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Science

Submission + - Carbon Nanotubes Increase Lithium Battery Capacity (gizmag.com)

Submitted by ElectricSteve
ElectricSteve writes: Researchers at MIT have found that using specially treated thin layers of carbon nanotubes in batteries can boost the amount of power delivered per unit of weight by up to ten times. While the technology still needs improving, its full development and large-scale employment would certainly revolutionize the way we use any electronic devices, from an iPod to an electric car. The electrode was fabricated with a layer-by-layer technique in which a base material is alternately dipped in solutions containing specially treated carbon nanotubes to either have a slightly positive or a slightly negative charge: when layers of the two kinds are put together, the opposite magnetic forces pull the parts tightly together, self-assembling an electrode that is porous at the nanometric scale and doesn't seem to deteriorate at all as the battery is subjected to over a thousand charge-discharge cycles.
PC Games (Games)

'Weekly Episodes' Coming To Star Trek Online 62

Posted by Soulskill from the no-janeway-holodeck-episodes-please dept.
As Star Trek Online ramps up for its Season 2 patch, the game's executive producer, Daniel Stahl, spoke in an interview about an interesting new feature: weekly episodes. Quoting: "The team has wanted to capture the spirit of the TV shows by having something new to look forward to each week. We all remember when the various series were in full swing and there was the anticipation of tuning in every week to see what happened next. It wasn't always a continuing story, but it was always Star Trek in some way or another, and over time you became familiar with the characters and plots that developed. We are curious to see if this can be replicated through the game. Every week we plan to have something new for players to do. Sometimes it could be getting an assignment to resolve a trade dispute between two races. Other weeks it could be making First Contact with a new alien race. Other weeks you might find yourself deep in trouble and have to find a solution to your predicament."
Security

A Flood of Stable Linux Kernels Released 105

Posted by timothy from the five-is-better-than-one dept.
Julie188 writes "Greg Kroah-Hartman has released five new stable Linux kernels, correcting minor errors of their predecessors and including improvements which are unlikely to generate new errors. As so often with kernel versions in the stable series, it remains undisclosed if the new versions contain changes which fix security vulnerabilities, although the number of changes and some of the descriptions of those changes certainly suggest that all the new versions contain security fixes."
Digital

Submission + - Sony Digital Reader Touch vs Kindle 2 (tablettweet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Which one to buy ?, Sony Digital Reader Touch Edition 169 USD vs Kindle 2 global wireless new price 189 USD. First of all Let’s read the basic pros & cons of Sony Digital Reader Touch Edition 169 USD and Kindle 2 global wireless new price 189 USD.
Software

Submission + - How to recover FAT partition data? (diskgetor.com)

Submitted by noko23
noko23 writes: FAT file system is a commonly used file system of our PCs. Sometimes the data stored on FAT file system partition may be deleted, lost or FAT partition may be formatted, corrupted, etc. The better understanding of FAT will help you recover your FAT partition and data more easily.

What is FAT?
FAT is an abbreviation of File Allocation Table which is a computer file system architecture, it is used on computer systems and memory cards. FAT describes which clusters (the unit used by file allocation) are used by which files. There are three types of FAT: FAT12, FAT 16 and FAT 32:

A FAT12 file system contains 1.5 bytes per cluster within the file allocation table and the amount of data clusters is less than 4087 clusters.

A FAT16 file system contains 2 bytes per cluster within the file allocation table and the amount of data clusters is between 4087 and 65526 clusters, inclusive.

A FAT32 file system includes 4 bytes per cluster within the file allocation table and the amount of data clusters is between 65526 and 268,435,456 clusters, inclusive.

FAT partition data loss
Most situation of FAT partition data loss is unforeseen, for example, deleting a file or program accidentally or mistakenly, deleting data intentionally but find they are still useful later, improper computer shut down, power failure, operating system corruption, data corruption, virus attack, etc.

How to recover data stored on FAT partition?
There are two methods provided for recover FAT partition data:
1. When you find the FAT partition is inaccessible (the symptom is usually that the PC suggests that the partition is not formatted) or partition is lost when you are partitioning.

For this circumstance, your partition table is damaged by some errors, virus, and intentional active or unknown reasons. The data stored on the hard drive are still located where they used to be. You can recover your FAT partition table, and then get back your data.

For this circumstance, you can retrieve data from data recovery soft ware or manual data recovery.

Manual data recovery, compare with the data recovery soft ware, its higher price and long time waiting make itself to be the second choice.
DiskGetor Data Recovery is powerful FAT partition data recovery Software. It can also recover deleted, lost, damaged and formatted data from other types of file system hard drive or partition, for example: NTFS. Even if you have written new data into that hard drive or partition, DiskGetor Data Recovery still find its directory tree from hard drive. You may have a try.
You can find more information at: http://www.diskgetor.com
Programming

Submission + - Bad code leads good developers to make mistakes? 2

Submitted by LSU_ADT_Geek
LSU_ADT_Geek writes: While adding features to my company's application suite, I have continually found mistakes overlooked by previous developers (multiple in-line instances of data-access objects, half-hearted string equality logic, reproducing boiler plate utility code when it exists in a utility, etc). After constantly fixing these types of problems for over a year, I have begun to ask myself whether these mistakes were made because A) bad developers or B) good developers having to work with bad existing code. If it wasn't for the fact that I'm pedantic and know better, I believe I would probably make the some of the same mistakes just because the existing code base isn't the cleanest or most elegant.
Open Source

Submission + - The unusual, obscure and useful Linux distros (goodgearguide.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "Most people will be familiar with some of the big names when it comes to Linux — distributions like Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Debian and Mandriva. Most of the well-known Linux distros are designed to be used as general purpose desktop operating systems or installed on servers. But beyond these distros are hundreds of others either designed to appeal to very specific audiences or to fulfil the somewhat niche needs of some users. We rounded up some of the most interesting Linux distributions out there that you might not have heard of."
NASA

Submission + - NASA Mars rover spies rare red planet rocks (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: NASA’s now hibernating Mars rover Spirit spotted rocks scientists say could offer key clues to whether or not life ever did or still does exist on the red planet. The weird thing for NASA is that the outcrop was examined by Spirit in 2005, but the data pointing to the discovery languished since then because one of the instruments that detected the carbonate minerals was partly blinded by dust, the space agency stated.
The Internet

Submission + - Six Major 3G & 4G Networks Tested Nationwide

Submitted by adeelarshad82
adeelarshad82 writes: PCMag recently tested six 3G and 4G networks to determine which ones were the fastest (and slowest) in 18 different U.S. cities. They focused on data, not calls, and used their own testing script and methodology combining various kinds of uploads and downloads. Using laptops, more than a dozen people ran over 10,000 tests; they found AT&T is both the fastest national 3G network, and the least consistent. Sprint's 3G system was the slowest of the "big four" carriers, but the most consistent. When the test results were broken down by regions, it was interesting to note that AT&T led on speed in the Southeast, Central and West, but T-Mobile took the crown in the Northeast region. Sprint's 4G network was fast where it was available, but it was surprisingly slower than 3G in some cities. The fastest AT&T download seen, at 5.05 megabits/sec, was right behind Apple's headquarters at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, CA. The fastest connection in any of the tests was a blazing 9.11 megabits down on Sprint 4G in the Midtown neighborhood of Atlanta, GA. The slowest city, on average, was Raleigh, with average 3G downloads of 880kbits/sec.
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - Frank Zappa's Influence on Linux and FOSS developm (devx.com)

Submitted by Roblimo
Roblimo writes: Zappa's Dinah-Moe Hummm is totally about Linux, at least in spirit, while the song Montana, with its talk of zirconium-encrusted tweezers and dental floss, "is obviously about Mac users." Not only that: In the early 70s Zappa wrote a song called Penguin in Bondage, an obvious foretelling of the anti-Linux lawsuits and threats from SCO, Microsoft, and other evildoers. Zappa was also a heavy user of the Synclavier, an electronic music-machine that was a precursor to today's "studio on a computer" recording and sound editing software. According to the article on DevX, today Zappa would no doubt be using Linux and Ardour for most of his recording and composition.
Image

Police Called Over 11-Year-Old's Science Project Screenshot-sm 687

Posted by samzenpus from the duck-and-cover dept.
garg0yle writes "Police in San Diego were called to investigate an 11-year-old's science project, consisting of 'a motion detector made out of an empty Gatorade bottle and some electronics,' after the vice-principal came to the conclusion that it was a bomb. Charges aren't being laid against the youth, but it's being recommended that he and his family 'get counseling.' Apparently, the student violated school policies — I'm assuming these are policies against having any kind of independent thought?"
Science

Programmable Quantum Computer Created 132

Posted by Soulskill from the four-out-of-five-ain't-bad dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A team at NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) used berylium ions, lasers and electrodes to develop a quantum system that performed 160 randomly chosen routines. Other quantum systems to date have only been able to perform single, prescribed tasks. Other researchers say the system could be scaled up. 'The researchers ran each program 900 times. On average, the quantum computer operated accurately 79 percent of the time, the team reported in their paper.'"

Comment The ABC's (Score 1) 1021

by stuffduff (#29649785) Attached to: What Belongs In a High School Sci-Fi/Fantasy Lit Class?
Start with some of the classics: Asimov (I Robot), Bradbury (The Illustrated Man, Martian Chronicles), Clarke (A Fall of Moondust) These stories are both good examples of sci-fi but also good examples of storytelling. In I Robot the Three Laws are a wonderful premise for stories that have spawned a wide following. In A Fall of Moondust a simple physical fact and its implications for human survival become captivating suspense. The early works of Heinline like The Past Through Tomorrow what technology does to our humanity. I'd suggest that you begin with shorter works and work towards one longer work, however Dune, or Stranger in a Strange Land are not good first semester works, nor would hard scifi like Forward. Nourse's The Universe Between, L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time are great for younger kids but probably too simplistic for High School. Explore where technology puts us into unusual situations and how those situations impact our humanity. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep - where do we draw the line of what is and isn't human?. Maybe throw a changeup with a book that really explores what it means to be alien like Brin's Uplift series (Startide Rising) or Cherryh's Chanur series (Chanur's Venture). Or some Gibson. Let the stories awaken their minds to new possibilities, after all that's what its all about.

Comment Lagging Behind the OS Curve (Score 0, Troll) 248

by stuffduff (#29190695) Attached to: Nielsen Struggles To Track Modern Viewing Habits
Nielsen has software to participate in their web rating service which though all in java has never been ported to Linux. After a decade of explaining that I also use Linux and not being able to get any action on that front I gave up. If you really want to be a player in the ratings business you need to be where the people are who you want to follow, not changing your sample source to keep the relative value of your investment intact at the expense of being able to follow your demographic. Nielsen wake up! It's no longer the 1950's!

Comment Age Before Beauty (Score 2, Informative) 154

by stuffduff (#29132423) Attached to: Amazon, MS, Google Clouds Flop In Stress Tests
I'm not surprised that these 'Johnny-come-latelys' are having issues. M (Mumps) has had an integrated schemaless database for forty years now and has the tool chain to go with it. The language and the data structure are seamlessly integrated, a concept that was all but wiped out by the relational database movement of the 70's. It's a shame to see this emphasis on schemaless databases is so totally ignorant of both its prior history and the lessons that Mumps has to offer. Ignorance is bliss...

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