MichaelCox_au - Slashdot User

Submission + - Traffic Flow Algorithm Can Reduce Fuel Consumption (thecarconnection.com)

Submitted by thecarchik on Thursday June 03, 2010 @06:22PM

thecarchik writes: New projects from German automakers Audi and BMW promise to ease congestion simply by looking at traffic signals and driving style, in an effort to smooth the flow of traffic. Through a test course in Munich, vehicles were able to post phenomenal fuel-efficiency gains simply by adjusting the timing of traffic lights depending on traffic volume—to whatever speed provides a so-called 'green wave' of four or more synchronized signals.

Comment Re:Self-fulfilling prophecies (Score 1) 221

by MichaelCox_au on Wednesday June 02, 2010 @08:27PM (#32439384) Attached to: Econophysicists Develop and Test "Bubble Index"

That's not a problem, that's a feature! What this system could provide long-term is the ability to spot and predict the possibility of a bubble being created, before it is actually out-of-control. So instead of predicting imminent bubbles which are due to burst, systems like this could provide an early warning and hence allow the market to deflate the bubble in a more controlled manner. Ultimately, this will lead to a more stable and more informed market.

Submission + - Wii Update 4.2 tries (and fails) to block homebrew (hackmii.com) 3

Submitted by

marcansoft

on Wednesday September 30, 2009 @06:46PM

marcansoft writes: "On September 28, Nintendo released a Wii update, titled 4.2. This update was targeted squarely at homebrew, performing sweeping changes throughout the system. It hardly achieved that goal, though, because just two days later a new version of the HackMii installer was released that brings full homebrew capabilities back to all Wii consoles, including unmodified consoles running 4.2.

However, as part of their attempt to annoy homebrew users, Nintendo updated the lowest level updateable component of the Wii software stack: boot2 (part of the system bootloader chain). Homebrew users have been using BootMii to patch boot2 in order to gain low level system access and recovery functions (running Linux natively, fixing bricks, etc). The update hasn't hindered this, as users can simply reinstall BootMii after updating (it is compatible with the update). But there's a much bigger problem: Nintendo's boot2 update code is buggy. Boot2 had never been updated in retail consoles until now. During BootMii's development, its authors noticed that Nintendo's code had critical bugs and could sometimes permanently brick a console by writing incorrect or unchecked data to flash memory, so they decided to write their own, much safer flashing code. Now, Nintendo has pushed a boot2 update to all Wii users, and the results are what was expected: users are reporting bricks after installing 4.2 on unmodified consoles. Nintendo is currently attempting to censor posts and remove references to homebrew.

It is worth noting that the new boot2 does not attempt to block anything or offer any additional protection or functionality. Its sole purpose is to simply replace current versions which may or may not have been modified with BootMii. Another interesting tidbit is that Nintendo is not believed to have any method to repair this kind of brick at a factory, short of replacing the entire motherboard."

Submission + - Entanglement Could Be A Deterministic Phenomenon (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by

KentuckyFC

on Wednesday August 26, 2009 @08:52AM

KentuckyFC writes: "Nobel prize-winning physicist Gerard 't Hooft has joined the likes of computer scientists Stephen Wolfram and Ed Fredkin in claiming that the universe can be accurately modelled by cellular automata. The novel aspect of 't Hooft's model is that it allows quantum mechanics and, in particular, the spooky action at a distance known as entanglement to be deterministic. The idea that quantum mechanics is fundamentally deterministic is known as hidden variable theory but has been widely discounted by physicists because numerous experiments have shown its predictions to be wrong. But 't Hooft says his cellular automaton model is a new class of hidden variable theory that falls outside the remit of previous tests. However, he readily admits that the new model has serious shortcomings saying it lacks some of the basic symmetries that our universe enjoys, such as rotational symmetry. However, 't Hooft adds that he is working on modifications that will make the model more realistic (abstract)."

Submission + - Expedition to Explore Texas Size Plastic 'Island' 1

Submitted by

Peace Corps Online

on Tuesday August 04, 2009 @05:15PM

Peace Corps Online writes: "BBC reports that an expedition called Project Kaisei leaves this month bound for the Great Pacific Garbage Patch a huge "island" of plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean estimated to be twice the size of Texas to study the impact of the waste on marine life. "Every piece of trash that is left on a beach or ends up in our rivers or estuaries and washes out to the sea is an addition to the problem, so we need people to be the solution," says Ryan Yerkey, the project's chief of operations. The garbage patch occupies a large and relatively stationary region of the North Pacific Ocean bound by the North Pacific Gyre, a remote area commonly referred to as the horse latitudes. The rotational pattern created by the North Pacific Gyre draws in waste material from across the North Pacific Ocean, including the coastal waters off North America and Japan. As material is captured in the currents, wind-driven surface currents gradually move floating debris toward the center, trapping it in the region. "You are talking about quite a bit of marine debris but it's not a solid mass," adds Yerkley. "Twenty years from now we can't be harvesting the ocean for trash. We need to get it out but we need to also have people make those changes in their lives to stop the problem from growing and hopefully reverse the course.""

Submission + - Scammer plants a fake ATM at Defcon 17 (semiaccurate.com)

Submitted by

Groo Wanderer

on Sunday August 02, 2009 @05:24PM

Groo Wanderer writes: "Normally, a well crafted fake ATM would skim a lot of card information before it was noticed, if it was ever noticed at all. Because it is safer for the criminals and harder to prosecute, financial crimes like this are spreading fast. If you are smart, you don't try to pull one off in the middle of a computer security convention where the attendees are very good at spotting these scams. That said, some not so bright criminal tried to plant a fake ATM at Defcon. He now has one less fake ATM and a whole lot of investigators on his tail."

Comment Re:File-sharing has dropped in the UK (Score 1) 174

by MichaelCox_au on Tuesday July 28, 2009 @09:31PM (#28861335) Attached to: Music Industry Thriving In an Era of File Sharing

Surely as peoples collections of digital music mature (whether acquired legitimately or otherwise), you would expect exactly the results that that survey/study returned. Namely, that the number of people who have used P2P to source music for their ever-increasing collection has grown (tick) whilst the number of people who specifically used it last month versus the previous month has shrunk (tick). Inferring causality from correlation within partial datasets is always fraught with danger.

A Peek At DHS's Files On You 241

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday January 06, 2009 @07:07PM from the fifteen-year-retention dept.

kenblakely writes "We've known for a while that the Department of Homeland Security was collecting travel records on those who cross US borders, but now you can see it for yourself. A Freedom of Information Act request got this blogger a look at DHS's file on his travels. Pretty comprehensive — all the way down to the IP address of the host he used to make a reservation."

Comment Re:Hard drive magnets a sore subject. Literally... (Score 5, Informative) 594

by MichaelCox_au on Sunday August 29, 2004 @07:41PM (#10105254) Attached to: Making Stuff Out Of Broken Computer Equipment?

The real danger with strong neodymium magnets is that they are both brittle and extremely magnetic--as a result if you accidently let two of them stick together, they can sometimes attract with such force that they shatter and send thousands of poisonous shards out at high speed. Hence the reason why you should always wear hand and eye protection when handling them. You should also avoid handling them if their protective coatings are broken as the rare-earth metals are extremely toxic and easily absorbed via mucus membranes.

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