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Submission + - First underground cave photographed on the moon (wired.co.uk) 1

Submitted by Lanxon
Lanxon writes: High-resolution images have confirmed for the first time the presence of an underground cave on the moon's surface. Images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter camera reveal that what previously appeared to be a lunar pit in the Marius Hills region is in fact the entrance to a lava tube, with the cave floor visible through a collapsed ceiling, or "skylight".
Music

Submission + - Last.FM Requires Subscription (blog.last.fm)

Submitted by Hummdis
Hummdis writes: If you, like so many others, listen to Last.FM on your mobile or home entertainment devices, then you're going to need to pay for this once free service effective February 15th.

It remains free to listen on Last.FM (the website), but if you want to continue to listen on Android, your BluRay player, or any other device, you'll need to spend the $3.00 per month to be able to do so.
HP

Submission + - An Open Letter To PC Makers: Ditch Bloatware, Now! (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: This is the final straw, the last stand. This is the year that companies have to wise up and realize that they're destroying the experience of the very machines they are maketing so vigorously against their competitors. We're talking about bloatware, and it's an issue that we simply cannot remain silent on any longer. The term "bloatware" generally refers to any additional software installed on a machine that is not a native part of the operating system. "Bloatware" is usually provided by third-party software companies, and can range from security suites to unwanted Web browser toolbars. It's most problematic as these programs generally attempt to boot up first thing, right as the OS is booting up, before the end-user ever has a chance to launch the program on their own accord. It's time for manufacturers to take note: consumers do not want bloatware. It's a royal pain from top to bottom, and moreover, it ruins your brand. When people think of HP and Dell, they immediately think of just how infuriating it is that their last "new" PC took over one minute to boot up and become useable. To these companies: why are you saddling your machines with software that makes it less enjoyable to use? The solution seems pretty simple. If you still wish to include loads upon loads of third-party software, stick it all on a thumb drive and include it with every new machine. Problem solved.
Medicine

Submission + - Universal Flu Vaccine Successfully Tested (google.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: Several news outlets are reporting that a universal flu vaccine breakthrough has been made by Oxford scientists. The pain of matching yearly strains, the threat of swine flu and future threats of all new strains of influenza have taken a blow today. The vaccine works by 'differs from traditional treatments by targeting proteins inside the flu virus rather than proteins on the flu's external coat.' Such proteins are less likely to mutate between strains. These initial tests involved 11 people and there is call for a larger trail size.

Submission + - Jerusalem buzzed by UFOs (thinq.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Four videos have turned up on Youtube showing mysterious lights buzzing the Dome of the Rock — site of the former Jewish Temple. The light hovers over the holy site before blasting into space with a flash. THINQ has collected the videos onto one page. Make of them what you will
Programming

Submission + - How Facebook Ships Code

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "yeegay has a very interesting article about how Facebook develops and releases software that he has gathered from talking with friends at the company. The two largest teams at Facebook are Engineering and Ops, with roughly 400-500 team members each, together making up about 50% of the company. All engineers go through 4 to 6 week “Boot Camp” training where they learn the Facebook system by fixing bugs. After boot camp, all engineers get access to live DB and any engineer can modify any part of Facebook's code base and check-in at-will so that engineers can modify specs mid-process, re-order work projects, and inject new feature ideas anytime. Then arguments about whether or not a feature idea is worth doing or not generally get resolved by spending a week implementing it and then testing it on a sample of users, e.g., 1% of Nevada users. "All changes are reviewed by at least one person, and the system is easy for anyone else to look at and review your code even if you don’t invite them to," writes yeegay. "It would take intentionally malicious behavior to get un-reviewed code in.” What is interesting for a compnay this size is that there is no official QA group at Facebook but almost every employee is dogfooding the product every day: many times a day and every employee is using a version of the site that includes all the changes that are next in line to go out. All employees are strongly encouraged to report any bugs they see and these are very quickly actioned upon. Facebook has about 60,000 servers with the smallest level comprising only 6 servers and there are nine levels for pushing out new code. For new code the ops team observes those 6 servers at level 1 to make sure that they are behaving correctly before rolling forward to the next level. If a release is causing any issues (e.g., throwing errors, etc.) then the push is halted, the engineer who committed the offending changeset is paged to fix the problem, and then the release starts over again at level 1."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Stupid Users: IT's Weakest Link (infoworld.com) 1

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "Flaming laptops, nosy mothers, server racks sent tumbling down stairs — InfoWorld compiles seven more real-world tales of IT brain fail, brought to you by IT's weakest link. 'You can deploy monitoring software, diagnostic software, and a Halon fire suppression system, as well as access multiple grids for power and Internet access, but nothing can save you from the most dire threat facing IT pros today: end-users. Everywhere you look, technology is advancing. Unfortunately for IT, no one has come up with an algorithm to fail-safe systems from stupidity.'"
Privacy

Submission + - Unsecured IP Cameras Accessible to Everyone (net-security.org)

Submitted by Orome1
Orome1 writes: In the last couple of decades, we have become so accustomed to the idea that the public portion of our everyday life is watched and recorded — in stores, on the street, in institutions — that we often don't even notice the cameras anymore. Analog surveillance systems were difficult to hack into by people who lacked the adequate knowledge, but IP cameras — having their own IPs — can be quite easily physically located and their stream watched in real-time by anyone who has a modicum of computer knowledge and knows what to search for on Google.
Desktops (Apple)

Submission + - Portal 2 PS3 comes with Steam & PC/Mac version (gamepron.com)

Submitted by UgLyPuNk
UgLyPuNk writes: What he’s referring to is the debut of Steam functioning on any next generation console. The new services will be bundled up with the PS3 version of Portal 2, including persistent cloud-based storage of PS3 saved games, as well as cross-platform play and chat (PC/Mac vs. PS3) for multiplayer games and if that wasn’t enough, if you buy Portal 2 for the PS3, you’ll unlock a Steam Play copy of the game for PC and Mac, just by linking your PSN and Steam accounts.
Privacy

Submission + - Google Street View logs WiFi networks, Mac address (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: There's a story over at The Register about how Google is collecting more than just images when they drive around for the Street View service. "Google's roving Street View spycam may blur your face, but it's got your number. The Street View service is under fire in Germany for scanning private WLAN networks, and recording users' unique Mac (Media Access Control) addresses, as the car trundles along."

There's a choice quote at the end, "Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently said internet users shouldn't worry about privacy unless they have something to hide. "
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - xkcd finds Kindle is Perfect for Reading in Bed 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "Randall Munroe, creator of xkcd, has an interesting post on his blog about his lifelong search for the perfect way to read in bed. "The ideal position would involve no sustained muscle effort, so I could just let my eyes drift shut as I read, without the book falling shut or my hand slipping or anything." Munroe recently got a Kindle and was surprised to find the ergonomics better than a paperback. But there was one problem: "There's no way to hold it with a finger on the 'next page' buttons that doesn't require a few muscles to hold it upright" so Munroe "got out of bed one night, went to the closet, and got a steel coat hanger and some pliers" and came up with a hardware hack that solved the problem. Take a look at photos of Munroe invention. "Finally, after decades of reading in bed, I have reached that stage of perfect relaxation.""
Windows

Submission + - SPAM: Asus: Windows Eee PC will Outsell Linux Version

Submitted by
narramissic
narramissic writes: "Asus formally launched the Eee PC with Windows XP at the Cebit trade show earlier this month. Now the company is predicting that the Windows version will outsell the Linux-based version by a ratio of 6 to 4 by the end of this year. This prediction seems pretty bold considering the price difference of the two cheapest models: $408 for the lowest-cost Windows version versus $261 for Linux. 'A lot of people have been waiting for the Windows version,' said Asus chairman Jonney Shih at a news conference in Taipei on Thursday."
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