Vermont City Almost Encased In a 1-Mile Dome 456

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday November 09, 2009 @09:45AM from the yeah-it-could-happen dept.

destinyland writes "A Vermont city once proposed a one-mile dome over its 7,000 residents. (They paid $4 million a year in heating bills, and HUD seriously considered funding their proposal.) The city's architectural concept included supporting the Dome with air pressure slightly above atmospheric pressure. (Buckminster Fuller warned their biggest challenge would be keeping it from floating away...) There would be no more heating bills, fly-fishing all year, and no more snow shoveling. And to this day, the former city planner insists that 'Economically it's a slam dunk.'"

Embedding Video In a Site For iPhone/iPod? 68

Posted by timothy on Sunday May 17, 2009 @02:36PM from the how-bosses-expense-ipods dept.

Russ writes "Our corporate media delivery platform is in the process of being refactored (at long, long last), and one of the preferred requirements is the ability to serve streaming video to iPhone and iPod Touch devices, similar to the way YouTube does it — show a screen shot, and when the user taps it, the video should play full-screen and landscaped automatically. The problem comes from the severe lack of documentation Apple provides on how, precisely, this can be done. From what I can tell, YouTube still fires a Flash object to the iPhone despite its lack of Flash support. I have, to a certain extent, been able to review some of YouTube's Flash code and get a hack working on our platform (no screenshot, not landscape, but does play automatically), but I'm sure I'm missing a 'trick of the trade' somewhere that makes the process transparent to the user. Has anyone out there done this before, and if so, how? The standard (and non-standard) Quicktime object/embed codes seem to only provide partial functionality on the iPhone/iPod."

Comment Re:FiOS (Score 1) 379

by mandos on Wednesday December 31, 2008 @06:10PM (#26285623) Attached to: Time Warner Recommends Internet For Some Shows

So the parent here brings up a specific case of the general problem: losing these channels will indeed impact some people quite dramatically and all customers to a certain degree. Given the backgrounds of many of the people on this site, let's see what we can due to hasten the solution, i.e. removal of the cable companies. Let's make a list here on this post to what current channels are available on the net (with link to a feed), what shows are available on demand, what new, non-tv content is available and should be considered as a replacement. I'm not talking about downloading individual shows via your favorite P2P application, that can be done but provides it's own set of headaches. Let's get a list going here of links to content as easy to use as Youtube. It should ideally be as simple as opening a link and clicking Play.

Wireless Invention Jams Teen Drivers' Cell Calls 232

Posted by samzenpus on Friday December 12, 2008 @04:03PM from the you-can't-hear-me-now dept.

alphadogg writes "University of Utah researchers have invented technology that could come to be embraced by teenagers with the same enthusiasm they have for curfews and ID checks. And like those things, it could save their lives. Key2SafeDriving technology uses RFID or Bluetooth wireless capabilities to issue signals from car keys to cell phones to prevent drivers from talking on their phones or texting while driving. A company called Accendo LC of Kaysville, Utah has licensed the technology and is working to build it into commercial devices that could be on the market next year. The company is sorting out how to bring the technology to market, but one possibility is that it would be made available through cell phone service companies and could also be tied in with insurance companies, which might offer discounts for users."

An Open Source Coffee Machine 99

Posted by timothy on Wednesday December 10, 2008 @02:56PM from the quite-entirely-unlike-tea dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Open Source Coffee Machine [video link] is a recycled coffee machine, controlled by a PC running Beremiz, and using some MicroMod CANopen I/O nodes from Peak-System. This machine have been prepared by Peak-System and Lolitech for SCS-Paris-08 exhibition. It served free coffee during four days at Peak-System's booth, and has been donated to IUT of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, France, so that students can have fun practicing automation."

Reducing the Risk of Human Extinction 399

Posted by kdawson on Friday November 14, 2008 @01:37PM from the doing-the-numbers dept.

wiredog sends in a study from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Center For Biosecurity, assessing risks of human extinction and the costs of preventing it. "In this century a number of events could extinguish humanity. The probability of these events may be very low, but the expected value of preventing them could be high, as it represents the value of all future human lives."

1,500-Ship Fleet Proposed To Fight Climate Change 692

Posted by timothy on Sunday September 07, 2008 @03:41PM from the sponsored-by-viagra dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "According to UK and US researchers, it should be possible to fight the global warming effects associated with an increase of dioxide levels by using autonomous cloud-seeding ships to spray salt water into the air. This project would require the deployment of a worldwide fleet of 1,500 unmanned ships to cool the Earth even if the level of carbon dioxide doubled. These 300-tonne ships 'would be powered by the wind, but would not use conventional sails. Instead they would be fitted with a number of 20 m-high, 2.5 m-diameter cylinders known as Flettner rotors. The researchers estimate that such ships would cost between £1m and £2m each. This translates to a US$2.65 to 5.3 billion total cost for the ships only."

Comment Apple (Score 3, Interesting) 407

by mandos on Friday January 25, 2008 @08:07PM (#22188858) Attached to: Smartphones Patented — Just About Everyone Sued 1 Minute Later

So the story says they sued Apple among others. Isn't one of the complaints that some people have against the iPhone that it Doesn't have removable storage? That would seem to exempt them from this patent.

Video of Wild Crow Tool Use Caught With Tail Cams 203

Posted by Zonk on Friday October 05, 2007 @07:29PM from the and-bernd-heinrich-is-well-pleased dept.

willatnewscientist writes "Scientists from the University of Oxford have recorded New Caledonian crows using tools in the wild for first time. The footage was captured by attaching tiny cameras to their tail feathers. The wireless cameras weigh just 14 grammes and can be worn by the crows without disturbing their natural behavior. The trick has provided the first direct evidence of the birds' using tools in the wild and may represent an important development in animal behavior studies. 'The camera also contains a simple radio transmitter that reveals the crows' location. This lets the researchers track them at a distance of few hundred metres, so that they can catch the camera's video signal with a portable receiving dish. Up to 70 minutes of footage can be broadcast by the camera's chip, and the camera is shed once the bird moults its tail feathers.'"

Journal Journal: Exclusive: Sun's new big iron bends the rules

Journal by OSTG Marketing on Tuesday December 05, 2006 @12:14AM

Sun has a new system - the Sun Fire x4600 M2 . At first glance you might think it's a quad-socket system, but look again. The Sun Fire x4600 M2 holds eight (eight!) easily swappable sockets. "Armed with current dual-core Opteron processors, this equals 16 cores per server, so a rackful would bring the total to 160 cores. The Sun Fire x4600 M2 will also be able to run with the next-generation quad-core AMD Opteron c

Journal Journal: AMD shows off quad-core Opteron chips

Journal by OSTG Marketing on Monday December 04, 2006 @11:57PM

Trumpeted as an 'engineering achievement that marks the company's (AMD) shift to 65 nm architecture', AMD has demonstrated a lab version its quad-core Opteron 8000 server chip , known as 'Barcelona'. Aimed at high-end users dealing with commercial workstations and servers, such as users of multithreaded applications like CRM (customer relationship management), ERP (enterprise resource planning), e-commerce and virtualizatio

NVidia, AMD Subpoenaed In Antitrust Investigation 132

Posted by Zonk on Friday December 01, 2006 @04:23PM from the business-of-making-shinies dept.

mustardayonnaise writes "CNN Money is reporting that graphics chipmakers Nvidia and AMD (who recently acquired NVidia rival ATI) said Friday that they received subpoenas from the US Department of Justice as part of a probe into potential antitrust violations involving graphics processing units and cards. Each company controls about 25% of the entire graphics chip market. According to the article, Intel, who makes their own fair share of graphics chipsets, has yet to be included in the investigation."

Submission + - Blood Protein used to Split Water

Submitted by

brian0918

on Friday December 01, 2006 @03:00PM

brian0918 writes: "The Imperial College in London is reporting that genetically-engineered blood protein can be used to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. From the article: 'Scientists have combined two molecules that occur naturally in blood to engineer a molecular complex that uses solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. This molecular complex can use energy from the sun to create hydrogen gas, providing an alternative to electrolysis, the method typically used to split water into its constituent parts. The breakthrough may pave the way for the development of novel ways of creating hydrogen gas for use as fuel in the future.' The abstract can be viewed for free from the Journal of the American Chemical Society."