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Comment I Enjoy (Score 1) 698

I always enjoy hearing my dad tell stories about his life before I was born. Particularly about lessons his dad taught him, good times they had, and the stuff you normally wouldn't tell your kids - like some of the dumb stuff he did as a teenager or in his early 20's. To me it was stuff I could relate to and made him seem more like a human being and not just my "omnipotent" dad. Good luck to you brother.

Comment Re:Aerial or underground ? (Score 1) 516

by cdd109 (#48466409) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Why Is the Power Grid So Crummy In So Many Places?

No - it's not even a question. Bury the lines and you will remove a large number of causes for power outages.

Even more important - realize that each outage costs money for the community. In the long run buried lines will save money - even if you are in an area where the ground is filled with rocks.

Underground infrastructure is very costly to maintain compared to Aerial

Submission + - Reuters: Snowden stashed "doomsday" cache as insurance policy against harm (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Dega704
Dega704 writes: US and British intelligence officials are concerned former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden has stored an online "doomsday" cache of extraordinarily sensitive classified information that will be unpacked in the event he is arrested or physically harmed, according to a report published Monday.

The article, headlined Spies worry over "doomsday" cache stashed by ex-NSA contractor Snowden, cited seven current and former US officials, as well as other sources briefed on the matter, who spoke on the condition they not be identified. The report claimed the cache contained documents generated by the NSA and other agencies that include previously unpublished names of US and allied intelligence personnel. One of the sources described the documents as an insurance policy against arrest or harm.

Ars was unable to confirm the claims in the article, and some of the reported details sounded technically implausible, at least as they were described.

Submission + - Nokia Sale to Microsoft Approved by Shareholders

Submitted by mrspoonsi
mrspoonsi writes: Nokia shareholders met today at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to vote on whether or not to accept the terms of the company's proposed sale of its devices and services business to Microsoft. The deal, which was first announced in September, is worth €5.44bn EUR ($7.35bn USD / £4.57bn GBP), and also includes provisions for Microsoft to license patents from the Finnish company. 78% of those eligible to vote had already voted before the EGM. Of those early votes, a staggering 99% had voted in favour of the sale to Microsoft.

Submission + - Musk Lashes Back at Tesla Fire Controversy (slashdot.org)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: A small handful of Tesla electric cars have caught fire, driving down the company’s stock price, and finally prompting CEO Elon Musk to tackle the issue in a new blog posting. “Since the Model S went into production last year, there have been more than a quarter million gasoline car fires in the United States alone, resulting in over 400 deaths and approximately 1,200 serious injuries (extrapolating 2012 NFPA data),” he wrote in that posting. “However, the three Model S fires, which only occurred after very high-speed collisions and caused no serious injuries or deaths, received more national headlines than all 250,000+ gasoline fires combined.” Responsible journalism on the matter, he added, has been “drowned out” by “an onslaught of popular and financial media seeking to make a sensation out of something that a simple Google search would reveal to be false.” According to his own figures, Tesla suffers an average of one fire per 6,333 cars, versus a rate of one fire per 1,350 gasoline-powered cars. Every Tesla vehicle includes internal walls between the battery modules, in addition to a firewall between the battery pack and the passenger compartment—enough shielding, in the event of a fire, to prevent pens and papers in the glove compartment from combusting. “Despite multiple high-speed accidents, there have been no deaths or serious injuries in a Model S of any kind ever,” Musk continued. “Of course, at some point, the law of large numbers dictates that this, too, will change, but the record is long enough already for us to be extremely proud of this achievement.” Tesla is about to push an “over-the-air update” to its vehicles’ air suspension that will create more ground clearance at highway speeds. In theory, that could reduce the chances of impact damage to the underbody, should the vehicle roll over an object—and that, in turn, could lower the chances of fire.

Submission + - Boston Cops Outraged Over Plans To Watch Their Movements Using GPS 3

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: The Boston Globe reports that the pending use of GPS tracking devices, slated to be installed in Boston police cruisers, has many officers worried that commanders will monitor their every move. Boston police administrators say the system gives dispatchers the ability to see where officers are, rather than wait for a radio response and supervisors insist the system will improve their response to emergencies. Using GPS, they say, accelerates their response to a call for a shooting or an armed robbery. “We’ll be moving forward as quickly as possible,” says former police commissioner Edward F. Davis. “There are an enormous amount of benefits. . . . This is clearly an important enhancement and should lead to further reductions in crime.” But some officers said they worry that under such a system they will have to explain their every move and possibly compromise their ability to court street sources. “No one likes it. Who wants to be followed all over the place?” said one officer who spoke anonymously because department rules forbid police from speaking to the media without authorization. “If I take my cruiser and I meet [reluctant witnesses] to talk, eventually they can follow me and say why were you in a back dark street for 45 minutes? It’s going to open up a can of worms that can’t be closed.” Meanwhile civil libertarians are relishing the rank and file's own backlash. "The irony of police objecting to GPS technology for privacy reasons is hard to miss in the aftermath of United States v. Jones," says Woodrow Hartzog. "But the officers’ concerns about privacy illustrate just how revealing GPS technology can be. Departments are going to have to confront the chilling effect this surveillance might have on police behavior."

Submission + - Good News Drug Users: The Silk Road Is Back (vice.com)

Submitted by Daniel_Stuckey
Daniel_Stuckey writes: Later today, Silk Road is rising from the dead. After the FBI seized the deep web's favourite illegal drug market and arrested its alleged founder Ross Ulbricht last month (for, among other things, ordering a hit through his own website), the online-marketplace-cum-libertarian-movement has found a new home and will be opening for business at 16:20 GMT this afternoon. In the wake of the original Silk Road's closure, everything became a little turbulent for its users. First, they had to get used to not getting high-quality, peer-reviewed drugs delivered direct to their sofas. (Though presumably they didn't stop getting high, instead forced back to the "mystery mix" street dealers and surly ex-Balkan war criminals who have spent years filling cities with drugs at night.) Some users were pissed off that they'd lost all the Bitcoin wealth they'd amassed, or that paid-for orders would go undelivered, while small-time dealers freaked out about how they suddenly lacked the funds to pay off debts owed to drug sellers higher up the food chain.

Submission + - North Korea Developing Electromagnetic Pulse Weapons (smh.com.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Sydney Morning Herald reports, "North Korea is using Russian technology to develop electromagnetic pulse weapons aimed at paralysing military electronic equipment south of the border, according to South Korea's spy agency. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in a report to parliament that the North had purchased Russian electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weaponry to develop its own versions. EMP weapons are used to damage electronic equipment. At higher energy levels, an EMP can cause more widespread damage including to aircraft structures and other objects. The spy agency also said the North's leader Kim Jong-Un sees cyber attacks as an all-purpose weapon along with nuclear weapons and missiles, according to legislators briefed by the NIS."

Submission + - Samsung offering StackOverflow users $500 for 2013 Smart App Challenge publicity

Submitted by rjmarvin
rjmarvin writes: Digital marketing company FLLU, hired by Samsung to promote SSAC, offered $500 to StackOverflow users to pose "casual and organic" questions over the next month about the 2013 Challenge. Android developer Delyan Kratunov turned them down, then posted the whole exchange on his blog. Outrage, of course, ensued: http://sdt.bz/61968

Submission + - Circuit Board Waste Mops Up Toxic Metals (acs.org)

Submitted by ckwu
ckwu writes: Researchers in Hong Kong have found a beneficial new use for the electronic waste from discarded cell phones, computers, and other gadgets. Ground up into a powder, printed circuit boards from these products could sponge up another type of pollution—toxic heavy metals in water. The researchers processed the nonmetallic fraction of waste circuit boards into a powder and found that it adsorbed metals like copper, lead, and zinc more efficiently than commercially available industrial adsorbents.

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