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Directed Energy Weapon Downs Mosquitos 428

wisebabo writes "Nathan Myhrvol demonstrated at TED a laser, built from parts scrounged from eBay, capable of shooting down not one but 50 to 100 mosquitos a second. The system is 'so precise that it can specify the species, and even the gender, of the mosquito being targeted.' Currently, for the sake of efficiency, it leaves the males alone because only females are bloodsuckers. Best of all the system could cost as little as $50. Maybe that's too expensive for use in preventing malaria in Africa but I'd buy one in a second!" We ran a story about this last year. It looks like the company has added a bit more polish, and burning mosquito footage to their marketing.

Comment Re:fair use (Score 1) 512

"Apple reserves the service manuals to authorized service providers. To be authorized, they have to demonstrate their competence. If Apple doesn't act against anyone publishing their confidential service manuals in whole or in part without authorization, then they lose control of the service of Macs, which results in slipshod work performed by unqualified technicians." How many times do you ask the repair guy "Can I see your manual to verify that it's a valid copy?" If there's gonna be slipshod work, there's gonna be slipshod work regardless of who sees the manual. There are a million and ten "Fix your computer" businesses in NYC, for example. What's more appealing-having a college kid fix your Mac for 20 bucks an hour at your home, or schlepping the monster-Macs down to the Apple store/Tekserve? If you've got a laptop, I guess the answer's obvious- schlep away. But an iMac or a G5? Forget it. You practically have to hire movers.

Comment I was one of those 50,000 (Score 1) 208

I had two eBay auctions cancelled late last year because I was selling the recovery disks that came with two IBM Thinkpad laptops I didn't even own anymore. The thing that gets me is the disks would be pretty much useless to anyone that didn't own one of the laptop models the disks originally came with, so why cancel the auctions?
User Journal

Journal Journal: Hrm. 9

Sometimes it's fun to attempt posting a journal entry. I think this one will add to the long list of "the only journal entry ever made for this journal" types that seem to litter slashdot.

w00T!

May it live in infamy.

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