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Censorship

US Congressman Announces Plans To Probe Wikileaks 311

Posted by kdawson from the good-luck-with-that dept.
eldavojohn writes "Congressman Peter King (R-NY) is calling for a probe into Wikileaks with regard to the recent publication of half a million 9/11 pager messages. He has announced that he plans to have his Washington staff begin a preliminary investigation because Wikileaks' action 'raises security issues.' A word of caution: Congressman King has been known to make inflammatory and unpopular statements."
First Person Shooters (Games)

Infinity Ward Fights Against Modern Warfare 2 Cheaters 203

Posted by Soulskill from the be-careful-they-cheat dept.
Faithbleed writes "IW's Robert Bowling reports on his twitter account that Infinity Ward is giving 2,500 Modern Warfare 2 cheaters the boot. The news comes as the war between IW and MW2's fans rages over the decision to go with IWnet hosting instead of dedicated servers. Unhappy players were quick to come up with hacks that would allow their own servers and various other changes." Despite the dedicated-server complaints, Modern Warfare 2 has sold ridiculously well.
Displays

Where Are Your Contact Lens Displays? 152

Posted by CmdrTaco from the we'll-use-them-as-huds-in-our-flying-cars dept.
destinyland writes "'We already see a future in which the humble contact lens becomes a real platform, like the iPhone is today,' argues researcher Babak Parvis, 'with lots of developers contributing their ideas and inventions.' He provides an update on the contact lens with transparent circuitry that's being developed at the University of Washington. (Its components will eventually include hundreds of LEDs which form images in front of the eye such as charts and photographs). They've already developed a lens-with-LED prototype that's powered by 330 microwatts of wireless radio-frequency power, and believe the lenses could also be used as biosensors to deliver body chemistry readings (including blood sugar levels). But 'What we've done so far barely hints at what will soon be possible with this technology,' says Dr. Parviz."
Space

New Theory of Gravity Decouples Space & Time 575

Posted by kdawson from the paging-hal-clement dept.
eldavojohn writes "Petr Horava, a physicist at the University of California in Berkeley, has a new theory about gravity and spacetime. At high energies, it actually snips any ties between space and time, yet at low energies devolves to equivalence with the theory of General Relativity, which binds them together. The theory is gaining popularity with physicists because it fits some observations better than Einstein's or Newton's solutions. It better predicts the movement of the planets (in an idealized case) and has a potential to create the illusion of dark matter. Another physicist calculated that under Horava Gravity, our universe would experience not a Big Bang but a Big Bounce — and the new theory reproduces the ripples from such an event in a way that matches measurements of the cosmic microwave background."
Science

LHC Has First Collisions After Years of Waiting 324

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the no-black-holes-or-gateways-to-hell-yet dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Only four days after the first attempt to send a particle beam around the LHC, we have arrived at the point when all four experiments got their first real collisions from the machine. This was met by celebrations and champagne, as people have been waiting years and years for this moment. It is a testament to the engineering of the machine that collisions were reached already, so few days after restarting. The LHC had already demonstrated ca 10h stable beams, and now also stable beams in both directions at the same time. In the coming weeks, we need only wait for increased intensity and the first attempts at acceleration."
Security

Microsoft Denies It Built Backdoor Into Windows 7 450

Posted by timothy from the how-are-your-wife's-bruises? dept.
CWmike writes "Microsoft has denied that it has built a backdoor into Windows 7, a concern that surfaced yesterday after a senior National Security Agency (NSA) official testified before Congress that the agency had worked on the operating system. 'Microsoft has not and will not put "backdoors" into Windows,' a company spokeswoman said, reacting to a Computerworld story Wednesday. On Monday, Richard Schaeffer, the NSA's information assurance director, told the Senate's Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security that the agency had partnered with the developer during the creation of Windows 7 'to enhance Microsoft's operating system security guide.' Thursday's categorical denial by Microsoft was accompanied by further explanation of exactly how the NSA participated in the making of Windows 7. 'The work being discussed here is purely in conjunction with our Security Compliance Management Toolkit,' said the spokeswoman. The company rolled out the Windows 7 version of the toolkit late last month, shortly after it officially launched the operating system."
The Military

Laser Weapon Shoots Down Airplanes In Test 627

Posted by Soulskill from the phasers-on-stun-good-luck-kirk-out dept.
airshowfan writes "Boeing's directed-energy weapons (a.k.a. frickin' laser beams) have been getting some attention lately. The Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) is a C-130 that famously burned a hole through a car's hood, and the YAL-1 AirBorne Laser is a 747 that shoots a laser from its nose that is powerful enough to bring down an ICBM. But even cooler is the Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated eXperiments (MATRIX), a laser that is mounted on a truck (which probably costs less than a 747, but who knows) and that can shoot down small aircraft, as shown in the picture on this article. (The Laser Avenger supposedly also has this capability). We live in the future!"

Comment Tweak the OS (Score 1) 549

by vekrander (#30121748) Attached to: Are There Affordable Low-DPI Large-Screen LCD Monitors?

If you're on a Windows box, you can achieve the same overall effect by increasing the size of your icons and fonts. A quick tip for most internet browsers is that you can change the size of things on a web page by holding control and then using the scroll wheel on your mouse. This works for almost everything in Microsoft office as well. There are a lot of useability options rolled in there, believe it or not so I'd say take the 20 minutes to learn to tweak your OS and you can save the hundreds of $ you'd spend on a new monitor.

Comment Re:Because I Said So, That's Why! (Score 1) 177

by vekrander (#30091546) Attached to: NASA's LCROSS Mission Proves Lunar Ice Suspicions

It's possible that, for the sake of the earth impact moon creation theory, that the object contained water. On the other hand, it's very likely that the earth already had some, if not most of the water that it has in it's current state. Water is not hard to come by in our solar system by any means (see: Mars, Europa, Charon). Being that there is little we can conclude about the formation of the moon, I believe there's little reason to think that the Earth's present amount of water came from outside sources. Occam's razor would suggest that Earth's water formed from the large amount of hydrogen and oxygen present during the early stages of its formation.
NASA

NASA's LCROSS Mission Proves Lunar Ice Suspicions 177

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the water-is-wet dept.
NASA is reporting that preliminary data from the LCROSS mission indicates that there really is water in one of the permanently shadowed lunar craters, just as they suspected back in September. "'We are ecstatic,' said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project scientist and principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. 'Multiple lines of evidence show water was present in both the high angle vapor plume and the ejecta curtain created by the LCROSS Centaur impact. The concentration and distribution of water and other substances requires further analysis, but it is safe to say Cabeus holds water.'"
Power

How Vulnerable Is Our Power Grid? 359

Posted by CmdrTaco from the dc-is-screwed-but-ac-will-be-fine dept.
coreboarder writes "Recently it was divulged that the Brazilian power infrastructure was compromised by hackers. Then it was announced that it was apparently faulty equipment. A downplay to the global public or an honest clarification? Either way, it raises the question: how vulnerable are we, really? With winter and all its icy glory hurtling towards those of us in the northern hemisphere, how open are we to everything from terrorist threats to simple 'pay me or else' schemes?"
Power

Japan Eyes Solar Station In Space 247

Posted by CmdrTaco from the they're-gonna-need-a-gundam-to-defend-it dept.
An anonymous reader writes "By 2030 [Japan] wants to collect solar power in space and zap it down to Earth, using laser beams or microwaves. The government has just picked a group of companies and a team of researchers tasked with turning the ambitious, multi-billion-dollar dream of unlimited clean energy into reality in coming decades."
Cellphones

Verizon Droid Tethering Comes At a Hefty Price 555

Posted by timothy from the unlimited-and-5GB-are-not-the-same dept.
Pickens writes "Tom Bradley reports in PC World that the new Motorola Droid smartphone will cost users $199.99 with a 2-year contract, with an additional $30 per month for the mandatory 'unlimited' data plan that has a monthly cap of 5Gb. Verizon will charge $50 for each additional gigabyte over the 5Gb limit on the unlimited data plan. Verizon has confirmed that tethering will cost another $30 per month for an additional unlimited data plan that is also limited to 5Gb. If you want tethering you will pay $60 above and beyond the monthly contract for service for an 'unlimited' 10Gb of data per month, and if you plan on connecting with an Microsoft Exchange email account you have to pay another $15 a month. 'Verizon seems to be doing everything it can to make the Droid as unappealing as possible by nickel and diming customers so that actually using it is not cost-effective,' writes Bradley. 'After all of the hype around Verizon's marketing efforts, and generally favorable reviews of the Motorola Droid, users that rush out to get the new device may be in for a shock.' Droid users will have to wait until sometime in 2010 for tethering. 'That service is on our schedule for next year,' says Verizon spokeswoman Brenda Raney. The delay is because 'the service has to be tested on the phone so until we know it works, we don't offer the service. It is not uncommon for us to introduce the phone and continue to test the service and offer it later.'"

Comment Re:Entitlement (Score 1) 675

by vekrander (#30008578) Attached to: Cable Exec Suggests Changing Consumer Behavior, Not Business Model

Remember that out there exists a person who wants telemundo who has to pay for ESPN, G4, Discovery, or whatever you're interested in so they can watch their channel. I'm all for cheaper options but if you google a la cart cable, you'll find a lot of arguments against it that have studies showing you may end up paying more depending on what you want. While you are subsidizing other peoples channels, other people are subsidizing yours. Unfortunately this system results in the communistic, channel overloaded, profit driven system we have today, but if we didn't have this then some channels might be tossed out by the wayside.

I'll admit some of these studies are probably payed for by cable companies and I wouldn't cry if MTV2 were to disappear forever. Of course there would be a lot of teens crying because they're missing out on "Yo, dawg, I heard you like cars..."

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