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Comment Re:Smoking seriously harms you and others around y (Score 1) 832

I'm completely uncertain of the whether or not any of the following is true but: I was once told that Apple technicians would not fix your Apple product if they smelt ciggarette smoke as they did not want to expose the technicians to "third hand" smoke. To smoke around the product would void the warranty. IMO, I believe that Apple would void the warranty under those conditions quite willingly, whether or not they actually do, I'm not sure, and I'm pretty certain "third hand" smoke can't really be that bad, if it even has any effect at all.
Displays

Submission + - Nanoresonators create ultra-high-res displays (linuxfordevices.com)

TuurlijkNiet writes: Eat your heart out, 'Retina display'. A new technology unveiled yesterday will allow creating pixels eight times smaller than the ones on Apple's iPhone 4, eliminate the need for polarizer layers, and allow screens to make much more efficient use of available light, say University of Michigan researchers. The pixels in the nanoresonator displays are about ten times smaller than those on a typical computer screen, and about eight times smaller than the pixels on the iPhone 4, which are about 78 microns, according to Guo. Such pixel densities could make the technology useful in projection displays, as well as wearable, bendable or extremely compact displays, according to the researchers.
Earth

Submission + - China Unveils Plans to Mine the Yellow Sea Floor (china.org.cn)

eldavojohn writes: Details are limited but state media is reporting on $75 million being put into a new research facility in Qingdao, Shandong Province that will conduct research into mining the sea floor. From the article, 'Scientists believe sea beds at a depth of 4,000 to 6,000 meters hold abundant deposits of rare metals and methane hydrate, a solidified form of natural gas bound into ice that can serve as a new energy source.' The research center's first goal is to do surveying and exploration with a new submersible named "Jiaolong" (a mythical aquatic Chinese dragon). Hopefully these quests yield energy resources to curb growing demand for resources like liquefied coal in China.
Apple

Submission + - iPad tactile object recognition system (geek.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The guys over at the Volumique blog have a different idea as to how to tackle apps for Apple’s devices. They aren’t just thinking about a digital activity on such devices, they are experimenting with using physical objects through Apple’s multi-touch screens.

Imagine being able to buy the playing pieces for a board game, but then loading up an app on your iPad for the actual board. The pieces would be recognized when placed on the iPad’s screen, it would even recognize which direction they were facing. This may sound like an impossible feat unless you use a much more expensive device like Microsoft Surface, but Bertrand Duplat and Etienne Mineur at Volumique already have it working.

GNU is Not Unix

Glibc Is Finally Free Software 337

WebMink writes "Despite the fervour of some, the dark secret of every GNU/Linux distribution is that, until August 18 this year, it depended on software that was under a non-Free license — incompatible with the Open Source Definition and non-Free according to Debian and the FSF. A long tale of tenacity and software archeology has finally led to that software appearing under the 3-clause BSD license — ironically, at the behest of an Oracle VP. The result is that glibc, portmap and NFS are no longer tainted."

Comment Use an old-fashioned method (Score 1) 3

Known as a telephone. If you've spoken to a real person, it's then on their head. You know they know about it and it's up to them to do something about it. You should find their phone number in the whois info or on their website. If it's a toll free number, but from a country you're not in, use Skype Out and it will be a free call.

Comment Following the masses (Score 1) 1

The only reason I maintain a Windows machine is because I need to handle Windows-only file formats. I only need to do this because everyone else is using a Windows machine. The only reason I maintain a Facebook profile is because everyone else has one. I'd much rather it was all decentralised, maybe using XFN.

Comment Yay. (Score 1) 1

This is good news for me as I use Google Apps. Not switching back and forth between accounts lets me keep all of my information in one place. I'm slightly worried though about how much easier it would make it for anyone with access to my account to find out everything about me. Google has too much of my data.

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