Slashdot Mirror

LiftOp writes "Apparently a group from Tokyo University's Department of Advanced Energy has used a high-power microwave beam to heat the air beneath a model rocket , sending it skyward (well, two meters). Dr. Kimiya Komurasaki, who led the group, seems to be quite a directed energy buff; when the rocket eventually gets beyond the air level, a conventional motor could be used to send it further."

LiftOp writes "Apparently a group from Tokyo University's Department of Advanced Energy has used a high-power microwave beam to heat the air beneath a model rocket , sending it skyward (well, two meters). Dr. Kimiya Komurasaki, who led the group, seems to be quite a directed energy buff; when the rocket eventually gets beyond the air level, a conventional motor could be used to send it further."

cr0sh asks: "I was recently looking into the costs and availabilty associated with small, hydrogen fuel cells (results: they are still expensive), when I came across this site about the Hydrogen-Boost [Warning: Pop-ups]. Looking at this site, it seemed like just another in the long line of scamming 'get more mileage/power' engine products out there, but it intrigued me enough to continue looking into it. I eventually came upon another site on hydrogen experiments. A little more searching revealed this one about constructing your own Hydro-Boost device, which goes into detail about how you would build such a system. None of these sites answered the big questions, however: 'does it work?', and 'if so, how well?'. I also wanted something a little more authoritative. So, back to digging...which came up with this paper from OSTI [PDF]. The very first line of the abstract of this paper reads 'It is well known that hydrogen addition to spark-ignited (SI) engines can reduce exhaust emissions and increase efficiency.' This paper seems to advance the notion that such a system like the 'Hydrogen Boost' system may actually work. Does Slashdot think such a system would work? If so, how it could be improved, especially given today's rapidly rising gasoline prices, here in America?"

"On the experiments site, via the link to 'Hydrogen Experiments Part 2', the author references the first site. He ultimately decides to 'home-brew' his own system instead, and gives enough detail for anybody to do so. I was hoping the author had more details on the effects caused by dumping hydrogen into his engine, but that doesn't appear to be.

A notable observation on the Hydro Boost Device is that instead of using a stainless steel mesh as the other guy uses (which would seem to be a superior material to use, though difficult to find), this design uses galvanized steel bolts for the electrodes, making it something that can be built from materials found at a local building materials warehouse."

Stonent writes: "Palm computing has just announced that a number of 8MB units produced between October 1999 and May 2000 may have some faulty memory. They are currently working on a patch for the IIIXe and have one for the Vx and IIIC. You can read about it on the Palm Computing site. I'm just wondering why they are supplying a software patch for a hardware issue. Intel tried this with the FDIV bug and look where it got them."

And those of us who went with The Other Company aren't off the hook either. An Anonymous Coward writes: "There's no mention of it on their main webpage, but apparently some Handspring Visors shipped with faulty DRAM. See if you're one of the unlucky ones, like me, by running the test program included here. I found out mine was faulty and called 'Customer Care' -- after a brief runaround I learned that the unit wouldn't be replaced, instead a patch would be out in *mid July*. Gee, thanks Handspring. Blinded by the allure of Springboard modules, I took DRAM over FlashRAM in the Palm IIIxe. With bad DRAM and substantive Springboards (wireless ethernet, bluetooth, 6-pack) looking more and more like vaporware, I'm regretting my decision."

Some useful stuff: An anonymous reader noted that AltaVista has opened Raging.Com which is a super fast minimal search engine without all that bloated portal crap. gi_wrighty noted that the winneers of the 5k HTML Contest have Been announced. Impressive minimalism. Soeren Staun-Pedersen noted that a new The Gimp User Group has come along. j1mmy pointed us to pictures of the new Lara Croft Model from E3. Yaruar sent us a story about Lego Filmsets that come with cameras for you do-it-yourselfers. If you don't want to make your own films, how about your own Mars Polar Lander Site? (Thanks Biff Studly). antiwesley sent us interesting insight into a typical geek cube. Speaking of things found in geek Cubes, BenTheDewpendent sent us a page that tracks tons of info on Mountain Dew and bob_jordan found pictures of upcoming Futurama Bender Action Figures (Not as cool as Nate's Picolo tho) Baloo Ursidae sent us a story about electricity generating shoes. Gorphrim sent us some Duron Parodies Finally some Slashdot references: DrFun (one of the original net comics) mentioned us in a recent strip, Someone noted that Geek Culture is selling First Post T-Shirts. QuasEye noted that someone registered hotgrits.org and ironically enough, is running Slashcode. And the WashPost ran an article on us which is mostly accurate. And to wrap things up, maxxon showed us the way to Crank Dot Net, which has stuff on all sorts of conspiracy theories and urban myths and other crazy stuffs on the net. Stuff like UFOs, the face on mars, Creationism, Scientology, antigravity, and perpetual motion and more.

id_entity writes "For those of us not lucky enough to see the Phantom Menace this weekend, view the first Star Wars in ASCII-mation. It was created by Simon Jansen, a talented man with lots of time on his hands, and includes almost 10,000 ASCII frames of animation. " Someone needs a new hobby. I mean it.