samh004 - Slashdot User

NASA To Trigger Massive Explosion On the Moon In Search of Ice 376

Posted by timothy on Tuesday June 16, 2009 @12:13PM from the smashing-darling-smashing dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "NASA is preparing to launch the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, which will fly a Centaur rocket booster into the moon, triggering a six-mile-high explosion that scientists hope will confirm whether water is frozen in the perpetual darkness of craters near the moon's south pole. If the spacecraft launches on schedule at 12:51 p.m. Wednesday, it will hit the moon in the early morning hours of October 8 after an 86-day Lunar Gravity-Assist, Lunar Return Orbit that will allow the spacecraft time to complete its two-month commissioning phase and conduct nearly a month of science data collection of polar crater measurements before colliding with the moon just 10 minutes behind the Centaur." (Continues, below.)

Windows 7 Hard Drive and SSD Performance Analyzed 248

Posted by timothy on Friday May 29, 2009 @12:52AM from the but-compared-to-the-old-one dept.

bigwophh writes "Despite the fact that Windows 7 is based on many of the same core elements as Vista, Microsoft claims it is a different sort of animal and that it should be looked at in a fresh, new light, especially in terms of performance. With that in mind, this article looks at how various types of disks perform under Windows 7, both the traditional platter-based variety and newer solid state disks. Disk performance between Vista and Win7 is compared using a hard drive and an SSD. SSD performance with and without TRIM enabled is tested. Application performance is also tested on a variety of drives. Looking at the performance data, it seems MS has succeeded in improving Windows 7 disk performance, particularly with regard to solid state drives."

Homeland Security To Scan Citizens Exiting US 676

Posted by timothy on Thursday May 28, 2009 @07:27PM from the subtle-messages dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The US Department of Homeland Security is set to kickstart a controversial new pilot to scan the fingerprints of travellers departing the United States. From June, US Customs and Border Patrol will take a fingerprint scan of travellers exiting the United States from Detroit, while the US Transport Security Administration will take fingerprint scans of international travellers exiting the United States from Atlanta. The controversial plan to scan outgoing passengers — including US citizens — was allegedly hatched under the Bush Administration. An official has said it will be used in part to crack down on the US population of illegal immigrants."

Comment Re:All we need... (Score 1) 346

by samh004 on Tuesday March 24, 2009 @09:13PM (#27323157) Attached to: New Lossless MP3 Format Explained

and without yet more proprietary codecs.

It's not proprietary and can be played on all existing MP3 players.

Comment Re:New tech, old idea (Score 1) 86

by samh004 on Saturday September 01, 2007 @02:59AM (#20431857) Attached to: Japanese Airline Rolls Out Wireless Chip Check-In

I always get my seats booked in an exit row if possible at the time of booking. It's easier that way, although you have to use a travel agent. Luckily tall people who haven't bothered to check where they're sitting have less and less asked to sit in my seat when already on the plane too... it's a sad life, but mostly when that happens the cabin crew could bump them or me to business for convenience, but they don't, so your not getting my exit row seat that I've been looking forward to for the past 2 months. As for the check-in system, meh! Been checking in 48 hours before my flights in Hong Kong for years and being able to change seats 48 hours before if I so wish, then arriving at the airport and just presenting my ticket and saying good bye to my bags. Not a particularly hard process, and I would think certainly less prone to failure than using your cellphone.

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