Pludodog - Slashdot User

Methane Survey Reveals Mars Is Far From 'Dead' 171

Posted by Soulskill on Monday September 27, 2010 @01:37PM from the mars-has-a-secret-cow-level dept.

astroengine writes "The first planet-wide studies of methane on Mars — incorporating billions of measurements made by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft — shows gas concentrations peak in autumn and plummet in winter. Scientists have found significantly higher methane concentrations in the Tharsis, Elysium and Arabia Terrae regions. Tharsis and Elysium are home to Mars' most massive volcanoes and Arabia Terrae has large quantities of subterranean frozen water. This indicates the gas could be generated by geological or biological activity. 'It could be geology or biology, but it is not coming from another source. There is a seasonal pattern, so it could only be a local origin,' Sergio Fonti, with Italy's Universita del Salento, told Discovery News."

Comment I've done this (Score 1) 199

by Pludodog on Thursday March 11, 2010 @07:50PM (#31446648) Attached to: Best Smartphone Plan Covering US and Canada?

Adding data on top of the verizon plan is probably your best shot -- that'll give you unlimited calling to and from anywhere in Canada and the US for $60 (plan) + $30 (data) + $35 (global email) = $125. Their website says that the global email plan is only available for gsm + cdma phones, but it's also available for any of the CDMA smartphones, just not listed. Look into getting a cell phone that supports skype mobile, and for not too much you can have a Skype canadian number forwarded if anyone in Canada wants to call you. AT&T has new calling plans that support Canada, but you can't get unlimited (or even 5/6 gig) data for a decent price. Assuming you're sticking with the verizon plan anyways, the cheapest smartphone contract you can find in Canada will be about ~$75 once you add taxes and the system access fee, and you don't want to know their fees for data in the US.

If skype forwarding doesn't work or you'd like Canadians to be able to text message you, you might want to look into a cheap pay as you go phone. Canadian cell phones still charge you extra for long distance, so you'll probably find yourself calling most people on your US phone anyways.

Also, I'm not sure how long you'll be in school, but be aware that Rogers, at least, tries heavily to lock you in to a 3-year contract for most smartphones, and it's $500 to quit early that you're not going to be able to get out of even if you graduate beforehand.

Comment IBM Thinkpads... (Score 5, Interesting) 332

by Pludodog on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @04:16PM (#9815359) Attached to: Annual Customer Support Rankings

The last time I needed to call IBM (to get the recovery cds for my laptop, they don't ship with them anymore...) I was quite surprised to be connected to a quite knowledgeable guy from Georgia (In the United States). Zero time on hold, took less than five minutes to get everything that I need, and I had the cds in two days.

Compare this to Toshiba, where I have not only never gotten anyone who remotely speaks English, but every repair also seems to involve shipping your laptop back to them, and waiting for two weeks for "parts" that you were told would be in stock every day for a week.

I've also heard good stories about Apple, but nothing can beat my experience with IBM so far.

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