Tag: funny

Dishwasher-Size, 25kW Fuel Cell In Development

mcgrew writes “Forbes has an article about a new type of fuel cell that is 90% less costly than current cells at one tenth the size (making it the size of a dishwasher), with far higher efficiency than current cells. It runs at only 149 degrees Celsius (300F) . It was jointly developed by Diverse Energy and the University of Maryland. ‘The first-generation Cube runs off natural gas, but it can generate power from a variety of fuel sources, including propane, gasoline, biofuel and hydrogen. The system is a highly efficient, clean technology, emitting negligible pollutants and much less carbon dioxide than conventional energy sources. It uses fuel far more efficiently than an internal combustion engine, and can run at an 80 percent efficiency when used to provide both heat and power.’ It produces enough power to run a moderate-sized grocery store, or five homes. A smaller, home-sized unit is on the way. Is the municipal power plant on the way out?” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Dishwasher-Size, 25kW Fuel Cell In Development

A "Glitch" Made All the Doors in a Max. Security Prison Open at Once

A Florida prison says that a computer “glitch” is to blame after all of the doors in the maximum security wing opened without warning. Wired has news for them , though. Sometimes, these kinds of glitches are caused by sneaky characters called hackers. And this situation looks pretty suspect. Read more…        

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A "Glitch" Made All the Doors in a Max. Security Prison Open at Once

Studying the Slow Decay of a Laptop Battery For an Entire Year

First time accepted submitter jradavenport writes “I’ve been keeping a log of the health of my MacBook Air battery for the past year, taking samples every minute I use the computer (152, 411 readings so far!). This has allowed me to study both my own computing/work habits, but also the fascinating rapid decay of battery capacity. Comparing it to my previous 2009 MacBook Pro, the battery in this 2012 Air is degrading much faster.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Studying the Slow Decay of a Laptop Battery For an Entire Year

Behind the Story of the iPhone’s Default Text Tone

An anonymous reader writes “In a fascinating post from Kelly Jacklin, the long time Apple software engineer details how he helped create the default text alert sound on the iPhone — a sound otherwise known as ‘Tri-tone.’ The history of the the pleasant text alert sound that we’ve all come to know and love stretches all the way back to 1998, nearly 10 years before the iPhone ever hit store shelves.” Here’s Jacklin’s post. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Behind the Story of the iPhone’s Default Text Tone

Xerox Confirms To David Kriesel Number Mangling Occuring On Factory Settings

An anonymous reader writes with a followup to last week’s report that certain Xerox scanners and copiers could alter numbers as they scanned documents: “In the second Xerox press statement, Rick Dastin, Vice President at Xerox Corporation, stated: ‘You will not see a character substitution issue when scanning with the factory default settings.’ In contrast, David Kriesel, who brought up the issue in the first place, was able to replicate the issue with the very same factory settings. This might be a serious problem now. Not only does the problem occur using default settings and everyone may be affected, additionally, their press statements may have misled customers. Xerox replicated the issue by following Kriesel’s instructions, later confirming it to Kriesel. Whole image segments seem to be copied around the scanned data. There is also a new Xerox statement out now.” Swapping numbers while copying may seem like bizarre behavior for a copier, but In comments on the previous posting, several readers pointed out that Xerox was aware of the problem, and acknowledged it in the machine’s documentation; the software updates promised should be welcome news to anyone who expectes a copier to faithfully reproduce important numbers. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Xerox Confirms To David Kriesel Number Mangling Occuring On Factory Settings

China Has a Massive Windows XP Problem

An anonymous reader writes “The Chinese are going to have a very, very hard time kicking the Windows XP habit. The deadline for the retirement of Microsoft’s most successful operating system ever is eight months from tomorrow: April 8, 2014. That’s the day when the Redmond, Wash. company is to deliver the last XP security update. According to analytics company Net Applications, 37.2% of the globe’s personal computers ran Windows XP last month. If Microsoft’s estimate of 1.4 billion Windows PCs worldwide is accurate, XP’s share translates into nearly 570 million machines. In the U.S., 16.4% of all personal computers ran Windows XP in July, or about one in six, Net Applications’ data showed. But in China, 72.1% of the country’s computers relied on the soon-to-retire operating system last month, or nearly three out of every four systems.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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China Has a Massive Windows XP Problem

Super-Flexible Circuits Could Boost Smartphones, Bionic Limbs

Nerval’s Lobster writes “The microelectronic sensors and mechanical systems built into smartphone cameras and other tiny electronic devices may soon evolve into microscopic, custom-printed versions designed as bionic body parts rather than smartphone components. Engineering researchers at Tel Aviv University have developed a micro-printing process that can build microscopic microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) onto a flexible, non-toxic organic polymer designed for implantation in the human body. Current-generation MEMS are typically found in the accelerometers in smartphones, or the tiny actuator motors that focus cell-phone camera lenses. Most are made from substrates based on silicon, and built using techniques common to semiconductor fabrication. The new process, as described in the journal Microelectronic Engineering , relies on an organic polymer that is hundreds of times more flexible than conventional materials used for similar purposes. That flexibility not only makes the units easier to fit into the oddly shaped parts of a human body, it allows them to be made more sensitive to motion and energy-efficient. That alone would give a boost to the miniaturization of electronics, but the stretch and flex of the new materials could also serve as more comfortable and efficient replacements for current prosthetics that sense stimuli from an amputee’s nervous system to power a prosthetic arm, for example, or operate a synthetic bladder.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Super-Flexible Circuits Could Boost Smartphones, Bionic Limbs

First Ever Public Tasting of Lab-Grown Cultured Beef Burger

vikingpower writes “Today, at 14:00 Western European Time (9:00 am Eastern), Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University ( the Netherlands ) will present a world first: he will cook and serve a burger made from Cultured Beef in front of an invited audience in London. The event will include a brief explanation of the science behind the burger. You can witch the event live, online. The project’s fact sheet is to be found here (pdf).”e Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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First Ever Public Tasting of Lab-Grown Cultured Beef Burger

New York Times Sells Boston Globe At 93% Loss

An anonymous reader writes “The New York Times announced this morning that it has sold the Boston Globe newspaper and related assets, including the Boston.com website and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette daily paper, to John Henry, the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox. The price was $70 million in cash, a small fraction of the $1.1 billion the Times paid to acquire the Globe in 1993, and does not include assumption of the Globe’s pension liabilities, estimated at $110 million, which will remain with the Times. Since then the paper’s weekday circulation has fallen from 507, 000 to 246, 000 (including digital), mirroring the declining fortunes of many other daily newspapers across the country. Henry, who also owns the Liverpool FC and various other sports- and media- related properties, made his fortune in the investment industry; however, his hedge fund company recently closed after several years of poor performance.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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New York Times Sells Boston Globe At 93% Loss

Scientists Demonstrate Ultra-Fast Magnetite Electrical Switch

adeelarshad82 writes “Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory recently demonstrated electrical switching thousands of times faster than in transistors now in use thanks to a naturally magnetic mineral called magnetite (abstract). The experiment is considered a major step forward in understanding electrical structures at the atomic level and working with recently identified electrical ‘building blocks’ called trimerons. The breakthrough could lead to innovations in the tiny transistors that control the flow of electricity across silicon chips, enabling faster, more powerful computing devices.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Scientists Demonstrate Ultra-Fast Magnetite Electrical Switch