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Businesses

Submission + - Samsung Spins Off Its Display Business (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by
redletterdave
redletterdave writes: "Samsung Electronics announced Monday that it will spin off its LCD business division to launch a new entity, provisionally called Samsung Display Co., set to go live on April 1, 2012. The new business will launch with about $668 million in capital, but Samsung plans to invest about $5.8 billion in 2012 to develop better displays. The move, which now awaits shareholder approval, has been rumored for months since Samsung's LCD business announced operating losses of $666 million in 2011, citing sluggish TV sales. The company's spin-off display business may eventually merge with Samsung Mobile Display, which makes the company's organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels that are currently in high demand. Nam Ki Yung, a spokesman for Samsung, said the company is reviewing a merger of its LCD and OLED operations."

Submission + - Debian Position on Software Patents (debian.org)

Submitted by microphage
microphage writes: Unless communications related to patents are subject to attorney-client privilege, community members may be forced to produce them in a lawsuit. Also, patent concerns expressed publicly may turn out to be unfounded but create a good deal of fear, uncertainty, and doubt in the meantime. Therefore, please refrain from posting patent concerns publicly or discussing patents outside of communication with legal counsel, where they are subject to attorney-client privilege.
Security

Submission + - Researchers Break Video CAPTCHAs (net-security.org)

Submitted by Orome1
Orome1 writes: After creating the "Decaptcha" software to solve audio CAPTCHAs, Standford University's researchers modified it and turned it against text and, quite recently, video CAPTCHAs with considerable success. Video CAPTCHAs have been touted by its developer, NuCaptcha, as the best and most secure method of spotting bots trying to pass themselves off as human users. Unfortunately for the company, researchers have managed to prove that over 90 percent of the company's video CAPTCHAs can be decoded by using their Decaptcha software in conjunction with optical flow algorithms created by researchers in the computer vision field of study.

Submission + - Carbohydrate-Based Synthesis to Replace Petroleum Derived Hydrocarbons?

Submitted by __aamdvq1432
__aamdvq1432 writes: From PhysOrg's Taking biofuel from forest to highway, University of British Columbia biofuel expert, Jack Saddler, offers that:

we will become less dependent on fossil fuels and will become more dependent on fuels made from the sugars and chemicals found in plants.

Nothing too new there, i.e., the idea of biofuels eventually taking over from petroleum distillates. However, Saddler contends further that:

Similar to an oil refinery that processes crude oil to make thousands of supplementary products like plastics, dyes, paints, etc., the biorefinery would use leftover agricultural and forest material to make many of the same products, but from a sustainable and renewable resource.

I remember my organic chem instructor back in '81 telling us that eventually the textbooks would have to be rewritten. There would be no presumption of fractional distillation of thousands of basic compounds from petroleum, and the teaching emphasis would shift to synthesis from simple hydrocarbons. He noted that we'd all miss 'the good, ole days' when synthetic fibers, plastics, etc. were cheap...or even an economically viable option. I can live without rayon, but, dang, I'm gonna miss polyvinyl chloride!

Google

Submission + - Google Seeks to Plant Antenna Farm in Iowa (datacenterknowledge.com)

Submitted by 1sockchuck
1sockchuck writes: Google is seeking permission to place satellite antennas on land near its data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The 4.5 meter antennas could be used to receive content feeds from broadcast networks that could be bundled with a high-speed fiber service. The FCC filings were made by Google Fiber, which is currently laying fiber for a high-speed network in Kansas City that will provide Internet connectivity "at speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have today."
China

Submission + - Chinese court orders ban on Apple's iPad (bgr.com)

Submitted by zacharye
zacharye writes: A lawyer representing Proview International on Monday announced that the Intermediate People’s Court in Huizhou, a city in southern China, ruled on Friday that distributors should stop selling iPads in China...
Biotech

Submission + - Test-tube burger to be made this year

Submitted by ananyo
ananyo writes: A burger made entirely from lab-grown meat is expected to be unveiled by October this year (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/feb/19/test-tube-burger-meat-eating). But costing in excess of $250,000, it's not going to be flying off supermarket shelves quite yet. The lab meat is produced using adult stem cells, which are then grown on scaffolds in cell-culture media (background http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101208/full/468752a.html). Because such lab-assembled muscle is weak, it has to be 'bulked up' by exposing to electric shocks. The researchers, based in the Netherlands, had already grown goldfish fillets in 2002, then fried them in breadcrumbs before giving them to an 'odor and sight' panel to assess whether they seemed edible (the panel were prohibited from tasting them). An instructive graphic of the process here (http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101208/full/468752a/box/1.html)
Space

Submission + - What would REAL space combat look like? 13

Submitted by c0mpliant
c0mpliant writes: Me and two friends of mine were up until the wee hours of the morning at the weekend debating what REAL space combat would look like. I've spent the days looking it up online from a few sources and there doesn't seem to be any general concensus. So I thought I'd ask a community of peers what they think it would look like. Give our current technology and potential future technology, what shape would any future space battlefield look like? Would capital ships rule the day, cruisers, fighters and bombers or would it be a mix of all?
Government

Submission + - UK Government Demands Info On All Calls, Emails and Tweets (techweekeurope.co.uk) 1

Submitted by
judgecorp
judgecorp writes: "the UK government is proposing a ,law that would require phone and Internet companies to store information on all communications, and hand it to the security services when required. The Communications Capabilities Development Programme (CCDP) abandoned by the last government is back on the table, proposed as a means to increase security, and likely to be pushed throgh before the Olympics in London, according to reports."
Idle

Submission + - Goats can form accents :-) say experts (dbune.com)

Submitted by abhatt
abhatt writes: Don't be proud that only you have an accent being a human.. As the new study states.. experts once believed that only a select group of animals, such as humans, elephants, whales, bats and dolphins, had the ability to modify vocal sounds to reflect their surroundings, but a new study shows that goats can be added to that list.

Submission + - Sopa-II : H.R. 1981 "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act" (businessinsider.com) 7

Submitted by
TaoPhoenix
TaoPhoenix writes: "Here we go! As many of you predicted, SOPA would be rebuilt worse than ever by switching the Copyright flavor to a "Protect the Kiddies" flavor. You were right. H.R. 1981, entitled "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act", has just been sponsored by Lamar Smith, the same lead proponent of SOPA. That was fast! Unfortunately it has a built in cheapo argument ready as a talking point. It also has some nasty and costly data retention clauses that weren't even in SOPA. Are we ready to do another Blackout Day? I don't think we have too many of those left before the fragile Internet coalition becomes exhausted. So, two questions: How do we stop this bill, and how do we win a victory permanent enough that we don't have to do this every single month?
Business Insider version: http://www.businessinsider.com/anonymous-and-internet-advocates-wheres-your-hr-1981-outrage-2012-2
David Seaman's Youtube videocast http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBVqm2W56c8"
Google

Submission + - Google "Busted With Hand in Safari Cookie Jar" (wired.com)

Submitted by a_hanso
a_hanso writes: Wired and several other sources report: Google intentionally circumvented the default privacy settings of Apple’s Safari browser, using a backdoor to set cookies on browsers set to reject them, in the latest privacy debacle for the search and advertising giant. Google immediately disabled the practice after the Wall Street Journal disclosed the practice.

Submission + - E-prescription systems may reduce costly and dangerous medication-related errors (patexia.com)

Submitted by
shirleylopez1177
shirleylopez1177 writes: "Approximately 50,000–100,000 people die in America because of preventable adverse events (PAE). These PAEs or medical errors are among the leading causes of death, ranking higher than breast cancer, AIDS and motor vehicle accidents in terms of the number of fatalities caused. As a response to the problem of medication errors, e-prescription systems have emerged. Few studies have looked at how e-prescribing systems compare to traditional systems in their potential to reduce medical errors. However, a study from Australia published two weeks ago in PLoS Medicine examined the impact of e-prescription systems on medication errors in the inpatient setting and demonstrated that these systems are indeed effective."
Movies

Submission + - MyndPlay reads your mind to pick the perfect movie ending (gizmag.com)

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes: Whether you're in the mood for a film with a happy ending or feeling more like a Machiavellian finale, the MyndPlay media player delivers what you want ... by reading your mind. The system consists of an electroencephalograph (EEG) headset and accompanying software that allows the scenes and narrative of a MyndPlay film to change depending on how the viewer reacts to the story.
NASA

Submission + - Unique Map Shows Height of Earth's Forests (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by Hkibtimes
Hkibtimes writes: A group of scientists from NASA and the University of Maryland have created a unique map that shows the heights of the Earth's forests. The map, supposedly an accurate and high-resolution reading, has been created using 2.5 million carefully screened and globally distributed laser pulse measurements sent from space.
Science

Submission + - New USB Stick Sequences DNA in Moments (fellowgeek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It took 15 years and $3 billion dollars to map the human genome. Now, 9 years later we’re able to implement the technology into a USB stick. Granted, sequencing a human genome would take many hours, but the device is more than capable of handling simple genomes. And it is a harbinger of the future to come.

Built by UK firm Nanopore, the small device--called the minION--can sequence the genomes of viruses and bacteria in seconds. The data is relayed directly to your computer, since it is, after all, a USB stick.
The Military

Submission + - Nuclear Truckers Haul Warheads Across US

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "As you weave through interstate traffic, you're unlikely to notice a plain-looking Peterbilt tractor-trailer and have no idea that inside the cab an armed federal agent operates a host of electronic countermeasures to keep outsiders from accessing his heavily armored cargo: a nuclear warhead. Adam Weinstein writes that the Office of Secure Transportation (OST) employs nearly 600 couriers to move bombs, weapon components, radioactive metals for research, and fuel for Navy ships and submarines between a variety of labs, reactors and military bases. Hiding nukes in plain sight, and rolling them through major metropolitan centers raises a slew of security and environmental concerns, from theft to terrorist attack to radioactive spills. "Any time you put nuclear weapons and materials on the highway, you create security risks," says Tom Clements, a nuclear security watchdog for Friends of the Earth. For security, cabs are fitted with custom composite armor and lightweight armored glass, a redundant communications systems that link the convoys to a monitoring center in Albuquerque, and the driver has the ability to disable the truck so it can't be moved or opened. The OST hires military veterans, particularly ex-special-operations forces (PDF), who are trained in close-quarters battle, tactical shooting, physical fitness, and shifting smoothly through the gears of a tractor-trailer. But accidents happen. In 1996, a driver flipped his trailer on a two-lane Nebraska hill road after a freak ice storm, sending authorities scrambling to secure its payload of two nuclear bombs and in 2003, two trucks operated by private contractors had rollover accidents in Montana and Tennessee while hauling uranium hexafluoride, a compound use to enrich reactor and bomb fuel."
Windows

Submission + - VLC 2.0 with Experimental BluRay Support Now Available for Windows, Mac [Downloa (thetechnologytimes.com)

Submitted by
Prabhakaran
Prabhakaran writes: "VideoLan has just released the most awaited version 2.0 of open source VLC media player and it’s now available for download. Case of changes it has plenty, yes VLC 2.0 has revamped with new UI, 10bits codecs, new video rendering pipeline, high-quality subtitles, and also supports new experimental BluRay discs, more HD file formats and bunch of bug fixes. Especially the Mac version has"
Technology

Submission + - Georgia Tech iPhone App Could Help Blind Users Text (hothardware.com)

Submitted by
MojoKid
MojoKid writes: "Researchers at Georgia Tech university have built a prototype app for touch-screen mobile devices that is vying to be a complete solution for texting without the need to look at a mobile gadget's screen. In theory, it should greatly help the blind interact with mobile phones, but it could help just about anyone looking for a more efficient way to interact. Research has shown that gesture-based texting is a viable solution for eyes-free written communication in the future, making obsolete the need for users to look at their devices while inputting text. The free open-source app, called BrailleTouch, incorporates the Braille writing system used by the visually impaired. Early studies with visually impaired participants proficient in Braille typing have demonstrated that users can input up to 32 words per minute with 92 percent accuracy with the prototype app for the iPhone."

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