pancrace - Slashdot User

Submission + - What if Google Had to Design For Google? (meangene.com)

Submitted by

on Tuesday October 16, 2007 @02:38AM

An anonymous reader writes: Web developers increasingly grow weary of having to put so much effort into designing their sites according to the whims of the Google search engine. When the most important thing is "getting indexed" its increasingly difficult for web site designers to offer the simple, uncluttered user experience they'd like to. Reminiscent of the famed what if msft designed the ipod box here is a humorous look at what would happen to that famed, clean, uncluttered look if Google had to design for the Google Search Engine.

Submission + - "All Quiet Alert" issued for the sun

Submitted by

radioweather

on Tuesday October 16, 2007 @02:03AM

radioweather writes: "The phrase sounds like an oxymoron, and maybe it is, but the sun is extremely quiet right now, so much in fact that the Solar Influences Data Center in Belgium has issued an unusual "All quiet alert" on October 5th.

Since then, the sunspot number has remained at zero. Because solar cycle 24 has not yet started. There are signs that the sun's activity is slowing. The solar wind has been decreasing in speed, and this is yet another indicator of a slowing in the suns magnetic dynamo. There is talk of an extended solar minimum occurring.

There are a number of theories and a couple of dozen predictions about the intensity solar cycle 24 which has yet to start. One paper by Penn & Livingstonin 2006 concludes: "If [trends] continue to decrease at the current rate then the number of sunspots in the next solar cycle (cycle 24) would be reduced by roughly half, and there would be very few sunspots visible on the disk during cycle 25."

We'll know more in about six months what the sun decides to do for cycle 24."

Submission + - Out of memory in Vista while... copying files? (zdnet.com)

Submitted by ta bu shi da yu on Monday October 15, 2007 @11:05PM

ta bu shi da yu writes: It appears that, incredibly, Vista often runs out of memory while copying files. ZDNet is reporting that not only does it run out of memory after copying 16,400+ files, but "often there is little indication that file copy operations haven't completed correctly". After several billion dollars spent developing Vista, surely Microsoft could get their OS to copy files properly?

Submission + - Powerful Blast Confuses Astronomers (physorg.com)

Submitted by

eldavojohn

on Friday September 28, 2007 @01:30PM

eldavojohn writes: "Astronomers are still speculating as to what could have caused an abnormally strong five millisecond burst to be detected six years ago when it completely saturated the recording equipment. From the article, 'The burst was so bright that at the time it was first recorded it was dismissed as man-made radio interference. It put out a huge amount of power (10exp33 Joules), equivalent to a large (2000MW) power station running for two billion billion years.'"

Submission + - Satellite images used to monitor Burmese junta

Submitted by BurmesePython on Friday September 28, 2007 @12:54PM

BurmesePython writes: Human rights groups are using high-resolution satellites images to reveal the activities of Burma's junta as it gets tough with pro-democracy protesters. Apparently "it should be easy to spot groups of monks because of their distinctive maroon robes". Like previous efforts to use satellites to monitor the humanitarian crisis in Darfur [slashdot.org], the hope is it will prod the UN and other international actors into putting pressure on the Burmese rulers.

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