gavsta - Slashdot User

Submission + - The Car Faster Than a Speeding Bullet (wsj.com) 1

Submitted by

pbahra

on Monday March 07, 2011 @09:31AM

pbahra writes: "Formula 1 is seen as the apogee of engineering excellence and automotive power. So it says something that in Bloodhound SSC—the car that, if all goes well, in 2013 will shatter the current land speed record—the Cosworth Formula 1 engine is just the fuel pump. “We are creating the ultimate car; we’re going where no-one has gone before,” said Richard Noble, the project director. The car, which Mr. Noble says takes £10,000 a day just to keep it ticking over, will be powered by not one, but two other engines. The smaller one, the EJ200, is normally found in the British Royal Air Force’s Typhoon jet. Its job is to get the 13.4 meter long car up to 350 mph. That’s when the big one kicks in. The big one is the 18-inch diameter, 12-foot-long Falcon rocket, the largest of its kind ever made in the U.K.. Its job is to catapult the car through the sound barrier to its maximum speed of 1,050 mph. That is, literally, faster than a speeding bullet."

Submission + - World's Most Powerful Optical Microscope (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by gamricstone on Wednesday March 02, 2011 @05:09AM

gamricstone writes: Scientists have produced the world's most powerful optical microscope, which could help understand the causes of many viruses and diseases. Previously, the standard optical microscope can only see items around one micrometre — 0.001 millimetres — clearly. But now, by combining an optical microscope with a transparent microsphere, dubbed the 'microsphere nanoscope', the Manchester researchers can see 20 times smaller — 50 nanometres ((5 x 10-8m) — under normal lights. This is beyond the theoretical limit of optical microscopy. "Seeing inside a cell directly without dying and seeing living viruses directly could revolutionize the way cells are studied and allow us to examine closely viruses and biomedicine for the first time."

Submission + - Cracks in Libya Firewall? (monkey.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 28, 2011 @11:15AM

An anonymous reader writes: Most Libya Internet traffic has been blocked since the start of the uprisings on February 17. In what may be the first cracks in the Libya Internet firewall and a sign of the rapidly evolving political situation, Libya Internet traffic climbed over the weekend according to Arbor. Twitter updates also suggest the Internet is now working in eastern cities like Benghazi. Gaddafi may be losing control of his state telecom (Libya Telecom and Technology)?

Submission + - The Legend of Zelda turns 25 (technologizer.com)

Submitted by

harrymcc

on Monday February 21, 2011 @11:48AM

harrymcc writes: "The Legend of Zelda originated 25 years ago today, when Nintendo released the original The Legend of Zelda game for its Famicom console in Japan on February 21st, 1986. Technologizer's Benj Edwards is celebrating with a look at some of the franchises's odder sidelights, from a version broadcast by satellite to the unexpected true story of where the game got its name."

Submission + - Motorola Xoom Won't Have Flash at Launch (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Stoobalou on Monday February 21, 2011 @09:46AM

Stoobalou writes: Since the launch of the iPad, Apple fans have had to put up with the favourite refrain of the anti-Apple lobby.
Detractors of the Cupertino company's triumvirate of expensive toys, the iPhone the iPad and the iPod Touch, have constantly crowed about the lack of Flash capability therein, something which Steve Jobs personally hobbled in a very public fit of pique at Adobe's buggy, bloated, anachronistic video and animation standard.
Every other wannabe tablet maker looking to jump on the iPad bandwagon has put Flash compatibility at the very top of the tick-list when it came to designing their latest iPad killer, and Motorola's Xoom was no exception.

Comment Phone Home (Score 0) 312

by gavsta on Thursday February 17, 2011 @07:45AM (#35230444) Attached to: Sony's Official Statement Regarding PS3 Hacking

I guess with the new firmwares they'll be doing the secret phone home tests and then deploying the ban hammer. Harsh but fair IMHO. I wonder if it will be as effective as MS and the 360 ban hammer? I Still think this entire situation could have been avoided if they'd never removed the install other OS option, which was a legitimate why of running custom homebrew on the box.

Submission + - Supermassive black holes not so big after all (cosmosmagazine.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17, 2011 @05:56AM

An anonymous reader writes: Supermassive black holes are between 2 and 10 times less massive than previously thought, according to new calculations published by German astrophysicists.

The Matrix Re-Reloaded 640

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday January 24, 2011 @09:47AM from the you-know-you'd-watch-it dept.

derGoldstein writes "According to Keanu Reeves: ' Matrix 4 and 5 are coming.' At an event that took place at the London International School of Performing Arts, 'Reeves revealed that he met with the Wachowskis around Christmas. They told him that they completed script treatments for two more Matrix installments. They are planning to make the films in 3D and have already met with James Cameron to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the technology. Reeves added that he's excited to return as Neo and promised that the treatments will truly revolutionize the action genre like the first Matrix film did.'"

UK Authorities Accused of Inciting Illegal Protest 371

Posted by samzenpus on Monday January 24, 2011 @01:46AM from the stirring-the-pot dept.

jarran writes "Questions are being asked about the tactics being employed by UK authorities to monitor and control protest groups. Schnews reports on evidence that government IP addresses are posting messages to sites like indymedia, attempting to provoke activists into taking illegal direct action. Evidence has emerged recently that the police consider sex to be a legitimate tool for extracting information from targets, and senior police have been accused of lying to parliament about the deployment of undercover agents at protests."

60% of AOL's Profits Come From Misinformed Customers 301

Posted by samzenpus on Sunday January 23, 2011 @10:58AM from the check-your-math-again dept.

satuon writes "Ken Auletta's big New Yorker piece on AOL (subscription only) this week revealed an interesting detail about the company's inner workings. According to Auletta, 80% of AOL's profits come from subscribers, and 75% of those subscribers are paying for something they don't actually need. According to Auletta: "The company still gets eighty percent of its profits from subscribers, many of whom are older people who have cable or DSL service but don't realize that they need not pay an additional twenty-five dollars a month to get online and check their e-mail. 'The dirty little secret,' a former AOL executive says, 'is that seventy-five percent of the people who subscribe to AOL's dial-up service don't need it.'"

British ISPs Embracing Two-Tier Internet 305

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday January 23, 2011 @12:04AM from the free-speech-as-long-as-money-talks dept.

Barence writes "Britain's leading ISPs are attempting to construct a two-tier internet, where websites and services that are willing to pay are thrust into the 'fast lane,' while those that don't are left fighting for scraps of bandwidth or even blocked outright. Asked directly whether ISP TalkTalk would be willing to cut off access completely to BBC iPlayer in favor of YouTube if the latter was prepared to sign a big enough cheque, TalkTalk's Andrew Heaney replied: 'We'd do a deal, and we'd look at YouTube and we'd look at BBC and we should have freedom to sign whatever deal works.' Britain's biggest ISP, BT, meanwhile says it 'absolutely could see situations in which some content or application providers might want to pay BT for a quality of service above best efforts.' PC Pro asks if it's the end of the net as we know it."

Firefighters Let House Burn Because Owner Didn't Pay Fee 2058

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday October 06, 2010 @11:17AM from the deadly-serious-homeowner's-association dept.

Dthief writes "From MSNBC: 'Firefighters in rural Tennessee let a home burn to the ground last week because the homeowner hadn't paid a $75 fee. Gene Cranick of Obion County and his family lost all of their possessions in the Sept. 29 fire, along with three dogs and a cat. "They could have been saved if they had put water on it, but they didn't do it," Cranick told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. The fire started when the Cranicks' grandson was burning trash near the family home. As it grew out of control, the Cranicks called 911, but the fire department from the nearby city of South Fulton would not respond.'"

Comment personal hygeine. (Score 1) 190

by gavsta on Thursday August 26, 2010 @10:36AM (#33381074) Attached to: 25% of Worms Spread Via USB

someone should teach people to wash their hands properly before handling them IMHO.

The Value of BASIC As a First Programming Language 548

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday March 10, 2010 @03:21AM from the proud-to-have-been-warped-by-it dept.

Mirk writes "Computer-science legend Edsger W. Dijkstra famously wrote: 'It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.' The Reinvigorated Programmer argues that the world is full of excellent programmers who cut their teeth on BASIC, and suggests it could even be because they started out with BASIC."

Funeral Being Held Today For IE6 194

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday March 04, 2010 @12:44PM from the good-riddance dept.

An anonymous reader writes "More than 100 people, many of them dressed in black, are expected to gather around a coffin Thursday to say goodbye to an old friend. The deceased? Internet Explorer 6. The aging Web browser, survived by its descendants Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8, is being eulogized at a tongue-in-cheek 'funeral' hosted by Aten Design Group, a design firm in Denver, Colorado."

Slashdot Top Deals