These are lithium cells fabricated in a fancy way. This sort of nanoscale construction of the electrode materials affords massive surface area so you get advantages like improved capacity, power, lifetime, etc.
As with all lithium cells these are suited to applications which benefit from high energy density and low power, i.e. laptops, mobile phones etc.
'Mega-efficient' is probably a bit misleading, don't get carried away thinking all of a sudden there's a new portable energy source with the potential to replace all existing batteries!
If you required an external fuel source (sugar as you suggest) then it wouldn't be a battery, it would be more like a fuel cell, wouldn't it?
Besides, the role of the virus is to bring about the formation of the structure of the active material (cobalt oxide in the case of the anode), there's no biochemical/bioelectrochemical process going on if that's what you're suggesting.
This is a fairly creative approach to nanoscale lithium batteries by the sound of it (having briefly skimmed the MIT announcement), I'd be quite interested to see how they develop the cathode now, I imagine that will prove to be an entirely different kettle of fish.
RTFA again - it's somewhat misleading, they've only said that the work brings cloaking from visible light 'a step closer'.
As far as I'm aware the only working material they've actually managed to create with these properties only has 'negative refraction' in the microwave region. I imagine cloaking in the visible region is still a long way off.
Also, I would entirely expect the military to be thoroughly interested in cloaking technology, perhaps not for tanks and infantry but being able to cloak things like surface-to-air missile launchers so the enemy can't see them from satellite imaging might be of interest (though it may be the case that these materials won't cloak from infrared as well).
I think some smartarses tried that scoring system somewhere. Participants couldn't understand why they were getting 'C' for perfect performances so they ditched it.
Personally I think it's the business of the government to protect the interests of the majority... maybe... I'll have to think about that a bit more.
Anyway. I'm English and there might be a different majority opinion in this country compared to the US (where I'd expect a more 'it's our right to use our phones on the plane'-type stance)... my personal opinion is that using a phone in a situation where you have to raise your voice significantly to be heard above the ambient noise - and subsequently by everyone else - is pretty rude - which is why I wouldn't inflict my conversation on anyone else (unless it's absolutely necessary, but it's hard to conceive of a situation where that might be the case).
Perhaps it's a bit like the smoking ban in this country - most people don't want to breathe the smoke of others, the majority are happy about the ban, but there's a loud collection of unhappy smokers (obviously). To be honest they can moan all they want, it's not like the government's confiscated their cigarettes!
Why do people need to use their phones in-flight anyway? I can understand the need for communication for people travelling on business to keep in touch with their office, but what's wrong with e-mail? A large number of people find flying an uncomfortable/annoying/stressful etc experience as it is without having to hear people talk over everyone else so someone elsewhere can hear them. I know the modern world is fast-paced, but honestly, it can wait, can't it?!
I'm personally holding out hope that companies will start to adjust their business model to take into account the natural inclination towards 'sharing' that the Internet gives people.
As a semi-related example, Power Tabs Network was forced to close by a publishing body in the UK a while back. Quite a lot of sites offering transcriptons for guitar etc uploaded by hobbyist contributors have suffered in the last few years as a result of publishing associations like these, but as it happens negotiations between the two parties in this case have resulted in an agreement to be reached whereby the site will remain active and the publishing body presumably receive some part of ad revenue or something for royalty payments etc (I don't know the details).
I know it's not quite the same as sharing mp3s/videos, but since tab sites have been targeted quite viciously over the years, it's a start... hopefully...
Pretty handy that he had the knowledge to fix it... myself, I wouldn't have known how to fix it... what about all the other people potentially having the same problem? Is it that much harder for FF to put in a patch that someone else has written to save everyone else the trouble?
"Let's not overlook Microsoft Vista--Kitchen Edition. People are putting computers in the kitchen, aren't they? Well then there should be a rugged kitchen edition with a file system specifically suited to storing recipes and videos of Jacques Pepin cooking his way."
True. Well, if a system is obliterated on infection, it can't spread... not really the behaviour of a virus. Still, by letting them not do something cruel like wipe the BIOS or trash the filesystem or something and just hijacking it's internet connectivity and letting them spread, you can get maximum exposure while still causing plenty of infuriating moments.
My flatmate got a virus that lurked for a while and then deleted ntoskrnl.exe so Windows wouldn't boot anymore - that wasn't fun.
Someone I speak to occasionally works in the communications industry, and after Katrina happened he started to chase up his superiors to see what can be done to deploy wireless communications in the disaster area - he made numerous calls to government officials to be told time after time that he was speaking to the *wrong* person - all the while the government were complaining "if only we had communications" - needless to say he's not been in a very good mood lately...
Better late than never I suppose, but this could have been so much more useful had it been set up earlier...
Who's going to turn off the eye candy though? Experience tells me that without hardware acceleration and all the fancy graphics options off Windows XP and 2003 have terrible looking fonts (as an example) and even scrolling in explorer feels _really_ sluggish. Not to mention the fact that ability to play games, etc is gone.
If Vista is to pass more of the work to the GPU then surely it'll be worse, logically? I've seen people say that Windows Vista is both far slower than XP, others have said faster - I'd like to know who are the ones with the beastly graphics cards, really.
I'll agree with you on the DRM though, it's one of the many reasons I'll stick with Ubuntu on my main machine - I've survived perfectly fine for the last 6 months doing all my work on it.
Yet another smudge on the apparently fine line between "news for nerds" and blatant rubbish. Mod me down all you like, really - how _did_ this get on the front page?
The GPL already seems scary enough to me already, being that if Stallman wants to change the GPL then the license for your program changes too...
So what happens if someone makes a load of GPL'd software then comes up with some brilliant ideas and patents it? What happens to all his previous work?
I don't see how this is going to help free software at all. It just makes the prospect of it more scary, IMO - I'm all for free software, but I still think that closed source and proprietary software (to an extent), has a place - example, I use Crossover Office rather than Wine, and I use that to run Power Tab Editor because there is no decent F/OSS alternative (yet).
I think the FSF is running the risk of alienating itself from the rest of the computing world when it should be trying to extend into it more. Just my thoughts...
It's interesting to note that the parent comment went from Insightful to Troll in the time it took me to read it and click reply...
Seriously man, I feel sorry for you that your business is facing a difficult time, but a "national register of pirates" doesn't sound like the best option to me. To ban people from buying CDs would only encourage them to pirate more, wouldn't it?
I will admit that I have used P2P to obtain music in the past (although barely anymore, I prefer to buy music online first) - some of my favourite artists I discovered by P2P - if I have the money, I will by the CD, if I like it. If I don't like it, I probably won't listen again, and since I wouldn't have bought it anyway, nothing lost.
I actively encourage people to buy CDs of the artists in order to support them. Bumblefoot is my favourite artist and I went to the trouble of importing his CDs from the States (not available in the UK) after I had downloaded them with P2P. Interestingly enough, it was Bumblefoot himself who put his own music onto P2P.
You also mention Metallica - a group whose policy on piracy I can't agree with because they were putting strong pressure on Universities to permanently expel students they suspected of sharing their stuff - an action that would have serious effects on their education (duh) and quite possibly long-term effects on their career. It is quite disturbing to realise that this is the way they would have their loyal fans treated for wanting to share their music with other people.
Just so you know, I'm not advocating piracy. I'm advocating sharing music and if possible, buying the CD to support the artist. I'll tell you for nothing that "piracy" has made me a better musician, and has definitely made a difference to the possibility of me recording and distributing my own music some day.
The reactants here are radicals, not ions. For the sake of anyone who might be interested, chlorine ions are stable by comparison because they have a filled outer shell - chlorine radicals are very reactive. They need another electron to fill the shell so they snag it from the ozone molecule which has a delocalised electron.
There is a natural equilibrium between ozone and diatomic oxygen - at it's simplest, 3 O2 2 O3 - CFCs just screw it up a bit.
Sorry, but your comment makes me wonder how often you actually use Linux (or at least what distro you're using). Ubuntu already does those things that you mentioned.
It installs a base system with the same set of packages as every other install (only GNOME by default - if you want KDE you have to install Kubuntu, and even that's easy once Ubuntu is set up). Once you're in the system (install took me 20 minutes) - Synaptic is right there to meet all your application needs, installing packages and their dependencies by simply checking a box (if Windows can beat that for ease of use I haven't seen it do so). If you need *gasp* more packages, then a quick google tells you how to add more repositories.
Come on, apt-get's been around for years, and it's not just Debian based systems - Gentoo has portage (which I've never used, so I can't comment on it), and Fedora has yum (even though apt-get is better).
It may be not quite there yet, but Ubuntu is certainly pretty good as far as user-friendliness goes. I started off on Linux with Fedora Core 2, and while I thought it was good, switching to Ubuntu nearly 6 months ago was an eye-opening experience. In fact, it was so good, I deleted my Windows installation because I simply don't need it anymore. I still use some Windows programs, but Wine handles them nicely. I've even got the Linux port of Doom 3 running nicely! The best part is - it was all really easy.
The difference is Linux can require more patience, and that's what's turning people off. I can understand, I installed BeOS on an old P2 and I haven't taken enough time out to get used to it yet. It just seems weird and strange to me:)
I have the latest Slackware release running on 10-year old hardware. I also have the latest Ubuntu release running on 2-year old hardware... one runs pretty horribly slow and the other blisteringly fast.
Given the choice and the increasing inexpensiveness of hardware... I'm going to hazard a guess and say it probably doesn't impede sales too much.
Besides, when Longhorn's released it'll probably give consumers an incentive to upgrade (don't hurt me, just going by trends!):)
I have many contacts who use Hotmail but all of my email is sent out through sendmail on my Linux box.
How easy is it to get a SenderID? Hopefully not too easy that spammers can obtain one also... GMail seems to be pretty good at handling spam anyway, I don't really see what's wrong with their approach.
They've at least made attempts to stop the spread of viruses in MSN... However, I don't think they've done a great job.
I've tried sending.oggs to some friends over MSN and yet it blocks them... so much for security, it just seems to be more of an annoyance. Perhaps they could try patching whatever exploit the trojans use in the program itself...
Slashdot Mirror
These are lithium cells fabricated in a fancy way. This sort of nanoscale construction of the electrode materials affords massive surface area so you get advantages like improved capacity, power, lifetime, etc.
As with all lithium cells these are suited to applications which benefit from high energy density and low power, i.e. laptops, mobile phones etc.
'Mega-efficient' is probably a bit misleading, don't get carried away thinking all of a sudden there's a new portable energy source with the potential to replace all existing batteries!
If you required an external fuel source (sugar as you suggest) then it wouldn't be a battery, it would be more like a fuel cell, wouldn't it?
Besides, the role of the virus is to bring about the formation of the structure of the active material (cobalt oxide in the case of the anode), there's no biochemical/bioelectrochemical process going on if that's what you're suggesting.
This is a fairly creative approach to nanoscale lithium batteries by the sound of it (having briefly skimmed the MIT announcement), I'd be quite interested to see how they develop the cathode now, I imagine that will prove to be an entirely different kettle of fish.
RTFA again - it's somewhat misleading, they've only said that the work brings cloaking from visible light 'a step closer'.
As far as I'm aware the only working material they've actually managed to create with these properties only has 'negative refraction' in the microwave region. I imagine cloaking in the visible region is still a long way off.
Also, I would entirely expect the military to be thoroughly interested in cloaking technology, perhaps not for tanks and infantry but being able to cloak things like surface-to-air missile launchers so the enemy can't see them from satellite imaging might be of interest (though it may be the case that these materials won't cloak from infrared as well).
I think some smartarses tried that scoring system somewhere. Participants couldn't understand why they were getting 'C' for perfect performances so they ditched it.
Personally I think it's the business of the government to protect the interests of the majority... maybe... I'll have to think about that a bit more.
Anyway. I'm English and there might be a different majority opinion in this country compared to the US (where I'd expect a more 'it's our right to use our phones on the plane'-type stance)... my personal opinion is that using a phone in a situation where you have to raise your voice significantly to be heard above the ambient noise - and subsequently by everyone else - is pretty rude - which is why I wouldn't inflict my conversation on anyone else (unless it's absolutely necessary, but it's hard to conceive of a situation where that might be the case).
Perhaps it's a bit like the smoking ban in this country - most people don't want to breathe the smoke of others, the majority are happy about the ban, but there's a loud collection of unhappy smokers (obviously). To be honest they can moan all they want, it's not like the government's confiscated their cigarettes!
Why do people need to use their phones in-flight anyway? I can understand the need for communication for people travelling on business to keep in touch with their office, but what's wrong with e-mail? A large number of people find flying an uncomfortable/annoying/stressful etc experience as it is without having to hear people talk over everyone else so someone elsewhere can hear them. I know the modern world is fast-paced, but honestly, it can wait, can't it?!
I'm personally holding out hope that companies will start to adjust their business model to take into account the natural inclination towards 'sharing' that the Internet gives people.
As a semi-related example, Power Tabs Network was forced to close by a publishing body in the UK a while back. Quite a lot of sites offering transcriptons for guitar etc uploaded by hobbyist contributors have suffered in the last few years as a result of publishing associations like these, but as it happens negotiations between the two parties in this case have resulted in an agreement to be reached whereby the site will remain active and the publishing body presumably receive some part of ad revenue or something for royalty payments etc (I don't know the details).
I know it's not quite the same as sharing mp3s/videos, but since tab sites have been targeted quite viciously over the years, it's a start... hopefully...
...is also in there twice (along with fired) - what curious priorities they must have!
Pretty handy that he had the knowledge to fix it... myself, I wouldn't have known how to fix it... what about all the other people potentially having the same problem? Is it that much harder for FF to put in a patch that someone else has written to save everyone else the trouble?
"Let's not overlook Microsoft Vista--Kitchen Edition. People are putting computers in the kitchen, aren't they? Well then there should be a rugged kitchen edition with a file system specifically suited to storing recipes and videos of Jacques Pepin cooking his way."
They are? Hmm. You mean like this?
Looking at the screenshots for Office 12, perhaps they could make Vista Uniform Edition, where all the programs look the same! :O
Too much to ask? :(
True. Well, if a system is obliterated on infection, it can't spread... not really the behaviour of a virus. Still, by letting them not do something cruel like wipe the BIOS or trash the filesystem or something and just hijacking it's internet connectivity and letting them spread, you can get maximum exposure while still causing plenty of infuriating moments.
My flatmate got a virus that lurked for a while and then deleted ntoskrnl.exe so Windows wouldn't boot anymore - that wasn't fun.
Someone I speak to occasionally works in the communications industry, and after Katrina happened he started to chase up his superiors to see what can be done to deploy wireless communications in the disaster area - he made numerous calls to government officials to be told time after time that he was speaking to the *wrong* person - all the while the government were complaining "if only we had communications" - needless to say he's not been in a very good mood lately...
Better late than never I suppose, but this could have been so much more useful had it been set up earlier...
Who's going to turn off the eye candy though? Experience tells me that without hardware acceleration and all the fancy graphics options off Windows XP and 2003 have terrible looking fonts (as an example) and even scrolling in explorer feels _really_ sluggish. Not to mention the fact that ability to play games, etc is gone.
If Vista is to pass more of the work to the GPU then surely it'll be worse, logically? I've seen people say that Windows Vista is both far slower than XP, others have said faster - I'd like to know who are the ones with the beastly graphics cards, really.
I'll agree with you on the DRM though, it's one of the many reasons I'll stick with Ubuntu on my main machine - I've survived perfectly fine for the last 6 months doing all my work on it.
Yet another smudge on the apparently fine line between "news for nerds" and blatant rubbish. Mod me down all you like, really - how _did_ this get on the front page?
There's another article here for anyone who's interested.
TFA might have overstated it a bit - and they also say that it's not certain that it'll be put into the GPL either.
The GPL already seems scary enough to me already, being that if Stallman wants to change the GPL then the license for your program changes too...
So what happens if someone makes a load of GPL'd software then comes up with some brilliant ideas and patents it? What happens to all his previous work?
I don't see how this is going to help free software at all. It just makes the prospect of it more scary, IMO - I'm all for free software, but I still think that closed source and proprietary software (to an extent), has a place - example, I use Crossover Office rather than Wine, and I use that to run Power Tab Editor because there is no decent F/OSS alternative (yet).
I think the FSF is running the risk of alienating itself from the rest of the computing world when it should be trying to extend into it more. Just my thoughts...
Yes, and that would mean that transactions in the $10bn - $90bn range would be called megapayments, so it's still technically accurate :)
It's interesting to note that the parent comment went from Insightful to Troll in the time it took me to read it and click reply...
Seriously man, I feel sorry for you that your business is facing a difficult time, but a "national register of pirates" doesn't sound like the best option to me. To ban people from buying CDs would only encourage them to pirate more, wouldn't it?
I will admit that I have used P2P to obtain music in the past (although barely anymore, I prefer to buy music online first) - some of my favourite artists I discovered by P2P - if I have the money, I will by the CD, if I like it. If I don't like it, I probably won't listen again, and since I wouldn't have bought it anyway, nothing lost.
I actively encourage people to buy CDs of the artists in order to support them. Bumblefoot is my favourite artist and I went to the trouble of importing his CDs from the States (not available in the UK) after I had downloaded them with P2P. Interestingly enough, it was Bumblefoot himself who put his own music onto P2P.
You also mention Metallica - a group whose policy on piracy I can't agree with because they were putting strong pressure on Universities to permanently expel students they suspected of sharing their stuff - an action that would have serious effects on their education (duh) and quite possibly long-term effects on their career. It is quite disturbing to realise that this is the way they would have their loyal fans treated for wanting to share their music with other people.
Just so you know, I'm not advocating piracy. I'm advocating sharing music and if possible, buying the CD to support the artist. I'll tell you for nothing that "piracy" has made me a better musician, and has definitely made a difference to the possibility of me recording and distributing my own music some day.
The reactants here are radicals, not ions. For the sake of anyone who might be interested, chlorine ions are stable by comparison because they have a filled outer shell - chlorine radicals are very reactive. They need another electron to fill the shell so they snag it from the ozone molecule which has a delocalised electron.
There is a natural equilibrium between ozone and diatomic oxygen - at it's simplest, 3 O2 2 O3 - CFCs just screw it up a bit.
Sorry, but your comment makes me wonder how often you actually use Linux (or at least what distro you're using). Ubuntu already does those things that you mentioned.
It installs a base system with the same set of packages as every other install (only GNOME by default - if you want KDE you have to install Kubuntu, and even that's easy once Ubuntu is set up). Once you're in the system (install took me 20 minutes) - Synaptic is right there to meet all your application needs, installing packages and their dependencies by simply checking a box (if Windows can beat that for ease of use I haven't seen it do so). If you need *gasp* more packages, then a quick google tells you how to add more repositories.
Come on, apt-get's been around for years, and it's not just Debian based systems - Gentoo has portage (which I've never used, so I can't comment on it), and Fedora has yum (even though apt-get is better).
It may be not quite there yet, but Ubuntu is certainly pretty good as far as user-friendliness goes. I started off on Linux with Fedora Core 2, and while I thought it was good, switching to Ubuntu nearly 6 months ago was an eye-opening experience. In fact, it was so good, I deleted my Windows installation because I simply don't need it anymore. I still use some Windows programs, but Wine handles them nicely. I've even got the Linux port of Doom 3 running nicely! The best part is - it was all really easy.
The difference is Linux can require more patience, and that's what's turning people off. I can understand, I installed BeOS on an old P2 and I haven't taken enough time out to get used to it yet. It just seems weird and strange to me :)
I have the latest Slackware release running on 10-year old hardware. I also have the latest Ubuntu release running on 2-year old hardware... one runs pretty horribly slow and the other blisteringly fast. Given the choice and the increasing inexpensiveness of hardware... I'm going to hazard a guess and say it probably doesn't impede sales too much. Besides, when Longhorn's released it'll probably give consumers an incentive to upgrade (don't hurt me, just going by trends!) :)
I have many contacts who use Hotmail but all of my email is sent out through sendmail on my Linux box.
How easy is it to get a SenderID? Hopefully not too easy that spammers can obtain one also... GMail seems to be pretty good at handling spam anyway, I don't really see what's wrong with their approach.
Total Twaddle got to this 3 days before Slashdot did... so much for a website for nerds, eh? :)
They've at least made attempts to stop the spread of viruses in MSN... However, I don't think they've done a great job.
I've tried sending .oggs to some friends over MSN and yet it blocks them... so much for security, it just seems to be more of an annoyance. Perhaps they could try patching whatever exploit the trojans use in the program itself...