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Technology

Submission + - RCA reveals Wi-Fi harvesting recharger (criticalgamer.co.uk) 1

unknown_gamer writes: A hidden gem from this year’s CES; the RCA Airnergy Charger, a product sent straight from the future that convert air to electricity. Or rather, it somehow picks up on Wi-Fi signals and uses them to charge batteries. Apparently it does this surprisingly well, charging a Blackberry from 30% to full battery in 90 minutes. If this sounds like magic then prepare to stare disbelievingly at the proposed price: $40.
Power

Submission + - So What's the Bad Wiring Advice?

Residentcur writes: The popular press is full of stories about a recall of Sunset DIY books on home wiring. The recall is based on supposed bad advice contained in these books and going back three decades, but neither the government body responsible for it nor the publisher is willing to say what the problem is. In my view, it defies logic that this should be kept secret, since presumably many will fail to turn in these dangerous books and may well continue to follow their guidance going forward. No doubt someone in possession of such a book could scour it for at least a likely explanation for the recall. So far I have been unable to find even a speculation about the nature of the bad advice, amongst all the "this will teach you not to try to do it yourself" drivel. Can anyone enlighten this avid home electrician what to look out for in these books?

Comment Re:Wait, really? (Score 1) 1053

As I stated in my first post: If he died from obesity, shame on his family for not helping him. Shame on them for letting someone eat themselves to death. If I die because no one tries to stop me from killing myself then my family and friends DON'T deserve condolences. Friends don't let friends kill themselves.

Comment Re:Wait, really? (Score 1) 1053

I am not arguing that he doesn't have a right to be saved. I am arguing that the he is the person most responsible for saving himself. If people don't take care of themselves NO amount of medical treatment can save them. I am saying to the OP that better access to health care might have saved him, or maybe not eating that umteenth BigMac would have saved him. The OP is arguing that better health care was necessary to save him. I question THAT claim. Because this is all speculation I would like to reiterate that if he was a healthy, active person my most sincere condolences go out to his loved ones.

Comment Re:Wait, really? (Score 0, Flamebait) 1053

Did he eat right and exercise regularly? Having a massive heart attack at age 40 sounds like he wasn't taking very good care of himself to begin with. Ya, it would be great if healthcare took care of everyone who ate themselves to death but lets be realistic, people need to take responsibility for their own health. If he was an avid athlete and just dropped dead then my sincere condolences go out to his family and friends. If he ate himself to death then to his family and friends I say shame on you for letting him kill himself.

Comment Google and Linux (Score 2, Insightful) 582

Searching for "Why is windows so popular" returns a top hit of: HowStuffWorks "What is Linux and why is it so popular?" I am not sure that either Google or Microsoft are trying to bash each other. I think that there are just a lot more people who want to know why macs are expensive and the search engine pushes it to the top.
Government

Submission + - Immigration Reform not Likely this Year (immigracion.com.mx)

mximmigracion writes: "President Obama and his top aide conceded Thursday they lack the political muscle to pass immigration reform this year on an already overcrowded legislative agenda. Obama and his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, have dialed back their desire to pass immigration reform quickly, acknowledging political roadblocks that await on Capitol Hill. "It's not impossible to do it this year," Emanuel told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, but "I think it's more important to get it started now." I think we do have the votes, or, once this process begins, we will have the votes, if we handle the process right," Weiner said. "Let's start legislating. Let's not be afraid of our own shadow here.""
Windows

Submission + - Apple whines, Microsoft changes Laptop Hunters ad

An anonymous reader writes: 'Microsoft has responded to Apple's complaint about the software giant's Laptop Hunters campaign by quietly tweaking at least one of the ads, taking down the old ad from its website and sites like YouTube, and replacing it with a new one. The only difference is that the new ad no longer mentions specific numbers because Apple recently lowered pricing on its Mac notebooks. "We slightly adjusted the ads to reflect the updated pricing of the Mac laptop shown in the TV advertisement," a Microsoft spokesperson told Ars. "This does not change the focus of the campaign which is to showcase the value and choice of the PC." A quick check through all the Laptop Hunters ads on YouTube shows that the fifth one was the only one to be changed out of the six ads. Here's how the old ad played out. While in the Mac section, Lauren says: "This Mac is $2,000, and that's before adding anything." Her mother then asks "Why would you pay twice the price?," to which Lauren replies "I wouldn't," and heads back to the PC section. In the new ad, when in the Mac section, Lauren simply says "This one only has a 250GB hard drive. It seems like you're paying a lot for the brand."'
Books

Submission + - Amazon Apologizes for Deleting Ebooks from Kindles (fictioncircus.com)

Miracle Jones writes: "Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has formally apologized to customers for deleting ebooks from people's Kindles: "This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our "solution" to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we've received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission. With deep apology to our customers, Jeff Bezos Founder & CEO Amazon.com""
Moon

Submission + - What got us to the moon

cheros writes: This is an interesting article, detailing a few of the challenges of the first moon flight:

Fence Wire, Flying Bedsteads and 36KB: What Got Us to the Moon

It's easy, once things become commonplace, to forget how extraordinary they once were. When Lindbergh flew to Paris, the whole world stopped to cheer. Now thousands of people jet back and forth everyday. Some 2,000 people have now reached the summit of Mt. Everest. And almost 500 people, from 39 countries, have flown in space. Which undoubtedly explains why I'm hard pressed to name even one of the astronauts who blasted off in the Space Shuttle Endeavor on Wednesday.

I just looked at the flight computer stats: 36k memory, and an MTBF of 70'000h. Translated: 1/50000 of the currently customary 2GB, and -if used during office hours- no failure for 40 years. It's clear that Microsoft had not been founded yet :-).

Feed Techdirt: If You're Going To Meter Or Cap Broadband, Shouldn't You Provide A Meter? (techdirt.com)

With various ISPs implementing forms of capped or metered broadband, you would think it would be standard (if not required) that they also provide consumers with the tools to measure their consumption. Otherwise it seems a bit unfair to say you can only use x amount, but you have no way to know when you've actually done so. But, it seems that hasn't really stopped various ISPs. News.com is noticing that despite capping broadband connections at 250 gigs/month for many months (and rumors and screenshots of it), Comcast still refuses to deliver a broadband monitoring solution for users. If that's the case, it makes you wonder how accurate/reliable its own internal monitors are, and how it can guarantee that users actually get the 250 gigs they're promised. Perhaps I'm missing something, but is it really that difficult to measure broadband usage? If so, that would seem to be yet another reason that ISPs might want to stay away from metered broadband: the cost of developing a system to actually track it.

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Comment Re:Finally (Score 5, Interesting) 575

That article isn't even consistent. Elsewhere It says that the total solar energy reaching earth is 3.8 YJ/year. The earth uses 500 Exa J /year. That means that the entire surface of the earth only produces about 1900x the power we need. If you factor out the oceans as 2/3 the earth's surface you are down to 633x our current power needs. (That doesn't even take into account that the south pole is a pretty lousy place to get solar energy because the sun's rays are never normal to it). Lets also assume that you don't want to kill forests. 30% of the earth's land is covered by forest [www.earth-policy.org/indicators/Forest/2006.htm]. That takes up down to 422x total energy needs. Take out for farmland it there will be less. And the worst part is that forestland and farmland are highly concentrated around places that have good sunlight. You don't see many trees in Antarctica. We probably could get enough energy but it isn't quite as large is you suggest.

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