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Comment New Pejorative "Dutch Artifact" (Score 2, Funny) 209

by graviplana (#29232821) Attached to: Treasured 'Moon Rock' Is Petrified Wood
This reminded me of the whole Anglo-Dutch Wars http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Dutch_Wars debacle that spawned so many great pejoratives such as:

Comment Re:Just what we need (Score 0) 287

by graviplana (#29084705) Attached to: Airborne Laser Successfully Tracks, Hits Missile

Changing the output frequency of a giant high energy chemical laser is extremely tricky. Frequency doubling demands a very pure coherence to get good efficiency, and even then "good" in this context means above 50% power converted to the new frequency. With a weapons laser, you're going to have a hell of a cooling problem in the converting medium. Then again, if reflective anti-laser coatings become common, it shouldn't be too difficult to add on a free electron laser system to burn off the mirror layer before the main beam strikes. A free electron laser can change operating frequencies trivially, just by adjusting its internal magnetic field.

It's a chemical laser but in solid, not gaseous, form. Put simply, in deference to you, Kent, it's like lasing a stick of dynamite. As soon as we apply a field, we couple to a state, it is radiatively coupled to the ground state. I figure we can extract at least ten to the twenty-first photons per cubic centimeter which will give one kilojoule per cubic centimeter at 600 nanometers, or, one megajoule per liter.
Graphics

Submission + - DX10 - How Far Have We Come? Performance and IQ (hothardware.com)

Submitted by
MojoKid
MojoKid writes: "When DirectX 10 was first introduced to the market by graphics manufacturers and subsequently supported by Windows Vista, it was generally understood that adoption by game developers was going to be more of a slow migration than a quick flip of a switch. That said, nearly a year later, the question is how far have we come? This in-depth HotHardware article showcases many of the most popular DX10-capable game engines, like Bioshock, World In Conflict, Call of Juarez, Lost Planet, and Company of Heroes, and features current image quality comparisons versus DX9 modes with each. The article also details performance levels across many of the more popular graphics cards, from both the mid-range and high-end. You be the judge. Are we there yet?"
Software

Submission + - Devs admit: WordPress 2.3 Secretly Spying on Users 1

Submitted by Marilyn Miller
Marilyn Miller writes: Popular open-source blogging engine WordPress has been upgraded to 2.3 — with some unexpected nasties in the mix. As of version 2.3, WordPress now periodically (every 12 hours) sends personally-identifying information (blog name & URI) to the mothership, along with an alarming amount of information including $_SERVER dumps, a list of installed plugins, and your current PHP/MySQL settings. Most unfortunately, it does not provide _any_ way of disabling this functionality, and WordPress does not have any privacy policy protecting this information. In a 100-message thread about the issue, lead developer Matt Mullenweg defends his actions and staunchly refuses to add an opt-in interface, telling users to "fork WordPress" if they aren't willing to put up with this behavior.

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