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Comment Re:Just for some perspective... (Score 1) 209

by stupido (#30955178) Attached to: x86 Assembler JWASM Hits Stable Release

In the past, I preferred NASM for x86 cross platform development, meaning Win32 and Linux. It had decent support for the latest sets of instructions. The Microsoft syntax is something I prefer to avoid, so NASM was actually a plus in that respect, although some coworkers disagreed. There's a brief, but up-to-date comparison of x86 assemblers in Fog Agner's book. He says that YASM is better than NASM these days, and uses the same syntax. The Wikipedia page on Open Watcom Assembler also has book reference that seemingly compares MASM vs. NASM vs. TASM vs. WASM, but it's from 2005.

Comment Re:Limited usefull information. (Score 3, Informative) 131

by sslo (#26067457) Attached to: Ultracapacitor LED Flashlight Charges In 90 Seconds
Actually, your calculations are even further off than I thought. Rather than multiplying the 60 minute runtime (on low) by the 270 lumen brightness (on high) from the 5.11 data sheet, you have somehow posited 270 lumens for 1.5 hours - which seems to have come straight out of thin air.

This means that your calculations are off by a factor of six.

Comment Re:Limited usefull information. (Score 1) 131

by sslo (#26067391) Attached to: Ultracapacitor LED Flashlight Charges In 90 Seconds
Moderators, this needs to be modded down because of the blatant falsity of the calculations.

B5_Geek:

First, before doing your equations, please go and read the flashlight maker's own data sheet, which is linked from the Future of Things article. It explains that the 270 lumen output is only for 15 minutes, and that a longer runtime is available at a greatly reduced light output.

Thus all of your hasty, uninformed and premature numerical calculations are off by a factor of four.

Please read the much more accurate and informative post on the Future of Things site by Robert B., who correctly explained the engineering numbers that you have so eagerly pontificated about without bothering to look at the actual data.

Comment Re:No surprise here... (Score 5, Interesting) 272

by sslo (#25636455) Attached to: Linux Supports More Devices Than Any Other OS
"Its no surprise that Linux supports more devices."

I say! Hallo over there.

Could some of you fine upstanding penguins please find it in your pint-size reptilian hearts to migrate over here to Van Daemon's Land this season, and help our poor bewildered little FreeBSD creature rebuild his USB nest?

This is no joke, penguin people. Seriously, I need to keep a Kubuntu machine handy just to read the SD cards from my Canon. That simple task crashes FreeBSD. Regularly, reliably crashes it.

I will probably be hunted down and speared with a tiny fork for this. But I think we need some penguin DNA over here, because no one has been able to properly deal with this for the past six years or more.

There's a recent article at Linux.com about the ancient FreeBSD kernel panic involved in this, that has now even tripped up the PC-BSD project. http://www.linux.com/feature/149224

And now, I must scurry hurry to hide from the fork prongs!

Sincerely - a frightened daemon captive
The Courts

Submission + - EU ISP Filters & Copyright Extension Defeated (arstechnica.com) 1

Submitted by
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes: "Last November, EU regulators in the European Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education began looking at how culture effects the economy and recommended a "balance between the opportunities for access to cultural events and content and intellectual property" saying that "criminalising consumers so as to combat digital piracy is not the right solution." Industry lobbyists, of course, immediately tried to turn that around, writing amendments that would set up mandatory ISP copyright filters and extend EU copyrights to match the USA's life plus 70 term. Thankfully, the committee rejected all of those amendments. Said Ars, "Clearly, they're not going to let the ITRE or the European recording industry push them around, which is great news for Europeans. Now if we could only get the US Congress to show as much spine as the French (ouch)." Vive la France!"
Biotech

Journal Journal: Stem Cells to Prevent Leg Amputations

Journal by stemceller
A Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine researcher has launched the first U.S. trial in which a purified form of subjects' own adult stem cells was transplanted into their leg muscles with severely blocked arteries to try to grow new small blood vessels and restore circulation in their legs.
United States

Maryland Scraps Diebold Voting System 209

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the long-overdue dept.
beadfulthings writes "After eight years and some $65 million, the state of Maryland is taking its first steps to return to an accountable, paper-ballot based voting system. Governor Martin O'Malley has announced an initial outlay of $6.5 million towards the $20 million cost of an optical system which will scan and tally the votes while the paper ballots are retained as a backup. The new (or old) system is expected to be in place by 2010 — or four years before the state finishes paying off the bill for the touch-screen system."
Communications

Wal-Mart's Faltering RFID Initiative 130

Posted by Zonk from the under-chipped dept.
itphobe writes "Baseline magazine has up an in-depth look at Wal-Mart's years-old RFID initiative. Things apparently haven't gone so well for the retail giant. 'The lack of any obvious concrete gains has raised questions as to whether Wal-Mart should delay or freeze its RFID plans. For now, however, Wal-Mart says it will stay the course ... By January 2006 the company hoped to have as many as 12 of its roughly 130 distribution centers fully outfitted with RFID. That effort stalled at just five distribution centers. Instead, the company is now focusing on implementing RFID in stores fed by those five distribution centers so it can gain a bigger window into its supply chain.' Overall the article focuses on the original intentions of the RFID project vs. their implementation. It also discusses several of the technical elements required to adapt RFID for the US juggernaut."

Feed Science Daily: Arctic Sea Ice Extent May Have Fallen By 50 Percent Since 1950s (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
Arctic sea ice during the 2007 melt season plummeted to the lowest levels since satellite measurements began in 1979. If ship and aircraft records from before the satellite era are taken into account, sea ice may have fallen by as much as 50 percent from the 1950s. The September rate of sea ice decline since 1979 is now more than 10 percent per decade, according to scientists.
Censorship

Submission + - Bloggers who risked all to reveal Junta in Burma 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Internet geeks share a common style, and Ko Latt and his four friends would not be out of place in cyber cafés across the world. They have the skinny arms and the long hair, the dark T-shirts and the jokey nicknames. But few such figures have ever taken the risks that they have in the past few weeks, or achieved so much in a noble and dangerous cause. Since last month Ko Latt, 28, his friends Arca, Eye, Sun and Superman, and scores of others like them have been the third pillar of Burma's Saffron Revolution. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2563937.ece
Space

Submission + - Sputnik at 50: An improvised triumph (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
caffiend666
caffiend666 writes: "According to an AP News article, "When Sputnik took off 50 years ago, the world gazed at the heavens in awe and apprehension, watching what seemed like the unveiling of a sustained Soviet effort to conquer space and score a stunning Cold War triumph. But 50 years later, it emerges that the momentous launch was far from being part of a well-planned strategy to demonstrate communist superiority over the West." "At that moment we couldn't fully understand what we had done," Chertok recalled. "We felt ecstatic about it only later, when the entire world ran amok. Only four or five days later did we realize that it was a turning point in the history of civilization." "And that winking light that crowds around the globe gathered to watch in the night sky? Not Sputnik at all, as it turns out, but just the second stage of its booster rocket...""

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