Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
Space

China Space Official Confounded By SpaceX Price 276

hackingbear writes "Declining to speak for attribution, the Chinese officials from Great Wall Industry, a marketing arm of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CAST), say they find the published prices on the SpaceX website very low for the services offered, and concede they could not match them with the Long March series of launch vehicles even if it were possible for them to launch satellites with U.S. components in them. According to the SpaceX website, launch on a Falcon 9 — which has an advertised lift capacity of 10,450 kg. (23,000 lb.) — from Cape Canaveral costs $54 million — $59.5 million. If the SpaceX price is real and its quality is proven, both are big IFs, it is remarkable to see that US can beat China in term of price. Between August 1996 and August 2009, the Chinese rockets have achieved 75 consecutive successful launches were conducted, ending with a partial failure in the launch of Palapa-D on August 31, 2009. If we all learn from SpaceX, maybe soon China will outsource from the US."

Comment Commodore (Score 1) 1

BTW, I am actually the first to post this here? Is it old news? (I searched and got no related results for "Commadore")"

That would be because it is "commodore".

Transportation

10,000 Shipping Containers Lost At Sea Each Year 163

kkleiner writes "Right now, as you read this, there are five or six million shipping containers on enormous cargo ships sailing across the world's oceans. And about every hour, on average, one is falling overboard never to be seen again. It's estimated that 10,000 of these large containers are lost at sea each year. This month the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) sent a robotic sub to investigate a shipping container that was lost in the Monterrey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in 2004. What's happened to the sunken shipment in the past seven years? It's become a warren for a variety of aquatic life on the ocean floor, providing a new habitat for species that might otherwise not be attracted to the area."

Comment Re:Where's linux? (Score 2) 648

The point is that the world of things that compute is vastly more than just the single desktop you've got sitting in front of your face right now. Sure, in your perspective that's all you really can see everyday in the traditional definition of "computer", but there are vast arrays of networks and electronic devices and things you never ever consider the programming and workings of that you rely on every single day; and while they might have a plethora of different brandnames associated with them, behind the scenes is good ol' linux doing its stuff.

Sometimes it's more than enough to control everything *except* the most visible sector of a particular market, and honestly, it's probably better to be the invisible winner.
Beer

Submission + - FSF suggests that Google Frees Gmail Javascript (fsf.org) 1

Phoe6 writes: "Apparently, FSF is calling it a "JavaScript Trap" and wants 'useful websites' such as Gmail and others such as twitter, facebook to release their Javascript code under Free Software License so that users can trust their service."

Comment Re:leaked? (Score 1) 535

Well, I went from the article which alluded to it being the leak Assange was sitting on:

It looks like the hacker group, which frequents online message board 4chan, made good on a promise Wikileaks founder Julian Assange made several months ago.

In retrospect the word "perhaps" would have been better than "reportedly" because it really is quite the assumption, and I probably should have outright ignored any sentence that starts with "the hacker group" as a matter of principle. In my defense, I had just polished off a bottle of wine at the time of writing it. Sorry for the lack of clarity though.

The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Anonymous leaks Internal Bank of America Emails (nytimes.com)

euphemistic writes: Reportedly the information Wikileaks was set to disclose about a particular bank back from December, "a massive batch of internal Bank of America emails" has been leaked. While the site hosting it seems to currently be down due to the obviously gigantic amount of traffic interested in this leak, the leak is said to pertain to the Bank of America's improper foreclosure on homes. "The report came from a former employee with Balboa Insurance — a risk management and insurance firm. The employee reportedly corresponded with Bank of America employees and was told to falsify loan numbers on documents to force Bank of America to foreclose on homeowners."

Comment Re:I wouldn't mind giving my info to him, he's cut (Score 1) 157

In terms of A), I suspect it has to do with being below the theoretical threshhold facebook might have for identifying scam users who are there to scrape information for profit/social engineering/other bad thing. Had they targeted 1000 a little bell might have gone off at facebook HQ before they had an adequate chance to actually look at what they'd managed to access.

Submission + - Laser scribing promises more efficient solar cells (gizmag.com)

cylonlover writes: A new manufacturing method that incorporates laser technology may result in thin film solar panels that are less expensive and more efficient than anything presently on the market. Currently, a stylus is used to mechanically etch microchannels into such panels, which electrically connect the individual solar cells and allow them to form an array. Researchers from Indiana's Purdue University, however, are developing a technique in which an ultrafast pulsing laser is used to do the etching. Not only will it hopefully be quicker and cheaper than mechanical "scribing," but it should also produce cleaner, sharper microchannels that offer superior performance.
Perl

Disarm Internet Trolls, Gently 417

Shlomi Fish writes "The best way to react to people trolling on Internet forums is not to feed them, right? Wrong! 'Don't feed the trolls' is also usually ineffective. Luckily, however, there is more effective approach, inspired by the book Feeling Good by David D. Burns."
Spam

A Spamming Attorney Gets Sentenced To 40 Months 131

www.sorehands.com writes "While one spammer, Robert Soloway, gets released on probation, the Feds send another, Robert Smoley, to the slammer for 40 months. I know about Smoley because I tracked him down, and beat him in court. Not only was he an attorney, he still has not lost his license, yet. The IRS contacted me as a result of seeing my web site, and I gladly assisted the IRS in tracking his business. He not only bounced a check on me, but stiffed his local counsel and one of his ISPs."
Government

Submission + - Should Cyber Vigilantes Be Cheered or Feared (infoworld.com)

snydeq writes: "InfoWorld's Ted Samson raises several challenging questions in the wake of HBGary, first and foremost being, should the cyber vigilante acts of 'hacktivists' such as Anonymous be embraced? No doubt the alleged HBGary plot is troubling, Samson writes, 'but also troubling is how quickly some members of Congress seek to use illegally acquired information to further their own political agenda.' The underlying message seems to be that cyber vigilantes may have more leeway than those who engage in equally illegal, though decidedly nontechnical methods to expose their targets."

Slashdot Top Deals

To iterate is human, to recurse, divine. -- Robert Heller

Working...