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Comment Reddit (Score 1) 58

by rchh (#43333947) Attached to: Soyuz Breaks Speed Record To ISS
Don't want Slashdot to change into Reddit. Large audience do not equate to quality. Go to Reddit if you want to see all the cute cat pictures- please don't change Slashdot into Reddit. Slashdot has its downsides- but it still (even after Dice bought it) remains the one website that I need to browse once a day. Also happy April's Fool day.
Transportation

The Specter of Gasoline At $5 a Gallon 1205

Posted by timothy from the petroleum-human-engineering dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that gas prices are already at record highs for the winter months — averaging $4.32 in California and $3.73 a gallon nationally. As summer approaches, demand for gasoline rises, typically pushing prices up around 20 cents a gallon. But gas prices could rise another 50 cents a gallon or more, analysts say, if the diplomatic and economic standoff over Iran's nuclear ambitions escalates into military conflict or there is some other major supply disruption. 'If we get some kind of explosion — like an Israeli attack or some local Iranian revolutionary guard decides to take matters in his own hands and attacks a tanker — than we'd see oil prices push up 20 to 25 percent higher and another 50 cents a gallon at the pump,' says Michael C. Lynch, president of Strategic Energy and Economic Research. A sharp rise in the prices of oil and gas would crimp the nation's budding economic recovery would cause big political problems at home for President Obama, who is already being attacked by Republican presidential candidates over gas prices and his overall energy policies. On the other hand, environmentalists see high gas prices as a helpful step toward the development of alternative energy. Secretary Treasury Steven Chu notably said in 2008 'we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe' to make Americans trade in their 'love affair with the automobile' for a marriage to mass transit. In the meantime President Obama is in a bind because any success in tightening sanctions on Iran could squeeze global oil supplies, pushing up prices and causing serious economic repercussions at home and abroad."

Submission + - Americans Favor Moratorium On New Nuclear Reactors

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: While a drop in public support for nuclear power would be expected after an incident like the Fukushima reactor crisis, the nuclear disaster in Japan has triggered a much stronger response among Americans. When Japan — the nation that President Obama held up as an example of safe nuclear power being used on a large-scale basis — is unable to effectively control its considerable downside, Americans are understandably leery about the same technology being used even more extensively in this nation. And safety concerns about the existing nuclear plants also deserve serious attention.
Windows

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: How do you choose a Windows laptop? 7

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "I'm a Mac guy. When our 2004-era Windows XP laptop, which was used primarily by my wife, died last summer, I got myself a new MacBook Pro and she inherited my still servicable 2008 MacBook. But after about six months, she hasn't gotten used to it, and wants a Windows machine. I don't have an ideological problem with this — it'd be her computer, and we've got a bit of money stashed away to pay for it. But trying to pick one out is my job, and I find the the whole process bewildering. Apple's product differentiation is great at defeating the paradox of choice — you have a few base models, the difference between which is quite obvious, and you can customize each. The Windows world seems totally different. Even once I've settled on a vendor for a Windows laptop (something I haven't done yet), each seems to have a bewildering array of product lines with similar specs. Often models that you find in electronics or office supply stores that seem promising in terms of form factor are exclusive to those stores and can't be found online. Obviously people do navigate this process, but I'm just feeling out of my depth. How would Slashdotters go about picking a solid, basic laptop for Web surfing and document editing that won't be obsolete in two years?"
Robotics

Submission + - Is it a bird? No it's a robot (i-programmer.info)

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: Festo, well known for their biologically inspired robots, have done it again SmartBird . A mechanism that flys like a bird. It is amazing to watch and all the more amazing when you realise that it just flaps its wings and all of the control is via a torsion drive which twists the wings during each flap. The whole thing depends on the constant intervention of the software to keep it under control.

Submission + - Could rooting Android devices become mainstream? (npr.org)

Submitted by grahamsaa
grahamsaa writes: NPR's Weekend Edition aired a story today on how rooting the Nook Color can turn it into a full fledged and relatively inexpensive Android tablet. The story claims that the process takes about half an hour, and only requires the purchase of a Nook and a microSD card, and points listeners to a YouTube tutorial on how to root the device. Could this signal a change in how mainstream users see devices like this? Could rooting Android devices like the Nook ever become mainstream?
News

Submission + - Nokia - no more Symbian phones after 2012 (i-programmer.info) 1

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: After the decision to go with Windows Phone 7 it has been obvious that the fate of the Symbian Phone — the phone that sold more than iPhone or Android — wasn't good. However where there is life there is hope and some developers and users clung to the hope that there might be more Symbian phones in the future. Perhaps they could coexist with Nokia Windows Phone 7 devices. Now, in a open letter to developers Nokia have made it clear that they will create no more Symbian phones after 2012 and they will just wait for the old phones to fade way while trying to sell Windows Phones to the existing users.

Comment Re:101 (Score 1) 91

by rchh (#34201662) Attached to: JooJoo Tablet Dies, Fusion Garage Continues On
I have Archos Internet Tablet 5. They sold quite a few here in the States. Unfortunately, the device is buggy as hell. When they came out with the tablet, Archos promised Android 2+ update but so far it is still stuck with Android 1.6 (Donut). The "official" market for the tablet is a tiny subset of the market by Google. There are random reboots and hangups. For some reason the wireless is really crappy. To its credit,Archos has released a number of firmware updates. But even after all this updates, the random reboots and hangups have not been fixed. The sound quality is good but I would not recommend it to anybody.

Comment Re:Asshat (Score 0) 422

by rchh (#34200160) Attached to: UK Politician Arrested Over Twitter 'Stoning Joke'
Incitement to murder (even if it was a joke) should not be a free speech matter. The councilor said publicly that this writer should be killed. Joking about killing somebody in public, particularly when you are in a elected position, is not funny and should be illegal.

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