Comment Re:Also, when you don't find... (Score 5, Funny) 103
Now, we just need to find an online activity that balances cuddling and sex.
I'd say 'posting in
Comment Not classifiable (Score 2, Funny) 103
...the author talks about how smart people need to find a certain amount of intellectual challenge from day to day. If they don't find it in their workplace, they'll end up playing complex, 'smart' games, like Civilization IV or Chess
Well, I always try to find challenging games during work hours, so I don't think I classify in either category.
Comment Re:Ideally... (Score 1) 756
Homo sapiens may not be the ideal kind of advanced life form either.
I'm a little late, but Neil deGrasse has already made that point in a very funny way. After all, we breath and swallow through the same hole!
Submission + - The Future of Farming (popsci.com)
eldavojohn writes: With hunger being a major problem in the world, PopSci offers eight innovations in farming that are currently being tested and implemented. They are: farming the desert, soil sensors to cut fertilizer/water waste, genetically engineering rice, using nitrogen collecting microbes in place of fertilizer, gathering extensive data on land to improve usage, robot labor, biochar (nutrients for plants while sequestering carbon) and supercrops like a super resistant, super nutritious bioengineered cassava (also known as yucca). While some of the estimates on these things are five or six years into the future, many are already in place and available.
Earth's Period of Habitability Is Nearly Over 756
xp65 writes "Scientists at this year's XXVIIth General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil agree that we do not yet know how ubiquitous or how fragile life is, but that: 'The Earth's period of habitability is nearly over on a cosmological timescale. In a half to one billion years the Sun will start to be too luminous and warm for water to exist in liquid form on Earth, leading to a runaway greenhouse effect in less than 2 billion years.' Other surprising claims from this conference: that the Sun may not be the ideal kind of star to nurture life, and that the Earth may not be the ideal size."
Submission + - Spanish news site shows porn photo in main page
Andr T. writes: "It seems a Spanish news site called Diario Barcelona has inadvertently published a porn photo in the main page for ten hours (spanish site). The programmer in charge approved the photo (submitted by a trainee) and went to the beach, turning his cell phone off.
Google's (terrible) translator version of the page can be read here."
Google's (terrible) translator version of the page can be read here."
Submission + - Airline Says It Owns The Word "Northwest" 2
Freshly Exhumed writes: "Northwest® Airlines, the major airline whose market branding is being phased out after it was acquired by Delta, charges that it has exclusive ownership of the common, geographically descriptive term northwest." The Minnesota-based airline is going after the operator of a small, Spokane Washington web site that provides tourist information for visitors to the Pacific Northwest. From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: '[the site's owner] said he has so far spent more than $4,000 in the past few months to defend his site, and he's looking at thousands more going forward as he faces battles in the U.S., U.K., and Australia.' Presumably the Government of Canada will be the next Northwest® target victim, what with their use of the term to name some of their Territories since 1870. I don't suppose Northwest® can sue the world's cartographers, geocachers, boy scouts, etc. can they?"
Comment Re:Not new (Score 1) 330
Its nothing new, but it might surprise those who believe in pure, not-revenue-generating OSS. It's how the free for user projects are financed.
That is really not the problem - at least for me. You can gather user data, you can generate income with it, but you do need my permission. You can't do that without a clear notice.
Comment Re:Do not panic (Score 1) 330
The multisearch add-on was only intended for the pre-release versions, as part of a research project. It will NOT be included in the final Karmic release.
Citation please?
Note that we did not necessarily foresee Multisearch as code that we would ship in a stable release. Whatever actions we take in response to the information and feedback will depend on the information and feedback that we collect from this effort.
That's quite a different statement.
Comment Re:some people... (Score 5, Informative) 330
Collecting user data without asking for agreement is wrong, whatever you say.
Comment Re:I do that all the time (Score 1) 360
It happens all the time, or so it seems.
Comment Re:The Dilemma (Score 1) 360
Can you make an analogy involving cars? That would be usefull to many people here.
Prehistoric Gene Reawakened To Battle HIV 360
Linuss points out research published in PLoS Biology that demonstrates the reawakening of latent human cells' ability to manufacture an HIV defense. A group of scientists led by Nitya Venkataraman began with the knowledge that Old World monkeys have a built-in immunity to HIV: a protein that can prevent HIV from entering cell walls and starting an infection. They examined the human genome for any evidence of a latent gene that could manufacture such a protein, and found the capability in a stretch of what has been dismissively termed "junk DNA." "In this work, we reveal that, upon correction of the premature termination codon in theta-defensin pseudogenes, human myeloid cells produce cyclic, antiviral peptides (which we have termed 'retrocyclins'), indicating that the cells retain the intact machinery to make cyclic peptides. Furthermore, we exploited the ability of aminoglycoside antibiotics to read-through the premature termination codon within retrocyclin transcripts to produce functional peptides that are active against HIV-1. Given that the endogenous production of retrocyclins could also be restored in human cervicovaginal tissues, we propose that aminoglycoside-based topical microbicides might be useful in preventing sexual transmission of HIV-1."
Submission + - Facebook, Twitter DDOS Linked To Georgian Blogger (eweekeurope.co.uk) 1
hardsix writes: "Facebook has has confirmed that it also suffered a DDOS attack on Thursday and has pointed the finger at the account of one Georgian blogger — known as Cyxymu — who appears have been the target of the denial of service attack.
"It was a simultaneous attack across a number of properties targeting him to keep his voice from being heard," said Max Kelly, chief security officer at Facebook.
Security researchers have pointed out that the attack appears to conicide with the anniversary of the escalation of the conflict between Russia and Georgia last year in South Ossetia. But also pointed out how fragile Twitter appears to be if an attack on one user could bring it down.
"This raises the astonishing thought that a vendetta against a single user caused Twitter to crumble, forcing us to ask serious questions about the site's fragility," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at security software specialist Sophos."
Submission + - Bjarne Stroustrup on Concepts and Future of C++ (devx.com)
gkunene writes: "Danny Kalev asks Bjarne Stroustrup the hard questions about concepts and C++'s future."
