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Submission + - YouTube has joined the hunt for missing children. (foxnews.com)

Submitted by
Sniper223
Sniper223 writes: "YouTube has joined the hunt for missing children.

The video-sharing Web site on Friday morning launched its "Don't You Forget About Me" channel, featuring several clips seeking the whereabouts of more than 25 missing children from around the world.

YouTube, which was bought by search-engine giant Google (GOOG) last year, began the channel in conjunction with the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children and the Find Madeleine Campaign, the organization devoted to finding Madeleine McCann, the English toddler who vanished from a hotel in Portugal earlier this summer.

The first clip on the introductory page, which plays automatically, is a message from Ernie Allen, president and CEO of ICMEC.

"Use this channel. Look at these videos of real missing children," Allen says. "If you have information, contact the appropriate law-enforcement agencies."

First lady Laura Bush and English soccer star David Beckham offer their own video testimonials in support of the channel and the effort to find Madeleine McCann.

The channel is named after the 1985 hit by Scottish band Simple Minds, which is also the audio track for the Madeleine McCann video clip."
Space

Submission + - Computer Crashes During Space Walk. (cnn.com)

Submitted by
Sniper223
Sniper223 writes: "CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) — A pair of spacewalking astronauts installed a new beam to the international space station Saturday as engineers back on Earth scrutinized images of a disturbing gouge in shuttle Endeavour's heat shield.

The 3-inch gash in the shuttle's belly will be inspected in greater detail Sunday, when the shuttle crew pulls out its 100-foot robotic arm and extension boom and probes the difficult-to-reach area with lasers. Until then, NASA has only camera and radar images to examine.

Mission managers suspect a chunk of ice flew off Endeavour's external fuel tank one minute after liftoff Wednesday and struck tiles on the shuttle's underside, near the right main landing gear door. Ice is heavier than the tank's foam insulation, and even a small piece could cause major damage to the shuttle's thermal covering, which protects against the intense heat of atmospheric re-entry at flight's end.

The area where the gouge is located is exposed to as much as 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit (1,260 Celsius) during re-entry. Sunday's laser inspection will ascertain exactly how deep the gouge is, then engineers will determine whether repairs are needed.

Four years ago, a 1½-pound (0.7-kilogram) chunk of foam struck the left wing of the space shuttle Columbia at liftoff. It left a hole estimated to be between 6 and 10 inches (15 to 25 centimeters) across, and the shuttle broke apart on re-entry. Shuttle wings are especially vulnerable and subjected to even more heat during re-entry.

Work in orbit went on as usual Saturday, a day after the gouge was discovered in zoom-in photos taken by the three-man crew of the space station as Endeavour closed in for docking. Teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan — Christa McAuliffe's backup for Challenger's doomed flight in 1986 — watched the spacewalk from inside and oversaw the transfer of cargo between the shuttle and station.

On the first spacewalk of the shuttle mission, astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Dave Williams installed a 2-ton square-shaped beam to the backbone of the station, now stretching 246 feet (75 meters) end to end. The beam, or truss, was delivered by Endeavour along with other station equipment that will be hooked up during at least two more spacewalks in coming days.

Astronaut Charles Hobaugh lowered the beam into place, using the space station's robot arm, as Mastracchio and Williams floated nearby, offering guidance. Once the beam was attached to the station, the spacewalkers bolted it down and hooked up grounding straps, then completed some extra outdoor chores.

Midway through the six-hour spacewalk, NASA's main command-and-control computer aboard the space station mysteriously shut down. The backup automatically kicked in, and the third computer went from standby to backup. Mission Control said the problem did not affect the spacewalk or the health of the station.

If NASA determines the gouge in the shuttle's belly — or any other damage to the heat shield — needs to be repaired, the work probably would be done in a fourth spacewalk next Friday or so. The astronauts have a repair kit on board with three types of patching material; the kit has flown on every mission since the 2003 Columbia disaster.

Even with all the improvements to the fuel tank, NASA has readily acknowledged that it is impossible to launch a shuttle with absolutely no threat of debris. Engineers have focused their efforts on preventing large pieces of foam from coming off the tank, an effort that has mostly paid off. Learn more about Endeavour's mission

As for ice, technicians have always inspected the fuel tank right before liftoff — the tank is filled with super-cold fuel — but some spots are difficult to see. The chairman of the mission management team, John Shannon, said NASA will review the ice inspection that was carried out before Endeavour took off, to see if anything was missed.

Shannon cautioned Friday that space shuttles have safely returned to Earth with thermal tile damage in the past. Almost every mission, if not all, in the 26 years of shuttle flight, in fact, has ended with gouges of at least an inch in the thermal tiles that cover the belly. In one flight, nearly 300 dings that big were recorded. VideoWatch NASA go over the launch

"We have a rich flight history of tile damage, some of which is more significant looking than what we have right here," he told reporters. "In the past, we didn't even know we had damage and we flew back home. So what I would tell you is we're going to do all the work required to understand it. ... I would not even venture to guess what the probability is that we would have to go repair this."

NASA hopes to keep Endeavour at the space station for at least seven days and possibly a record 10 days. The shuttle is equipped with a new system for drawing power from the station, and mission managers are expected to approve the extra docked days Sunday.

In an emergency, Shannon said, Endeavour could remain at the space station for at least two months and a rescue shuttle could be launched as early as October."
Encryption

Submission + - Oldest math problem (prime numbers) solved

Submitted by
Kibbles5757
Kibbles5757 writes: "Independent scientist James McCanney has solved the prime number problem using a rigorous 7-part mathematical proof. The proof includes six of the main properties of prime numbers: symmetry, reciprocity, closure (using the operation of addition) and the infinite wavelike nature of prime numbers. Seven pieces of the puzzle had to be put together in an intricate, interwoven pattern. These provided the solution to directly calculate the prime numbers. McCanney claims that only the most sophisticated mathematicians will be able to pick up the rigorous proof and understand it on first reading. He says there is an overall pattern to the prime numbers and that the prime numbers are not random. They are in fact extremely orderly; one just has to find that order, an order that is "locked in the numbers".

http://www.calculateprimes.com/"
Mozilla

Submission + - 7 year old bug keeps businesses from using Firefox

Submitted by
Mike Moening
Mike Moening writes: "Firefox is a terrific browser. Every day many developers are switching to Firefox for both home and business use. However, there is a 7 YEAR old bug that has almost single handedly slowed the adoption of Firefox for business applications.

The ability to do something as simple as properly validate a field on a browser form. Because of this 7 YEAR old bug it is not possible to do this. With applications become richer with technologies like AJAX and client side Javascript this inability separates Firefox from its competitors.

The Mozilla/Firefox developers are legendary for their ability to nail bugs like this quickly. So why does a bug that is SEVEN YEARS old still remain unfixed? What does it take?
Business want to use Firefox! Are business centric problems are being ignored?
See bug: http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=53579 for the gory details. Comment #31 says it best. FYI the posted workarounds to this bug don't work either.
Hats off to Firefox developers! Keep up the good work!"
Toys

Submission + - Million Dollar Laptop

Submitted by thefekete
thefekete writes: 'UK-based bespoke luxury goods creator Luvaglio has created the first million dollar laptop.'

'Full details of the laptop have not been released at this point, but it is known that it incorporates a 17" widescreen LED lit screen with a specially designed anti-reflective glare coating for clear and brighter image, 128GB of Solid State Disk space and a slot loading Blue-Ray drive. There is an integrated screen cleaning device and a very rare coloured diamond piece of jewellery [sic] that doubles up as the power button when placed into the laptop and also acts as security identification.'

Story from gizmag.com

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