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Software

Algorithms Can Make You Pretty 288

Posted by timothy from the too-late-for-me dept.
caffeinemessiah writes "The New York Times has an interesting story on a new algorithm by researchers from Tel Aviv University that modifies a facial picture of a person to conform to standards of attractiveness. Based on a digital library of pictures of people who have been judged 'attractive,' the algorithm finds the nearest match and modifies an input picture so it conforms to the 'attractive' person's proportions. The trick, however, is that the resultant pictures are still recognizable as the original person. Here's a quick link to a representative picture of the process. Note that this is a machine-learning approach to picture modification, not a characterization of beauty, and could just as easily be used to make a person less attractive." Note: As reader Trent Waddington points out, the underlying research was mentioned in an earlier story as well.

Comment Re:Insurance? (Score 1) 758

by slapys (#24686467) Attached to: How Do I Prevent Lan Party Theft?

The reality here is this is a LAN party, not a frat-boy keg party. The risks are low.

I am in a fraternity in college, and we have insurance for our keg parties. It is actually not that expensive, or difficult to purchase (we do it on an annual basis, should be easier on a one-time basis).
Graphics

Identifying Manipulated Images 162

Posted by CmdrTaco from the check-that-out dept.
Jamie found a cool story at MIT Tech Review. (As an aside, it sits behind an interstitial ad AND on 2 pages: normally I reject websites that do that, but it's a slow news day, so I'm letting it through.) Essentially, software is used to analyze light patterns in still photographs. Once you can figure out where the light sources are, it becomes a lot easier to determine if an image has been photoshopped.
Linux Business

Submission + - Dell to Expand Linux Factory Installed Options

Submitted by hedgefighter
hedgefighter writes: After an overwhelming response to their Linux survey, Dell says they will actually be selling computers with Linux pre-installed. "Dell has heard you and we will expand our Linux support beyond our existing servers and Precision workstation line. Our first step in this effort is offering Linux pre-installed on select desktop and notebook systems." They will be announcing which distributions and systems later this week.
Security

Submission + - MS security guy wants Vista bugs rated down

Submitted by
jcatcw
jcatcw writes: "Gregg Keizer reports that Michael Howard, an MS senior security program manager, says that the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) is being too conservative in its Vista vulnerability rating plans. Microsoft's own bug hunters should cut Windows Vista some slack and rate its vulnerabilities differently because of the operating system's new, baked-in defenses."
Space

Submission + - A decade-long mystery has been solved

Submitted by
justelite
justelite writes: "A decade-long mystery has been solved using data from ESA's X-ray observatory XMM-Newton. The brightest member of the so-called 'magnificent seven' has been found to pulsate with a period of seven seconds. The discovery casts some doubt on the recent interpretation that this object is a highly exotic celestial object known as a quark star."
Censorship

Submission + - Turkey Repeals YouTube Ban

Submitted by
Phooey42
Phooey42 writes: "Just days after Turkey censored YouTube, the Boston Herald is reporting that Turkey has already lifted the ban. From the article, "The Istanbul court that ordered the site blocked on Wednesday had said it would lift the ban as soon as it ascertained that videos insulting Turkey's founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, were removed." The reason the ban was listed has not yet been given, but presumably the video was removed or they gave in to the immense pressure from the press."
United States

Submission + - Congressman: colleges are nests of piracy

Submitted by Prescott
Prescott writes: Hollywood's congressman, Rep. Howard Berman of California, has announced that his subcomittee will be accelerating its hearings on piracy at American colleges. More troubling, he is getting ready to go after what he is calling the 'hypocrisy' of American colleges and Universities. 'Unfortunately, many schools have turned a blind eye to piracy,' Berman said. 'I don't doubt that there are legitimate issues that universities must grapple with, including privacy and cost concerns. However, when a university such as Purdue tells the AP that it rarely even notifies students accused by the RIAA because it is too much trouble to track down alleged offenders — such inaction is unacceptable.'
The Internet

Submission + - Pirate Bay abandons bid for own nation

Submitted by tomp76
tomp76 writes: Perhaps it was all just a joke. Or perhaps The Pirate Bay, despite being one of the largest bit torrent trackers in the world, isn't really as powerful as its supporters would like to believe. That, at least, is the impression given by one of the founders in this interview. The plans for a copyright-free nation have been scaled down considerably: "We have $20,000 and we are looking at some alternatives. Really we just want somewhere we can name The Pirate Bay, so we can look on Google Maps and find ourselves there."
Security

Ex-judge Gets 27 Months on Evidence From Hacked PC 610

Posted by samzenpus from the lesser-of-two-evils dept.
netbsd_fan writes "A former California judge has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for possession of illegal pornography, based entirely on evidence gathered by an anonymous vigilante script kiddie in Canada. At any given time he was monitoring over 3,000 innocent people. The anonymous hacker says, "I would stay up late at night to see what I could drag out of their computers, which turned out to be more than I expected. I could read all of their e-mails without them knowing. As far as they were concerned, they didn't know their e-mails had even been opened. I could see who they were chatting with and read what they were saying as they typed."
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - Video Games Improve Surgical Skills

Submitted by
denmarkw00t
denmarkw00t writes: "From this CNN article: "There was a strong correlation between video game skills and a surgeon's capabilities performing laparoscopic surgery in the study published in the February issue of Archives of Surgery. Out of 33 surgeons...that participated in the study, the nine doctors who had at some point played video games at least three hours per week made 37 percent fewer errors, performed 27 percent faster, and scored 42 percent better in the test of surgical skills than the 15 surgeons who had never played video games before."

And I haven't even gotten my copy of Trauma Center for the Wii yet"
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Infants Form Memories, but Forget Them

Submitted by Dollaz
Dollaz writes: Adults thinking back rarely can remember anything before preshool,but those bright infant eyes staring back at mommy and daddy really are forming memories. It's just that babies also forget. In fact, babies' rate of forgetting is even faster than that of adults, Patricia J. Bauer of Duke University said Friday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Biotech

Possible Cure For Autism 431

Posted by kdawson from the umbrella-for-the-rainman dept.
Henry V .009 writes "Scientists in New Jersey are claiming that children with autism are unable to metabolize key fatty acids that fight brain-damaging inflammations. They have already developed urine/blood tests to identify at-risk children. A preventive cure to autism may be as simple as a 'therapeutic cocktail' of fatty acids. Human trials could start later this year."

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