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Comment Smart Grids? (Score 1) 121

by we3 (#43622699) Attached to: The Smart Grid Has Arrived

In Illinois were getting a "Smart Grid" which is supposed to make ComEds system more efficient. So of course that means we need to pay up front for the new meters and our electricity rates are going up. Yays for efficiency.

Comment Re:Congressional Campaign Donations Caucus (Score 1) 150

by we3 (#43000957) Attached to: U.S. Reps Chu and Coble Start Intellectual Property Caucus

aww crap, now i had to read the linked story and press release. They make it sound like they're starting a lobbying firm. I didn't think they'd be that blatant. I just assumed it'd all be implied.

On a funnier note, isn't it great how they used the word craftsmanship along side intellectual property.
News

Submission + - Machine gun fire from military helicopters flying over downtown Miami (miamiherald.com) 1

Submitted by Okian Warrior
Okian Warrior writes: Multiple police agencies and the military are currently (Monday night) conducting training exercises over Miami and elsewhere in the county. The exercise includes military helicopters firing machine-gun blanks while flying over highways and buildings.

This YouTube video shows helicopters strafing highways with blank rounds near the Adrian Arts center.

There are reports of similar actions in Houston

From the Houston article: "if you see the helicopters or hear gunfire, it's only a drill."

Not to be alarmist or anything, but, um... WTF?

Submission + - Scientology on Trial in Belgium (theatlanticwire.com)

Submitted by dgharmon
dgharmon writes: "After a years long legal battle, federal prosecutors in Belgium now believe their investigation is complete enough to charge the Church of Scientology and its leaders as a criminal organization on charges of extortion, fraud, privacy breaches, and the illegal practice of medicine .. The Belgian government won't charge Scientology for being a cult — authorities are focusing on prosecuting it as a criminal organization" ...
Social Networks

Submission + - The Web We Lost - Anil Dash (dashes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Anil Dash has an insightful post about cutting through the social media hype to see all of the social functionality that we've lost on the web over the past decade. 'We've lost key features that we used to rely on, and worse, we've abandoned core values that used to be fundamental to the web world. To the credit of today's social networks, they've brought in hundreds of millions of new participants to these networks, and they've certainly made a small number of people rich. But they haven't shown the web itself the respect and care it deserves, as a medium which has enabled them to succeed. And they've now narrowed the possibilites of the web for an entire generation of users who don't realize how much more innovative and meaningful their experience could be. ... We get bullshit turf battles like Tumblr not being able to find your Twitter friends or Facebook not letting Instagram photos show up on Twitter because of giant companies pursuing their agendas instead of collaborating in a way that would serve users. And we get a generation of entrepreneurs encouraged to make more narrow-minded, web-hostile products like these because it continues to make a small number of wealthy people even more wealthy, instead of letting lots of people build innovative new opportunities for themselves on top of the web itself.'
IBM

Submission + - IBM creates first cheap, commercially viable, electronic-photonic integrated chi (extremetech.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After more than a decade of research, and a proof of concept in 2010, IBM Research has finally cracked silicon nanophotonics (or CMOS-integrated nanophotonics, CINP, to give its full name). IBM has become the first company to integrate electrical and optical components on the same chip, using a standard 90nm semiconductor process. These integrated, monolithic chips will allow for cheap chip-to-chip and computer-to-computer interconnects that are thousands of times faster than current state-of-the-art copper and optical networks. Where current interconnects are generally measured in gigabits per second, IBM’s new chip is already capable of shuttling data around at terabits per second, and should scale to peta- and exabit speeds.
Earth

Submission + - UN Summit Strikes Climate Deal Promising 'Damage Aid' to Poor Nations

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "BBC reports that UN climate talks in Doha have closed with a historic shift in principle agreed to by nearly 200 nations extending the Kyoto Protocol through 2020 and establishing for the first time that rich nations should move towards compensating poor nations for losses due to climate change. Until now rich nations have agreed to help developing countries to get clean energy and adapt to climate change, but they have stopped short of accepting responsibility for damage caused by climate change elsewhere. "It is a breakthrough," says Martin Khor of the South Centre — an association of 52 developing nations. "The term Loss and Damage is in the text — this is a huge step in principle. Next comes the fight for cash." US negotiators made certain that neither the word "compensation", nor any other term connoting legal liability, was used, to avoid opening the floodgates to litigation – instead, the money will be judged as aid. Ronny Jumea, from the Seychelles, told rich nations earlier that discussion of compensation would not have been needed if they had cut emissions earlier. "We're past the mitigation [emissions cuts] and adaptation eras. We're now right into the era of loss and damage. What's next after that? Destruction?" While the United States has not adopted a comprehensive approach to climate change, the Obama administration has put in place a significant auto emissions reduction program and a plan to regulate carbon dioxide from new power plants. “What this meeting reinforced is that while this is an important forum, it is not the only one in which progress can and must be made,” says Jennifer Haverkamp, director of the international climate programs at the Environmental Defense Fund. “The disconnect between the level of ambition the parties are showing here and what needs to happen to avoid dangerous climate change is profound.”"

Submission + - Risk-Based Autonomous Terrain Flight with Black Hawk (al.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A specially equipped Black Hawk was recently used to demonstrate the helicopter's ability to operate on its own.

In the first such test of its type, the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research's Development and Engineering Center, based at Redstone Arsenal, flew the Black Hawk over Diablo Mountain Range in San Jose, Calif. Pilots were aboard the aircraft for the tests, but all flight maneuvers were conducted autonomously: obstacle field navigation, safe landing area determination, terrain sensing, statistical processing, risk assessment, threat avoidance, trajectory generation and autonomous flight control were performed in realtime.

"This was the first time terrain-aware autonomy has been achieved on a Black Hawk," said Lt. Col. Carl Ott, chief of the Flight Projects Office at AMRDEC's Aeroflightdynamics Directorate and one of the tests pilots.

Comment Also, WTF? (Score 2) 42

by we3 (#42165547) Attached to: The Foldable Readius Ereader Is Dead

Did anyone look at this? Sources? I looked at the recent section and didn't see this.

BUT the related submission below the story, which seems to have been submitted by the same person seems to have a link to a story, which has a link to a source.

I'm guessing the submitter screwed up his first submission and resubmitted it, then Unknown Lamer screwed up and picked the wrong submission.
Apple

Submission + - Some Apple iMac's "Assembled in America" (appleinsider.com) 1

Submitted by whisper_jeff
whisper_jeff writes: A number of newly-purchased standard units are showing an "Assembled in America" notation. While the markings don't necessarily mean that Apple is in the midst of transferring its entire assembly operation from China to the U.S., it does indicate that at least a few of the new iMacs were substantially assembled domestically.

Comment trolls (Score 1) 5

by we3 (#41978767) Attached to: Fully Open A13-OLinuXino Single-Board Linux Device (Yes, again)

Everyone has seen dozens of these boards being promoted by trolls who have some sort of crazy idea why the raspberry pi is bad. I've seen this board before, but last time i checked it wasn't ready, where as the raspberry pi was. It doesn't address all of the concerns of the referenced story. Linking to that previous story makes your current submission look trollish.

That said, this is actually the best of the mentioned alternatives. Most suggested alternatives to the raspberry pi use a allwinner a10(bga chip) and don't come with gerbers. This one uses an allwinner a13 which is qfp and can be hand soldered.

So your main problems with getting this accepted are probably that the trolls have already worn out everyones patience, and that the raspberry pi already came out. If you had a better angle than the raspberry pi bad, this board good, you'd probably have a better chance at getting it accepted. Once again, just to be clear, trying to compete/compare with the pi is going to be a problem.
Microsoft

Submission + - Wake Up! Ballmer Is Driving Microsoft off the Cliff! (forbes.com)

Submitted by shenannie30
shenannie30 writes: This is an exciting time of year for tech users – which is pretty much all of us. The biggest show is the battle between smartphone and tablet leader Apple – which has announced new products with the iPhone 5 and iPad Mini – and the now flailing, old industry leader Microsoft which is trying to re-ignite growth with a new tablet, operating system and office productivity suite.

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