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Comment Laser FTW (Score 2) 92

Years ago I worked for a company that made equipment for digital printing. No printers, just other pre-press equipment. A bean counter up the hierarchy figured out that inkjet ink cost $1,000 per litre retail. The company immediately started work on an industrial, wide format inkjet printer for banners and posters and such because the ink was so profitable. Go with a laser printer.

Comment Re:TSN? Gimme a break (Score 1) 201

My opinion only of course, but The Social Network is the best film of the year, followed closely by Inception. That opinion is not based on what anyone else says, that's based on me seeing it without knowing much about it when I went in. The reason why The Social Network comes first? Excellent directing, dense, rapid-fire, intelligent script, a great score, sharp, effective editing, and effective casting and performances all around. Hell, even the cinematography is excellent, especially when you see it on Bluray. There are few films that hold my attention all the way through. Most of them slow down or get down right boring during the saggy middle act. Not The Social Network. It was riveting all the way through. It's very difficult to create a good movie about anything, and it's damn near impossible to create a good movie that's mostly someone talking or typing on the keyboard, or telling a complex story cohesively. The Social Network does it all extremely well. I liked Inception, but I had difficulty following the plot. For that reason alone, it goes to my number 2 spot.

Comment Re:Thumb drives in a fire proof safe (Score 1) 680

What manufacturer are you using? I only write to the drives once, and that's it, then they go into storage. I've been storing data for years this way (even from the very early models with a whopping 16mb of memory!) and I've never had a problem. Every once in a while I transfer data from the older drives to newer ones just to be safe, but I've had far fewer problems with them than hard drives.

Comment Thumb drives in a fire proof safe (Score 1) 680

The price of a couple of thumb drives is insignificant compared to the price of your vacation and the memories associated with the photos. I buy a thumb drive for every vacation and store them this way, in a medium sized fire proof safe. Yes, thumb drive storage is more expensive than hard drive storage, but I trust their longevity more than I would a hard drive.

Comment Re:Can't make a call from inside (Score 1) 337

Height is only one factor. There are many factors for using a sat system with an external antenna, including antenna type, placement on the airframe, cable type, length, termination quality, and so on. Cabling is especially important. What kind of system are you using? Is it Iridium based, or Globalstar, or another type?

Comment Re:Can't make a call from inside (Score 5, Informative) 337

I second this. I also work in the industry and people generally don't know that not only do you have to be outside, but you have to have a clear line of sight to the sky and not be near obstructions like buildings. Also, the higher off the ground you are, or the higher the elevation, the better. Even in the best conditions, the call quality can vary as a satellite goes over the horizon and passes your call to another satellite. Also, satellite calls are very expensive, and the hand held units, although getting smaller (like the Iridium 9555 handset), are still bigger than a large cell phone.
NASA

NASA Delays Discovery's Final Launch To February 62

Velcroman1 writes "NASA has postponed the launch of space shuttle Discovery's final mission to no earlier than early February — the latest in a long string of delays that have kept the spacecraft grounded for more than a month. Discovery is now slated to launch no earlier than Feb. 3, with the delay allowing NASA engineers more time to analyze why small cracks developed in the shuttle's huge external fuel tank. The cracks have since been repaired, but NASA wants to make sure similar issues don't pose a future concern."
Input Devices

Is the Line-in Jack On the Verge of Extinction? 411

SlashD0tter writes "Many older sound cards were shipped with line-out, microphone-in, and a line-in jacks. For years I've used such a line-in jack on an old Windows 2000 dinosaur desktop that I bought in 2000 (600 Mhz PIII) to capture the stereo audio signal from an old Technics receiver. I've used this arrangement to recover the audio from a slew of old vinyl LPs and even a few cassettes using some simple audio manipulating software from a small shop in Australia. I've noticed only recently, unfortunately, that all of the four laptops I've bought since then have omitted a line-in jack, forcing me to continue keeping this old desktop on life support. I've looked around for USB sound cards that include a line-in jack, but I haven't been too impressed by the selection. Is the line-in jack doomed to extinction, possibly due to lobbying from vested interests, or are there better thinking-outside-the-box alternatives available?"
NASA

Dying Man Shares Unseen Challenger Video 266

longacre writes "An amateur video of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion has been made public for the first time. The Florida man who filmed it from his front yard on his new Betamax camcorder turned the tape over to an educational organization a week before he died this past December. The Space Exploration Archive has since published the video into the public domain in time for the 24th anniversary of the catastrophe. Despite being shot from about 70 miles from Cape Canaveral, the shuttle and the explosion can be seen quite clearly. It is unclear why he never shared the footage with NASA or the media. NASA officials say they were not aware of the video, but are interested in examining it now that it has been made available."

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