rcw-work - Slashdot User

Comment Re:What a waste of energy (Score 1) 327

by rcw-work on Monday August 25, 2008 @02:06PM (#24740583) Attached to: Intel Claims an Advance In Wireless Power

So what is the efficiency of typical direct-electric chargers

This varies wildly. It's possible to make it about 90% efficient if you spend $10 in parts, but most manufacturers want to put out something cheaper than that. Many wall warts are less than 50% efficient (you can check by reading the input and output ratings on the label).

including while they're usually not charging a battery (but might or might not still be connected)?

Same as the MPG of an idling car. Zero divided by any number is still zero. What you want to know is the no-load power. Get a Kill-A-Watt, buy one of these things, post your review on the web somewhere, or find someone to do it for you.

Alternatively, just put your hand on it and see if it feels warm.

YouTube Yanks Free Tibet Video After IOC Pressure 482

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday August 12, 2008 @10:16AM from the ioc-is-not-very-nice dept.

RevWaldo writes "The International Olympic Committee filed a copyright infringement claim yesterday against YouTube for hosting video of a Free Tibet protest at the Chinese Consulate in Manhattan Thursday night. The video depicts demonstrators conducting a candlelight vigil and projecting a protest video onto the consulate building; the projection features recent footage of Tibetan monks being arrested and riffs on the Olympic logo of the five interlocking rings, turning them into handcuffs. YouTube dutifully yanked the video, but it can still be seen on Vimeo. (Be advised; there is some brief footage of bloody, injured monks.)"

Having Your ID Stolen Leads to Job Loss, Prosecution 404

Posted by Zonk on Thursday April 03, 2008 @04:33PM from the jobs-are-for-living-though dept.

ConfusedVorlon writes "The BBC reports on the sad case of Simon Bunce. Mr. Bunce had his identity stolen, and credit cards were made to capitalize on the theft. Some of those cards were used at sites offering child pornography, and as a result Mr. Bunce was swept up in Operation Ore. The poor man was prosecuted for his 'crime', and was eventually found innocent, but in the meantime he lost his job. It took him six months to find another at a quarter of the salary. 'The police's computer technicians take several months to examine [his computers and records], and Mr Bunce could not afford to wait to repair the damage done to his reputation. "I knew there'd been a fundamental mistake made and so I had to investigate it." Recent surveys suggest that as many as one in four Britons have been affected by it. In 2007 more than 185,000 cases of identity theft were identified by Cifas, the UK's fraud prevention service, an increase of almost 8% on 2006.'"

Ohloh Tracks Open Source Developers 115

Posted by kdawson on Thursday February 21, 2008 @01:06PM from the over-your-shoulder dept.

eldavojohn writes "The startup company Ohloh has a database listing 70,000 developers working on 11,000 open source projects. Their aim is to 'rank' open source developers, which raises some interesting questions about exactly how useful this tracking company is. Questions like, 'Is there an accurate way beyond word of mouth to measure the importance and skill of a developer?' I found it slightly alarming that, to this site, the number of commits (with input from the number of kudos) tells how good a developer you are."

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