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Windows 10 Adds Battery Saver Feature

jones_supa writes In past builds of Windows 10 Technical Preview there has been an interesting feature called Battery Saver, but for the time being it has been just a mockup. In a leaked build 9888, the code is now in place. Battery Saver, as the name implies, will help your mobile device make the most out of your battery. This feature works by limiting the background activity on your device when the mode is activated. You can turn the feature on any time but there is also a setting to have it automatically turn on when the battery capacity goes below a user-defined percentage. Considering that this build was not supposed to make its way out of Redmond and that the company is not releasing any new builds this year, this may be the best look we get until the Consumer Preview arrives. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Windows 10 Adds Battery Saver Feature

Sony Kept Thousands of Passwords in a Folder Named "Password"

It’s been a rough week for Sony execs ( million-dollar salaries notwithstanding ). And things are only going to get worse . Which would almost be enough to make you feel bad for the poor schmucks in IT—that is, until you realize that they hid their most sensitive password data under the label “Passwords.” Go ahead and slam your head against something hard. We’ll wait. Read more…

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Sony Kept Thousands of Passwords in a Folder Named "Password"

Consumer-Grade SSDs Survive Two Petabytes of Writes

crookedvulture writes The SSD Endurance Experiment previously covered on Slashdot has reached another big milestone: two freaking petabytes of writes. That’s an astounding total for consumer-grade drives rated to survive no more than a few hundred terabytes. Only two of the initial six subjects made it to 2PB. The Kingston HyperX 3K, Intel 335 Series, and Samsung 840 Series expired on the road to 1PB, while the Corsair Neutron GTX faltered at 1.2PB. The Samsung 840 Pro continues despite logging thousands of reallocated sectors. It has remained completely error-free throughout the experiment, unlike a second HyperX, which has suffered a couple of uncorrectable errors. The second HyperX is mostly intact otherwise, though its built-in compression tech has reduced the 2PB of host writes to just 1.4PB of flash writes. Even accounting for compression, the flash in the second HyperX has proven to be far more robust than in the first. That difference highlights the impact normal manufacturing variances can have on flash wear. It also illustrates why the experiment’s sample size is too small to draw definitive conclusions about the durability of specific models. However, the fact that all the drives far exceeded their endurance specifications bodes well for the endurance of consumer-grade SSDs in general. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Consumer-Grade SSDs Survive Two Petabytes of Writes

You’re Doing It All Wrong: Solar Panels Should Face West, Not South

HughPickens.com writes In the U.S., a new solar project is installed every 3.2 minutes and the number of cumulative installations now stands at more than 500, 000. For years, homeowners who bought solar panels were advised to mount them on the roof facing south to capture the most solar energy over the course of the day. Now Matthew L. Wald writes in the NYT that panels should be pointed west so that peak power comes in the afternoon when the electricity is more valuable. In late afternoon, homeowners are more likely to watch TV, turn on the lights or run the dishwasher. Electricity prices are also higher at that period of peak demand. “The predominance of south-facing panels may reflect a severe misalignment in energy supply and demand, ” say the authors of the study, Barry Fischer and Ben Harack. Pointing panels to the west means that in the hour beginning at 5 p.m., they produce 55 percent of their peak output. But point them to the south to maximize total output, and when the electric grid needs it most, they are producing only 15 percent of peak. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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You’re Doing It All Wrong: Solar Panels Should Face West, Not South

Chromebooks Overtake iPads In US Education Market

SmartAboutThings writes In Q3 2014, IDC notes that Google shipped 715, 500 Chromebooks to U.S. schools while Apple shipped 702, 000 iPads. Thus, Apple’s iPad has lost its lead over Google’s line of Chromebook laptops in the U.S. education market as Google shipped more devices to schools last quarter. While analysts say [registration required] that this advantage for Google’s Chromebooks can be attributed to their low cost, the presence of a physical keyboard has also been seen as an important factor. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Chromebooks Overtake iPads In US Education Market

This Maglev Gearbox Doesn’t Need Teeth

The most inefficient part of a gearing system is also its most vital: the teeth. While they allow the systems to, y’know, work, they also introduce vast quantities of frictional losses and, in turn, mechanical wear—so this new system uses magnetic levitation to do away with them. Read more…

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This Maglev Gearbox Doesn’t Need Teeth

Gangnam Style Broke YouTube’s View Counter

Gangnam Style fell out of the public eye a while ago (thank god) but people haven’t stopped watching it. It’s been seen so many times that it actually broke YouTube’s view counter, in the nerdiest possible way by busting the code behind the scenes. Read more…

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Gangnam Style Broke YouTube’s View Counter

HP’s fanless 2.2-pound laptop includes Broadwell and a 2560×1440 screen

The high-end Ultrabook market is tightly bound to Intel’s release schedule. No other company is offering similar performance and power consumption, so when Intel hits a delay like it did with its new Broadwell architecture, it means that things get boring for a while. We’re expecting the landscape to get more intriguing as we draw closer to CES in January, though, and HP has just announced a pair of Ultrabooks that have piqued our interest. The EliteBook Folio 1020 G1 series comes in two flavors, both of which are 0.62 inches thick: the first is the Standard Edition, a more run-of-the-mill system that starts with a 12.5-inch 1080p display and weighs 2.6 pounds. It’s slated for availability sometime in February. You’ll have to wait longer for the more interesting Special Edition, a laptop which shares the same design but uses “green carbon fiber” to reduce the weight to 2.2 pounds and bumps the entry-level screen resolution to 2560×1440. That system unfortunately won’t be available until April, and we don’t yet have pricing information for either model. The Standard Edition will have a 2560×1440 upgrade option, both laptops will come in touch and non-touch versions, and each will ship with your choice of Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Ubuntu, or FreeDOS 2.0. Windows 10 support is promised when that OS ships next year. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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HP’s fanless 2.2-pound laptop includes Broadwell and a 2560×1440 screen

Skiplagged Finds "Hidden City" Fares for the Cheapest Plane Tickets

“Hidden city ticketing” can offer steep discounts on airfare. Basically, you book a flight past your destination , with your target destination as a stop on the route, and save more than if on the direct route. Skiplagged is one site that shows you these hidden deals. Read more…

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Skiplagged Finds "Hidden City" Fares for the Cheapest Plane Tickets

We Are Running Out of the Nuclear Fuel That Powers Space Travel

Rosetta’s lander lasted just 60 hours on a comet before bouncing into the dark shadows of a cliff, where its solar panels couldn’t power the spacecraft. Why didn’t it carry a more reliable power source, say a nuclear battery like one that’s unfailingly fueled Voyager for decades? It’s a simple question with a fascinating answer, one that begins with the Cold War and ends with the future space exploration. Read more…

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We Are Running Out of the Nuclear Fuel That Powers Space Travel