Comment New search engine (Score 1) 396
I found the addition of the DuckDuckGo search engine a nice touch. It's really a nice search engine, which is all that google isn't on the privacy front.
Comment Re:Two points... (Score 1) 68
2) The real #1 is still the human brain.
Somehow I doubt that the human brain can beat these system in a Linpack benchmark.
Comment Re:This says it all... (Score 1) 427
Hmm, indeed. Not too impressed.
User: What do you think about oss?
Cleverbot: I think it's illegal.
User: That's a rather bold statement, care to back it up?
Cleverbot: And how shall I back it up?
User: By providing a reason why it is illigal, of course.
Cleverbot: Uh...
User: OK, so you think oss is illegal?
Cleverbot: Depends.
User: Ah, that's already a more nuanced view.
Cleverbot: What do you think of George Bush?
User: What do you think about oss?
Cleverbot: I think it's illegal.
User: That's a rather bold statement, care to back it up?
Cleverbot: And how shall I back it up?
User: By providing a reason why it is illigal, of course.
Cleverbot: Uh...
User: OK, so you think oss is illegal?
Cleverbot: Depends.
User: Ah, that's already a more nuanced view.
Cleverbot: What do you think of George Bush?
Gtk 3.2 Will Let You Run Applications In a Browser 184
An anonymous reader submits this intriguing tidbit: "Gtk+ 3.2 will let you run any application in a browser thanks to the new HTML5 gdk backend. That means you'll be able to run GIMP, Gedit, a video editor or whatever, remotely (or on the same computer), using a web browser. Just imagine the possibilities!" At this point, says the article, it's only possible with Firefox 4.
Comment Re:Quick question (Score 1) 411
Microphone port pumps some current into whatever is connected to it (to power the microphone up) Line In doesn't provide any power, it only analyses incoming signal from external source, and will be often separated through transoptors or the like to protect the hardware from overcurrent from difference of potential between the devices.
Not sure why this was modded +5 informative; it's a load of hooey...
Not sure why this was modded +5 informative; it's a load of hooey...
Normal dynamic microphones are passive and do not require any external power to "power the microphone up". They generate a small current, usually from a coil moving inside a magnet. This is why you need a pre-amp of some kind to bring your mic-level signal up to a line-level signal that a regular amp can deal with. Your sound card has this built in.
If you have a condensor microphone, then it will need external power of some kind to function. This usually comes in the form of phantom power (+48V usually) over a balanced twisted pair microphone wire. I can promise you that your average soundcard (and pretty much anything with 1/8" jacks) does *not* supply phantom power. You need an external power supply of some kind to use a condensor mic with your soundcard.
So yeah, you accurately described how a professional setup works. It just doesn't apply to the situation we're talking about here.
The mic input on a soundcard does have a voltage (usually +5V) applied to the ring of the input. The microphones typically used with a computer are neither of the condenser nor dynamic type, but are electret microphones.
Comment Re:Great (Score 1) 150
At least here in the Netherlands it is not required for the police to obey all traffic laws, even on normal patrol. It is perfectly legal for them to go over the speed limit if it is necessary for performing their duty.
Comment Re:60mph Average (Score 1) 119
60 mph on average isn't anything new either, the Dutch University of Delft team did an average of 103 km/h during the 2005 Solar Challenge with their Nuna car.
The solar car they will use this year is two generation further, so probably will go even faster.
Comment Re:And then.. (Score 1) 743
Actually, there are already cars in production that make the emergency stop, but when the radar at the back senses a vehicle from behind, the brakeforce is reduced, as to divide the space between the car in front of you and the one that is coming from behind.
Comment Re:Mostly P/Invoke (Score 1) 405
Using P/Invoke is a bad coding style in .NET anyway, so that just leaves the developers who just don't care who are unable to port to Mono.
Submission + - Untapped Energy Below Us (yahoo.com) 1
EskimoJoe writes: "BASEL, Switzerland — When tremors started cracking walls and bathroom tiles in this Swiss city on the Rhine, the engineers knew they had a problem.
"The glass vases on the shelf rattled, and there was a loud bang," Catherine Wueest, a teashop owner, recalls. "I thought a truck had crashed into the building."
But the 3.4 magnitude tremor on the evening of Dec. 8 was no ordinary act of nature: It had been accidentally triggered by engineers drilling deep into the Earth's crust to tap its inner heat and thus break new ground — literally — in the world's search for new sources of energy.
On paper, the Basel project looks fairly straightforward: Drill down, shoot cold water into the shaft and bring it up again superheated and capable of generating enough power through a steam turbine to meet the electricity needs of 10,000 households, and heat 2,700 homes.
Scientists say this geothermal energy, clean, quiet and virtually inexhaustible, could fill the world's annual needs 250,000 times over with nearly zero impact on the climate or the environment.
A study released this year by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said if 40 percent of the heat under the United States could be tapped, it would meet demand 56,000 times over. It said an investment of $800 million to $1 billion could produce more than 100 gigawatts of electricity by 2050, equaling the combined output of all 104 nuclear power plants in the U.S."
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