jlrowe - Slashdot User

Israeli Scientists Freeze Water By Warming It 165

Posted by timothy on Saturday February 06, 2010 @06:30AM from the you-must-become-the-frozen-water dept.

ccktech writes "As reported by NPR and Chemistry world, the journal Science has a paper by David Ehre, Etay Lavert, Meir Lahav, and Igor Lubomirsky [note: abstract online; payment required to read the full paper] of Israel's Weizmann Institute, who have figured out a way to freeze pure water by warming it up. The trick is that pure water has different freezing points depending on the electrical charge of the surface it resides on. They found out that a negatively charged surface causes water to freeze at a lower temperature than a positively charged surface. By putting water on the pyroelectric material Lithium Tantalate, which has a negative charge when cooler but a positive change when warmer; water would remain a liquid down to -17 degrees C., and then freeze when the substrate and water were warmed up and the charge changed to positive, where water freezes at -7 degrees C."

Google Docs Replaces OpenOffice In Ubuntu Netbook Edition 298

Posted by timothy on Friday February 05, 2010 @09:23PM from the hope-your-connection's-up dept.

uneuser writes "Digitizor reports that the Ubuntu developers have dropped OpenOffice from the default installation of Ubuntu Netbook Edition (UNE) 10.04 and replaced it with Google Docs. Documents in Ubuntu Netbook Edition will now be opened in Google Docs by default."

Minnesota Introduces World's First Carbon Tariff 303

Posted by timothy on Wednesday January 06, 2010 @05:29PM from the hey-cut-that-crap-out dept.

hollywoodb writes "The first carbon tax to reduce the greenhouse gases from imports comes not between two nations, but between two states. Minnesota has passed a measure to stop carbon at its border with North Dakota. To encourage the switch to clean, renewable energy, Minnesota plans to add a carbon fee of between $4 and $34 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions to the cost of coal-fired electricity, to begin in 2012 ... Minnesota has been generally pushing for cleaner power within its borders, but the utility companies that operate in MN have, over the past decades, sited a lot of coal power plants on the relatively cheap and open land of North Dakota, which is preparing a legal battle against Minnesota over the tariff."

The Struggle For Private Game Servers 125

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday December 08, 2009 @07:52AM from the let's-make-onyxia-fight-ragnaros dept.

A story at the BBC takes a look at the use of private game servers for games that tend not to allow them. While most gamers are happy to let companies like Blizzard and NCSoft administer the servers that host their MMORPGs, others want different rules, a cheaper way to play, or the technical challenge of setting up their own. A South African player called Hendrick put up his own WoW server because the game "wasn't available in the country at the time." A 21-year-old Swede created a server called Epilogue, which "had strict codes of conduct and rules, as well as a high degree of customized content (such as new currency, methods of earning experience, the ability to construct buildings and hire non-player characters, plus 'permanent' player death) unavailable in the retail version of the game." The game companies make an effort to quash these servers when they can, though it's frequently more trouble that it's worth. An NCSoft representative referenced the "growing menace" of IP theft, and a Blizzard spokesperson said,"We also have a responsibility to our players to ensure the integrity and reliability of their World of Warcraft gaming experience and that responsibility compels us to protect our rights."

FreeNAS Switching From FreeBSD To Debian Linux 206

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday December 06, 2009 @12:29PM from the changing-horses dept.

dnaumov writes "FreeNAS, a popular, free NAS solution, is moving away from using FreeBSD as its underlying core OS and switching to Debian Linux. Version 0.8 of FreeNAS as well as all further releases are going to be based on Linux, while the FreeBSD-based 0.7 branch of FreeNAS is going into maintenance-only mode, according to main developer Volker Theile. A discussion about the switch, including comments from the developers, can be found on the FreeNAS SourceForge discussion forum. Some users applaud the change, which promises improved hardware compatibility, while others voice concerns regarding the future of their existing setups and lack of ZFS support in Linux."

FCC To Probe Exclusive Mobile Deals 159

Posted by Soulskill on Friday June 19, 2009 @08:07PM from the hold-off-on-that-twelve-year-contract dept.

On Tuesday, we discussed news that four US Senators would be looking into the exclusivity deals between carriers and cell phone makers. Apparently, they didn't like what they heard. Reader Ian Lamont writes with an update: "The Federal Communications Commission is planning on launching an investigation into exclusive handset deals between mobile carriers and handset makers. In a speech on Thursday, acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps said the agency 'should determine whether some of these arrangements adversely restrict consumer choice or harm the development of innovative devices, and it should take appropriate action if it finds harm.' It's not hard to imagine who might be targeted — at a separate Senate Committee on Commerce hearing on Thursday, much of the discussion centered on AT&T's exclusive deal to carry the iPhone. AT&T claimed 'consumers benefit from exclusive deals in three ways: innovation, lower cost and more choice,' but carriers and senators from states with large rural populations disagreed, saying that their customers had no choice when it came to the iPhone — it's not available because AT&Ts network doesn't reach these areas. One panelist also brought up the Carterfone precedent (PDF), which concerned an 'electrical acoustic coupling device' that a man named Tom Carter developed in the 1950s to let field workers make phone calls using a radio transceiver connected to AT&T's phone network. AT&T, which was then a monopoly, claimed no foreign devices could be connected to its network, but lost when it challenged the Carterfone in court. The result spurred innovation such as the fax machine."

Comment Re:Why bother? (Score 1) 479

by jlrowe on Wednesday January 21, 2009 @09:58PM (#26555269) Attached to: Most Hackable Coupon-Eligible DTV Converter?

>This is, of course, bullshit, at least in my experience.

That certainly is NOT BS in my experience.

If you are getting either analog or digital on rabbit ears, you are NOT 50-60 miles out (or more) like I am. I can get analog just fine, with a much bigger antenna. Not so with digital.

I do get digtal now, but I had to get a much bigger antenna *and* put amplifiers on it. And if the weather goes bonkers (fog or whatever), it might blip out, and you get nothing. But that doesn't happen too often. HD looks very good otherwise

Comment Re:tips (Score 1) 695

by jlrowe on Wednesday December 31, 2008 @05:29PM (#26285185) Attached to: Home Generators (or How DTE Energy Ruined My Holidays)

Except that in most states, a homeowner is not legally allowed to touch the meter in any way.

Plus, if there is something wrong with the meter / base there is danger of personal injury. You could be badly burned or killed.

Let the power company do its job. They know what to look for and what safety precautions to take.

Comment Re:tips (Score 2, Interesting) 695

by jlrowe on Wednesday December 31, 2008 @05:24PM (#26285131) Attached to: Home Generators (or How DTE Energy Ruined My Holidays)

Nah, not at all likely to make them dead, your typical home generator just doesn't put out enough juice to kill most of the time. It's almost like people on slashdot didn't play with electricity as a kid =) The worst shock I've ever received was from a 10KV fly back transformer in an old Sun SLC workstation (it was the part for powering the CRT). That jolt blew a hole in the screwdriver I was using and threw me a couple feet and knocked me out.

Pure nonsense. That flyback is 10kv at a very low amperage. The voltage/amperage sent back over the powerlines from a home generator is plenty to kill someone. It could also kill you at th 120/240 volt level if you get into that.

Furthermore, what happens out on the utility lines, grounded or at 12kv, might very well toast your generator and maybe put something on file.

Many a safety minded lineman has had a good chuckle about the *deserving* generator user that foolishly endangered lives with a backfeed.

DO NOT hook up directly. Please use a transfer switch or just hook up extension cords to your appliances.

Stay out of court.

PS. The power company I work for did not tell me what to say....

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