I always liked playing coop Operation Flashpoint with friends, there was a particular map where the enemies had 2 or 3 tanks next to each other with the drivers standing next to them. The map was supposed to operate with you fighting the tanks with RPGs etc as the drivers would jump in as soon as you were detected, but we found that you could put everyone in a jeep, then drive full speed at the camp and if you were lucky you could run over the drivers before they got in the tank. Then everyone jumps in the tank, blows up the enemy tanks before they can turn the turret, and go on a rampage in a mission where you aren't supposed to have a tank. Soo much fun.
There was another mission where you could steal a helicopter in a similar way.
Sometimes it would take many tries to do it without someone being killed, but it was so worth it!
2)When there's an accident on a bridge, I can take 2 hours to drive home. I wouldn't trust it to keep a charge for that long idling.
Why would an electric car need to idle? Idling is only necessary for combustion engines so that you don't need to restart them every time you want to move.
True if you are waiting hours with the aircon on it might use a fair amount of battery though.
Isn't it obvious or am I missing something here?? Blindfold the blind man and repeat the experiment with/without the blindfold. That will tell if vision is being used in any way.
Sure there is an almost empty "options" menu, but I think many users would like to be able to change things like you can in firefox.
For example I am using Chrome on an eeePC as it loads around 3x faster than firefox, but the missing options cause trouble. Mainly the fact that you can't change the location of the cache to the faster SSD, so it freezes quite often when it needs to write to the cache.
Can it be removed instantly without solvents and with no damage to the materials bonded together?
Yes, that's the whole point of this.
Think about a gecko, does it rip the paint off walls with each step? The bond is easily released by peeling but sticks strongly if you try to slide it, like a post-it note but stronger. Apparently it is self-cleaning too.
It doesn't bond the way glue or other adhesives do, the adhesion is from the addition of the van der Waals force from millions/billions of tiny "hairs". more info
I don't think tsunamis are a big problem for offshore drilling platforms in the first place. From what I've read, they use the ballast tanks in daily operation, and they can also be used to rise above the waves.
From what I know about tsunamis they are barely noticable until they reach shallow water, so offshore drilling platforms don't need this. I believe the point is for small low islands where the tsunami would otherwise wash right over most of the habitable area.
All the higher-res images are airplane shots, not satellite. Why does this need constant reminding?
Because most people don't bother RTFC (reading the err...other comments) let alone RTFA before posting of course. In almost all stories on slashdot there are multiple people making the same mistakes and comments (and unfunny jokes). It could be partly cause the comments are low ranked initially...or maybe google is blurring them until somebody notices
The device, attached to the fuel line of a car's engine near the fuel injector, creates an electric field that thins fuel, reducing its viscosity so that smaller droplets are injected into the engine.
Oh come on please stop it. This has been busted.
Mythbusters tested magnets, this is an electric field. It's a completely different thing (though that doesn't mean it works any better).
Mothballs are exciting only to moths.
A moth without balls is a eunuch.
I would say that mothballs are extremely important to moths.
This is Slashdot so I can see I need to explain something.
I apologise for using a term you may be unfamiliar with, but a moth without balls is called a female moth.
But is there anything to suggest that this may be a more efficent form of flight than what methods we already have?
I am researching in this area and yes, at low Reynolds numbers (small sizes) flapping wing flight becomes more efficient than fixed wing or rotary wing flight. But you won't be seeing the new 787 flapping wing plane, it is only an advantage at around 15cm (6") wingspans or less.
You will notice that birds have aerodynamically shaped wings (like a plane) and can glide, but insects have flat wings and cannot glide. Not surprisingly, this is for the same reasons. The division between small birds/large insects is at around this point of a 15cm wingspan.
Having a nice big conductor like this might have interesting effects in storms...
It might stop charge building up in the clouds (by leaking it to the ground), so stop lightning in the area altogether. If it doesn't, it would regularly be hit by lightning which may do something very wierd to the cable: There is research into using carbon nanotubes as actuators (http://www.uow.edu.au/science/research/ipri/curre ntprojects.html).
I believe they report strains of about 0.5%, so assuming 0.1% strain (because the elevator isn't designed to be an actuator)... and a strike at say 5km altitude... a lightning strike could cause the cable to suddenly try to become 5m shorter! Thats about 20 feet for those in Liberia and Burma. Oh and the US:p I don't know what would happen, but its probably more likely that the cable would snap than pull the space station on the end down...
There is very little loss in the FETs in a CPU either, until you start switching them really fast.
I'm pretty sure there will be switching losses in optical switches as well, especially while they are changing state. Optical CPUs probably won't need a heatsink until they become very advanced and operate way above the speeds achievable now, but its likely they will eventually. After all, the first few computers I had didn't need a heatsink either.
I believe that one of the reasons optical CPUs are attractive is that they WOULDNT need a huge heatsink. The heat in chips is caused by the losses when the transistors switch, optical CPUs don't have any transistors so don't have these losses.
There will probably be a loss of light which could heat up the chip in a similar way, but I can't see why speed would have anything to do with it in an optical CPU. Speed effects the heat in electrical CPUs because higher speed = more switching = more switching losses per second. I don't THINK this would happen in an optical CPU because there is no gate capacitance to charge etc so the time a switch is partially on (highest losses) will be ridiculously small, so loss will occur for a shorter time = less heat.
Probably.
Hotmail filter spam??! They SEND spam!
I got a hotmail account to use MSN, I have never used it but its full of spam anyway. Expected with hotmail really.
What really pissed me off though was getting an official hotmail message with ads for ING, SEEK, Virgin credit card, some Xbox game, and down the side are instructions for blocking spam: " Ensure you are protected against unsolicited e-mail by setting up your junk e-mail filters. Follow these simple instructions...blah"
What's even more hypocritical is down the bottom of the email it says "As an MSN Hotmail member, you have received this e-mail to inform you of updates, changes to the MSN Hotmail service or special news and information from MSN. Our policy has always been to send e-mail messages only to announce such information, and we'll continue to honor this policy. Thank you for being an MSN Hotmail member."
I would complain to them if it would do any good, but if they were to read all their hate mail they would need a dedicated department for it!
I don't know about these ones, but normal solar panels pay for themselves in 5-10 years (in energy). Since they normally last 20 years or more, they are worthwhile to make.
If these "window panels" have a similar payback time and get widely used there could be a lot of power produced. As an extremely rough estimate, say a 40 story building: 40m width of panels in the sun, 3m per storey is 4800m^2 of panel. Converted to silly units that is 51667 feet^2. From the article, max 3.8W/foot^2 gives nearly 200kW of power from a single office building. They could then sell power back to the electrical grid when not using that much (you can do this in many countries if you have solar power at home). Of course then it may end up like a forest where the taller trees kill off the competition by shadowing them...
Many people have been saying how they make custom addresses when they sign up for things so they know who spams them and can filter it.
You can do this in Gmail by adding a + to the address, eg someone@gmail.com can also use someone+list@gmail.com, someone+spamme@gmail.com etc. Then you can filter the messages based on the address it was sent too.
I am surprised they dont tell you about this, it is pretty useful!
A microcontroller will give you heaps more I/O pins, and PWM for driving motors, serial ports, analog/digital converters etc
Both PICs and AVRs are available with all sorts of combinations of features.
There are plenty of resources available for both, look in newsgroups and search with google. GCC for the AVR is available for linux and windows so you can easily write C/C++ code for them. Also look into AVRfreaks
Look at the newsgroup comp.robotics.misc for other people doing similar things.
How is this going to help when there are programs that search for keys? I'm not sure how they work but I am *ahem* aware of one that finds keys for home, professional, corporate etc Takes a while but they keys seem to be random.
Slashdot Mirror
I always liked playing coop Operation Flashpoint with friends, there was a particular map where the enemies had 2 or 3 tanks next to each other with the drivers standing next to them. The map was supposed to operate with you fighting the tanks with RPGs etc as the drivers would jump in as soon as you were detected, but we found that you could put everyone in a jeep, then drive full speed at the camp and if you were lucky you could run over the drivers before they got in the tank. Then everyone jumps in the tank, blows up the enemy tanks before they can turn the turret, and go on a rampage in a mission where you aren't supposed to have a tank. Soo much fun.
There was another mission where you could steal a helicopter in a similar way.
Sometimes it would take many tries to do it without someone being killed, but it was so worth it!
2)When there's an accident on a bridge, I can take 2 hours to drive home. I wouldn't trust it to keep a charge for that long idling.
Why would an electric car need to idle?
Idling is only necessary for combustion engines so that you don't need to restart them every time you want to move.
True if you are waiting hours with the aircon on it might use a fair amount of battery though.
My buddy Guido can reduce the number.
My buddy "Sledgehammer Bob" can increase the number.
Furthermore, sharks can't live in space - duh.
Sharks in frikkin' spacesuits with frikkin' lasers on their heads?
Would a blind person be an awesome sonar operator then?
Just plug 'em into the array with no processing of the signal...
Isn't it obvious or am I missing something here??
Blindfold the blind man and repeat the experiment with/without the blindfold. That will tell if vision is being used in any way.
Sure there is an almost empty "options" menu, but I think many users would like to be able to change things like you can in firefox.
For example I am using Chrome on an eeePC as it loads around 3x faster than firefox, but the missing options cause trouble. Mainly the fact that you can't change the location of the cache to the faster SSD, so it freezes quite often when it needs to write to the cache.
Can it be removed instantly without solvents and with no damage to the materials bonded together?
Yes, that's the whole point of this.
Think about a gecko, does it rip the paint off walls with each step? The bond is easily released by peeling but sticks strongly if you try to slide it, like a post-it note but stronger. Apparently it is self-cleaning too.
It doesn't bond the way glue or other adhesives do, the adhesion is from the addition of the van der Waals force from millions/billions of tiny "hairs". more info
The USA already has very low fuel prices compared to most of the world, quit complaining!
6th lowest (out of 25 listed) according to this
The main reason I, and many other people, don't use a swap on eeePCs is the slow speed of the secondary SSD.
I don't think tsunamis are a big problem for offshore drilling platforms in the first place. From what I've read, they use the ballast tanks in daily operation, and they can also be used to rise above the waves.
From what I know about tsunamis they are barely noticable until they reach shallow water, so offshore drilling platforms don't need this. I believe the point is for small low islands where the tsunami would otherwise wash right over most of the habitable area.
All the higher-res images are airplane shots, not satellite. Why does this need constant reminding?
Because most people don't bother RTFC (reading the err...other comments) let alone RTFA before posting of course.
In almost all stories on slashdot there are multiple people making the same mistakes and comments (and unfunny jokes).
It could be partly cause the comments are low ranked initially...or maybe google is blurring them until somebody notices
The device, attached to the fuel line of a car's engine near the fuel injector, creates an electric field that thins fuel, reducing its viscosity so that smaller droplets are injected into the engine. Oh come on please stop it. This has been busted.
Mythbusters tested magnets, this is an electric field. It's a completely different thing (though that doesn't mean it works any better).
Mothballs are exciting only to moths.
A moth without balls is a eunuch.
I would say that mothballs are extremely important to moths.
This is Slashdot so I can see I need to explain something.
I apologise for using a term you may be unfamiliar with, but a moth without balls is called a female moth.
You will notice that birds have aerodynamically shaped wings (like a plane) and can glide, but insects have flat wings and cannot glide. Not surprisingly, this is for the same reasons. The division between small birds/large insects is at around this point of a 15cm wingspan.
Having a nice big conductor like this might have interesting effects in storms...
e ntprojects.html).
:p
It might stop charge building up in the clouds (by leaking it to the ground), so stop lightning in the area altogether. If it doesn't, it would regularly be hit by lightning which may do something very wierd to the cable: There is research into using carbon nanotubes as actuators (http://www.uow.edu.au/science/research/ipri/curr
I believe they report strains of about 0.5%, so assuming 0.1% strain (because the elevator isn't designed to be an actuator)... and a strike at say 5km altitude... a lightning strike could cause the cable to suddenly try to become 5m shorter! Thats about 20 feet for those in Liberia and Burma. Oh and the US
I don't know what would happen, but its probably more likely that the cable would snap than pull the space station on the end down...
Funny things, nanotubes!
They would hold a lot, but since the gamma rays would go right through any CD-like disk it might be hard to read or write to them!
Better not put your feet under the table either or they might get cancer and fall off!
There is very little loss in the FETs in a CPU either, until you start switching them really fast.
I'm pretty sure there will be switching losses in optical switches as well, especially while they are changing state. Optical CPUs probably won't need a heatsink until they become very advanced and operate way above the speeds achievable now, but its likely they will eventually. After all, the first few computers I had didn't need a heatsink either.
-Daniel
I believe that one of the reasons optical CPUs are attractive is that they WOULDNT need a huge heatsink. The heat in chips is caused by the losses when the transistors switch, optical CPUs don't have any transistors so don't have these losses. There will probably be a loss of light which could heat up the chip in a similar way, but I can't see why speed would have anything to do with it in an optical CPU. Speed effects the heat in electrical CPUs because higher speed = more switching = more switching losses per second. I don't THINK this would happen in an optical CPU because there is no gate capacitance to charge etc so the time a switch is partially on (highest losses) will be ridiculously small, so loss will occur for a shorter time = less heat. Probably.
Adaware and Spybot S&D.
I have them on my flash drive and I nearly always end up using them whenever I go to any friends houses.
-Daniel
Hotmail filter spam??! They SEND spam!
I got a hotmail account to use MSN, I have never used it but its full of spam anyway. Expected with hotmail really.
What really pissed me off though was getting an official hotmail message with ads for ING, SEEK, Virgin credit card, some Xbox game, and down the side are instructions for blocking spam: " Ensure you are protected against unsolicited e-mail by setting up your junk e-mail filters. Follow these simple instructions...blah"
What's even more hypocritical is down the bottom of the email it says "As an MSN Hotmail member, you have received this e-mail to inform you of updates, changes to the MSN Hotmail service or special news and information from MSN. Our policy has always been to send e-mail messages only to announce such information, and we'll continue to honor this policy. Thank you for being an MSN Hotmail member."
I would complain to them if it would do any good, but if they were to read all their hate mail they would need a dedicated department for it!
I don't know about these ones, but normal solar panels pay for themselves in 5-10 years (in energy).
Since they normally last 20 years or more, they are worthwhile to make.
If these "window panels" have a similar payback time and get widely used there could be a lot of power produced. As an extremely rough estimate, say a 40 story building: 40m width of panels in the sun, 3m per storey is 4800m^2 of panel. Converted to silly units that is 51667 feet^2. From the article, max 3.8W/foot^2 gives nearly 200kW of power from a single office building. They could then sell power back to the electrical grid when not using that much (you can do this in many countries if you have solar power at home). Of course then it may end up like a forest where the taller trees kill off the competition by shadowing them...
Many people have been saying how they make custom addresses when they sign up for things so they know who spams them and can filter it.
You can do this in Gmail by adding a + to the address, eg someone@gmail.com can also use someone+list@gmail.com, someone+spamme@gmail.com etc. Then you can filter the messages based on the address it was sent too.
I am surprised they dont tell you about this, it is pretty useful!
I wouldn't use a laptop, then you have to have a robot big enough to carry it around. You are also pretty much limited to the parallel port for I/O.
Look into microcontrollers (the most common are the Microchip PIC and Atmel AVR
A microcontroller will give you heaps more I/O pins, and PWM for driving motors, serial ports, analog/digital converters etc Both PICs and AVRs are available with all sorts of combinations of features.
There are plenty of resources available for both, look in newsgroups and search with google. GCC for the AVR is available for linux and windows so you can easily write C/C++ code for them. Also look into AVRfreaks
Look at the newsgroup comp.robotics.misc for other people doing similar things.
Good luck!
-Daniel
How is this going to help when there are programs that search for keys?
I'm not sure how they work but I am *ahem* aware of one that finds keys for home, professional, corporate etc
Takes a while but they keys seem to be random.