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User: JeremyR

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  1. The Odroid C2 may fit the bill. I have two of them and am pretty impressed.

  2. Re:What? on Pedestrian Attacks Self-driving Car in the Mission (curbed.com) · · Score: 1

    What truth? There is no spoon?

  3. Re: satellites need fuel to stay in place when it on The US Has Destroyed A Critical Sea Ice-Measuring Satellite (scientificamerican.com) · · Score: 2

    Need fuel to stay in place satellites do. When get too low they do, moved to the graveyard orbit they are.

    FTFY

  4. Ask Slashdot: Cost-Effective Designs for a Sea Ice Measurement Satellite?

  5. Re:Komrade?? Don't you mean Corporate? on The US Has Destroyed A Critical Sea Ice-Measuring Satellite (scientificamerican.com) · · Score: 1

    I believe the OP's oversimplification was intended to suggest that government consumption represents a small fraction of what is consumed by the public. To put things in perspective, that 100M barrels of oil that you mention is roughly equal to one day's worth of global production (https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/report/global_oil.cfm).

  6. Some impressively low user ids posting today on 20 Years of Stuff That Matters · · Score: 3

    I don't see 3- and 4-digit user ids very often. Glad some are still around!

    Some have accused Slashdot of forsaking its mantra in search of more hits. While it may have been diluted a bit over the years, this is still my go-to for the nerdiest news. Hope you'll be around for another 20!

  7. Re: So it's a ground water heat pump... on Google's New Startup Heats Your Home With Energy From Your Lawn (cnn.com) · · Score: 1

    Open-loop systems also exist as an option for those with suitable ground water resources.

  8. Re: That third dimension on Home Improvement Chains Accused of False Advertising Over Lumber Dimensions (consumerist.com) · · Score: 1

    Home Depot sells 2x4's of 92-5/8" (and 104-5/8") lengths, but they are labeled as such. They also sell true 8-footers, which are labeled as 96". I personally have not seen 92-5/8" boards labeled as anything implying a length of 8 feet.

  9. Re:Same shit different year on Samsung Claims Its New QLED TVs Are Better Than OLED TVs (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    It's like, "How much more black could this be?" and the answer is, "None. None more black."

  10. Re:This is what happens when you have on Nest's Time At Alphabet: A 'Virtually Unlimited Budget' With No Results (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 1

    For some heat pumps, this is what a call for "stage 2" heat translates into. I didn't even have a resistant-heat "auxiliary" unit installed into mine.

  11. Re:This stuff makes me anti-Libertarian on AT&T Sues Louisville Over Google Fiber (wdrb.com) · · Score: 1

    In (some of) the suburbs of Salt Lake City, we have exactly what you describe. The fiber infrastructure is owned by the cities, but the municipal network doesn't offer any retail services. Those are provided by "conventional" ISPs, of which there are about a dozen that customers may choose from. The incumbent telecom companies are also invited to participate (but so far have declined to do so).

    Market solutions only work when there is actual competition, which I'm not sure has ever existed in wireline communications in the USA. I think this model is the next-best approach, as it eliminates wasteful "last-mile" redundancies while preserving competition where it matters most.

  12. Re:And duct tape will do it all on The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Adhesive Tape (hackaday.com) · · Score: 1

    Duct mastic is still preferred over any tape, when possible.

  13. Re: leveraging existing state of the tech on Former GM and BMW Executive Warns Apple: Your Car Will Be a "Gigantic Money Pit" · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Two of the "Big Three" already went under, six years ago...

  14. OpenVPN on Ask Slashdot: VPN Solution To Connect Mixed-Environment Households? · · Score: 1

    If "mixed environment" only means that there are hosts running various OS's at both locations, it's fairly irrelevant.

    Anyway, I am using OpenVPN for what appears to be a similar scenario--routing traffic between a relative's and my house. I don't have Internet traffic from one site being routed through the other, although the VPN certainly could be configured that way.

    I will also echo the previous recommendation for PFSense, which I am using on one side of the VPN (running on a fairly inexpensive ALIX board). On the other side, I'm using an Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite. I can heartily recommend either one, but particularly the EdgeRouter which can't be beat for its ~$100 street price.

  15. Re:No hardware or software fault? on Pluto Probe Back To Normal, Cause of Snafu Found · · Score: 1

    The article doesn't elaborate, so I'm guessing this refers to a command sequence sent from the ground. If these are generated by software, it still could have been a software fault, but not on the spacecraft.

  16. Re:Even simpler on Geoengineered Climate Cooling With Microbubbles · · Score: 1

    Obviously, air conditioning destroys heat, right? It's not like it moves it from one place to another.

  17. Hmmm on DHS Turns To Unpaid Interns For Nation's Cyber Security · · Score: 1

    From each according to his ability...

  18. Re:Wait for windows phone in 2013... on Nokia Exec: Young People Fed Up With iPhone and Android · · Score: 2

    Great, so in 2013, Windows Phones will be able to do what other phones already can today. And of course, the competition will be standing still in the meantime. But Windows Phone will be worth the wait, we promise!

    As for Windows Phone 7.5 being "a very good start," it's not a "start." Microsoft has been trying for years to be relevant in the mobile space. So they finally got some of it right on the seven-and-a halfth try? Good for them. (OK, I know that Windows Phone releases haven't been consecutively numbered since 1.0, but you get the idea.)

    Microsoft is in catch-up mode, and I expect that they'll stay there, as this time they're not able to leverage their existing monopolies as they were able to do when they initially missed the boat with the Internet.

  19. Re:Shocking on Gov't Funded Electric Car Company Goes Out of Business · · Score: 1

    I believe it's a suggestion that the investment was made based more on an ideological basis (i.e. the desire to be seen as supporting "green jobs") than on a robust economic analysis. Not that this has anything to do with socialism...

  20. Re:Then subsidize homegrown component manufacturin on DHS Admits Knowledge of Infected Import Tech · · Score: 2

    Yeah, because nothing built in the good ol' USA would ever be compromised.

  21. Re:EHEM -From the creator. on The 8-Bit Computer That's Been Built By Hand · · Score: 1

    It is an impressive accomplishment, and you should be proud of that. It demonstrates initiative, patience, imagination and maybe a bit of ingenuity.

    There are some responses here that amount to "BFD" and you would do well to ignore those. There are others that put the scope of such a project in context, comparing it to what an undergrad student might do in a CS or EE class (and without much more experience or education than you have). I believe these responses are intended not to diminish what you've achieved, but merely to point out that it isn't rocket science (if you'll pardon the use of an old expression).

    So, while similar things have been done before, it's still a monumental undertaking, and the fact that you saw the project through to completion says a lot. Again, nice job. The world (or at least some of us geeks) will be interested to see what you come up with next...

    Cheers!

  22. Re:Old school on The 8-Bit Computer That's Been Built By Hand · · Score: 1

    That's pretty much what we did in a CS/EE class. Designed a CPU from scratch, put the microcode on a FPLA and used a bunch of supporting TTL chips. If I recall correctly, it was 16-bit, but it might have been 8. He has taken it a step further with video output, and that's impressive (at least to me).

  23. Mini-ITX on Replacing a Personal Rack-Mounted Server? · · Score: 1

    If your CPU horsepower needs aren't massive, Mini-ITX is the way to go. I've recently put together 1U devices for a firewall and a general purpose/file server, and an Asterisk box is on the way. It's hard to beat this form factor for low power consumption, which of course translates into less heat and less noise. The downside is usually cost--Mini-ITX motherboards tend to carry a price premium over their larger counterparts, as do the mobile CPUs which often go with them.

    Cases aren't hard to come by; the SuperMicro cases recommended by others seem nice, and while not designed around the Mini-ITX form factor, will probably work nicely with such motherboards. However, I've found that iDOTpc (http://www.idotpc.com) has some nice and (relatively) inexpensive 1U rackmount cases in 8", 12" and 16" depth at very reasonable prices. The 8" and 16" models can be configured without a power supply if you intend to provide your own (as some Mini-ITX boards include onboard DC converters and use an external brick).

    Then you just need to choose a motherboard that fits your needs. For the firewall I used a PC Engines ALIX.2C3, which is actually not Mini-ITX form factor (it's slightly smaller), but which fit in the aforementioned iDOTpc 8" case with little modification (I had to add some standoffs at appropriate locations and cut up a generic I/O backplate). There are several models in the ALIX family--with varying amounts of network ports, mini-PCI slots, etc.--all of which consume 5-6 watts of power when active. (Incidentally I got mine from Mini-Box.com, http://www.mini-box.com).

    On the other end of the power spectrum, there are boards that can use mobile dual-core processors from Intel or AMD. I went with an AOpen i945GTt-VFA, which is an Intel Socket M board, into which I installed a 1.66GHz Core 2 Duo. Coupled with a pair of SATA drives in iDOTpc's 16" case, the system uses about 40W when idle and perhaps 50W under load. Of course this doesn't run fanless; in addition to the CPU fan there are two case fans (also supplied by iDOTpc) rated at 24.0dBA. The system is still very quiet, especially since the fan speeds vary with the system temperature. Incidentally I procured the i945GTt-VFA from Logic Supply (http://www.logicsupply.com), although they don't stock this particular board anymore.

    There are plenty of other Mini-ITX boards to choose from, with varying amounts of CPU power, I/O capability, power consumption and of course price tags. The most common suppliers seem to be VIA, Jetway and MSI (and even Intel, which offers a very inexpensive board, which unfortunately isn't suitable for 1U installations). And Intel Atom-based motherboards are (hopefully) just around the corner; it will be interesting to see what sort of performance-per-watt they will provide.

    Finally, don't let anyone tell you that you shouldn't use a rackmount form factor. Sure, it might end up costing a little more than using desktop parts, but there's a certain elegance about it. It usually doesn't make sense to drive old British sports cars, either, but I'm sure those that do, understand. :-)

    Cheers,
    Jeremy

  24. Nothing new on New Dell Laptops Give Users a Literal Shock · · Score: 1

    I'm a little late to the party, but I thought I'd add some information. This "feature" is nothing new among Dell laptops; I have an Inspiron E1705 that does the same thing (which also manifests itself as stray voltage on the chassis) when used with the supplied 90W, 2-prong adapter. When used with the 130W, 3-prong adapter from the Precision M90 (which I also have), any stray voltage on the chassis is gone.

    Dell's position has been--and continues to be, it seems--that this condition is "normal" and occurs in a number of other laptops (which is true) and other consumer products. But I find that position remarkably non-reassuring, and the fact that the stray voltage continues to be a feature of new Dell laptops suggests that Dell isn't too concerned about fixing the problem.

    For what it's worth, the (90W) adapters don't seem to have a very long service life--two of mine have fried themselves within the first year of use.

  25. Re:Precise on Hubble Finds Double Einstein Ring · · Score: 1

    Yeah, you have to wonder how "precise" a measurement is when it comes out to a nice round number :-)