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Education

Submission + - Ig Nobel Awards for 2007

Submitted by
Thorfinn.au
Thorfinn.au writes: "The Ig Nobel Awards for 2007, which mark achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think". The prize for medicine went to Brain Witcombe, of Gloucestershire Royal NHS Foundation Trust, UK, and Dan Meyer for their probing work on the health consequences of swallowing a sword. A review of the announcement is at BBC where it is top story on the SCIENCE/NATURE STORIES page. The original announcement is at IG ."
Operating Systems

Submission + - New Open Source Operating System (not linux) (losethos.com) 1

Submitted by
losethos
losethos writes: "LoseThos version 3.08 has been released. It's an open source, 64-bit, free, PC operating system written from scratch with no GPL or GNU code. It's target demographic is amateur programmers wishing to write games. This version solves the 2 Gig memory limit. x86 chips have a 32-bit limitation on branches and calls in code, even in 64-bit mode. LoseThos separates code from data with this version by allocating from separate heaps. The code heap is limited to 2 Gig, but this should not be a problem, if you think about it, because a million lines of code might have 20 bytes a line and that would only be 20 Meg. Data, such as graphics, are what consume memory. Techically, you need to recompile the kernel to enable this feature. See the help discussion under "memory"."
The Courts

Submission + - How should I have responded to RIAA lawyer? 10

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The RIAA's lawyers are a bit jumpy these days since their standard "making available" boilerplate was rejected by the Court in Interscope v. Rodriguez. But I still never expected, when I initiated a dismissal motion in Elektra v. Schwartz, that they would be reaching out to me , of all people, for help. But so they did, asking me "in the interest of efficiency... what precisely Defendant contends is lacking from Plaintiffs' Complaint for Defendant to consider it sufficient. Perhaps Plaintiffs may be able to satisfy these alleged deficiencies and spare both parties additional and unnecessary motions practice." Unfortunately my response was not very helpful; I couldn't think of anything better than to say, more or less, that "Plaintiffs have no case whatsoever against Ms. Schwartz, and their case against her was frivolous in its inception. Accordingly, there are no facts they can allege that will satisfy the plausibility standard." On reflection, I'm feeling kind of guilty that I didn't give them a more creative, and helpful answer, and I thought to turn to my friends at Slashdot, who are (a) almost always helpful, and (b) always creative. What would you have said?"
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."
Space

Submission + - Fully Time-Deteministic Java (javolution.org) 1

Submitted by
Jean-Marie Dautelle
Jean-Marie Dautelle writes: "For cost reasons the national space agency is more and more interested in using Java for safety-critical missions. Until recently the lack of a time-predictable standard library has been a major hurdle to Java adoption in that particular field. It is no more the case as demonstrated by this AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) paper presented the first day of the Space 2007 conference (Long Beach, CA) and introducing the first fully time-deterministic (and open-source) library for Java: Javolution!"
Toys

Submission + - How to build a time machine 1

Submitted by
sbate
sbate writes: "My 7 year old son has asked for a Time Machine for Christmas. He is serious. He knows I could build one if I really wanted to so I need some help. I have a lot of PVC pipe in the back yard and as much Vermiculite as I can carry. I also have some crystals. What I need is a good place to start.

Thanks"
Printer

Submission + - Apple acquires CUPS (cups.org) 1

Submitted by
mikesd81
mikesd81 writes: "Michael R. Sweet, the creator of CUPS, has posted on the CUPS website that:

"Apple Inc. acquired ownership the CUPS source code and hired me (Michael R Sweet), the creator of CUPS.

CUPS will still be released under the existing GPL2/LGPL2 licensing terms, and I will continue to develop and support CUPS at Apple. ""
United States

Submission + - The Great Iraq Swindle

Submitted by Drahgkar
Drahgkar writes: Have you ever wondered where all the money the government has spent on the war in Iraq has gone? Wonder no more as you read The Great Iraq Swindle on Rolling Stone's website. "How is it done? How do you screw the taxpayer for millions, get away with it and then ride off into the sunset with one middle finger extended, the other wrapped around a chilled martini? Ask Earnest O. Robbins — he knows all about being a successful contractor in Iraq."
Linux Business

Submission + - Linux "GeekSquad/Firedog"-style network?

Submitted by
ngunton
ngunton writes: "I was thinking about what I could do to make a little computer consulting business for myself, helping ordinary local people install and run Linux — kind of like a GeekSquad or Firedog type of paid consultancy service, but dedicated purely to helping install Linux, replace Windows, set up home networks with Linux, get all the usual services and apps running, and help people learn and use the system, tutorials etc. It seems that this might be an attractive sell, since one of the major hooks for the average non-geek could be "No more viruses or malware", and all the major software is free too. Then I started thinking about expanding the concept to one where instead of just me, it could be a website where linux geeks from all over the place could join and then people could find their local geek and get services from them, in exchange for (gasp) money. So it's a kind of distributed Linux geek co-operative, or you could look at it as a kind of franchise operation, where you'd pay to join and get a package which helps you get started, advertise, what to charge, what services and so on. A major benefit of joining would be that you have a one-stop website where people can go for anything to do with getting help with any linux issues, so you are joining a network and would benefit from national advertising campaigns. Of course there would have to be some kind of certification process, to make sure people are capable of doing the job. What do you think?"
Space

Submission + - Possible Setback for Space Tourism (usatoday.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Article here detailing an accident at Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites that killed three technicians, and injured three more. Is this a setback for commercial manned flights to space? "The accident at the remote site run by famed aerospace designer Burt Rutan rattled the fledgling space tourism industry, which has enjoyed a honeymoon period since 2004 when Rutan launched SpaceShipOne, the first private manned rocket, into space. The Mojave accident invoked memories of NASA's Apollo 1 tragedy 40 years ago in which three astronauts were killed in a flash fire during a routine launch pad test. The accident forced NASA to temporarily halt its space race with the Soviet Union and make design changes that led to the successful moon landings.+
Supercomputing

Submission + - Photon-transistors exchange data between photons (eurekalert.org)

Submitted by gregor-e
gregor-e writes: Scientist from the Niels Bohr Institute at University of Copenhagen and from Harvard University have come up with a way for photons to exchange data. Normally, photons pass right by each other without interacting. What these guys have done is establish a means of transferring information from one photon to another by using a single atom intermediary. This provides a step toward practical quantum computation, by allowing the signals to be purely optical in nature.
Space

Submission + - Borexino, the Sun neutrino hunter

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "An international team of more than 100 researchers has used the huge Borexino detector to detect low-energy solar neutrinos for the first time. These results confirm recent 'theories about the nature of neutrinos and the inner workings of the sun and other stars.' In particular, it's now almost certain that neutrinos oscillate between three types, namely electron, muon and tau neutrinos. The Borexino detector used for these discoveries is located near L'Aquila, Italy. It is a 18-meter-diameter dome shielded by 2,400 tonnes of purified water and lying more than a kilometer underground to block interferences with cosmic rays. Read more for additional references and a diagram showing the various components of the Borexino detector, one of the deepest laboratories in the world."
Nintendo

Submission + - Wii Becomes Leading Console

Submitted by Bender0x7D1
Bender0x7D1 writes: According to VG Chartz, total worldwide sales of the Nintendo Wii have surpassed those of of the XBox 360. It has been a long time since Nintendo held the lead in console sales and Sony, the sales leader of the previous generation, is lagging far behind in this current generation. The question is: Does the Wii have the staying power to keep outselling the competition, or will upcoming games like Halo 3 and GTA IV give the advantage to Microsoft and Sony?

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