179014674
submission
Grady Martin writes:
Natron Energy has announced immediate cessation of all operations, including its manufacturing plant in Holland, Michigan and plans to build a $1.4 billion “gigafactory” in North Carolina. A company representative cited “efforts to raise sufficient new funding [being] unsuccessful” as rationale for the decision.
When previously covered by Slashdot, comments on the merits of sodium-ion included the ability to use aluminum in lieu of heavier, more expensive copper anodes; a charge rate ten times that of lithium-ion; and Earth's abundance of sodium—though at least one anonymous coward predicted cancellation of the project.
104831810
submission
Grady Martin writes:
Linux.org has been hacked by what seems to be a rogue hacker with a butthole and a bone to pick (NSFW). All publicly facing HTML pages on the domain currently point to presumably doxed info on a person named Coraline Ada. The page is being updated continuously. Past updates are available on archive.org.
97402250
submission
Grady Martin writes:
Former OpenStreetMap contributer and Google Summer of Code mentor Serge Wroclawski has outlined "why OpenStreetMap is in serious trouble," citing unclear usage policies, poor geocoding (address-to-coordinate conversion), and a lack of a review model as reasons for the project's decline in quality. Perhaps more interesting, however, are the problems purported to stem from OpenStreetMap's power structure:
In the case of OpenStreetMap, there is a formal entity which owns the data, called the OpenStreetMap Foundation. But at the same time, the ultimate choices for the website, the geographic database and the infrastructure are not under the direct control of the Foundation, but instead rest largely on one individual, who (while personally friendly) ranges from skeptical to openly hostile to change.
95859341
submission
Grady Martin writes:
I disrespect people who describe their work in highfalutin terms, as doing so is often an attempt to hide meaninglessness. This mindset bites me in the ass, however, when describing my own work--as programming solutions to problems is little more than codifying what just about anyone can perceive through intuition. Case in point: Home for the holidays, I was asked about recent accomplishments and attempted to explain the process of producing compact visualizations of branched undo/redo histories. Responses ranged from, "Well, duh," to, "I can already do that in Word."
The comment on Word, I can appreciate. (A hammer only sees nails.) It's the "duh" that I want to address, because of course an elegant solution seem obvious after the fact: Such is the nature of elegance itself.
Does anyone have advice on making elegance sound impressive?
76157367
submission
Grady Martin writes:
I got a new job. Everything about it is perfect, except for one thing: The overwhelming majority of affordable housing within driving distance lies in an area known for its high crime rate. A home security system would afford some peace of mind, and a system whose code I could tinker with would afford even more. What Linux-based options are available? What experience do you have with such systems?
74767435
submission
Grady Martin writes:
Toshiaki Endo, Japan's government-appointed parliament member in charge of planning for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, has expressed hopes of supplying the Olympic/Paralympic village with foods grown in Fukushima, stating, "Using foods from Fukushima in the village is another possibility. I wish to strengthen ties with ground zero in numerous ways."
This is a resubmission sans spin.
