Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
NASA

Submission + - NASA posts ancient FORTRAN code, buffs up data

chicomarxbro writes: "A Y2K error discovered by blogger Steve McIntyre in August forced NASA's climate chief James Hansen revise temperature data showing 1934 was actually the hottest year on record, not 1998 as previously announced. This spurred renewed calls for NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) to publicly release their historical FORTRAN code which powered the global temperature analyses. Still used today, the code has a lineage going back to the 70's. NASA finally agreed and published the code but not before making an unannounced change to the raw temperature data which bundled with the code. NASA's change to raw data collating methods. which hadn't been modified in over a decade, resulted in 1998 being put back in first place next to 1934. Some bloggers have called this stealthy revision of the raw data an "Enron like accounting game""
Communications

Submission + - Cellular masts are "safe", study finds (zdnet.co.uk)

superglaze writes: "One of the biggest studies of the potential ill health effects of cellular phone masts has just been completed. The University of Essex in England has for the last 3 years been studying the issue, and has found that any short-term effects are all in the mind. As for longer term effects (like cancer or genetic mutation) the jury is still out, but this should at least put to rest the claims of those who are allegedly suffering anxiety, nausea and tiredness as a result of the masts."
The Internet

Submission + - Test Whether ISPs Are Modifying Your Web Pages (washington.edu)

csreis writes: Last month we learned that "Some ISPs are resorting to a new tactic to increase revenue: inserting advertisements into web pages requested by their end users." Have you wondered how often this is happening? And whether it's happened to you? The University of Washington security and privacy group and ICSI have created a measurement infrastructure to help answer these questions. Please come visit our site and help out with our experiments. In the process, we'll help you figure out if some "party in the middle" (like your ISP) might be modifying your web content in flight. We plan to share our overall results with the public.
Networking

Submission + - Last-Minute Senate Amendment to appease RIAA

Rodrigo writes: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has found the time to forget about fighting that pesty Iraq War and focus on the issues that really matter: making the influence of the RIAA and MPAA a mainstay in our college campuses. The EFF has put a call to arms against the proposed Senate amendment to the Higher Education Act. The amendment aims to force certain schools to police their network or risk losing federal funding for student aid. Naturally, this policing will come at the school's expense and through "technology-based deterrents," which raise privacy concerns. Please call your representatives and make sure they know what they're voting for under Senate Amendment 2314.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - NFL Will Force Press To Wear Sponsor Logos

i_like_spam writes: In a story covered by the National Press Photographers Association, photojournalists are protesting a new rule for the upcoming NFL season that will force them to wear red vests emblazoned with the corporate logos of Reebok and Canon during televised games. The chair of the NPPA's Ethics & Standards Committee responds

'It totally goes against our Code of Ethics to force photographers to advertise as if they were some sort of NASCAR vehicle. We are independent gatherers of news, storytellers with no agendas. Our integrity comes from objectivity. Do reporters put up with this kind of disrespect from the NFL?'

In a related incident, photographers covering the Fiesta bowl earlier this year were told to wear vests with the Tostitos logo. They retaliated by wearing the vests inside out.

Slashdot Top Deals

Anything free is worth what you pay for it.

Working...