Comment Re:units (Score 1) 239
The size of the gallon was actually different depending on contents at one point. The US gallon was the size used for wine, and the Imperial was that for beer IIRC.
Comment Re:Still running my WRT54GL with Tomato (Score 1) 310
I just retired my old WRT54GL at the weekend with a nice cheap Asus RT-N16, running TomatoUSB. It doesn't have 5GHz support, but then I don't have anything that uses it yet. So far it's been a really good replacement.
Comment Re:Yeah sure (Score 1) 129
Hops, alcohol, and the carbon dioxide dissolved in it are all going to help stop unwanted bacteria from growing in beer.
Comment Re:It's no surprise.. (Score 3, Insightful) 316
The last government who agreed to sign us up for the treaty is also despised for its lack of backbone.
Comment Re:iOS but no Android (Score 0) 195
It used mplayer on the original version that ran on Xbox, but moved to DVDPlayer later when it became multi-format IIRC.
Comment Re:Empire was not the best of the movies. (Score 1) 167
No, that was in Return of the Jedi after she gets captured trying to rescue Hans who was frozen in Empire. It's still the worst of the three films, despite the bikini.
Comment Re:Early Detection (Score 1) 264
It is easer to deflect an asteroid that's far away. But isn't a big part of the problem getting the probe to the asteroid while it's _still_ far away? After the asteroid has been detected, the international agreements signed to do something about it, there's still the journey time of the probe getting there while it's still possible to do something useful.
Denver Airport Overrun by Car-Eating Rabbits 278
It turns out the soy-based wire covering on cars built after 2002 is irresistible to rodents. Nobody knows this better than those unlucky enough to park at DIA's Pikes Peak lot. The rabbits surrounding the area have been using the lot as an all-you-can-eat wiring buffet. Looks like it's time to break out The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.
Black Hole Emits a 1,000-Light-Year-Wide Gas Bubble 145
PhrostyMcByte writes "12 million light-years away, in the outer spiral of galaxy NGC 7793, a bubble of hot gas approximately 1,000 light-years in diameter can be found shooting out of a black hole — one of the most powerful jets of energy ever seen. (Abstract available at Nature.) The bubble has been growing for approximately 200,000 years, and is expanding at around 1,000,000 kilometers per hour."
Ubisoft's Authentication Servers Go Down 634
ZuchinniOne writes "With Ubisoft's fantastically awful new DRM you must be online and logged in to their servers to play the games you buy. Not only was this DRM broken the very first day it was released, but now their authentication servers have failed so absolutely that no-one who legally bought their games can play them. 'At around 8am GMT, people began to complain in the Assassin's Creed 2 forum that they couldn't access the Ubisoft servers and were unable to play their games.' One can only hope that this utter failure will help to stem the tide of bad DRM."
Ubisoft's Constant Net Connection DRM Confirmed 631
A few weeks ago we discussed news of Ubisoft's DRM plans for future games, which reportedly went so far as to require a constant net connection, terminating your game if you get disconnected for any reason. Well, it's here; upon playing review copies of the PC version of Assassin's Creed 2 and Settlers VII, PCGamer found the DRM just as annoying as you might expect. Quoting:
"If you get disconnected while playing, you're booted out of the game. All your progress since the last checkpoint or savegame is lost, and your only options are to quit to Windows or wait until you're reconnected. The game first starts the Ubisoft Game Launcher, which checks for updates. If you try to launch the game when you're not online, you hit an error message right away. So I tried a different test: start the game while online, play a little, then unplug my net cable. This is the same as what happens if your net connection drops momentarily, your router is rebooted, or the game loses its connection to Ubisoft's 'Master servers.' The game stopped, and I was dumped back to a menu screen — all my progress since it last autosaved was lost."
Porsche Unveils 911 Hybrid With Flywheel Booster 197
MikeChino writes "Porsche has just unveiled its 911 GT3 R Hybrid, a 480 horsepower track vehicle ready to rock the 24-hour Nurburgring race this May. Porsche's latest supercar will use the same 911 production platform available to consumers today, with a few race-ready features including front-wheel hybrid drive and an innovative flywheel system that stores kinetic energy from braking and then uses it to provide a 160 horsepower burst of speed. The setup is sure to offer an advantage when powering out of turns and passing by other racers."
Dinosaur Feather Color Discovered 219
anzha writes "Do you remember being a kid and told we'd never know what colors the dinosaurs were? For at least some, that's no longer true. Scientists working in the UK and China have closely examined the fossils of multiple theropods and actually found the colors and patterns that were present in the fossilized proto-feathers. So far, the answer is orange, black and white in banded and other patterns. The work also thoroughly thrashes the idea that fossils might not be feathers, but collagen fibers instead. If this holds up, Birds Are Dinosaurs. Period. And colorful!"
Police Called Over 11-Year-Old's Science Project 687
garg0yle writes "Police in San Diego were called to investigate an 11-year-old's science project, consisting of 'a motion detector made out of an empty Gatorade bottle and some electronics,' after the vice-principal came to the conclusion that it was a bomb. Charges aren't being laid against the youth, but it's being recommended that he and his family 'get counseling.' Apparently, the student violated school policies — I'm assuming these are policies against having any kind of independent thought?"
Comment Re:125 MORE years until the US gets time... (Score 1) 429
I don't remember any category 1 languages.
The category 1 language is, of course, the universal language of luuve.
