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Power

Submission + - Samurai-Sword Maker May Cool Nuclear Revival

Submitted by NobleSavage
NobleSavage writes: Bloomberg reports that Japan Steel Works Ltd. controls the fate of the global nuclear-energy renaissance. There stands the only plant in the world, a survivor of Allied bombing in World War II, capable of producing the central part of a nuclear reactor's containment vessel in a single piece, reducing the risk of a radiation leak. Utilities that won't need the equipment for years are making $100 million down payments now on components Japan Steel makes from 600-ton ingots. Each year the Tokyo-based company can turn out just four of the steel forgings that contain the radioactivity in a nuclear reactor. Even after it doubles capacity in the next two years, there won't be enough production to meet building plans.
Silicon Graphics

Journal Journal: Stanford camera chip can see in 3D

Journal by saveonweb
"Most folks think of a photo as a two-dimensional representation of a scene. Stanford University researchers, however, have created an image sensor that also can judge the distance of subjects within a snapshot. To accomplish the feat, Keith Fife and his colleagues have developed technology called a multi-aperture image sensor that sees things differently than the light detectors used in ordinary digital cameras."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft pulls Vista SP1 update

Submitted by 1shooter
1shooter writes: This article
http://www.news.com/Microsoft-pulls-Vista-SP1-update/2100-1016_3-6231299.html?tag=ne.fd.mnbc on news.com resports that MS is withdrawing SP1 for Vista. Nice White, Microsoft product manager blogged
"We've heard a few reports about problems customers may be experiencing as a result of KB937287," wrote White. "Immediately after receiving reports of this error, we made the decision to temporarily suspend automatic distribution of the update to avoid further customer impact while we investigate possible causes."

Still not ready for prime time.
Portables

Submission + - What is the best way to disinfect your laptop?

Submitted by
akutz
akutz writes: "I've had the flu since Tuesday afternoon. My wife picked me up from work with a temperature of 103.6 and it finally broke at 98.7 around 3am this morning. Yay. The problem is that I used my laptop during my periods of feverish deliriousness, contaminating my shiny 15" MacBook Pro with the icky influenza virus. I am asking my fellow Slashdotters if they have ever sought out a good way of disinfecting their lucky laptops after an illness. Do you use soap? A light acid bath? Just get the family dog to lick it until it looks clean? What say you oh magnanimous and healthy Slashdot masses?"
Books

Submission + - The Cult of Kindle (zdnet.com)

Submitted by DaMan
DaMan writes: Will the "Cult of Kindle" help guarantee Amazon's success in the ebook reader market? ZDNet's Hardware 2.0 thinks so:

But then I realized that the Kindle had a cult. The Cult of Kindle. A group of people willing to give it a five star rating just because someone else didn't, willing to back up every design, engineering and marketing decision that Amazon made, willing to defend the Kindle with their last dying breath. The Kindle doesn't cost money, it saves money. That 0.75 second flash as the pages turn isn't a downside because it gives you an opportunity to take in the previous page. It doesn't harm your eyes, in fact, it fixes them. Ergonomic issues that other reviewers have bought up are dismissed by the Cult of Kindle as flaws with the reviewer, not the device. The Kindle is perfect, and the Kindle 2.0 will be a little more perfect.
The Internet

Submission + - Canadian DMCA Won't Include Consumer Rights 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: As protests mount over the Canadian DMCA, law professor Michael Geist is now reporting that the government plans to delay addressing fair use and consumer copyright concerns such as the blank media tax for years. While the U.S. copyright lobby get their DMCA, consumers will get a panel to eventually consider possible changes to the law. Many Canadians are responding today with a mass phone-in to Industry Minister Jim Prentice to protest the policy plans.
User Journal

Journal SPAM: An American Footballer in London 10

Journal by stoolpigeon
As some of you may know - the NFL played a game in England last week. It was a regular season game that counted - not just an exhibition. Apparently an attempt to gain an audience in Europe. But the players were allowed to do interviews, and it forces one to wonder if more damage was done than good. Here's a quote from one of those interviews as it appeared on the BBC web site.

Feed Engadget: British Army looks to make tanks, troops invisible (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Transportation

While not the first bunch to try and mesh invisibility with military equipment, the British Army is reportedly staying busy by "testing technology it claims makes tanks and troops invisible." Apparently, the (previously) uber-secret trials were conducted by the Royal Engineers and scientists from QinetiQ, and if eyewitness reports are to be believed, they were able to "make a vehicle seem to completely disappear." The illusion (read: we're no closer to actual invisibility cloaks) was reportedly created by utilizing "cameras and projectors to beam images captured from the surrounding landscape onto a specially-adapted tank coated with silicon to maximize their reflective qualities," and if things go as planned, these elusive machines could make their way onto the battlefield "within five years." 'Course, it's not like anyone will have visual proof of that, but we suppose that's just the nature of the beast.

[Via DailyMail]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Feed Engadget: Armed stand-off ends with robot shot, man in hospital (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Robots

The opening shot of the robot rebellion this isn't, but it's still a reminder of how robots are slowly creeping into situations where humans and their fleshy bodies can't go. A five hour stand-off that began with a man pointing his gun at a neighbor in a mobile home park in North Fort Myers, Florida was ended when the suspect shot a bomb disposal robot sent in by police to video the man. After the encounter -- the man shot out the video camera's lens -- police moved in to "subdue" the man, although it's not clear whether they shot back. The suspect is now in hospital and is being evaluated for mental health problems: apparently he hadn't been taken his medication, and residents say his wife had just left him. The state of the robot is probably something along the lines of "broken."

[Via The Raw Feed]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Feed Engadget: "Unlimited" iPhone data plans on T-Mobile, O2 and Orange not so unlimited (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Cellphones

Europeans are pretty used to paying through the nose for usage charges, whether it be by-the-minute charges for local calls in the landline days of yore, or per-KB charges for wireless data. The up side is that there are usually some pretty sweet prices on phones, since wireless companies know they can make it up on the back end, but for heavy users things can get expensive fast. And unfortunately, the glorious promises of "unlimited" data usage tacked onto iPhone plans offered by T-Mobile, O2 and Orange in their respective iPhone-exclusive markets aren't quite the revolution we might've hoped for. T-Mobile just posted its rate plans for the November 9th iPhone launch, though it quickly pulled them from the site. Eagle-eyed observers grabbed a screenshot of the rates (pictured), but what's notable is the fine print: depending on which plan you select -- M, L or XL -- you're limited to 200MB, 1GB or 5GB of data, after which your data speeds are limited to 64Kbps, instead of EDGE's traditional 220Kbps max. O2, whose rates have been up since day one, has a slightly vaguer "fair usage policy" that gives O2 the right to slap you with extra charges or change your rate plan if you exceed 200MB of use, though they claim this rarely happens. Details on Orange's rate plans for the iPhone haven't emerged yet, but Orange France has historically some of the priciest unlimited data rates, and has a standing policy to just go ahead and slap per-KB charges once the limit is crossed. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

[Thanks, Patrick]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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