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  1. Why not AMD (it's about the laptop) on Apple/Intel Speculation Running Rampant · · Score: 1

    The reason AMD is not mentioned, I believe, is that this is move is all about mobile processors.

    Faster desktop processors from IBM have been slow in coming. Faster laptop processors are just nowhere in sight. The point has been reached where more people are buying laptops than desktops.

    Add to that that Apple is not a large customer for IBM, and you get a switch in the making.

    Stephen

  2. But do states really want good roads? on Researchers Make Bendable Concrete · · Score: 1

    The more cynical side of me wonders whether better roads that require less maintenance and have longer life are really what the states want. Highway construction is so full of pork barrel politics.

    I thought Switzerland had high quality, long lasting roads, so it is possible...

    Stephen

  3. Re:BitTorrent Links on Ubuntu Linux Live CD Release · · Score: 1

    Is anyone seeing any seeders now? I'm getting "Problem connecting to tracker - timeout exceeded" errors with btdownloadheadless.py.

    Stephen

  4. Re:Tor on Novell to port Evolution to Windows · · Score: 1

    With the release of GTK+ 2.6, things should be much better. According to the release notes, the "ms-windows (Wimp) theme engine and the IME input method module have been integrated into the GTK+ sources".

    Stephen

  5. Better for windows users now on GTK 2.6.0 Released · · Score: 1

    From the readme:

    The ms-windows (Wimp) theme engine and the IME input method module have been integrated into the GTK+ sources.

    I've always had trouble getting Wimp working under pygtk, and I am happy to see that wimp is now built in by default. GTK is a great toolkit only held back on Windows IMO by how it looked. Kudos to the gtk team! Stephen

  6. 80% reusable? on Rules Set for $50 Million America's Space Prize · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The rules say that only 20% of the vehicule can be expendable. Why have this requirement at all? If someone can send a ship cheaply and reliably that doesn't meet this rule, then why not?

    Stephen

  7. Boot CD with reiser4progs 1.0 on Reiser4 Filesystem Released · · Score: 3, Informative

    Over the past few days (ever since reiser4 was accepted into the mm kernels) I've been looking for a boot CD with reiser4progs 1.0. I want to try reiser4, but need a boot CD to format my new drives and mount my current partitions for copying.

    The only boot CD I was able to find was the (R)ecovery (I)s (P)ossible Linux rescue system:

    http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/loopl in ux/rip/

    It was released yesterday (22 Aug) and is still warm to the touch.

    Stephen

  8. Re:We won't stop using RF on Should SETI Be Looking For Lasers Instead? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    As we switch to broadbrand RF, equal power is being spread out over more MHz, so overall our signals look more and more like background noise.

    Stephen

  9. Re:Ok Seriously... on Are We Alone in the Universe? · · Score: 1

    Not arrogance. There are very good arguments to be made that we are alone (in our galaxy, at least).

    Why? If we are not alone, then where is everyone else? If lots of civilizations rose up, then at least some of them would choose to colonize other solar systems. After a few hundred million years (depending on your assumptions about the rate of colonization), our galaxy would be filled. Since there is apparently no one but us humans in this solar system, ergo we are alone in our galaxy. Not every civilization might be inclined to colonize, but remember it only takes one.

    Likewise, if there were a bunch of civilizations out there, some would choose to send out self-replicating machines to explore/re-engineer/destroy/seed/etc. the galaxy. Some civs might choose to make nano machines and stay hidden or take a hands-off approach, but all it would take would be for one civ with very different values to make self-replicating machines to change the galaxy on a visible scale, and we would see those changes. But we don't, so I'm inclined to believe that we're probably alone in the Milky Way.

    This is why I wonder if targeting other galaxies for SETI searches (possibly in the optical domain) doen't make more sense, since spanning the distance between galaxies might be impossible in this universe for even the most advanced civs.

    My 2 cents.

    Stephen

  10. LVM2? on Kernel 2.4.26 Out · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Anyone know whether LVM2 got into this kernel?

    Stephen

  11. Re:Mach 10 on X-43A Hits Mach 7 · · Score: 1

    And to put that in perspective, Earth escape velocity is:

    11100 m/s 40200 km/h 25000 mi/h

    So Mach 10 is almost a third of the velocity required to escape the earth's gravity.

    See:What is escape velocity? for more info. for more.

  12. Re:How about still using C on Coding The Future Linux Desktop [updated] · · Score: 1

    I'm not a full time programmer, but here's my question:

    What about ditching swing and using java bindings to the UI toolkit? If the toolkit were written in a compiled language, wouldn't the performance be great? I know that PyQT and PyGTK apps are very quick.

    Stephen

  13. Re:Cut-and-Paste in X beats the competition... on X.org and XFree86 Reform · · Score: 1

    Now if only Mozilla had a button to clear the navigation bar so that you could easily paste that copied text in there, since if you select the text you want replaced you erase your clipboard ...

    Stephen

  14. Re:Novelty Item on Glowing Fish are First Genetically Engineered Pets · · Score: 1
    What purpose do a glowing fish have?

    What purpose does an ornamental goldfish have? Do you think that thing can actually survive in the wild?

    How would a chihuahua fare in a wolf pack?

    This is nothing more than what people have done to animals for thousands of years.

  15. Re:Economics on Simcity Microwave Power by 2050? · · Score: 1

    It's a ripple effect. The firm that employs you will have much lower energy expenses. The grocery store you buy food from will have much lower expenses. The company you buy a car from ... and so on.

    Also, people are confused bringing inflation into this. The $150,000 figure is in *today's* dollars. He's saying that the real value of the average future salary will increase by $120,000 in today's dollars.

  16. Re:Only $150,000? on Simcity Microwave Power by 2050? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why doesn't anyone understand this? He means that the $150,000 figure is in today's dollars. It's the present value of the future salary.

  17. A/D is the bottleneck on Vanu Replacing Cell Tower Equipment With PCs · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The main reason why software defined radio (SDR) hasn't yet taken off is insufficient A/D performance. And it's not the sampling rate that's the issue; A/D's exist now with sampling rates in the gigahertz range.

    The bottleneck is in dynamic range -- there can be a large difference between the weakest and strongest signal in an channel (80 dB is one example). To sample with enough resolution to capture that dynamic range, you need a lot of bits. But the more bits you use, the slower you have to sample; it's a tradeoff.

    Until A/D converters advance quite a bit more, SDR won't fulfill promise.

  18. Re:Torrent anyone? on OpenOffice.org Hits 1.1 · · Score: 1

    Thanks! Maxing my download bandwidth at 80 kB/s.

    Stephen

  19. Re:Great, but... on Diamandis Predicts X-Prize Winner Within One Year · · Score: 1

    >

    How about tourism? I don't know if there truly is, as Diamandis suggests, a $1 billion market for space tourism, but maybe tourism is the "killer app" for these vehicules, letting an industry form.

    Stephen

  20. Re:Very Dangerous Legislation on H.R. 3057: To the Asteroids, Moon and Mars · · Score: 1

    Goals like this are exactly what we need: explicit with a definite timeline that progresses step by step towards something inspiring.

    For several decades now we haven't done a lot that is truly inspiring like Apollo was. There have been some great successes, like Galileo, Hubble, Mars Pathfinder, and COBE, but nothing really to awe a generation like Apollo did.

    The progression in this this bill's goals makes a lot of sense. It is far easier, for example, to orbit Mars than to land on it. A Phobos or Deimos base is far easier to establish than a Mars base. And so on -- walk before you run.

    The ideas in this bill are not something that NASA can go off and do. I predict that if they are set loose on these goals, they will deliver on them.

  21. Re:nit pick on Perfect Pitch for Those Without It · · Score: 2, Informative

    Relative pitch is the ability to sing a note relative to a reference (like a tuning fork or a piano note). Singers with good relative pitch sing in tune when given the starting note of their song.

    You can walk up to someone with perfect pitch and say "Give me an A" and they could. You could give a person with relative pitch an A and say "Give me a G" and they could.

  22. Best time for viewing on Mars at Opposition - Earth at Transitition · · Score: 1

    ... is when Mars transits. This is when Mars is at it's highest point above the horizon. The above link has rise, transit, and set times for various locations arount the world. (Near Chicago, this would be around 1:09 in the morning. And no, bright city lights don't detract from planetary viewing, since the brightness of the planets with respect to the sky background is so high.)

    The reason it's better for an object to be as high above the horizon as possible is to avoid the extra layers of air the light has to go through before entering your telescope. Less air means a better chance of getting a stable image.

  23. Re:Slashdot economists, sheesh! on IBM Moving Developer Jobs Overseas · · Score: 1

    The question is: what do you have to do to get a good job in this country? If jobs that require a masters or a doctorate get offshored, what can you do to stay employable?

    -- Stephen

  24. Re:Piss on the FAA! on Suborbital Rocketeers Ask FAA For Fair Rocketry Rules · · Score: 1
    > IIRC, it's easier to get into orbit from close to the equator. Does that apply to suborbital flight too?

    No. For suborbital, you just need altitude. These flights basically just go up and come down.

    To attain orbit, you also need to achieve enough velocity to stay up.

    If you're in geosynchronous orbit, then you orbit the earth once a day. If you're closer to the ground, you need to orbit the earth more than once a day. The space station travels at 18000 mph.

    Here's an interesting snippet from Ed Lu's blog (he's currently abord ISS):

    Begin quote:

    Think of standing on the ground and throwing a baseball. The harder you throw it, the further it goes before gravity pulls it to the ground. Obvious. Now imagine you are incredibly strong and can throw the baseball all the way across the country, or even half way around the Earth before it lands. Now reach back and throw it even harder - perhaps it goes three fourths of the way around the Earth. What if you throw it even faster? Then maybe it will fly almost completely around the Earth and land right at your feet. Now throw it just a bit harder. What will happen? If there was no atmosphere and therefore no air resistance to slow the ball down, the ball would fly all the way around the world, right past your feet, and keep going. Since it doesn't slow down, it keeps right on going and continues around the Earth again and again. The ball would be in orbit.

  25. Re:Disc IO Related Lockups? on Linux Kernel 2.4.21 Released · · Score: 1

    Do you overclock? It (ahem ) has been known to cause problems.