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Space

Russian Cargo Mission To ISS Spinning Out of Control 120

quippe writes: Many sources report that a Russian spacecraft, launched successfully (video) from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan earlier Tuesday, is in big trouble now after having a glitch shortly after liftoff. There is a video on YouTube (credit: NASA) of the space ship spinning out of control. Recovery attempts haven't gone well so far, but they will continue. If they can't regain control, the ship will likely burn up when it falls back into the atmosphere. Current speculation points to greater-than-expected lift by the third-stage, because the apogee is 20km higher than planned. The ship does not seem to pose a threat to the ISS at the moment.

Comment Re:I get what he's saying here (Score 1) 438

I was concerned by that scene at first, too, but on further reflection throughout the evening, I think it's actually not completely implausible:

While Clooney's character wouldn't have been actively pulling away from Bullock, in order for her to pull him in (even just a bit to get him moving in that direction) she'd have to pull enough to overcome his inertia. Since she clearly has much less mass (he's heavier *and* has a jetpack on), the net effect would be to pull herself away from her own precarious tether, which would have been bad.

Doesn't explain why he floated away when he detached, and they didn't really even telegraph that this might be the scenario they were considering, but at least it doesn't have to be quite as silly as it seemed at first. :)

Comment Re:Eh, that's it? (Score 5, Informative) 619

That's... not how it works. The "penta" part refers to a prototype arrangement that isn't actually in use in any phones (see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PenTile).

These phones are using the RGBG pattern, which has the greens 1-to-1 with the pixel map, which means each pixel is either a green-with-red or a green-with-blue. So the parent here did do the math correctly.

Comment Food Lab @ Serious Eats (Score 2) 447

If your sense of "geeky" is like mine, and you take it to mean really investing in rigorous curiosity about the process combined with a sciency hypothesis-trial approach to technique, then you can't get any better than Kenji Lopez-Alt's Food Lab over at Serious Eats. Here's his comprehensive Thanksgiving Q & A from a few days ago. (Sorry if this post shows up twice; I think the first try was eaten by mbeta.slashdot.org)
Power

Artificial Clouds To Cool Qatar World Cup Stadiums 154

An anonymous reader writes "In anticipation of extreme heat during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, scientists and engineers at Qatar University have developed a solar-powered gas-filled cloud that will shade spectators and athletes from the intense sun. The $500,000 artificial clouds can be positioned over any of the stadiums in Qatar and can be maneuvered with a remote control from the ground to keep the passing sun off the field."

Comment The license is for copying sheet music. (Score 3, Informative) 291

Note that this only applies to making copies of sheet music, not merely singing the songs (or arranging, or performing, or anything else). Same sort of thing is in effect here in Canada, and I'm sure many other places. Not a wonderful policy, but not the culture-destroying terror that the summary implies.
Data Storage

The Curious Case of SSD Performance In OS X 205

mr_sifter writes "As we've seen from previous coverage, TRIM support is vital to help SSDs maintain performance over extended periods of time — while Microsoft and the SSD manufacturers have publicized its inclusion in Windows 7, Apple has been silent on whether OS X will support it. bit-tech decided to see how SSD performance in OS X is affected by extended use — and the results, at least with the Macbook Air, are startling. The drive doesn't seem to suffer very much at all, even after huge amounts of data have been written to it."

Comment DeployStudio. (Score 1) 460

It was mentioned once up above, but I've gotta recommend DeployStudio. After using a stock NetInstall setup for a few years and getting tired of stuff breaking, I gave it a try -- a hurdle or two at the start, but then holy crap is it ever a million times better. Waaayy more flexibility, no need to create actual NetBoot images based on entire masters (just a tiny boot-only image, then it grabs the rest off a sharepoint), and wwaaaaayyy faster. I was doing six simultaneous 16GB eMac images on a 100mbit network in about 15 minutes, which would have taken like a day and a half with NetInstall.

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