behold the Tech

Samsung Cell Phones to Get Tiny Hard Drive

MAY WONG

Associated Press

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/business/9619743.htm?1c
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has announced the world's first mobile phone to sport a tiny hard drive. With the built-in 1-inch, 1.5-gigabyte hard disk, the SPH-V5400 could store about 15 times more data than conventional handsets - everything from digital music files and photos to video, Samsung said.

The phone is equipped with a mega-pixel camera, camcorder, MP3 player, a high-resolution 2.2-inch display, a microphone and dual speakers. It will be available in South Korea later this month. Samsung did not disclose a price or any plans to sell it in the United States or elsewhere.

Hard drives are becoming an increasingly popular component in consumer electronics to accommodate the need for more digital data storage, and makers of the mini drives have worked to squeeze more and more capacity out of the coin-sized disks.

Seagate Technologies LLC has a 1-inch drive that holds 5 gigabytes of data, while Toshiba Corp. has developed an even tinier drive - at 0.85 inches in diameter - to store 2 to 3 gigabytes of data.

(no subject)

http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20000829.html

Product Endorsement: Schlock is carrying a BH-209 Plasgun, dubbed "plasma cannon" by the trade magazines of the burgeoning 31st century microfusion industry. Quoting from the product flyer:
The BH-209's variable mag-bottle aperture allows for full control of beam width, which can be dialed from a relatively narrow 1cm setting to a splashy 10:6 expanding cone (6-meter beam diameter at a range of 10 meters) useful for crowd control.
Powered by a Striggs & Bratton 2-stroke microfusion plant, the BH-209 need never be recharged, provided it is allowed to "breathe" periodically. When primed and flipped from "safe" to "decidedly unsafe," the BH-209 cycles local atmospheric gases into the plant, producing a noticeable acoustic effect. While this hum is stealth-defeating, many law-enforcement agents have reported that it serves as an excellent deterrent.

exalted proability problem

Given: each die has 3 states (1 to 6 = 0 successes, 7 to 9 = 1 success, 10 = 2 successes)

so the probability of 2 successes on 3 dice is equal the chance of:
a 10 on the first die and failures on the other two
OR
the second die being a ten and 1 & 3 being failures
OR
the third die being a 10 and 1 & 2 being failures
Or
1 & 2 being successes and 3 being a failure
Or
1 & 3 but not 2 OR 2 & 3 but not 1

so if x is the number of dice I thought the formula should look something like this

{0.1*[0.6^(x-1)]*x}+{(0.3*2)*[0.6^(x-2)]*x}

but it doesn't work
****EDIT
I already know that (0.6^x) gives me the chance of zero successes and (((0.6^(x-1))*0.3)*x) gives me the chance of only one success.