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Hardware

Software To Diagnose Faulty PC Hardware? 274

Posted by timothy from the diagnostics-are-underrated dept.
Etylowy writes "Over the years I have repaired my own PC and those belonging to family and friends many, many times. While in most cases it turned out to be restoring a system after malware/the user/Windows made a mess, or simple cases of 'follow the smell of smoke and molten plastic,' there were some nasty ones where the computer mostly works. By 'mostly,' I mean: you can boot it up, it might even work for a while, but will crash way too often to blame it all on Microsoft — what do you do then? Once you strip it of any extra hardware (which, with today's motherboards that have pretty much everything integrated, might not be an option) you are left with the CPU, motherboard, graphics card, RAM and HDD. You can test the HDD, you can run memtest86+ to check the RAM, but how do you go about testing the CPU, motherboard and graphics card trio to find which is to blame? Replacing them one by one isn't really an option. Do you know of any software that would help the way memtest helps with RAM?"
The Military

Airborne Boeing Laser Blasts Ground Target 419

Posted by samzenpus from the lazlo-approved dept.
coondoggie writes "The airborne military laser which promises to destroy, damage or disable targets with little to no collateral damage has for the first time actually blown something up. Boeing and the US Air Force today said that on Aug. 30, a C-130H aircraft armed with Boeing's Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) blasted a target test vehicle on the ground for the first time. Boeing has been developing the ATL since 2008 under an Air Force contract worth up to $30 million."
Medicine

Augmented Reality In a Contact Lens 196

Posted by CmdrTaco from the lookit-them-wires-in-there dept.
Toe, The writes "Bionanotechnology researcher Babak A Parviz writes about his research toward producing a computer interface in a contact lens. At the moment, they have only embedded a single LED, but they foresee a much more complex interface such as detailed in Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End. Such lenses potentially could also read human bio-information from the eye, providing medical information on the order of what is now taken from blood tests, but on a continuous basis. An example would be monitoring glucose levels for diabetics. The author states that, 'All the basic technologies needed to build functional contact lenses are in place,' and details what refinements and advances will be necessary to bring this technology to reality."

Comment Re:Schedules are important. (Score 1) 443

by arootbeer (#29230431) Attached to: Bug Means High School Students' Schedule Errors May Last Days

The government screws-up everything it touches. Look at the Cash-for-Clunkers program - many dealers voluntarily decided "we're done" because they're not getting paid their ~$4000 per car allowance. And also the clunker-cars were *destroyed*. Why? Why weren't they recycled for their parts? Stupid, stupid, stupid. And not environmentally-friendly.

The clunker cars were recycled for parts. There were interviews on CNN, NPR, and surely plenty of other news organizations with the heads of automotive recyclers who suddenly became celebrities-for-a-minute when people started wondering about the crushed cars.

They can't be re-sold, but that was part of the point. The will be re-used.
Television

How an Online-Only TV Series Stays Successful 163

Posted by timothy from the roll-enough-dies dept.
ChronoDragon writes "The Wall Street Journal points out that it is possible to make a successful web series without the backing of a studio. With the release of a music video, Do you Wanna Date My Avatar, and the start of Season of 3, the web series The Guild is ready for even more success. The Guild, created by Felicia Day (Doctor Horrible), is a low-budget comedy series about a group of MMORPG gamers and their interactions both online and off. While there are a lot of references that will be instantly recognized by gamers, the show is still very accessible to non-gamers."

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