Posts by Jim

HP pulls memory Missing Link from bottle of beer

Not convinced...

Where did the term memristance come from? Resistance is a measure of how a substance resists the flow of electrons, capacitance is a measure of charge holding capacity and inductance is a measure of current induced by mag flux (or vice versa). So what is the root for memristance? Turns out that memristor is derived from memory resistor. A nomenclature that suggests that rather than being a fundamental element it is derived or dependent on other fundamental elements.

What is new about the functionality that Williams claims, seems that HP's creation is just an alternative to something that already exists - flash. Flash is constructed from the 3 basic components and transistors, which can also be defined in terms of the 3 basic components (eg hybrid-pi model). So either the description of the memristor function is inaccurate or it appears that there is no 4th basic circuit component afterall.

A little research seems to suggest that Chua looked at R = V/I, 1/C = V/Q and L = Phi/I and decided that there must be somthing that equals Phi/Q as that combination is missing from the set. This seems to suggest that a memristor will be susceptable to influence by external magnetic fields, something that Williams doesn't appear to mention even though it would have implications for practical applications of a memristor. Or maybe Williams et al haven't actually produced a 'real' memristor...

Sounds cool but just not a new fundamental passive circuit element.

This doesn't sound right

"The memristor consists of two titanium dioxide layers connected to wires. When a current is applied to one, the resistance of the other changes. That change can be registered as data."

One of the key features of the fundamental passive circuit components is that they only have two terminals but this description seems to suggest 4, 2 to each oxide layer (assuming no common point), unless I'm missing something 'fundamental'.

How scanners and PCs will choose London's mayor

To add another voice...

"We could do a sample manual recount, but if it turned up a problem, we wouldn't be able to do anything about it, which would be the quickest way to collapse voter confidence in the result,"

Eh? You find an error and you can't do anything about it? Now this may sound mad but how about... Wait for it... Declare the election as void and start again?

Yeah, it's a pain in the arse but less so than several years of endless moaning that the result was fixed, blah, blah, blah...

On a different note, is it only me that read ORG as OR-G (maybe something to do with OGC)?

Apple gets (slightly) less sneaky with Windows Safari play

Phreaky is a parody?

Is it me but WP appears to have become a parody of itself. The last comment is just so chocked full of anti-mac cliche that I just read it as an anti-fanboi (ie anti those who use the wank term 'fanboi') commentary.

Maybe I'm just going crazy though...

Pro-smoking website redirected to 'baccy free zone

As an ex-smoker...

I can honestly say that the total ban on smoking in public places is horribly nannyish.

Yes tobacco smoke makes you stink and is possibly harmful to all around but why a total ban?

There is the argument that smokers would force their mates to frequent smoking rather than non-smoking establishments. Sounds like non-smokers are a bit weak willed here.

Another argument is that owners of non-smoking establishments will be less popular and not sustain their business. Well how about the equivalent of an on-license for smoking as well as drinking. That way a smoking establishment costs more to run. You could even limit the number of licenses available in any geographical area.

You see there are many options that maintain a level of freedom and choice for all parties but it seems that far too many want the government to push their choice.

Oh, and I managed to quit without any need for nicotine replacement or other source of assitance if you are interested.

Phone insurance firm reveals Sharia rules policy

Re @Jamie

WTF are you talking about? When did contents insurance become compulsory?

Remember, you only need to insure that which you would miss and can not afford to replace. That usually covers building and vehicle insurance, contents insurance is rarely worth the cost. I work for an insurer and even with a nice discount I still don't bother with contents insurance, neither does my boss.

Max Mosley loses battle to get sex video off web

@Graham Marsden

"Max Mosely had nothing to hide because it was *nobody's* business but his own, yet he now has to "fear" that his job is in jeopardy because of salacious tittle-tattle."

You are still missing the point. The problem that many people have with him is that he demands that those he governs abide by THE RULES at all times. He then keeps changing THE RULES and plays the "it's my ball and I'm taking it with me" card when anyone complains.

Now, according to the article, there has been a Mrs Mosley for 48 years and one of THE RULES about having a significant other is that you "forego all others". He has lost credibility and, as he is president and the most public face of, so has the FIA. He is just bringing the sport in to disrepute.

Oh, and Bernie is not the F1 boss but the commercial rights holder, ie the one that makes all the money. The regulations (sporting and technical) and their application are the responsibility of the FIA.

As for the judgement, the article does not make clear under what terms the plaintiff requested the gagging order. As for money, how long before The Screws makes a large donation? Given that Max has made the same claim if he wins damages.

To me though, the most interesting unknown is who stitched him up (metaphorically of course)?

@Those saying he did nothing wrong...

Over the last few seasons, the term "bringing the sport in to disrepute" has been used by Max and the FIA whenever any team or individual questioned the lack of consistency of decisions made by the body. Now what would you say Mr Mosley is doing by battling the News Of The Screws from his pulpit as head of this organisation?

Yeah, it's a blatent hatchet job but he should have resigned to deal with this situation and maybe come out of it with some dignity intact.

...After all, the vid is not particularly shocking. You'd be hard pressed (or very lonely) to describe it as even slightly erotic...

Olympus µ1010 compact camera

Schipol

Hence the sea of blue KLM self check-in things.

Camera a little too consumer for my tastes, currently using a Canon G9 & 10D (flooded with salt water and still going strong!)

Only Ubuntu left standing, as Flash vuln fells Vista in Pwn2Own hacking contest

@ Shakje

Yes you can get a non-Apple machine pretty cheap but to compare Windows to Mac you should really comare a to another 'big name' manufacturer.

Why don't you go and compare the Dell One (£999) with the iMac 20" (£949), very similar systems. The mac only has half the memory (1Gb) but a faster processor (2.4 vs 2.2). Apple flog the memory upgrade for £60 so that would put the iMac at £1009. Can't comment on the difference in graphics.

Looks like the iMac price is actually pretty reasonable when truely compared like for like.

Al Gore's green job bonanza - can we afford it?

So...

More jobs means more costs, what does an increase in GDP denote? IIRC that means that more money has been made, which in turn means more money has been spent.

It always amuses me when economists forget that it is a net zero game at best. For someone to get richer someone else (or many) has to get poorer. Externalising costs is not the same as reducing costs, even though it may appear so on the balance sheet.

Reducing labour requirements means that there is more labour resource available but there is no gaurentee that this surplus labour will be used, or used in a truly productive way. The Canadian seal hunt and the Japanese whale hunt are fine examples of what happens when you have excess labour resources.

Pork and politics energise the biofuel delusion

Re: re: John Band

Maybe you should rethink your answer here.

>>>

No, the point is that the current US agricultural system requires two calories of petrochemical energy for every calorie of corn energy produced even before you refine the corn into bioethanol.

>>>

>>

For the most part, we're talking about natural gas or coal used to heat the sugar during fermentation. The gasoline consumption of ethanol production is primarily limited to fertilizer costs (which aren't mandatory...

>>

Now, you say that oil based (not gasoline based) fertilizer is not mandatory but how many large scale agro-businesses are taking the 'organic' route? Surely oil based fertilizer is much more widely (and cheaply) available than an 'organic' option? So I would wager that the original poster is being more realistic in their assessment of energy balance for mass produced bio-ethanol.

Bio-ethanol is big businesses grab on the idea that started out as bio-diesel. One of the main points of bio-diesel was to utilise a resource for a second time, to re-purpose as it were. Bio-ethanol on the other hand is a product with but one use.

Re: An inconvenient truth

"First inconvenient truth: the physics of conservation of energy applies, whether we like it or not. Currently, 90%+ of our primary energy comes from fossil fuels. All costs (in $) ultimately get traced back to a resource cost. Therefore, if a "renewable" costs more per kWh (and they do), the net energy cost is BY DEFINITION to use more fossil fuels & emit more CO2."

Right, thought through this a little and it seems that you are predicting a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because current renewables cost more than current fossil energy prices then we should ignore renewables and stay reliant on fossil energy.

But... as we start changing the balance of energy source away from fossils then the "BY DEFINITION" bit no longer holds and the hypothesis begins to follow the Oozlum bird.

Another point is that when talking about kWh, it is inevitably comparing renewables to coal and not oil. Coal being more plentiful than oil and having much fewer uses these days, so much cheaper.

Finally, I cannot argue with the conclusion of the article that bio-ethanol is a suicidal long-term policy but at the same time it is not the ONLY option for biofuels? Whatever happened to this idea?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3601130.stm

Seems to solve the problem of H2 leaking all over the place.

Bell Canada chokes BitTorrent traffic on someone else's ISP

@ John

While it is very interesting to hear more about the realities of trying to run the physical Internet, I think Morely Dotes brought the focus back to the actual issue.

I think the problem is that many seem to be cling to the utopian ideal of unmetered Internet access and the service providers are guilty of pushing this ideal. The evidence clearly shows that more and more metering (caps, throttling, etc) is being put in place.

What is needed now is 'clear labelling' so that a customer can make an educated choice of Internet services. That means no more "fair use policy", no more "up to" and no stealth caps/throttling. Customers care about 3 things; latency, sustained peak link speed and bandwidth limits/penalties. Set your pricing via those metrics and everyone is happy, though many will be initially shocked to learn the true cost of bandwidth.

Blu-ray 0, SDHC card 1, THX Chief Scientist predicts

50Gb downloads?

Flash cards I can understand but why do people continue to push downloads of movies? If you want HD content then you are going to have to download huge amounts of data. It seems that today's ISPs just aren't capable of handling that amount of data at present. What ISP is going to be happy with you regularly downloading 50Gb every week or so?

Another thought is how are the content providers going to handle DRM on flash cards? They going to produce WORM flash or are you going to be forced to use proprietary flash products?

And whatever they do, how is it going to be more cost effective than pressing some bits of plastic?

Hutton: UK must become world No 1 in nuclear power

Here we go again...

@ Ru

Yet again we get the "you can't please the greens" mantra.

Greenpeace have no problems with wind power, maybe you are confusing them with RSPB or NIMBY Inc. Or maybe it is just so much easier to ignore the 'greens' if we just lump them all together so that everything 'they' say is contradictory.

@Barnaby

Pu reprocessing, as currently carried out (PUREX), to produce MOX fuel is probably worse than not bothering. The extra energy recovered from the fuel is just 1% of the potential energy in the fuel, though that means they get 6% rather than 5% from a conventional fuel cycle. It produces shed loads of extra low and medium level waste. It also requires significant transportation of fuel from power station to reprocessing plant and back that, which adds more risk of a contamination accident or fuel theft.

Oh, and fuel can only be reprocessed once.

@AC "Dangerous technologies"

Describing (fission) nuclear as anything but short term is unrealistic. The availability of U235 is not sufficient to support a large growth in LWR plant, as envisioned by the nuclear industry, for any meaningful length of time.

It is interesting that fast breeders could extend the available resources by increasing fuel utilisation to 90%+ and even allow the use of Thorium 233 as a fuel. Unfortunately, despite 50 years of work, fast breeder technology just hasn't been able to get beyond the experiment phase so thankfully nobody here has bothered bringing up that chestnut.

Going back to the article, I am actually rather confused about where the idea that Britain has any expertise came from. If you want under-performing gas-cooled technology we have plenty but my understanding is that LWRs are very much the preferred option. For this tech we have to go to the yanks, the japs and/or the french. The only LWR manufacturer we have is Rolls-Royce and they only build from licensed designs provided by the US.

Royalties are the admission price, Microsoft tells freetards

Re: Freetarded

How ironic that the only supporter of the mis-use of this term is someone so ready to insult by assumption.

So, using your methodology, I may assume that you are a 40 something who thinks that an MSCE makes him an expert on all things IT. I also reckon that you think anyone can acheive anything just by hard work, totally ignoring the impact of birth privileges.

How did I do?

Boffin seeks US Blu-ray, mobile phone import ban

Hang on...

Assuming that this case hasn't been going on for the last decade and only just got made public, did this woman not notice that blue LEDs were appearing in virtually every piece of consumer electronics for that time? Or that there has been a rather public 'war' between manufacturers of rival blue laser optical storage systems?

Or maybe this is just yet another patent hijack/troll? An over-zealous new member of Columbia's legal team?

Surely this case has no merit, given that the complainent has had plenty of opportunity prior to the major adoption of this tech.

Bag tax recycled into eco-PR slush

Interesting...

What axe is there to grind with Greenpeace?. All because Mr Page said "presumably including organisations such as the Greenpeace Environmental Trust"? Hardly compelling evidence given that Wigan Wigan (with the tiniest of research) pointed out that "Greenpeace does not accept donations from governments..", or corporations for that matter, and that this ideal is publically stated.

@Wigan Wigan

You would be amazed at who HAS made offers..

A few other little facts that may be of interest with regard to this article

1. Paul Watson was a founding member and not a co-founder of Greenpeace or what has become that organistion anyway.

2. Paul Watson has said that every time he bad mouths Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd gains (both supporters and finacially) and that this effect is intended. I have heard it from the man in person.

@Trygve Henriksen

Greenpeace do not ram other vessels, throw acid, etc. You appear to be getting them confused with Paul Watson and Sea Shepherd.

Greenpeace aren't perfect by any stretch of the imagination but at least you could try and find a fault that isn't based on assumption...

Treehuggers lose legal fight to solar-powered neighbour

@ Not That Andrew

"You forgot to factor in the cost of mining the coal, transporting it to the power station placing it in storage piles, removing it from storage piles and rendering it into a form usable by the power station (some stations need it ground into powder) and all the other associated costs."

It is correct to point out that coal requires extraction and transport too but, when considering electricity generation, these are ALWAYS bulk processes (no need to pop a tanker down to the local filling station). Also, the more modern coal plants manage efficiencies of 40-45% when that figure is derived from EXPORTED power from fuel potential, ie on-site energy use (such as fuel handling/preparation) has already been accounted for. Oh, and I think you will find coal powder a pretty widespread fuel for current coal-fired power stations.

" And that is not even including the environmental impact of open cast mining."

Yeah, because oil extraction/refining is just sooo clean.

If I were to critcise the numbers provided by AC then it would be that 35% efficiency is way low for a coal-fired power station as it is much more like 40-45% and above. And if you want to include other fuels then CCGT can easily reach 55-60%. If you can find a local use for low-level (waste) heat then you can reach the heady heights of 80% efficiency.

The other major criticism is the assertion that 1% isn't a big deal. On an individual level, no, 1% isn't great but this is not about individuals. We are talking global here so all the little bits saved get added together and the numbers become staggeringly huge. Would you feel rich if I gave you 1% of £1bn (even using the US version)?

As for trees vs pv, both have a positive effect. From reading the article, it seems that the trees were there first. Why did the pv owner not have a discussion about the obvious, eventually issue of shade before comitting to capital cost? Maybe s/he wanted rid of the trees, as per the strategy others have suggested...

@ Herby

Am I to take it that you place potential sporting success above the environment? You seriously think it is ok to live in a shithole so long as people you don't really know might win a game? I guess you can bask in the reflected glory and the knowledge that the University owners are even richer than you ;-)

Eugene Kaspersky and the KGB man that never was

No-one ever says...

ftoomtch

Geordie cops arrest two for Wi-Fi squatting

Ignorance?

If I'm not mistaken, ignorance (of the law) is not a viable argument for defence so why would ignorance (of technology) be a viable argument for prosecution?

A wireless network that advertises itself and accepts incoming requests for connections should be considered a public service. If the owner wishes to identify the network as private then they need do nothing more than stop SSID broadcast to demonstrate their intent, add encryption if you want.

Of course, these conditions are open to abuse as the owner can cry foul AND THEN stop SSID broadcast/add encryption after the event...

Obviously, in this article, there is no info about what steps the owner took to avoid public use of their connection though one could take "It is worth reminding people who use a wireless connection to ensure they follow the manufacturer's instructions when setting it up and make sure all security systems are in place to keep computers safe." to mean that the owner had been less than careful.

Total lunar eclipse: look skywards Wednesday

@Beauty and Light

Why personify God? God is, and always has been, a handy description of what lies beyond the boudries of knowledge of man and nothing more. Please grow up and stop believing in imaginary friends - I think that balances things out a bit

Polaroid to close instant film plants

@Lukin Brewer

If the only reason that pros stick with film is shutter response then film must be dead. The Canon 5D (not even the pro range) sports a turn on time of 200ms and a shutter lag of 75ms - a good human response time is around 150ms so the camera is adding less lag than the user.

There are still some reasons for using film but shutter response stopped being one a few years ago...

Hacker holds onto ill-gotten gains thanks to US courts

@lglethal

Congrats for reading the full story.

As this man has not been tried, let alone found guilty, then, effectively, no crime has been commited, ergo there are no proceeds of crime that can be confiscated.

US man threatens TV repairman with shotgun

@AC - "Only in California"

"I cannot imagine living in such a place where the government does not allow me to defend myself. It must be really scary to live your life in a constant fear because you cannot provide for your own safety."

I don't think there are many countries that stop you defending yourself, though many draw the line at personal weapons. It is strange but if you do not expect to be attacked with a concealed weapon then you do not fear it happening to you. If guns are illegal then the expectation is that you will not experience one. I know it must sound crazy but I have lived my entire life in countries that do not allow me to carry a gun and have managed to avoid "living in constant fear". Strangely, I feel a little nervy when watching armed police walking round airports. Go figure.

Incidentally, I have witnessed exactly one illigal firearm (9mm handgun) during my life so far, during the decade I spent in Manchester. I guess it is kinda ironic that the proud owner was merkin (and, unconnected, a complete wanker too).

Intel makes MacBook Air processor available to all

Re: Price bloat

"MacOS is a little thinner than Windoze but the Apple pricing is certainly bloated!"

Just out of interest, what planet do you live on? Ever thought of making a comparison before spouting off? To save you the bother, here is one I did earlier.

Leopard/OS X (+ iLife08) - $200 (I'll ignore the family, 5 license, offer at $267)

Vista Ultimate - $355 ($232 upgrade)

So what is more bloated again?

Now if you mean hardware then I'll agree that Apple stuff comes in *slightly* higher (like for like) than an MS powered effort but the Air is a 'must have' product so early adopters are dumb enough to pay the inflated price.

Cisco punts massive Nexus 7000 switch

SDM? Are you insane?

Have you ever looked at the actual config after that abortion has had its wicked way? Took about an hour to decided that I had better uses for the flash.

I have to admit I actually don't mind IOS, it initially appeared to have been designed by an infinite number of monkeys but it actually starts making logical sense when you think about the wide variety in customer applications it has to meet. I have yet to see a decent web interface (IE on MS anyone?) on any 'real' networking kit that offers any benefit over CLI programming (cut & paste is your friend).

Autothrottle problems suspected in Heathrow 777 crash

@EMI and FADEC

Hang on... So if I understand you correctly, it is perfectly safe to use cellphones or other personal electronics at all times in a flight? I don't seem to remember any of these devices being available in the MW range. That means... oh my god... I've been lied to... Quick! Hand me some of that copper mesh stuff...

BTW, love the way that the yanks (I'm guessing) managed to find a way to blame the non-US engines rather than the US plane. It kinda reminds me of the (rather sick imo) relief when the as-it-happens reporters of the Rockaway crash discovered that the aircraft involved was European rather than a Boeing as first thought - they went all pensive again when it was announced that the engines were possibly to blame and they were GE.

O2 misses iPhone targets

Hang on...

"And remember 1 million mobile phones were sold in December in the UK - this puts the iPhones sales in context. The iPhone is not as compelling as some claim."

So you are saying that (roughly) 1 in 10 phones sold in December, in the UK, was an iPhone? I'm obviously assuming these figures are correct and this is the comparison that you intended.

Given that smart phones make up a minority of phone sales, just how many high (over?) priced devices needed to be flogged for it to be considered compelling?

@Arithmetic

I think you may be being a little on the pedantic side, rather than simply accepting journalistic license ;-)

ID cards delayed until 2012

Hang on...

"The Identity and Passport Service successfully introduced the first biometric passport on time and on budget in 2006, with over 8 million now issued."

That'll be them thar passport things that are valid for 10 years but the chip containing the biometrics is only guarenteed for 2? And what happens again if the chip doesn't work when queried at border control? And that is a success? What kind of friggin newspeak is that?

Apple cripples Sun's open source jewel

The difference between Sun and Apple...

... is that one of those two companies has a significant business involving the leasing (sorry, sale) of copyrighted works.

Do you really think that the distributors of said works would be happy if a tool was able, either deliberately or in error, to give direct access to unencrypted versions of said work?

Apple may be bending over a little to eagerly but you do have a choice, you don't have to use their OS...

Apple's record Q1 no match for pessimism over economy

Erm...

Seriously, the fact that the pipe dream of a consumer driven economy is starting to fall apart under the weight of consumer debt has nothing to do with Apple predicting less profit in the near future?

Can we see some comparison to other, like, businesses before anticipating the demise of the kool-aid drinker's favourite?

TIA

UK.Gov green lights nuclear power

Re:I can't help it...

but every time I see "Luddite" I think what a tw$t the author is.

Give me a luddite over the church of techno-utopia any day.

Oh Dear...

@Chris Hamilton

Yes, that's right. For the sake of a handful of jobs Scotland should be forced to maintain/build more nuke plants that Scotland doesn't need as they currently export a significant amount of lecky. Great logic there mate.

@John Stag

You work in the nuclear industry? Erm, a 'modern' reactor looks and operates pretty much like those built in the 70s. Maybe they have a few extra little tricks in there and maybe a few 'go-faster' stripes but essentially they consist of a load of U oxide in a bath.

@Matt Hawkins

I think you missed the bit that said "especially with the prospect of coal and gas being forced in future to pay carbon emissions levies." So you see nuclear is very competative when the other options are going to be forced to be more expensive. I guess we can look forward to higher energy bills to cover the cost of 'cheap nuke energy'. Classic newspeak.

Given that the government has painted itself in to a corner regarding low-carbon generation (having pissed away the funds for renewables research), I have been resigned to new nuke build for a while.

What worries me is what Duncan mentions above, ie who picks up the cost if an operator goes tits-up. Also, how can operators be convinced to put safety before profit - unlike at TMI and Davis-Besse (to name the most famous ones).

UK nuke-power plans leak early

@Nexox Enigma

No matter how many times you say it the following is simply not true.

"And the same people that are against nuke power would be against the wind turbines because 3 or 4 birds would get killed. There is really just no pleasing some people."

It is a common misconception that every member of the anti-nuclear brigade is also a member of the RSPB and a NIMBY. It may be convenient to use this STRAW MAN argument that 'there is no pleasing some people' but the reality is that most anti-nuclear campaigners have little problem with a few chopped birdies (very few according to scientific research) or a 'spoiled' view.

As for FBRs, why are they more dangerous? IIRC, in the 60s, EBR-II was run with all the coolant systems turned off and guess what happened? As the core heated up, the fuel rods moved further apart and the fission reaction slowed/stopped. What happens ro LWR when you stop circulating the feedwater to the boilers (think TMI)? Also, it has been proposed that FBRs, when coupled with a pyroprocessing plant, can increase fuel utilisation from 5% (typical LWR figure) to 95% thus extending the lifetime of current U supplies.

Of course, this is theoretical and assumes that all U238 will transmute to a fissile isotope of P. And also assumes they can overcome the hurdle of current designs not getting particularly near the 1.3 breeding ratio required. Also there are the various problems of using molten sodium coolant but there are also designs using molten lead or lead/bismuth mix.

A couple of other points that I think are pertinent are

1. So RMBKs were designed for P production. And what do you think MAGNOX (online refueling, metallic fuel) was designed for?

2. Why assume that any new LWR will be PWR? BWR is (supposedly) cheaper to build and safer to run. And is what the Finns chose for their new build.

Personally I think that nuke is bad but we don't have much option cos the government pissed all the money earmarked for renewables research into nukes instead.

Academics kick off nuclear power war of words

@Chris Miller

"there's only been 2 nuclear accidents *ever*"

"Nice try, but only two of those on your list resulted in radioactive material being released to the environment as a result of power generation"

Nice try but your rebuttal is based in a much tighter set of constraints than the original post. Don't know about you but to me a nuclear accident is a nuclear accident whether directly as the result of power generation or not.

Irrespective of that I would contend that there have been at least 4 major reactor accidents - Windscale, TMI, Chernobyl & Monju.

With regard to the list of accidents, the THREE MILE ISLAND was caused by a lot of things being flawed, eg instrument design, operator training, owner ethics. www.tmia.com has a load of interesting info regarding this accident (even when you ignore the obvious bias). The following contests the official line that there was negligible release of radiation during the incident.

"In August 1996, a study by the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, authored by Dr. Steven Wing, reviewed the Susser-Hatch study (Columbia University; 1991). Dr. Wing reported that "...there were reports of erythema, hair loss, vomiting, and pet death near TMI at the time of the accident... Accident doses were positively associated with cancer incidence. Associations were largest for leukemia, intermediate for lung cancer, and smallest for all cancers combined... Inhaled radionuclide contamination could differentially impact lung cancers, which show a clear dose-related increase."

Findings from the re-analysis of cancer incidence around Three Mile Island is consistent with the theory that radiation from the accident increased cancer in areas that were in the path of radioactive plumes. "This cancer increase would not be expected to occur over a short time in the general population unless doses were far higher than estimated by industry and government authorities," Wing said. "Rather, our findings support the allegation that the people who reported rashes, hair loss, vomiting and pet deaths after the accident were exposed to high level radiation and not only suffering from emotional stress.” "

Kent council approves 'cleaner' coal-fired plant

Shooting the messenger again?

There seems to be a fair few people here just attacking Greenpeace rather than talking about the real problem, ie should next-gen coal be considered as a viable power option.

@ Marc Savage

And you would know how hard these people work because...?

Hey, they are currently hiring IT staff, how about gettin yur cv in. You might get a chance to see what they actually do and how much work is involved.

@Get a Grip (AC)

"Now they are just abunch of useless, uninformed intention seeking whining morons.

Wonder how much CO2 the Rainbow warrior pumps out, oh sorry, it runs on love, I forgo, silly me, I'll get my coat..."

Uninformed eh? How about you look at a photo of the current Rainbow Warrior. See them big white things - I think they call em sails. Now who's the uninformed, whining moron again?

Don't blame the wires...

@EuroBob

"...not wasting most of the electricity as heat on the grid."

Actually most of the waste occurs at the power station. A coal fired power station only converts 40-45% of the fuel energy to electricity, nuclear manages a meager 5%. The best is CCGT that manages 50-60%.

Inefficiencies in load also outweigh transmission losses.

More FUD...?

@Nexox Enigma

"Lots of hippies seem to want to lower everyone's standard of living for the benefit of the planet. Plus many of them seem to be unable to grasp the notions of conservation of energy, the second law of thermodynamics, and efficiency. Those are the reasons that I normally see for anger towards the envirofolks."

Maybe the hippies understand the numbers game. Since 1970, the population of the world has essentially doubled. Now given that there hasn't been an equivalent growth in resources then that means there is less available for each individual. So if your lifestyle exceeds your share of the resources then you need to cut back in some way.

I keep hearing this wonderful fear-mongering phrase "lowering your standard of living" but it is hardly ever pointed out that our standard of living (in the developed world) is ridiculously high already, how many cars or computers does one family need? 'Er indoors and myself have 3 computers, a car, a motorbike, 2 push bikes, 4 MP3 players and 2 hi-fi systems (just a quick tot up of luxuries). Now if we got rid of some of these then our standard of living would drop but we could probably live quite easily if we halved that list. Try auditing your own stuff and do the old spec design exercise of determining what is required and what is just desired.

"Lowering your standard of living" != "living in a cave".

@Call Me Scruffy

Oh, dear you really are dragging the barrel when you need to lump 'science and technology' together so tightly that objecting to coal fired power stations denies access to pharmaceuticals. Yes, science has given us both but it also gave us PCBs (not printed circuit boards). I guess you must bathe in them because they are so good for you or they were until they weren't.

Just because science does good doesn't make all science good.

"The flooding was in the summer, and was flooding oweing to rainfall rather than sea levels... Rainfall flooding is nothing new."

Rainfall flooding, while not a new problem, has increased in frequency (if not severity) for many reasons but mostly because (or potentially because) of the actions of people looking to make a buck. As for the climate angle, higher sea levels will cause some backing up of rivers and where did all this extra rainfall come from? (not rhetorical btw).

I don't remember anyone claiming that Brent Spar was safe, just not has hazardous as first thought. In a way it is interesting that the facts only emerged after the fact considering that the Greenpeace's campaign went on for quite a long time.

As for Trident, we don't need it. It is just a massive ego extension that helps us (the British) maintain the dream that we are still a significant world power despite no longer having an empire anymore. There seems to be quite a few European countries that have continued to exist despite not having an independent nuclear deterrent.

As for my own views, something along the lines of what Dr Mouse said - compromise.

The Electric Car Conspiracy ... that never was

@Matware

"It's a lie that's up there with the unleaded fuel is giving you cancer crud that was peddled in the 80s".

This is a lie?

Seems that the EPA documented that gasoline contains numerous known and probable carcinogens in 1995 (http://www.epa.gov/otaq/consumer/02-toxic.pdf) and that these carcinogens can easily enter the air either through evaporation or combustion products in engine exhausts gases.

Simple research demonstrates that the removal of lead from fuel led to an increase in the aromatic and olefin content of fuel. These groups of chemicals contain (or produce through combustion or incomplete combustion) the carcinogens noted by the EPA.

Is it really that much of a stretch to put this information together to realise that using unleaded fuel increases the amount of carcinogens pump/evaporated into the air we breath and, intuitively, more exposure = more risk of cancer.

US Army loads up on Apples for 'better security'

Enough already...

"An article in Forbes magazine revealed the military's (rather limited) newfound passion for Steve Jobs' high-priced Unix boxes."

Last time I checked, an Xserve comes in at a similar price to a similarly specced Dell server running Server 2003 with a handful of CALs (compared to unlimited CALs included with the Xserve). I'm sure the price differential is greater when considering a Linux/BSD box but I don't see anyone complaining about the cost of Windows based servers to the same degree that Apple gets. Bit of balance please.

TIA

Vista vs XP performance: Some informal tests

@Poor statistics...

I don't get your example.

Vista=100s, XP=30s

Let's say that Vista is 90s instead (for convenience). That means that XP is 300% (3 times) faster, ie does the job in 1/3 the time. It also means that, conversly, Vista is 300% (3 times) slower. You see it IS true that if A is x% faster than B then B is x% slower than A.

To explain, it is necessary to examine the logic of these two statements and understand that the percentage is derived from the ratio of the values.

When you switch the order of comparison OR switch the comparison type (faster/slower) then you invert the ratio. With these two statements you switch both these components so that you invert the ratio twice (a/b -> b/a -> a/b) so you end up with the same answer.

The fact that the difference is 70% of the higher value has no real relevence to the calculation.

I do agree that the original statement is rather confused. If Vista was 70% slower, that is it took 170% of the time XP took (30s), then it would take 51s not 100s. 51s is clearly not 3 times 30s.

Extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of in-game ads analysts

@AC

I suggest you watch the first episode of "Century Of The Self". Makes you will realise that advertising for brand awareness was ditched years ago in favour of generating demand for products that cannot sell themselves without reprogramming the population to believe that they need this crap to be alive.

If the propagandists are prepared to go to that length then why would they ever constrain themselves to a subset of potential media outlets?

I'm with Bairdy. Block the ads or take it back for a refund.

Second jellyfish pack moves on UK

@Chris Morrison

No, that 'fragment of a sentence' doesn't contradict itself.

That climate change is happening is not in doubt so to ignore this as a 'possibility' would be negligent. It is inevitable that the fishing corps will latch on to this reason though as the alternative, over-fishing, is not good for their business. See? Anyone will bang the climate change drum if it suits them.

Tasers can be instrument of torture, says UN

Is it just me but...

Isn't the point of the TASER that it quickly subdues the victim so that more violent methods are not required? And yet the article is full of statements that the TASER was used repeatedly as the vic was not responding to the treatment'.

"The Taser did not stop him from fighting."

Even the manufacturer makes this point.

"His continuing struggle is proof that the TASER device was not the cause of his death."

So what are TASERs for exactly?

Reg readers get physical with virtual machines

Re: VMWare isn't everything

Now correct me if I'm wrong but you appear to misunderstand what VMware (and others) provide. Virtuozzo is a platform for providing virtual OSs, primarily aimed at the webhosting market. VMware provides a platform for running completely seperate (actual) OSs on the same hardware, simultaneously. Not really the same thing.

Chinese cyber strikes will be 'like WMD'

Aren't they forgetting...

the secret tunnel under the Pacific, allowing the yellow peril to rise from the ground and overwhelm the US?

Also, nice to see you managed to get that Apple dig in cos, like, every other computer company abhores the concept of outsourcing manufacturing, oh wait...

Asylum seeker fingerprint database has security flaws, says watchdog

Title

Sounds more like the procedures for data access are where the flaws are rather than the database itself.

Wadya know, governments using personal data inappropriately... What TeeCee said.