Slashback: What Dell Knew, China's Fusion, Vista

Slashback tonight brings some clarifications and updates to previous Slashdot stories, including: What Dell knew and when they knew it, GNU/Linux may gain from the Vista WGA crackdown, China's fusion test was a hoax, and the Vista startup chime will be optional. Read on for details.

Dell knew of battery flaw last year. digihome writes, "Dell pinpointed the problem with faulty Sony notebook batteries almost a year ago but only called for a 22,000-unit recall at the time because it believed the problem was limited in scope. Only later, after more customers reported incidents of Dell laptops overheating or catching fire, did Dell realize that millions of its notebook PCs, not just thousands, could be at risk, according to government records and interviews with Dell spokesmen."

GNU/Linux to gain from Vista WGA crackdown? An anonymous reader writes, "Linux is set to take on the Desktop PC market with gusto. It is a well-known fact that most proprietary software companies lose a significant amount of their revenue because of illegal copying of their software. By deciding to clamp down on piracy in the forthcoming Vista OS, Microsoft is sending a clear message to pay up to use the software. The article suggests that a sizable group of people — especially in emerging countries — who do not care about the ideology of free software but expect the software and OS to be free will be swayed to embrace GNU/Linux."

China's fusion test was a hoax. dptalia writes, "On September 28th, China claimed to successfully initiate a fusion reaction. It has come out that the announcement was a hoax. In fact, no attempt to generate fusion was even made."

Vista startup chime will be optional. Seier writes, "Microsoft looks to have had a change of heart regarding its start-up chime. Weeks ago it was learned that the company was considering locking the startup sound down so that it could not be turned off. Ars Technica reports that Microsoft has added the option to disable the sound in the control panel. Meanwhile, Microsoft has still not revealed the startup sound, which will reportedly based on the guitar work of Robert Fripp."

Comments

Isn't hoax a bit strong?

[kidtexas]

I just want to say what I said last week:

"Actually, it was successful in getting plasma, usually called "first plasma" in the field. I had heard it was 200kA for 1.2 seconds. I'm would be shocked if they actually were using tritium in the system at this early stage, but I could be wrong. I'm betting that was the result of the scientist media interface."

I heard an early report of their first plasma being 200kA for 1.2 seconds. Sounds like they finished up the first go around at a bit higher current and twice the discharge length. There is also NO FUCKING WAY that they put tritium in the first week of operation. I think actually most machines don't even run with deuterium at first (which is the normal operating gas) but instead use plain old hydrogen. I don't think ITER is going to have tritium for the first 3 or 4 years of its operation. And yes, even if you are running just a deuterium plasma, you can still get DD fusion reactions.

I personally think "hoax" is a bit strong. Someone in the press got the story wrong and miscommunicated some facts. Sounds like to me China really has got their stuff together and they mean business. Hoaxes don't fit into that.

And before someone says some stupid shit about all tokamaks are going away for fusion research because z-pinches generate such hot plasmas...

The Chinese Fusion report was still usefull to me

[RobertinXinyang]

Here is what I initally posted.

"I was at a dinner tonight where one of my colegues was irritating our Chinese guests by making comments about the lack of a power grid in China, the chinese gentleman was getting rather defensive. I remembered this article and mentioned it is a positive light. It seems that he was very aware of, and proud of, the test. It saved the dinner party. So, this, even if it might not be a great scientific advance, was usefull to me."

I do find it interesting that while, here in China, evryone heard aboutt eh successfull test; no one seems to have heard about this correction. It seems to be, very much, a mational pride building thing. It comes as no supprise, looking in retrospect, that the initial report was released a week before the national week of celebration (the first week of October).

This is not a criticism of China. All people hear reports and news and twist it to meet what they want/hope/expect it to say. I was hoping it would be true, However, I doubted that it was. It was still a usefull thing to drop at a dinner to make the Chinese feel better.