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Math

Submission + - MIT dude disproves Wolfram on 44 conjectures 2

Submitted by blue2
blue2 writes: Fresh out of press from the "Journal of cellular automata" ... geeky author Evangelos Georgiadis disproves legendary Stephen Wolfram on 44 conjectures. Abstract reads: In this note, we disprove 44 claims in [4] on minimal Boolean formula size of one-dimensional two-state nearest neighbor cellular automata as well as set a new lowersize bound. http://www.oldcitypublishing.com/JCA/JCA%202.4%20abstracts/GEORGIADIS.html
Power

Submission + - Scientists propose even less efficient solar power (sandia.gov)

Submitted by
wattrlz
wattrlz writes: "Scientists at Sandia National Labs in New Mexico have proposed a technique for using solar energy to reverse the combustion process and convert water into hydrogen and CO2 into methane and/or methanol.


...Over the past year they have shown proof of concept and are completing a prototype device that will use concentrated solar energy to reenergize carbon dioxide or water, the products of combustion. This will form carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and oxygen, which ultimately could be used to synthesize liquid fuels in an integrated S2P [Sunshine to Petrol] system... "What's exciting about this invention is that it will result in fossil fuels being used at least twice, meaning less carbon dioxide being put into the atmosphere and a reduction of the rate that fossil fuels are pulled out of the ground,"
"
Biotech

Submission + - Artificial Blood Vessels Grown on a Nano-Template (eurekalert.org)

Submitted by
Invisible Pink Unicorn
Invisible Pink Unicorn writes: "Researchers at MIT have found a way to induce cells to form parallel tube-like structures that could one day serve as tiny engineered blood vessels. The researchers found that they can control the cells' development by growing them on a surface with nano-scale patterning. The work focuses on vascular tissue, which includes capillaries, the tiniest blood vessels, and is an important part of the circulatory system. The team has created a surface that can serve as a template to grow capillary tubes aligned in a specific direction. The cells, known as endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), not only elongate in the direction of the grooves, but also align themselves along the grooves. That results in a multicellular structure with defined edges — a band structure. Once the band structures form, the researchers apply a commonly used gel that induces cells to form three-dimensional tubes."
Idle

Omazing Grace 3

Posted by samzenpus from the you-are-the-next-american-idol dept.
samzenpus writes "Are you ready for the worst thing you've heard all day and maybe ever? I can't believe nobody cut his microphone."
Patents

Submission + - Dell announces touchscreen and is immediately sued (informationweek.com)

Submitted by goombah99
goombah99 writes: Dell computer announced their foray into consumer touchscreen tablets using multitouch technology. And they are immediately sued in Texas by a company who's 1995 and 1997 patents cover "Portable computer with touch screen and computing system employing same". The claims seem to cover any touchscreen laptop or computing device. The Latitude XT's base price is $2,499, it has a 12.1-inch LED-backlit screen, a 1.06-gigahertz Intel Core 2 Solo processor, 1GB of memory, and a 40GB hard drive with Vista or XP. Battery life is said to be 5 hours and it weighs 3.5 pounds. The screen rotates from notebook with integral keyboard to tablet mode.
Wireless Networking

Submission + - SPAM: CMU: Using 2 types of wireless LANs better than 1

Submitted by alphadogg-nw
alphadogg-nw writes: Carnegie Mellon University has launched a massive upgrade of its campus-wide wireless LAN . . . and chosen two WLAN vendors to supply the 802.11n infrastructure for it. The decision runs counter to almost every large-scale wireless deployment, where a company in effect standardizes on one vendor. "This was definitely a unique decision for us, even having been in the wireless game for a long time," the school's project head says. "In the end, though, I believe we selected two technologies that best address the different usage patterns we see around campus."
Link to Original Source
Social Networks

Submission + - Facebook Removes Firewall from Applications (idealog.us)

Submitted by
NewsCloud
NewsCloud writes: "Last week, Facebook quietly removed sign in restrictions that previously hid third party applications from the public Web. In other words, Facebook now allows its third party applications to be viewable on the Web by anonymous visitors and indexable by search engines. Web developers can now build an application using Facebook's platform usable by anyone on the Internet — not just Facebook members e.g. the Lending Library. In doing so, developers can leverage Facebook's login and registration as well its other platform services, which are becoming increasingly substantial. Facebook may be trying to gain advantage as a universal authentication gateway for public Web applications. If successful, it could further hamper efforts to establish OpenID. This will also help the company break out of its earlier AOL-like walled-garden strategy."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft SharePoint spreads like a virus (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
jbrodkin
jbrodkin writes: "Microsoft's SharePoint is spreading like a virus throughout large enterprises, catching IT departments off guard and introducing risks related to uncontrolled content and regulatory compliance, analyst firm CMS Watch claims. One North American bank found "more than 5,000 uncontrolled and unaudited instances of SharePoint," and a major energy company "reported finding more than 15,000 previously undetected instances of SharePoint." With users deploying SharePoint on their own, business-critical information is being left on servers where it isn't properly archived, making it hard to comply with legal discovery requirements. Microsoft accuses the analyst firm of spreading "mischaracterizations and inaccuracies.""
Media

Submission + - Suit seeks "a la carte" TV channel choices (yahoo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. pay-TV industry amounts to a cartel because it maintains profits by offering channels in prepackaged tiers rather than "a la carte," according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles. The federal lawsuit names every major cable and satellite television system operator as well as every major cable and broadcast television network. "The antitrust laws protect the right of choice," antitrust lawyer Maxwell M. Blecher said. "Here the customer is denied that choice."
NASA

Submission + - NASA posts ancient FORTRAN code, buffs up data

Submitted by
chicomarxbro
chicomarxbro writes: "A Y2K error discovered by blogger Steve McIntyre in August forced NASA's climate chief James Hansen revise temperature data showing 1934 was actually the hottest year on record, not 1998 as previously announced. This spurred renewed calls for NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) to publicly release their historical FORTRAN code which powered the global temperature analyses. Still used today, the code has a lineage going back to the 70's. NASA finally agreed and published the code but not before making an unannounced change to the raw temperature data which bundled with the code. NASA's change to raw data collating methods. which hadn't been modified in over a decade, resulted in 1998 being put back in first place next to 1934. Some bloggers have called this stealthy revision of the raw data an "Enron like accounting game""
Security

Submission + - Report: How Paper Trails Fail to Secure e-Voting (itif.org)

Submitted by
Daniel Castro
Daniel Castro writes: "The Information Week article on our report was listed earlier this week on Slashdot, so I thought people might be interested in seeing our actual report "Stop the Presses: How Paper Trails Fail to Secure e-Voting" which we released today at a briefing in Washington, D.C. We basically make three points: 1) Paper trails have serious limitations. 2) Audit trails are good, but there is no need to mandate that they be paper audit trails. 3) Even better forms of verifiability, such as "end-to-end verifiability", offer proven security which actually allows any voter or election observer to verify the results of an election, without compromising the privacy of the voter's ballot."

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