Comment Laptops (Score 2) 95
exist, fkheads.
Comment Oculus/Vive/VR? (Score 1) 135
Will it support 3rd party hardware? Lots of VR headsets are coming. Microsoft promises support in Windows. How will they manage the drivers in a console?
Comment Ars Technica Critique (Score 2) 145
Someone from Ars wrote a great article about several scientists critique of the solid anode/cathode idea not behaving like a 'traditional battery' and 'must be using some unknown physics' since the chemical changes in a solid wouldn't flow/propagate through the electrolyte. How is the chemical reaction causing a charge to accumulate in this solid? This article has since disappeared from the internet. How large was this battery you made? how many did you make? Can you supply the data and build instructions for peer review?
Comment Better than 8 and 8.1. (Score 1) 982
If you run enterprise multi-monitor laptop-and-dock type stuff... Stick with 7. Otherwise, it's cleaner than 8 and 8.1 for home use and on par with 7. YMMV.
Comment Repairability/Upgradability/Modularity (Score 2) 471
What any piece of jewelry has that no tech does is "last forever". Jewelry can justify a premium price (for those willing to shell out anything in the first place) because it does not go "obsolete". A premium pitched (i.e. apple) smart-watch will NEED the capability of swapping internal components (for a fee) to remain sellable. There is no "app" that could circumvent this issue, and really no app missing from the smart watch portfolio in the near future. If you want it, someone will make an app for it eventually... But not necessarily for your version of the hardware. Unless Apple promised to only release a newer version of this watch every 10 years, then that illusion of longevity disappears, and makes smart watches (in general) less desireable.
Comment Re: It's not arrogant, it's correct. (Score 1) 466
No, an 18-wheeler pays more because they are more cargo, wheels, surface contact, emission, etc.... But they also are paying closer to the same rate as cars on a Per-Wheel basis. Same as net-neutral laws. Netflix pays their ISP's per GB of bandwidth, so do users and every other connection. There might be some bulk-rate discount applied, as I'm sure 18-wheelers don't always pay exactly 4.5x a 4-wheel car, but to charge Netflix more per GB (which is what AT&T is going for) absolutely IS unfair. Also, if users are using Netflix and "hogging" all their bandwidth for video streaming and don't have any bandwidth left to use on another service or, gasp, torrents... Then they aren't using any more bandwidth than they were when they were downloading torrents.
Why 'Cyber Crime' Should Just Be Called 'Crime' 368
netzar writes "CAUSE executive director Neil Schwartzman, in a post on CircleID, urges governments and law enforcement to treat cyber crime as what it really is: 'crime': 'When someone is mugged, harassed, kidnapped or raped on a sidewalk, we don't call it "sidewalk crime" and call for new laws to regulate sidewalks. It is crime, and those who commit crimes are subject to the full force of the law. For too long, people have referred to spam in dismissive terms: just hit delete, some say, or let the filters take care of it. Others — most of us, in fact — refer to phishing, which is the first step in theft of real money from real people and institutions, as "cyber crime." It's time for that to stop... This isn't just email. This isn't a war. This isn't "cyber." This is crime.'"
The Push For Colbert's "Restoring Truthiness" Rally 703
jamie writes "A grassroots campaign has begun to get Stephen Colbert to hold a rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to counter Glenn Beck's recent 'Restoring Honor' event. The would-be rally has been dubbed 'Restoring Truthiness' and was inspired by a recent post on Reddit, where a young woman wondered if the only way to point out the absurdity of the Tea Party's rally would be if Colbert mirrored it with his own Colbert Nation.'"
The Proton Just Got Smaller 289
inflame writes "A new paper published in Nature has said that the proton may be smaller than we previously thought. The article states 'The difference is so infinitesimal that it might defy belief that anyone, even physicists, would care. But the new measurements could mean that there is a gap in existing theories of quantum mechanics. "It's a very serious discrepancy," says Ingo Sick, a physicist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, who has tried to reconcile the finding with four decades of previous measurements. "There is really something seriously wrong someplace."' Would this indicate new physics if proven?"
MIT Unveils First Solar Cells Printed On Paper 125
lucidkoan writes "MIT researchers recently unveiled the world's first thin-film solar cell printed on a sheet of paper. The panel was created using a process similar to that of an inkjet printer, producing semiconductor-coated paper imbued with carbon-based dyes that give the cells an efficiency of 1.5 to 2 percent. That's not incredibly efficient, but the convenience factor makes up for it. And in the future, researchers hope that the same process used in the paper solar cells could be used to print cells on metal foil or even plastic. If they're able to gear efficiencies up to scale, the development could revolutionize the production and installation of solar panels."
The Humble Indie Bundle 290
supersloshy writes "Last year, 2D Boy, the developers of the popular independent game World of Goo, had a pay-what-you-want birthday sale with curious results. For the next seven days, Wolfire Games is attempting the same kind of sale, but with some new twists. Wolfire Games' Humble Indie Bundle contains five independent games (World of Goo, Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru HD, and Penumbra) with no DRM and they are all cross-platform. In addition to directly supporting the developers of these five games, part of the money also goes to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Child's Play Charity. No matter how much you spend, you also get to choose who your money goes to (charity only, developers only, evenly, or custom)."
Some Newegg Customers Received Fake Intel Core i7s 447
Several readers have mentioned the strange goods that some customers received from Newegg in place of the Intel Core i7 920 processor they ordered. Word on the problem first surfaced on TribalWar on Thursday evening. Newegg still hasn't commented on this. It's not known whether it happened as a result fraud by another Newegg customer, in shipping, or where. The "processors" are made of aluminum, and the "fans" are some kind of synthetic molded material. The "factory seal" was printed onto the box; the holographic stickers on the boxes were also faked. The first part of this video shows the bogus goods. At this writing Google News lists a handful of blogs mentioning the fakes.
xkcd, Devotion To Duty 167
xkcd really hit the nail on the head today.
Brain Surgery Linked To Sensation of Spirituality 380
the3stars writes "'Removing part of the brain can induce inner peace, according to researchers from Italy. Their study provides the strongest evidence to date that spiritual thinking arises in, or is limited by, specific brain areas. This raises a number of interesting issues about spirituality, among them whether or not people can be born with a strong propensity towards spirituality and also whether it can be acquired through head trauma."
One critic's quoted response: "It's important to recognize that the whole study is based on changes in one self-report measure, which is a coarse measure that includes some strange items."
Augmented Reality To Help Mechanics Fix Vehicles 81
kkleiner writes "ARMAR, or Augmented Reality for Maintenance and Repair, is a head mounted display unit that provides graphic overlays to assist you in making repairs. An Android phone provides an interface to control the graphics you view during the process. Published in IEEE, and recently tested with the United States Marine Corps on an armored turret, ARMAR can cut maintenance times in half by guiding users to the damaged area and displaying 3D animations to demonstrate the appropriate tools and techniques."
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