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+ -   Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter, Protein ... and Now Fat on Wednesday March 10, @04:21PM

Posted by timothy on Wednesday March 10, @04:21PM
from the visit-the-chiba-clinic-for-an-upgrade dept.
science
ral writes "The human tongue can taste more than sweet, sour, salty, bitter and protein. Researchers have added fat to that list. Dr. Russell Keast, an exercise and nutrition sciences professor at Deakin University in Melbourne, told Slashfood, 'This makes logical sense. We have sweet to identify carbohydrate/sugars, and umami to identify protein/amino acids, so we could expect a taste to identify the other macronutrient: fat.' In the Deakin study, which appears in the latest issue of the British Journal of Nutrition, Dr. Keast and his team gave a group of 33 people fatty acids found in common foods, mixed in with nonfat milk to disguise the telltale fat texture. All 33 could detect the fatty acids to at least a small degree."
Read More... 0 comments story

Comments: 28 + -   The Lost Film That Accompanied Empire Strikes Back on Wednesday March 10, @04:00PM

Posted by timothy on Wednesday March 10, @04:00PM
from the first-reel dept.
movies
An anonymous reader writes "'Alien' and 'Star Wars' art director Roger Christian was given £25,000 by George Lucas in 1979 to make a 25-minute medieval B-feature called 'Black Angel.' This spiritual tale of a knight on a strange quest was inspired by Christian's near-fatal fever when he fell ill in Mexico making 'Lucky Lady.' 'Black Angel' made a huge impression, not least because it shared the dark tone of 'Empire Strikes Back.' John Boorman showed it to the crew of 'Excalibur' as a template for how he wanted his film to look, and 'Black Angel' went on to influence films such as 'Dragonslayer' and 'Legend' throughout the 1980s and beyond. But it has not been seen by anyone since 'Empire' finished its theatrical run. Two weeks ago Roger Christian unearthed a print of a film that was thought lost forever, and in this interview he talks about 'Black Angel,' and provides the only picture from the film that has ever hit the Internet."
Read More... 28 comments story

Comments: 12 + -   OpenSSH 5.4 Released on Wednesday March 10, @03:40PM

Posted by timothy on Wednesday March 10, @03:40PM
from the but-it's-secret dept.
encryption
HipToday writes "As posted on the OpenBSD Journal, OpenSSH 5.4 has been released: 'Some highlights of this release are the disabling of protocol 1 by default, certificate authentication, a new "netcat mode," many changes on the sftp front (both client and server) and a collection of assorted bugfixes. The new release can already be found on a large number of mirrors and of course on www.openssh.com.'"
Read More... 12 comments story

Comments: 56 + -   Amazon 1-Click Patent Survives Almost Unscathed on Wednesday March 10, @03:18PM

Posted by timothy on Wednesday March 10, @03:18PM
from the can-this-just-be-a-bad-dream? dept.
business
Zordak writes "Amazon's infamous '1-click' patent has been in reexamination at the USPTO for almost four years. Patently-O now reports that 'the USPTO confirmed the patentability of original claims 6-10 and amended claims 1-5 and 11-26. The approved-of amendment adds the seeming trivial limitation that the one-click system operates as part of a 'shopping cart model.' Thus, to infringe the new version of the patent, an eCommerce retailer must use a shopping cart model (presumably non-1-click) alongside of the 1-click version. Because most retail eCommerce sites still use the shopping cart model, the added limitation appears to have no practical impact on the patent scope.'" Also covered at TechFlash.
Read More... 56 comments story

Comments: 75 + -   6 Smartphone Keyboards Compared on Wednesday March 10, @02:35PM

Posted by timothy on Wednesday March 10, @02:35PM
from the none-can-stack-up-to-my-thrift-store-board dept.
inputdev
Barence writes "A debate that crops up time and again is whether it's better to have a dedicated keyboard on your smartphone or whether an on-screen keyboard with text correction is adequate. Some phones with screen-based keyboards have started to provide tactile feedback, either using an ultra-quick spin of their vibration alert or, like the BlackBerry Storm2, using clever piezo-electric technology to simulate the feel of a button press. But which system works best? PC Pro's Paul Ockendon gathered six of the most popular handsets around and put them through a timed typing test to see which proved quickest and most typo-free."
Read More... 75 comments story

Comments: 48 + - Screenshot-sm   Man Threatened Spam Attack In $200,000 Extortion Plot on Wednesday March 10, @02:17PM

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday March 10, @02:17PM
from the can't-believe-this-didn't-work dept.
crime
52-year-old Anthony Digati was arrested for trying to extort $200,000 from an insurance firm by threatening to spam them with six million emails unless they paid up. Digati said he would use a spam service and his amazing talents as a "huge social networker" to drag the company "through the muddiest waters imaginable" and presumably unfriend everyone. He added that the price would increase to $3 million if they failed to pay up by Monday, according to federal authorities.
View Picture... 48 comments story

Comments: 119 + -   Code Bubbles — Rethinking the IDE's User Interface on Wednesday March 10, @01:52PM

Posted by timothy on Wednesday March 10, @01:52PM
from the don't-get-distracted-now dept.
gui
kang327 writes "As Java developers we are used to the familiar file-based user interface that is used by all of the major IDEs. A team at Brown University has developed an IDE for Java called Code Bubbles that makes a fairly radical departure from current IDEs — it is based on fragments instead of files. The idea is that you can see many different pieces of code at once. Fragments can form groups, have automatic layout assistance, wrap long lines based on syntax, and exist in a virtual workspace that you can pan. A video shows reading and editing code, opening different kinds of info such as Javadocs, bug reports and notes, annotating and sharing workspaces, and debugging with bubbles. They report on several user studies that show the system increases performance for the tasks studied, and also that professional developers were enthusiastic about using it. There is also a Beta that you can sign up for."
Read More... 119 comments story

Comments: 190 + -   Unboxing the Fake Intel Core i7-920 on Wednesday March 10, @01:10PM

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday March 10, @01:10PM
from the recognize-boo-yaka-shah dept.
crime
SkinnyGuy writes "The only thing more remarkable than NewEgg shipping fake Core i7 CPUs to customers is getting your hands on one and checking it out. Apparently there are only a couple hundred of these things in existence and Gearlog somehow managed to get and unbox one. The images are fascinating."
Read More... 190 comments story

Comments: 42 + -   Next-Gen Augmented Reality Rears Its Unreal Head on Wednesday March 10, @12:30PM

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday March 10, @12:30PM
from the but-i-want-my-goggles dept.
gui
andylim writes "Separate teams at Oxford university and Zentium, a South Korean company, are working on next-gen augmented reality solutions, which make it possible to fuse real and 3D computer-generated visuals on the fly using mobile phones. The team at Oxford university has named its solution Parallel Tracking and Mapping (PTAM) and it has licensed its technology to QderoPateo LLC, which has ambitious plans to grow the mobile augmented reality market and create an augmented reality search and gaming engine running for its 'Ouidoo' smart phone. Zentium's solution is called D-Track and is being used to develop the first markerless mobile augmented reality pet, called iKat. D-Track's mapping technology is very similar to PTAM and allows your phone to recognise the space in front of the camera and create an appropriate space for an augmented reality object or pet."
Read More... 42 comments story

Comments: 61 + -   Farewell To the South Pole Dome on Wednesday March 10, @11:49AM

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday March 10, @11:49AM
from the i-wanna-live-in-a-dome dept.
military
Julie188 writes "After more than three decades of service to researchers and staff stationed at the bottom of the world, the dome at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station was deconstructed this austral summer. Designed and constructed by the Seabees — the construction battalions of the US Navy — in the early 1970s, the dome's geodesic design provided a unique solution to the challenges posed to engineers trying to build structures at the South Pole. The dome is being returned to southern California where it will be held in storage. It could possibly be trotted out as an exhibit in a new US Navy Seabees museum."
Read More... 61 comments story
 
Poll What IT pioneer do you respect the most?
Charles Babbage
Lady Ada Lovelace
Alan Turing
K. Thompson/D. RItchie
Steve Jobs
Bill Gates
Linus Torvalds
Richard Stallman
[ Results | Polls ]
Comments:115 | Votes:3513

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