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Movies

Lucas Researching Concept For New Indiana Jones Film 272

Posted by Soulskill from the indiana-jones-and-the-search-for-his-dentures dept.
Cycon writes "According to George Lucas, 'The franchise really depends on me coming up with a good idea. And that series is very research-intensive. So we're doing research now to see if we can't come up with another object for him to chase ... hopefully we'll come up with something.' Lucas 'scoffed at the possibility of passing the famed fedora from Ford to Shia LaBeouf,' instead stating, 'if [Harrison Ford] wasn't in it, you'd have to call it "Mutt Williams and the search for Elvis."'"
Space

Simulation Predicts Clumps of Dark Matter Within Galaxies 131

Posted by Soulskill from the kind-of-like-normal-matter dept.
A team of researchers has simulated the gravitational interaction of dark matter particles over the course of a hypothetical 13.7 billion years. They found that the particles tended to form clumps large enough to assist in the formation of galaxies. The results contradicted observations from previous, smaller studies, but they lent support to an unrelated simulation of how the Milky Way formed. UCSC's press release is also available. Quoting ScienceNews: "The clumps of dark matter in the simulation have densities that are remarkably similar to densities that a University of California, Irvine research group found when simulating the formation of the Milky Way and its satellite dwarf galaxies, says James Bullock, the astrophysicist who leads the UC-Irvine group and was not involved in the new study. 'This is a remarkable success of the particular model simulated and adds strong support to the idea that the dark matter is made up of particles that are "cold." There are a number of planned experiments aimed at detecting the dark matter that are betting on it being cold, so this is generally good news for the community,' Bullock says. And, [study co-author Piero Madau] notes, larger simulations that might help constrain the nature of dark matter even more are already in the works."
Microsoft

158 Pages of Microsoft's Dirty Laundry 296

Posted by CmdrTaco from the isn't-that-a-song dept.
KrispyRasher writes "Even internally, Microsoft couldn't agree on what the base requirements to run Vista were, but that didn't stop it from inaccurately promoting the OS as running on some hardware. 158 pages of Microsoft internal emails reveal scandalous truths about the squabbles that took place in the lead up to Vista's launch."
The Courts

RIAA Expert Witness Called "Borderline Incompetent" 170

Posted by kdawson from the tell-us-what-you-really-think dept.
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Prof. Johan Pouwelse of Delft University — one of the world's foremost experts on the science of P2P file sharing and the very same Prof. Pouwelse who stopped the RIAA's Netherlands counterpart in its tracks back in 2005 — has submitted an expert witness report characterizing the work of the RIAA's expert, Dr. Doug Jacobson, as 'borderline incompetence.' The report (PDF), filed in UMG v. Lindor, pointed out, among other things, that the steps needed to be taken in a copyright infringement investigation were not taken, that Jacobson's work lacked 'in-depth analysis' and 'proper scientific scrutiny,' that Jacobson's reports were 'factually erroneous,' and that they were contradicted by his own deposition testimony. This is the first expert witness report of which we are aware since the Free Software Foundation announced that it would be coming to the aid of RIAA defendants."
Businesses

Tetris Creator Claims FOSS Destroys the Market 686

Posted by kdawson from the sterile-absentia dept.
alx5000 writes "In an interview conducted last week with Consumer Eroski (link in Spanish; Google translation), the father of Tetris Alexey Pajitnov claimed that 'Free Software should have never existed,' since it 'destroys the market' by bringing down companies that create wealth and prosperity. When asked about Red Hat or Oracle's support-oriented model, he called them 'a minority,' and also criticized Stallman's ideas as 'belonging to the past' where there were no software 'business possibilities.'"
Networking

Submission + - Personal weather station helping weather forecast

Submitted by Weather Storm
Weather Storm writes: Weather information from thousands of personal weather stations are being used for weather forecasting by several private and government agencies including National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Department of Homeland Security (DOH). Citizens Weather Observation Program (CWOP) created by a few amateur radio operators experimenting with transmitting weather data with packet radios, has expanded their network to include internet only weather stations. "As of September 2007, nearly 5,000 station world-wide reported weather data regularly to CWOP a href="http://www.findu.com/">FindU database." The weather data is forwarded every 15 minutes to NOAA's Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System (MADIS), checked for temporary and spatial consistency, than utilized by computer forecast models and internal forecast verification programs. In a Febuary 2007 report, DOH listed CWOP as a national assets to the "BioWatch" Network stating that data from personal weather station could be useful in weather forecasts for hazardous releases. In 2007, the FindU server received 422,262,687 weather reports which is a 29.5% increase over 2006.
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Star Trek prequel teaser trailer released (sffmedia.com)

Submitted by
bowman9991
bowman9991 writes: "The new Star Trek prequel teaser trailer is short and sweet. The upcoming Star Trek prequel will be directed by J. J. Abrams and features and young Spock and Kirk. You can watch the teaser trailer at SFFMedia here. The trailer shows construction work being undertaken on what will presumably be the first Starship Enterprise and features a voice over by Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played Doctor Spock in the original Star Trek TV series."
Movies

Submission + - Cloverfield gave me a headache (sffmedia.com)

Submitted by
bowman9991
bowman9991 writes: "I've just watched J. J. Abram's new flick Cloverfield and it's given me a massive headache. SFFMedia reviews the latest science fiction monster movie from J J Abram's and ends up with a sore headThe Blair Witch-style camera movement is claustrophobic, non-stop, and at times unbearable. Just imagine a film you've recorded on your camera equipped mobile phone and then spliced together pretty much randomly on your PC's video editing software, and you'll get the idea. With a running time of only 90 minutes it's very short, perhaps because test audiences were getting extreme motion sickness and had to be sedated. Or maybe the mobile phone's memory card ran out of storage space? When something dramatic happens, which after the first 20 minutes is pretty much the entire movie, the camera goes nuts. The camera operator has probably been locked up by now."

Feed Engadget: Virtual teacher understands your frustration, pours on the homework (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Robots

Okay, so maybe Eve won't really load you down with busywork, but the virtual teacher will sympathize with you, hear you out and alter her teaching style to better match your current mood. Reportedly, the Massey University creation can "pick up body language and facial expressions like a real teacher [in order] to interact and [hold] the attention of students." Additionally, she can ask questions, dole out feedback and discuss problems with pupils, but there's no telling how easily she hands out extra credit. Dr. Hossein Sarrafzadeh, the lead on the project, noted that people should soon expect robots to take note of their feelings and reactions exactly as we expect a fellow human to, but we're left to wonder how many more years our teachers have before they're subbed out en masse for digital replacements.

[Via SmartMobs, image courtesy of Primidi]

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