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Microsoft

Submission + - Startup Saves $100,000 by NOT supporting Internet Explorer (internetnews.com) 2

Submitted by darthcamaro
darthcamaro writes: Guess what — you don't have to support Microsoft's IE web browser any more to build a successful website. In fact, you might just be able to save yourself a pile of cash if you avoid IE altogether. That's the story in Canada's National Post today and to make this even sweeter — no one complained about the lack of IE support either.
Medicine

Submission + - The race to $1,000 human genome sequencing (patexia.com)

Submitted by
ericjones12398
ericjones12398 writes: "Just one decade ago, sequencing an entire human genome cost upwards of $10 million and took about three years to complete. Now, several companies are racing to provide technology that can sequence a complete human genome in one day for less than $1,000.
A genome sequence for $1,000 was a pipe dream, just a few years ago,” said Dr. Richard Gibbs, director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine, in a statement provided by Life Technologies Corp., one of the companies developing gene sequencing technology. “A $1,000 genome in less than one day was not even on the radar, but will transform the clinical applications of sequencing."
Privacy

Submission + - 64 Complaints Received on UK Cooklie Law (techweekeurope.co.uk)

Submitted by
judgecorp
judgecorp writes: "Privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner's Office, has already received 64 complaints under the UK's Cookie La, which requires sites to get permission to track users with cookies. The law only came into effect on Saturday, and many sites do not expect to comply soon. To make life more complicated, the ICO has updated its advice, apparently allowing "implied consent" instead of actually making a user click a box to give permission for cookies."

Submission + - TomTom flames OpenStreetMap (tomtom.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: TomTom Navigation has a recently launched article on what they call the 'negative aspects' of open data projects as OpenStreetMap. As there are no hard facts and details to the studies they refer, the OSM community identified this release as classical 'Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt'.
http://www.systemed.net/blog/index.php?post=23
Crime

Submission + - Is the Zombie Apocalypse Upon Us?

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Those who scoffed at the idea of CDC zombie apocalypse preparedness might reconsider their stance after reading this weekend's holy sh*t story out of Miami, where city police fatally shot a naked man found eating another man's face. The attacker not only failed to back away at the officer's request, but also continued to eat the victim after being initially shot. A witness said the attacker was pulling flesh from the victim's face and tossing it to the side. Police theorize the attacker might have been suffering from 'cocaine psychosis,' a drug-induced craze that bakes the body internally and often leads the affected to strip naked to try and cool off.
China

Submission + - China Has Backdoor On US Military Chip (cam.ac.uk) 11

Submitted by jjp9999
jjp9999 writes: Based on claims that silicon chips could be infected, security researcher Sergei Skorobogatov claims he and his team developed chip scanning software to put this to the test. They got their hands on a US military chip "that is highly secure with sophisticated encryption standards," that also happens to be manufactured in China. What they found was the chip has a backdoor on it that can disable the chip or reopen it at will. "This particular chip is prevalent in many systems from weapons, nuclear power plants to public transport. In other words, this backdoor access could be turned into an advanced Stuxnet weapon to attack potentially millions of systems. The scale and range of possible attacks has huge implications for National Security and public infrastructure," Skorobogatov writes on his blog.
Games

Submission + - Space Quest Spiritual Successor Project, SpaceVenture (kickstarter.com) 62

Submitted by
Mr. Jaggers
Mr. Jaggers writes: "Remember the old-school Sierra On-Line Space Quest series? With the original IP tied up in a giant Activision-Gordian-Knot, Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe ("The Two Guys from Andromeda"), the creators of SQ, have set up their own indie studio to invent a whole new hilarious universe, new characters, and puzzles; all the while respecting the style of art and comedy for which they are remembered. SpaceVenture is set to lambaste sci-fi franchises (as was done in SQ), and the team claims that none are safe, including Doctor Who, Stargate, Avatar, and others. They've lined up an all-star voice-acting cast, including Rob Paulsen (Animaniac Yakko, Pinky, TMNT's Raphael), Ellen McLain (GLaDOS), and radio legend Gary Owens. It's being promoted with a blog, podcasts, videos, live chats, and fan efforts including SQ marathons, comics, and fan videos. Best of all, as funding milestones are reached the team builds and releases prototypes; living, playable concept art demonstrating the character of the final game! The Kickstarter project targets PC/Mac/Linux/iOS/Android for release and includes awesome rewards that can land you in the game itself. It's definitely worth a look for fans of adventure games and sci-fi parody!"
Privacy

Submission + - Britians "No Tracking Law" Now In Effect (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by
Fluffeh
Fluffeh writes: "The British Gov might have more cameras up on street corners than just about anywhere else in the world, but it seems that the Gov doesn't want anyone else stepping on the privacy of their folks. In what the media have dubbed the "Cookie Law" all operators of websites in Britain must notify users of the tracking that the website does. This doesn't only cover cookies, but all forms of tracking and analytics performed on visitors. While there are potential fines up up to 500,000 pounds (Over US$750,000) for websites not following these new rules, the BBC announced that very few websites are ready, even most of its own sites aren't up to speed — and amusingly even the governments own websites aren't ready."
Japan

Submission + - Japan readies robot for work at crippled nuclear reactor (cio.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "A Japanese robotics lab has developed a new emergency response prototype that will soon be put to work at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northern Japan. The robot, called "Rosemary," is about the size of a lawn mower and has four extended treaded feet that swivel up and down to help it climb over obstacles."
Australia

Submission + - Oz govt pushes ahead with ISP customer data retention (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "The Australian federal government is pushing ahead with reforms that could see consumers' information kept on file for up to two years by ISPs. This could include the data retention of personal internet browsing information which intelligence agencies could access in the event of criminal activities by individuals or organisations."
Patents

Submission + - Patent Troll now armed with thousands of Nortel patents (techdirt.com)

Submitted by dgharmon
dgharmon writes: You may recall last summer that Apple, Microsoft, EMC, RIM, Ericsson and Sony all teamed up to buy Nortel's patents for $4.5 billion. They beat out a team of Google and Intel who bid a bit less. While there was some antitrust scrutiny over the deal, it was dropped and the purchase went through. Apparently, the new owners picked off a bunch of patents to transfer to themselves... and then all (minus EMC, who, one hopes, was horrified by the plans) decided to support a massive new patent troll armed with the remaining 4,000 patents. The company is called Rockstar Consortium, and it's run by the folks who used to run Nortel's patent licensing program anyway — but now employs people whose job it is to just find other companies to threaten:

Submission + - Shouryya Ray solves 300-year-old mathematical riddle posed by Isaac Newton (news.com.au) 1

Submitted by
johnsnails
johnsnails writes: "A GERMAN 16-year-old has become the first person to solve a mathematical problem posed by Sir Isaac Newton more than 300 years ago.
Shouryya Ray worked out how to calculate exactly the path of a projectile under gravity and subject to air resistance, The (London) Sunday Times reported.
The Indian-born teen said he solved the problem that had stumped mathematicians for centuries while working on a school project.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/german-teen-shouryya-ray-solves-300-year-old-mathematical-riddle-posed-by-sir-isaac-newton/story-e6frfro0-1226368490157#ixzz1w3LI5N1w"
Education

Submission + - India's Engineering Grads Cannot Solve Simple Math Problems (intoday.in) 7

Submitted by chiguy
chiguy writes: MIT alumnus Varun Aggarwal and IIT-Delhi graduate Himanshu Aggarwal released a study suggesting that 30% of Indian engineering graduates can't solve simple math problems. As reported in India Today:

"A bag is full of 20 bananas and no other fruit. Rajeev draws a fruit from the bag. What is the probability that he will draw a banana?

An embarrassing 30 per cent of the country's engineers cannot solve a problem as simple as the one above, a study has found. Their ineptitude, however, is not limited to just sums of probability.

It's worse as over one-third engineers do not possess mathematical skills needed in day-to-day life for doing simple transactions, counting and arranging. In other words, they have a weak understanding of concepts as elementary as decimals, powers, operations, ratio, fractions and the ability to apply these concepts to real-world problems."

Is this surprising? How does this compare to American/Western countries?

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