k-sound - Slashdot User

Comment Re:I don't get it.. (Score 5, Informative) 285

by k-sound on Monday August 31, 2009 @06:14AM (#29258635) Attached to: The Orange Goo That Could Save Your Laptop

A squishy material just softens the impact by slowing the deceleration of your momentum. The problem is if the impact force is high you need a lot of padding to soften the blow. By turning solid on impact you material instantly distributes all this force over a large area i.e. all the force isn't released on e.g. the corner of your laptop causing it to shatter. This is similar to putting a hard cover around your object (like a motorcycle helmet). The advantage of this material is that is is flexible in it's normal state so it can met integrated in clothing etc without limiting movement.

This video has a great example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JceDaEMIHKE&feature=related
They use a cap with the material to protect a watermelon from impact with a hammer. With a normal squishy material you'd need a really thick layer to soften a blow like that and a hard material would restrict movement.

It's a kind of best of both worlds solution.

Comment Re:Totally agree (Score 1) 621

by k-sound on Wednesday October 01, 2008 @04:17AM (#25215405) Attached to: Stallman Says Cloud Computing Is a Trap

that's what google paper is for

US Government Seeks Open-Source Translation 309

Posted by Zonk on Sunday March 19, 2006 @05:27PM from the penguins-at-the-keyboards dept.

valdean writes "The Boston Globe is reporting that last week the United States Government began publishing captured Iraqi documents on the web in order to harness the translating talents of the bilingual public. The article calls it 'the same open source principle' that created Linux. Check out the Foreign Military Studies Office's document portal."

On the Future of Science 275

Posted by Zonk on Sunday March 19, 2006 @03:51PM from the in-the-not-too-distant-future dept.

bj8rn writes "Kevin Kelly, the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, speculates about the future of science based on a talk he have gave a few weeks ago. Kelly sees recursion as the essence of science and chronicles the introduction of different recursive devices in science; projecting forward from this, he makes several interesting predictions about what the near future may hold in store. Some highlights: there will be more change in the next 50 years of science than in the last 400 years; the new century will be the century of Biology; new ways of knowing will emerge, with 'Wikiscience' leading to perpetually refined papers with thousands of authors."

Suing Google Over Pagerank 427

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday March 19, 2006 @11:22AM from the this-can't-be-the-first-time dept.

Yardboy wrote in to tell us about a story from Reuters describing a lawsuit by parental advice company Kinderstart.com against Google for 'charging it unfairly deprived the company of customers by downgrading its search-result ranking without reason or warning.' Kinderssart claims Google is responsible for 'a "cataclysmic" 70 percent fall in its audience -- and a resulting 80 percent decline in revenue.' I guess the courts will now decide: Can google taketh what they giveth?

Futurama Returns 386

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday March 19, 2006 @11:07AM from the good-news-everyone dept.

riflemann writes "Another 26 episodes of Futurama will shortly go into production! This news comes from none other than Billy West (voice of Fry) himself, in a short post to his own message board. No further details are available, except that it's likely to be on TV, not straight to DVD." The best news is that means fresh quotes for slashteam to hide in the source code.

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