Comment What does MS use in house? (Score 1) 528
Anyone have any idea on what MS uses for an OS in house? All Windows? If it's so secure then shouldn't all their employees be using it?
Inventor Demonstrates Infinitely Variable Transmission 609
ElectricSteve writes with this excerpt from Gizmag:
"Ready for a bit of a mental mechanical challenge? Try your hand at understanding how the D-Drive works. Steve Durnin's ingenious new gearbox design is infinitely variable — that is, with your motor running at a constant speed, the D-Drive transmission can smoothly transition from top gear all the way through neutral and into reverse. It doesn't need a clutch, it doesn't use any friction drive components, and the power is always transmitted through strong, reliable gear teeth. In fact, it's a potential revolution in transmission technology."
MythTV 0.23 Released 214
An anonymous reader writes "After six months of our new accelerated development schedule, MythTV 0.23 is now available. MythTV 0.23 brings a new event system, brand new Python bindings, the beta MythNetvision Internet video plugin, new audio code and surround sound upmixer, several new themes (Arclight and Childish), a greatly improved H.264 decoder, and fixes for analog scanning, among many others. Work towards MythTV 0.24 is in full swing, and has be progressing very well for the last several months. If all goes according to plan, MythTV 0.24 will bring a new MythUI OSD, a nearly rewritten audio subsystem capable of handling 24- and 32-bit audio and up to 8 channels of output, Blu-ray disc and disc structure playback, and various other performance, usability, and flexibility improvements."
Lego Robot Solves Bigger and Harder Rubik's Cubes 63
kkleiner writes "It was only two months ago that we saw Mike Dobson's Cube Stormer Lego robot that could solve any 3x3 Rubik's cube in less than 12 seconds. You would think that there was only one person in the world crazy enough and talented enough to pull this off, but now we have found someone else that is just as amazing. The latest Rubik's cube-solving Lego monstrosity is called the MultiCuber, and although it's constructed out of nothing but Mindstorms components and a laptop, it can solve 2×2, 3×3, 4×4, and 5×5 cubes all in the same build! As if that weren't enough, a larger version solves the dreaded 6×6 Rubik's. We discovered the MultiCuber when its creator, David Gilday (IAssemble), wrote us an email to brag about its puzzle-solving might. Consider us impressed, sir."
Man Uses Drake Equation To Explain Girlfriend Woes 538
artemis67 writes "A man studying in London has taken a mathematical equation that predicts the possibility of alien life in the universe to explain why he can't find a girlfriend. Peter Backus, a native of Seattle and PhD candidate and Teaching Fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick, near London, in his paper, 'Why I don't have a girlfriend: An application of the Drake Equation to love in the UK,' used math to estimate the number of potential girlfriends in the UK. In describing the paper on the university Web site he wrote 'the results are not encouraging. The probability of finding love in the UK is only about 100 times better than the probability of finding intelligent life in our galaxy.'"
Comment Re:but what are the hardware costs? (Score 1) 534
So let me get this straight. Because of RED TAPE we're allowing insurgents to view the same video as what the military commanders see. You can make all the excuses you want, but what matters is the equipment put in the field with our soldiers. What no one has noticed is our own UAV's are probably being used against us! Any chance those cameras view our own positions on the battlefield? Well, sorry but that unclassified feed has just alerted the insurgence to the approaching convoy. Amazing.
Comment Re:Appearantly, not much (Score 1) 534
Excellent analogy. One would hope the drones have the ability to fly themselves and maintain radio silence for periods of time.
Comment Re:but what are the hardware costs? (Score 1) 534
Yes, operators may be in Nevada, but that doesn't mean the drones are communicating directly to a satellite. Probably local repeaters pick up the signal and transmit in over the military's network (which may be satellite) to Nevada.
Remember there is significant latency (250ms) bouncing signals off geostationary satellites, so unless the military is using satellites in medium and low earth orbit (40ms) I doubt they allow a plane to be controlled by an operator with a few seconds delay. Remember in addition to the times above, the signal has to travel half way around the earth to Nevada! Much more likely they use terrestrial networks (Internet) because of bandwidth and latency issues.
The satellite receivers insurgents may be using are probably easy to obtain and are sensitive enough for their purposes. A coat hanger may actually work.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_Internet_access
Yellowstone Supervolcano Larger Than First Thought 451
drewtheman writes "New studies of the plumbing that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park shows the plume and the magma chamber under the volcano are larger than first thought and contradicts claims that only shallow hot rock exists. University of Utah research professor of geophysics Robert Smith led four separate studies that verify a plume of hot and molten rock at least 410 miles deep that rises at an angle from the northwest."
Programmable Quantum Computer Created 132
An anonymous reader writes "A team at NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) used berylium ions, lasers and electrodes to develop a quantum system that performed 160 randomly chosen routines. Other quantum systems to date have only been able to perform single, prescribed tasks. Other researchers say the system could be scaled up. 'The researchers ran each program 900 times. On average, the quantum computer operated accurately 79 percent of the time, the team reported in their paper.'"
Jetman Attempts Intercontinental Flight 140
Last year we ran the story of Yves Rossy and his DIY jetwings. Yves spent $190,000 and countless hours building a set of jet-powered wings which he used to cross the English Channel. Rossy's next goal is to cross the Strait of Gibraltar, from Tangier in Morocco and Tarifa on the southwestern tip of Spain. From the article: "Using a four-cylinder jet pack and carbon fibre wings spanning over 8ft, he will jump out of a plane at 6,500 ft and cruise at 130 mph until he reaches the Spanish coast, when he will parachute to earth." Update 18:57 GMT: mytrip writes: "Yves Rossy took off from Tangiers but five minutes into an expected 15-minute flight he was obliged to ditch into the wind-swept waters."
Scientists Say a Dirty Child Is a Healthy Child 331
Researchers from the School of Medicine at the University of California have shown that the more germs a child is exposed to, the better their immune system in later life. Their study found that keeping a child's skin too clean impaired the skin's ability to heal itself. From the article: "'These germs are actually good for us,' said Professor Richard Gallo, who led the research. Common bacterial species, known as staphylococci, which can cause inflammation when under the skin, are 'good bacteria' when on the surface, where they can reduce inflammation."
Haskell 2010 Announced 173
paltemalte writes "Simon Marlow has posted an announcement of Haskell 2010, a new revision of the Haskell purely functional programming language. Good news for everyone interested in SMP and concurrency programming."
Comment Re:I guess congratulations are in order (Score 1) 278
What's stopping you from hacking apart an air compressor and putting it on top of a windmill? Nothing. No fancy magnets, expensive control hardware, or storage problems like wind generated electricity. Any decent mechanic could build one in an afternoon.
By going to the hardware store and using your ingenuity you could build something that powers your air car for life. I challenge anyone to do the math on that. Who cares about storage efficiency if you can build a wind powered air compressor for a few hundred dollars. Mass produced I'm sure it could be very cheap and efficient.
Need more storage? Buy a larger air tank for cheap. Or would you rather buy expensive batteries which loose their efficiency harm the environment in their manufacture?
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