Xavier CMU - Slashdot User

Comment Re:What's the advantage? (Score 1) 168

by Xavier CMU on Saturday June 28, 2008 @05:56PM (#23985279) Attached to: IRobot Looj Gutter Cleaning Robot Review

I'm going to have to agree, this is one of those products that is kind of doomed to end up on an infomercial. You have to be incredibly lazy or just plain physically incapable for this to be useful at all, how much time are you actually saving yourself if you have to get the robot out and the ladder every time you want to clean your gutters? The only way I could see a product like this being useful is if it would just automatically keep your gutters clean.

The Universe Damaged By Observation? 521

Posted by Zonk on Friday November 23, 2007 @05:05PM from the a-bit-deep-for-me dept.

ScentCone writes "The Telegraph covers a New Scientist report about two US cosmologists who suggest that, a la Schrodinger's possibly unhappy cat, the act of observing certain facets of our universe may have shortened its life . From the article: 'Prof Krauss says that the measurement of the light from supernovae in 1998, which provided evidence of dark energy, may have reset the decay of the void to zero — back to a point when the likelihood of its surviving was falling rapidly.'"

New Theory Explains Periodic Mass Extinctions 383

Posted by Zonk on Thursday August 02, 2007 @04:12PM from the we're-not-due-for-a-little-while-yet dept.

i_like_spam writes "The theory that the dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid impact, the K-T extinction, is well known and supported by fossil and geological evidence. Asteroid impact theory does not apply to the other fluctuations in biodiversity, however, which follow an approximate 62 million-year cycle. As reported in Science, a new theory seems to explain periodic mass extinctions. The new theory found that oscillations in the Sun relative to the plane of the Milky Way correlate with changes in biodiversity on Earth. The researchers suggest that an increase in the exposure of Earth to extragalactic cosmic rays causes mass extinctions. The original paper describing the findings is available online."

Perpetual Energy Machine Getting Lots of Attention 965

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday July 04, 2007 @02:46PM from the swimming-in-snake-oil dept.

Many users have written to tell us about a magnetic machine promising "infinite clean energy". Engadget has the first picture of the device and is reporting that the announcement (along with a short video) of this supposed device will be released later tonight. "CEO Sean McCarthy tells SilconRepublic how it works. Namely, the time variance in magnetic fields allows the Orbo platform to 'consistently produce power, going against the law of conservation of energy which states that energy cannot be created or destroyed.' He goes on to say 'It's too good to be true but it is true. It will have such an impact on everything we do. The only analogy I can give is if you had absolute proof that God wasn't real.'" In my experience if something seems too good to be true it generally is. I wouldn't get your hopes up.

Google to Test PayPal Rival 268

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday June 27, 2006 @11:03AM from the i'll-gbuy-that-for-a-dollar dept.

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "Google is set to introduce a test version of its GBuy online-payment service as early as this week, presaging a shake-up in the online-payments market now dominated by eBay's PayPal, the Wall Street Journal reports. From the article: 'Here is how the service will work: Consumers who search for items like "shoes" or "strollers" on Google's search site will see text ads with a symbol or icon designating advertisers that accept GBuy payments. Shoppers normally would have clicked on an ad and been linked to that merchant's Web site. Now, while they will still be linked to the merchant's site, they will go through a different checkout process integrated with Google if they choose GBuy for their transaction. Details of the service could still change before Google's official GBuy announcement.'"

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