dmd53 - Slashdot User

Comment Re:"We're gonna need a bigger map..." (Score 1) 608

by dmd53 on Wednesday June 25, 2008 @10:53AM (#23934897) Attached to: Cool/Weird Stuff To Do On a Cluster?

I'd like to see how big of an explosion this thing could render in Crysis, a la this video: http://www.wegame.com/watch/Crysis_Physic_5000_Car_Explosion/

5000 cars? 10,000? Could it render the entire island nation going up in flames at a high framerate? These are the questions that keep me up at night.

Feed Techdirt: Oregon Using Copyright Law To Prevent Other Sites From Publicizing Oregon Law (techdirt.com)

From feed by techdirtfeed on Thursday April 17, 2008 @05:12AM

Well here's a story about copyright that's so bizarre it makes you think that there must be a mistake somewhere -- but it seems to be completely true. Apparently, Oregon is complaining to sites like Justia (which publish public domain legal documents) that they are violating copyright by republishing some of Oregon's laws. The state admits that the text of the laws are not covered by copyright, but that everything else about the way the law is presented is covered by copyright (such as the numbering, the notes and annotations). This is an accurate portrayal of copyright law, which does allow such things to be covered by copyright (though, the "numbering" part seems questionable), but it's difficult to see how the state could possibly get upset that someone is trying to better publicize Oregon's laws. The state does make one good point: Justia adds its own copyright notice to the text, which is bad form, but was probably just a template issue. Either way, it's difficult to see what Oregon could possibly gain in trying to force copies of its laws off of public resource legal sites.

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Submission + - Home Wind-Power Turbines Make Headway

Submitted by

Pickens

on Monday April 14, 2008 @09:54PM

Pickens writes: "Wind turbines, once used primarily for farms and rural houses far from electrical service, are becoming more common in heavily populated residential areas as homeowners are attracted to ease of use, financial incentives and low environmental effects. Experts on renewable energy say a convergence of factors, political, technical and ecological, is causing a surge in the use of residential wind turbines, especially in the Northeast and California. "Back in the early days, off-grid electrical generation was pursued mostly by hippies and rednecks, usually in isolated, rural areas," said Joe Schwartz, editor of Home Power magazine. "Now, it's a lot more mainstream." Some of the new "plug and play" systems can be plugged directly into a circuit in the home electrical panel and homeowners can use energy from the wind turbine or the power company without taking action. Schwartz says that even with the economic benefits, it can take 20 years to pay back the installation cost. "This isn't about people putting turbines in to lower their electric bills as much as it is about people voting with their dollars to help the environment in some small way," he said."

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