Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Space

Submission + - Mystery About Earth's Mantle May Be Solved

Submitted by
explosivejared
explosivejared writes: "Recent observations made by the University of British Columbia may give insight to an old question about the composition of Earth's mantle, precisely why Earth's mantle doesn't resemble chondrite more. The article discusses the findings of John Hernlund about how the dynamics of magma account for the discrepancies in the theoretical composition of Earth and the actual composition of the mantle."
Transportation

Submission + - Electric Cars to Help Utilities Load Balance Grid

Submitted by
Reservoir Hill
Reservoir Hill writes: "A team at the University of Delaware has created a system that enables vehicles to not only run on electricity alone, but also to generate revenue by storing and providing electricity for utilities. The technology, known as V2G, for vehicle-to-grid, lets electricity flow from the car's battery to power lines and back. When the car is in the V2G setting, the battery's charge goes up or down depending on the needs of the grid operator, which sometimes must store surplus power and other times requires extra power to respond to surges in usage. The ability of the V2G car's battery to act like a sponge provides a solution for utilities, which pay millions to generating stations that help balance the grid. Willett Kempton, who began developing the technology more than a decade ago, estimates the value for utilities could be up to $4,000 a year for the service, part of which could be paid to drivers. A car sitting there with a tank of gasoline in it, that's useless," says Kempton. "If it's a battery storing a lot of electricity and a big plug that allows moving power back and forth quickly, then it's valuable.""
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - CNBC confirms Apple sub-notebook to debut in Jan (appleinsider.com)

Submitted by bobbybobber
bobbybobber writes: CNBC's Jim Goldman during a just-aired broadcast claims to have spoken to a source at one of Apple's Asian manufacturing facilities who confirmed that the company will indeed introduce its much rumored sub-notebook MacBook Pro at January's Macworld Expo in San Francisco. Goldman corroborated several data points first published by AppleInsider, such that the portable will be 50 percent thinner than the existing MacBook Pro and employ NAND flash memory in place of a traditional hard disk drive. He added that his source believes the notebook will be priced aggressively, at approximately $1500. During the brief segment, Goldman also cited sources who say Apple will have a 3G iPhone on store shelves by late May or early June, not late 2008 as Apple chief executive Steve Jobs had previously indicated.
Government

British Village Requests Removal From GPS Maps 539

Posted by kdawson from the can't-be-seen dept.
longacre writes "The tiny village of Barrow Gurney, England, has asked GPS map publisher Tele Atlas to remove them from the company's maps. The reason: truck drivers using GPS navigation devices are being directed to drive through the town despite the roads being too narrow for sidewalks, which has led to numerous accidents. At the root of the problem lies the fact that the navigation maps used by trucks are the same as those used by passenger cars, and they don't contain data on road width or no-truck zones. Tele Atlas says they will release truck-appropriate databases at some point, but until then they advise local governments to make use of a technology dating back to the Romans: road signs."
Privacy

Submission + - Should we have the right to breed? 11

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I just finished reading Garret Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons and I'm having a little trouble coming to grips with it. In the essay Hardin argues that in a world with finite resources we must stabilize the population at less than the carrying capacity in order to maintain quality of life. However, "Confronted with appeals to limit breeding, some people will undoubtedly respond to the plea more than others. Those who have more children will produce a larger fraction of the next generation than those with more susceptible consciences. The differences will be accentuated, generation by generation." Hardin therefore suggests that we must legally restrict freedom to breed.

However such restrictions would require a invasion of our privacy to a degree that strikes me as simply intolerable. But I'm curious, what do slashdot readers think? Is Hardin's logic sound? If it is, is controlling the population important enough that we should give up what we have long accepted as some of our most basic rights in order to achieve it?
Movies

Submission + - Microsoft HD-DVD support a ploy? (shootfortheedit.com)

Submitted by MacColossus
MacColossus writes: According to this forum post by Transformers director Michael Bay, Microsoft is supporting HD-DVD BECAUSE it's the inferior format. They hope it will slow adoption of both HD disc formats while they perfect their HD digital download service. "All ur films belong to us!" This of course raises all kinds of anti-competition abuse questions if true.
Patents

Submission + - Apple/VOIP Providers Sued Over Visual Voicemail

Submitted by
beamdriver
beamdriver writes: "Via Extremetech, Reuters is reporting that Klausner Technologies is suing Apple as well as VOIP providers Comcast Corp, Cablevision Systems Corp and eBay Inc's Skype for infringing its patent for "visual voicemail." The complaint involves U.S. patent 5,572,576, " Telephone answering device linking displayed data with recorded audio message". This is the same patent at issue in a suit Klausner filed in 2006 against telephone service provider Vonage Holdings Corp.

The company alleges that Cablevision's Optimum Voicemail, Comcast's Digital Voice Voicemail and eBay's Skype Voicemail violate Klausner's patent by allowing users to selectively retrieve and listen to voice messages via message inbox displays. Essentially, Klausner is claiming a patent on displaying a list of voicemails."
Cellphones

Submission + - German court rules iPhone locking legal (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by l-ascorbic
l-ascorbic writes: Vodafone has had its temporary injunction against T-Mobile overturned by a court in Germany. Two weeks ago, the British mobile network won an injunction forcing T-Mobile to sell iPhones that were not locked to its network. They argued that it was an anti-competitive practice, and sought to force the German network to permanently allow the use of the phones on other networks. After the injunction was granted, T-Mobile offered the unlocked phones for 999 euros ($1477), and these will now be withdrawn from sale.
Portables

Submission + - Eee PC as Portable Security Device (enterprisenetworkingplanet.com)

Submitted by
stoolpigeon
stoolpigeon writes: "Enterprise Network planet has a nice article on using Ubuntu to turn an Asus Eeepc into an ultra portable security device. This article may be of use to any aspiring Eee pc owner who would like to run ubuntu rather than what comes bundled with the machine. Full steps are given for installing ubuntu and getting the wireless to work with ndiswrapper.

Asus is reporting high demand on the machine and have also said they will be providing a windows version of the machine by the end of this year. (Which would have to be pretty soon if they are going to hit that deadline.) Adding this option may further fuel adoption of the device. I'll be curious to see if there is a difference in the price between the two OS options or if the lower priced of the two Eee pc models is capable of running windows."
Microsoft

Submission + - Windows Vista has a Purple Screen of Death (neosmart.net)

Submitted by Anton Lee
Anton Lee writes:
We've all heard of (and, quite unfortunately, experienced) the infamous Blue Screen of Death. Some of us who tested the earlier Windows Vista beta builds had the unique experience of trying out the Red of Screen Death, which occurred when the bootloader experienced an un-handled exception. And then there's Vista's Purple Screen of Death, which few have ever seen.
It turns out that this particular PSOD is caused by WDDM drivers backfiring, and DWM failing to gracefully deactivate. Instead of applying the correct Aero transparencies, Windows Vista will render the window in question with a garrish shade of purple, and require to reboot your PC.

Slashdot Top Deals

Why did the Roman Empire collapse? What is the Latin for office automation?

Close