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Submission + - Observation of Electric Fields in Space Revives an (physorg.com)

Submitted by pln2bz
pln2bz writes: Hannes Alfven used his 1970 Nobel Physics acceptance speech as an opportunity to suggest that our models for cosmic plasmas — the very reason for his award — were being misapplied by astrophysicists. In particular, he was adamant that cosmic plasmas can exhibit electric fields. Recent observations from the ESA's CLUSTER spacecraft suggest Alfven was right: "Strong electric fields turned up in unexpected regions of space. And as the spacecraft rotated, measurements of the electric field didn't fluctuate in the smoothly changing manner that Andre expected." Is it time to have a more thoughtful discussion about our cosmic plasma models? What would maintain the cosmic E-fields?

Comment Re:Clang/LLVM in FreeBSD (Score 3, Informative) 418

by jimi1x (#38681852) Attached to: FreeBSD 9.0 Released

Now, I've yet to see aviation and medical mission-critical software run on Linux.

I think you may want to revisit your statement. I used to work in a hospital. We had medical equipment that ran embedded Linux. I currently work for a bank. We have ATMs that run embedded Linux. Our CCTV system runs embeded Linux in the cameras. Did you know that a lot of banking mainframes run on Linux? I'd argue completely against your statement that no mission critical software runs on Linux.

Comment Re:This definitely provides relevant research (Score 1) 146

by jimi1x (#38234290) Attached to: Fire Burns Differently In Space
Your spot on there - stars aren't "on fire". "Burn" is the incorrect word to use for stars, but can serve as a useful analogy for people. IANA physicist, but as mentioned above, the gravitational attraction of the star is enough to slam the lighter elements (hydrogen, helium) together to form heavier elements. The process generates a lot of heat and pressure, and continues while the gravitational and electro-magnetic forces keep each other in check (ie as long as there is light enough elements to fuse).
Japan

Submission + - Firm makes iPhone Geiger counter for worried Japan (japantoday.com) 1

Submitted by cuckundu
cuckundu writes: A Japanese company Tuesday unveiled a cheap Geiger counter for the iPhone to enable people worried about the March Fukushima nuclear accident to check their environment for radiation. The probe, 14 centimeters long by five wide, connects to the iPhone and the screen displays radiation readings in combination with a special app such as the Geiger Bot.
Games

Submission + - Frequent gamers have brain differences, study find (latimes.com) 1

Submitted by Coolhand2120
Coolhand2120 writes: Gamers always felt they had more grey matter. The LA Times reports there is now proof:

Fourteen-year-olds who were frequent video gamers had more gray matter in the rewards center of the brain than peers who didn't play video games as much — suggesting that gaming may be correlated to changes in the brain much as addictions are.

European scientists reported the discovery Tuesday in the journal Translational Psychiatry. Psychologist Simone Kuhn of Ghent University in Belgium and colleagues recruited 154 healthy 14-year-olds in Berlin and divided them into two groups. Twenty-four girls and 52 boys were frequent gamers who played at least nine hours of video games each week. Fifty-eight girls and 20 boys were infrequent gamers, who played less than nine hours a week.

Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed differences in the test subjects' brains. Frequent gamers had more gray matter in a portion of the brain known as the left ventral striatum, which affects the interplay of emotions and behavior. Previous research identified striatal function as a "core candidate promoting addictive behavior," the authors wrote.
Piracy

Submission + - Massive Piracy Raid in China (activepolitic.com)

Submitted by bs0d3
bs0d3 writes: A site that distributed pirated versions of Windows XP and has received 4,445 visits this year and was raided by the Chinese police today. The site owner Wang, illegally earned a large sum of money by bundling the pirated software with advertisements and other software. Revenue gained by ads multiplied by 4,445 can be estimated to be up to $3 worth of illegal income.
The Matrix

Submission + - Robot Control of Human

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: IEEE Spectrum reports that French researchers from the Montpellier Laboratory of Informatics, Robotics, and Microelectronics have developed a robot capable of working with humans to perform tasks cooperatively by controlling the human's arm. I think they are doing that backward.
AMD

Submission + - AMD's Bulldozer tested with serverworkloads (anandtech.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Anandtech has tested the new AMD Opteron "Interlagos" which contains 16 cores and 8 SMT FP cores in a variety of server and workstation workloads. The end result is a complex performance profile with several heights, quite a few mediocre showings and a few lows. This chip will also need some serious software tweaking before it can show its real potential.
Government

Submission + - Ron Paul Comes Out Against SOPA (techdirt.com) 1

Submitted by
SonicSpike
SonicSpike writes: "Among those who signed onto the letter opposing SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) is Republican Presidential candidate and Congressman Ron Paul, showing that he continues to be Internet savvy and recognizes the potential dangers from this particular legislation."
Idle

Submission + - Rock meets geek (youtube.com)

Submitted by Dedokta
Dedokta writes: Cross dressing heavy metal band Mechanical Black have released a cover of the 80's pop hit Electric Dreams featuring elements of extreme geekiness that should excite a few Slashdot readers.

Not only is the video clip peppered with an impressive collection of retro computers and gaming consoles, but also feature cameos in the form of video chat windows from:

David Warhol, Earl Vickers, Elonka Dunin, Eric Allman, G Mark Hardy, George Sanger (and Cindy Moorhouse), Guido Van Rossum, James Gosling, Jeff Minter, Jennifer Reitz, John Draper, Marcus Ranum, Marshall Kirk McKusick, Nathaniel Borenstein, Richard Bartle, Bruce Schneier, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jackson, Ian Livingstone and John Resig
Programming

Submission + - Coding Challenge: The Luhny Bin (squareup.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Bob Lee of Square sparked a programming language shootout with his 'Luhny Bin' coding challenge: 'Write a command line program that reads ASCII text from standard input, masks sequences of digits that look like credit card numbers, and writes the filtered text to standard output.' Which language do you think will come out on top?

Submission + - Both Voyager Spacecraft using Backup Thrusters (space-travel.com)

Submitted by
wooferhound
wooferhound writes: "Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are each equipped with six sets, or pairs, of thrusters to control the pitch, yaw and roll motions of the spacecraft.
These include three pairs of primary thrusters and three backup, or redundant, pairs. Both spacecraft are now using all three sets of their backup thrusters."

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