Comment As opposed to ? (Score 1) 86
Come on.
When have you ever heard governments say they did anything illegal or say they didn't do something because it was wrong or illegal.
At best they lose in court.
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Comment Houses are entities not accessories (Score 1) 248
The biggest failing for all of these systems is that they fail to acknowledge that hoses are standalone entities in there own right. House don't stop existing when you leave in the morning. Most house have more than one occupant and usually plants and pets. They need to run without outside help. This is where all the devices that need a smartphone or cloud connection to fail. Houses won't be smart until they don't need smartphones or people to run.
Comment Old news (Score 1) 180
I was there. Didn't bother to attend the Hugos.
BTW. They were two ceremonies. Check out http://loncon3.org
Comment April Fools? (Score 1) 224
I guess April Fools came early with the new calendar. Or is the timing of the announcement off?
Comment Sell more, ship less (Score 1) 249
The risks you will face:
1) The obvious, it may be lost or stolen. Can you afford to lose family photos and you personal info?
2) Vibration. It addition to having your boxes roughly handled, ships will expose your gear to low frequency vibration for weeks on end.
3) Temperature. Most shipping isn't climate controlled, so you may get condensation.
4) Incompatibility. Chances are where you are going will have difference power, communications, space and environmental
Recommendation. Sell everything you can't replace and buy new at the destination. Almost for sure where you are going will have difference standards which apply to electronics, furniture, appliances and clothes. Backup everything twice. Leave a copy in the cloud, and one with friends/family.
Comment DJ license already covers this (Score 1) 349
Most of these events have DJs and commercial DJs are licensed, so unless SOCAN is double dipping his is a waste of a news article.
Comment Heavily threaded things like databases (Score 1) 464
Most database servers are already doing the same things that virtualization accomplishes. SQL Server 2012 as an example can support multiple database instances, each with multiple databases and will use every last resource available, and be more efficient than hosting multiple copies of in their own OS instance in VMWare.
Comment Boilers and elevators have mechanical safeties (Score 1) 171
Most boiler and elevator design predates electronic/computerized controls so they have mechanical safeties.
Thumbs up to everyone who said networking them to the Internet is a DUMB idea.
Comment IBM Touchscreen used this (Score 0) 96
IBM used to had a touchscreen monitor that used pressure sensors in the base to determine where the screen was being pressed.
Comment Sony would be perfect if it had better customers (Score 1) 329
Sony actually believes that they have the best (engineered) products in the world. They simply cannot accept that their products can fail.
Therefore it is always the customer's fault. The only reasons they have warranties is because marketing makes them.
If you want to see how snobby they are go play with their BetaCams.
Apple, RIM, Google All Bid On Palm 117
imamac writes "It seems HP was only one of many bidders for the struggling Palm. The others included Apple, RIM and even Google. You may now commence speculation on why the various companies wanted Palm."
The "King of All Computer Mice" Finally Ships 207
An anonymous reader writes "The much-anticipated, much-mocked 18-button joystick mouse from WarMouse is now shipping. The press release features an impressive set of user quotes from game designer Chris Taylor, new SFWA president John Scalzi, and a doctor who runs a medical software company. Crazy or not, it's obviously more than just a gaming mouse."
Man Put On "No-Fly List" While In Air To NYC 300
An unnamed man flying from Nigeria to New York City found out he was added to a no-fly list somewhere above the Atlantic Ocean, when the plane stopped to refuel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Officials won't say what he did or why he was added to the list after he had already boarded a flight. He was not immediately charged with a crime and Customs and Border Protection will only say that he is a "potential person of interest." From the article: "The man, a citizen of Gambia, was not on the no-fly list when he boarded the aircraft in Dakar, Senegal, said a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly."
Startup's Submerged Servers Could Cut Cooling Costs 147
1sockchuck writes "Are data center operators ready to abandon hot and cold aisles and submerge their servers? An Austin startup says its liquid cooling enclosure can cool high-density server installations for a fraction of the cost of air cooling in traditional data centers. Submersion cooling using mineral oil isn't new, dating back to the use of Fluorinert in the Cray 2. The new startup, Green Revolution Cooling, says its first installation will be at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (also home to the Ranger supercomputer). The company launched at SC09 along with a competing liquid cooling play, the Iceotope cooling bags."
Nearby Star Forecast To Skirt Solar System 135
PipianJ writes "A recent preprint posted on arXiv by Vadim Bobylev presents some startling new numbers about a future close pass of one of our stellar neighbors. Based on studies of the Hipparcos catalog, Bobylev suggests that the nearby orange dwarf Gliese 710 has an 86% chance of skirting the outer bounds of the Solar System and the hypothesized Oort Cloud in the next 1.5 million years. As the Oort Cloud is thought to be the source of many long-period comets, the gravitational effects of Gliese's passing could send a shower of comets into the inner Solar System, threatening Earth. This news about Gliese 710 isn't exactly new, but it's one of the first times the probability of this near-miss has been quantified."
