Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror

Comment Jack Vance (Score 1) 368

by HazelMotes (#48542257) Attached to: Overly Familiar Sci-Fi
besides Gene Wolfe, Frank herbert, Isaac Asimov and countless others wrote volumes of SF where the culture was central to the story and as foreign as the environment. Heck, even Piers Anthony tried his best to do this; he just couldn't separate his yarns from his present-day cultural fixations.
What the heck is this sape reading?

Comment Re:What a Troll! (Score 2, Interesting) 395

by HazelMotes (#29872363) Attached to: Microsoft Freeloading In Washington State Courts
Maybe, but probably not. I would expect any government (Washington State or otherwise) that started receiving $775M+ in additional tax revenue would *spend* it, not cut taxes for others. Anyway, isn't there a difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion? I would imagine, given the size of the target, if M$ was evading taxes they would be brought to bear as quickly as the courts would allow.
Music

Wal-Mart Ends DRM Support 231

Posted by Soulskill from the enjoy-your-rights dept.
An anonymous reader writes "So, you thought you did well to support the fledgling music industry by purchasing your tracks legally from the Wal-Mart store? Well, forget about moving these tracks to a new PC! Since they started selling DRM-free tracks last year, there's no money to be made in maintaining the DRM support systems, and in fact, support is being shut down. Make sure you circumvent the restrictions by burning the tracks to an old-fashioned CD before Wal-mart 'will no longer be able to assist with digital rights management issues for protected WMA files purchased from Walmart.com.' Support ends October 9th."
Transportation

Simple Device Claimed To Boost Fuel Efficiency By Up To 20% 674

Posted by Soulskill from the innovation-is-a-real-gas dept.
Ponca City, We love you writes "Temple University physics professor Rongjia Tao has developed a simple device that could dramatically improve fuel efficiency in automobiles by as much as 20 percent. The device, attached to the fuel line of a car's engine near the fuel injector, creates an electric field that thins fuel, reducing its viscosity so that smaller droplets are injected into the engine. Because combustion starts at the droplet surface, smaller droplets lead to cleaner and more efficient combustion. Six months of road testing in a diesel-powered Mercedes-Benz automobile showed an increase from 32 miles per gallon to 38 mpg, a 20 percent boost, and a 12-15 percent gain in city driving. 'We expect the device will have wide applications on all types of internal combustion engines, present ones and future ones,' Tao wrote in the study published in Energy & Fuels. 'This discovery promises to significantly improve fuel efficiency in all types of internal combustion engine powered vehicles and at the same time will have far-reaching effects in reducing pollution of our environment,' says Larry F. Lemanski, Senior Vice President for Research and Strategic Initiatives at Temple."

Slashdot Top Deals

Think lucky. If you fall in a pond, check your pockets for fish. -- Darrell Royal

Close