a good or bad idea. One philosophical point opponents make is that the 'official' time on Earth should match the time of the sun and heavens. People with appliances that blink '12:00' can probably ignore this issue.
Submission + - Open Source Mathematical Software
An anonymous reader writes: The American Mathematical society has an opinion piece about open source software vs propietary software used in mathematics. From the article : "Increasingly, proprietary software and the algorithms used are an essential part of mathematical proofs. To quote J. Neubüser, 'with this situation two of the most basic rules of conduct in mathematics are violated: In mathematics information is passed on free of charge and everything is laid open for checking.'"
