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Submission + - Detection of Earth-like Civilizations Now Possible

Submitted by
Mr. McGibby
Mr. McGibby writes: "Astronomers have proposed an improved method of searching for intelligent extraterrestrial life using instruments like one now under construction in Australia. The Low Frequency Demonstrator (LFD) of the Mileura Wide-Field Array (MWA), a facility for radio astronomy, theoretically could detect Earth-like civilizations around any of the 1,000 nearest stars. The original paper describes the details."
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Looking for Big Memory x64 Boxes

Submitted by Ropati
Ropati writes: Are there any monster memory PCs out there?

x64 architecture supports 1TB of memory with 40bit addressing, and 256TBs of memory with 48bit addressing. However, I have yet to see a generic box or motherboard on the market with excessive memory. Specficially, I would like to see a 256 GB memory x64 computer (ie. 64 4GB slots). I would even prefer an x64 box with 2TBs of memory.

My questions for the Slashdot crowd:
Are these boxes available now?
If not, when can we expect to see this kind of memory in a PC architecture and what are the limitations preventing this kind of computer reaching market right now?

Your answers will probably impact my career choices.
PHP

Submission + - PHP Security Tips (BASICS)

Submitted by stanislavb
stanislavb writes: An interesting short list of PHP basic security issues has been put on here. While the guy hasn't really did a full scale report on everything, the list he did and the methods he described are quite helpful for newbie programmers. Actually I didn't thought about one of the aspects he described about file access so actually quite informatively.
Television

Choose the New PBS Science Show 143

Posted by kdawson from the new-nova dept.
chinmay7 writes "PBS has posted three different pilots for a new science show, and they want viewers to weigh in and help choose one as the regular science feature. All three pilots are viewable as vodcasts. Wired Science aired on January 3rd. The pilot certainly is polished, as one might expect from Wired Magazine, and deals with interesting topics: 'Meet rocket-belt inventors, stem cell explorers and meteorite hunters.' Science Investigators (air date: January 10) seems to be the most 'science' show: 'The investigators examine 30,000-year-old Neanderthal DNA, vanishing frogs, mind-boggling baseball pitches and more.' 22nd Century (air date: January 17) is pretty gimmicky and loud for my taste, but delivers interesting content — 'In the coming decades will all our brains be wired together like networked computers?' So watch and vote."
Robotics

Submission + - iRobot releases new robot platform

Submitted by Garratt
Garratt writes: iRobot announced today the release of the Create robotic development platform at the CES today. This robot uses a frame similiar to the iRobot Roomba, and adds tons of hacking functionality.
Check out the irobot site.
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - The Lighter Side of CES

Submitted by mattnyc99
mattnyc99 writes: Over at Popular Mechanics' CES coverage, law professor Glenn Reynolds — better know as the blogger behind Instapundit — has shown off his tech chops with postings from Las Vegas analyzing an iTV revolution and Sony's new Web-streaming HDTV. But today he's just wandering CES, finding great little stuff like an update on Intel's Wi-Max, the boom in HD peripherals, even tricked-out massage chairs.
The Internet

Submission + - Dojo to support offline AJAX apps

Submitted by
prostoalex
prostoalex writes: "A popular Dojo toolkit will soon support offline browsing, eWeek reports: "To deliver the tool kit, Neuberg said, he does not need to "adopt radically different or exotic programming models, such as loading Single Page Applications like TiddlyWiki from the file system, adopting Adobe's Apollo framework, or downloading huge, entire Web servers with specialized application logic that run locally, such as Zimbra's offline solution." Instead, the Dojo Offline Toolkit will use a simple, small Web proxy that runs locally. The proxy will cache files that need to cached for later access without hitting the network, Neuberg said. In addition, to enable the browser to talk to the local Web proxy, the new tool kit will use a standard technology known as PAC (Proxy AutoConfiguration). A PAC file is a small bit of JavaScript that is invoked on each browser request.""
Software

Submission + - Second Life client GPL-ed

Submitted by
FST777
FST777 writes: "CNN reports that Linden Labs released the source code for their client under the GPL. From the article:
Second Life creator Linden Labs on Monday released the source code for its virtual world client under the GNU General Public License (GPL), a move the much-buzzed-about company hopes will entice a flood of developers to help improve its access client.
...
Linden Labs cast its open-source move as unavoidable for software creators. "We welcome the inevitable with open arms," the San Francisco-based company wrote in its corporate blog.
Let's hope this means that Second Life will become mature on other platforms as Windows and OS X."
Microsoft

Submission + - The Bill Gates for president.... petition?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Robert X. Cringely from Infoworld posted on the Bill Gates for President petition:

Following a stirring endorsement from Dilbert creator Scott Adams, the Bill Gates for President movement has launched an online petition. At press time 127 visionary souls had signed it, roughly a third of them from foreign countries. Perhaps, like Sir Bill, they want to ease restrictions on H-1B visas. I signed it, too. Because this country needs a serious reboot, and with Gates as president, we'd be rebooting several times a day.
Microsoft

Submission + - Developers: Pawns worthy of a one-night stand

Submitted by jcatcw
jcatcw writes: At the Comes vs. Microsoft antitrust case, last Friday's testimony included evidence that James Plamondon, a Microsoft technical evangelist,in a 1996 speech referred to independent software developers as "pawns" and compared wooing them to wooing a one-night stand.

Last week's testimony also included Alepin, a former CTO at Fujitsu Software Corp. and currently an adviser to the law firm Morrison Foerster LLP. He said that Lotus 1-2-3 was killed, in part, by Microsoft encouraging Lotus' programmers to use the Windows API even though Microsoft's own developers found it too complicated to use.
Handhelds

Submission + - Samsung hedges its mobile-search bets

Submitted by
eastbayted
eastbayted writes: "Google and Yahoo are grappling to reign as the king of mobile search, and Samsung aims to enjoy the spoils of that battle, no matter who wins. Google and Yahoo both announced partnerships with Samsung today through which the company will release some select mobile devices packaged with Google search apps, e-mail, and more — and some select devices with Yahoo search apps, e-mail, and more."
Media (Apple)

Submission + - Wired's 1997 "101 ways to save apple"

Submitted by
Waxyreader
Waxyreader writes: "Almost ten years after its publication, Wired's 101 Ways to Save Apple cover story from 1997 is still a great read for its advice, good, bad, and just plain weird. FTA: "14. Do something creative with the design of the box and separate yourselves from the pack. The original Macs stood out because of their innovative look." "18. Stop being buttoned-down corporate and appeal to the fanatic feeling that still exists for the Mac" "24. Pay cartoonist Scott Adams $10 million to have Dilbert fall in love with a Performa repairwoman.""
User Journal

Journal Journal: Finally against the Patriot Act 5

Journal by jdavidb

Liberals and libertarians have been decrying the Patriot Act for years now, and even though that time period has seen me go from "conservative" to "stark raving mad anarcho-capitalist" I still haven't really felt like there's been anything to get upset about. So far, I hadn't heard real evidence that civil liberties of non-terrorists had been curtailed in meaningful ways.
Television

Submission + - cheaper dvr services?

Submitted by bofh1234
bofh1234 writes: I subscribe to the dish network top 60 pack and local channels. I have 2 625 dvr receivers, but am only paying for 1 ($5) because they are both hooked to the telephone line 24/7. I am also paying $5.98 for each receiver for the dvr service. The brings the total to over $55 per month. I want to stop paying $17 per month (lose the equipment rental fee and the dvr services). I have 4 tvs.

I like the dvr service, but can I do it on my own? Can I buy a couple of receivers, move the smartcard from the current receivers to the new ones? Can I install a tv distribution system in my home (i.e. something like a hotel setup? satellite comes in, gets decoded, and sent to each room) I already have the wiring just need the equipment (any recommendations?). This would also get rid of the dish network remotes and allow me to go back to using the remotes that came with the tv. Any other ideas?

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