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Comment Re:Thug culture is to blame. (Score 1) 142

I understand that the same sort of thing exists in the UK, the so-called 'yob culture'.

I'm not sure that sort of thing is as tolerated in other european countries, though, where there is less reverence for freedom. There seems to be a segment of the USA and UK that believe "freedom" means the freedom to fark over others and their property and to raise hell without restraint.

It's too bad. Such people are one day going to destroy the tradition of freedom in those countries.

AI

An Organic Computer Using Four Wired-Together Rat Brains 190

Jason Koebler writes: The brains of four rats have been interconnected to create a "Brainet" capable of completing computational tasks better than any one of the rats would have been able to on its own. Explains Duke University's Dr. Miguel Nicolelis: "Recently, we proposed that Brainets, i.e. networks formed by multiple animal brains, cooperating and exchanging information in real time through direct brain-to-brain interfaces, could provide the core of a new type of computing device: an organic computer. Here, we describe the first experimental demonstration of such a Brainet, built by interconnecting four adult rat brains."

Comment Re:For desktop OS, I'd tale BeOS' responsive handl (Score 1) 484

Sorry, but BeOS is in an entirely different class than is TOS.

Atari's TOS was quick and responsive because it was simple, lacking many features we take for granted today like preemptive multitasking and multi processor support.

BeOS was responsive because it was a complex, full featured OS that was also well thought out and well designed.

Social Networks

Are We Too Quick To Act On Social Media Outrage? 371

RedK writes: Connie St-Louis, on June 8th, reported on apparently sexist remarks made by Sir Tim Hunt, a Nobel prize winning scientist, during an event organised for women in sciences. This led to the man's dismissal from his stations, all in such urgency that he did not even have time to present his side, nor was his side ever offered any weight. A leaked report a few days later suggests that the remarks were taken out of context. Further digging shows that the accuser has distorted the truth in many cases it seems. This is not the first time that people may have jumped the gun too soon on petty issues and ruined great events or careers.

Comment Re:If it sounds too good to be true (Score 4, Informative) 243

The problem is that many devices require ridiculously high minimum threshold voltages just to work.

TI, for example, sells a remote control IR encoder that requires a supply voltage of 2.7V. That means two AA batteries in series run down to below 1.35V apiece will not run a device with that IR encoder.

A typical AA battery will deliver only about 0.40 AH before it runs down to 1.35V. That 0.40 AH is of a 2.1 AH total. That's a huge waste.

Comment Re:What a shocker (Score 4, Informative) 54

Who would have thought having trees, shrubs and other natural barriers between an airport and the people would reduce noise levels?

It's as if clear cutting was found not to work.

Who thinks that? People that have never studied noise abatement and think their cleverness is enough to allow them to intuit the science.

Trees and shrubs do very little. A thorough study from the state of Virginia showed

No matter how the sites were examined, there was no measurable difference in road noise. All differences at the more distant measurement locations were due simply to the distance effect rather than to any additional mitigating effects of trees, whether measured by planting density, age, height, or average tree diameter.

Cellphones

Pre-Orders Start For Neo900 Open Source Phone 134

New submitter JoSch1337 writes: After a year and a half of development, the Neo900 project now opened its web shop for the down payments of binding pre-orders for either a full Neo900 phone or the bare circuit board to upgrade an existing Nokia N900. The up-front down payment is necessary to now secure expensive "risk parts" like the modem, 1GB RAM and N900 cases. Thus, without pre-ordering now, there might not be enough parts left after the first batch.

The Neo900 is the spritual successor of the Nokia N900. The new circuit board can be placed into an existing N900 for better specs (faster CPU, more RAM, LTE modem) than the original device while still maintaining fremantle (maemo 5) backwards compatibility. Alternatively, a fully assembled phone can be purchased as well. The Neo900 will be fully operational without any binary blob running on the main CPU. While the modem still requires a non-free firmware, it is completely decoupled from the rest of the device (think of a LTE usb stick you put in your laptop) and can reliably be monitored or switched off by the operating system.

You can follow the development of the project in the maemo forum, read about the specs of the device or consult the FAQ

Comment Re:Duh? (Score 1) 73

You joke about gamma rays but there isn't much of difference between X rays and gamma rays from a biological perspective.

I'd be interested in what happens to those that have received several head CT scans. One head CT scan is about 20 years of background radiation.

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