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Space

Submission + - Mars Robot May Destroy Life It Was Sent to Find 2

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "New Scientist reports that instead of identifying chemicals that could point to life, NASA's robot explorers may have been toasting them by mistake. Even if Mars never had life, comets and asteroids that have struck the planet should have scattered at least some organic molecules over its surface but landers have failed to detect even minute quantities of organic compounds. Now scientists say they may have stumbled on something in the Martian soil that may have, in effect, been hiding the organics: a class of chemicals called perchlorates. At low temperatures, perchlorates are relatively harmless but when heated to hundreds of degrees Celsius perchlorates release a lot of oxygen, which tends to cause any nearby combustible material to burn. The Phoenix and Viking landers looked for organic molecules by heating soil samples to similarly high temperatures to evaporate them and analyse them in gas form. When Douglas Ming of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and colleagues tried heating organics and perchlorates like this on Earth, the resulting combustion left no trace of organics behind. "We haven't looked the right way," says Chris McKay of NASA's Ames Research Center. Jeffrey Bada of the University of California, San Diego, agrees that a new approach is needed. He is leading work on a new instrument called Urey which will be able to detect organic material at concentrations as low as a few parts per trillion. The good news is that, although Urey heats its samples, it does so in water, so the organics cannot burn up."
Wine

Submission + - Wine project frustration and forking (winehq.org)

Submitted by
Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: "Wine attempts to implement the Windows API layer on Linux. There are some limitations and an important one is the missing DIB engine, bug 421. Chris Howe comprehends the dissatisfaction of core developers with the abitrary project governance:

Sorry to sound like a stuck record but the Wine website still lists "write a DIB engine" as a requirement, and every time someone does, the patches dissapear down a hole because they're "not right". Someone document what "would be right", or take "write a DIB engine" off the list. I'd love to have a go at documenting it myself, but I don't have the time to reverse engineer it from a few years' worth of rejected solutions.

The latest attempt of Massimo Del Fedel satisfied all requirements set previously for the long standing bug 421 and his optional engine seems to work fine by all Wine quality standards. He seems to be extraordinary stubborn and insusceptible to mobbing. Usually it is extremely frustrating for developers when the goal post is constantly moved. When is the right time that project members should fork when their chief maintainer does not respond anymore or pursues an adverse commercial agenda?"
Privacy

Submission + - What can I do to fight back against RIAA 2

Submitted by hurrikane
hurrikane writes: RIAA is probably the one thing I read about that instantly enrages me. I just read the updated article about CBS handing over personal information to the RIAA from last.fm. Goodbye last.fm. I deleted it as soon as I finished the reading the post. RIAA is absolutely incredible. They don't care about anything but exploiting their customers, or other innocent people, to fill their wallets. Their flagrant abuse of the legal system to complete this task is unbelievable. But what can I do about it? I've Google'd for various terms to try and find a group of people who actively fight this garbage, but no luck. I can't believe there's not a petition somewhere. Or a group of some sort which I can contribute. I am shocked I never see anything on EFF. Does anyone know of any organizations, or ways to fight back other than simply boycotting their products?
Software

Submission + - Ridiculous Software Bug Workarounds?

Submitted by
theodp
theodp writes: "Ever get a workaround for a bug from a vendor that's so rigoddamndiculous that there has to be a clueless MBA or an ornery developer behind it? For example, Microsoft once instructed users to wiggle their mouse continuously for several minutes if they wanted to see their Oracle data make it into Excel (yes, it worked!). And more recently, frustrated HP customers were instructed to use non-HP printers as their default printer if they don't want Microsoft Office 2007 to crash (was this demo'ed in The Mojave Experiment?). Any other candidates for the Lame Workaround Hall of Fame?"
The Courts

Submission + - Jammie Thomas May Face RIAA Trial Alone (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "With her trial coming up on June 15th, Jammie Thomas has received a motion by her lawyer to withdraw from the highly publicized case, Capitol Records v. Thomas. Ms. Thomas said in a written declaration (PDF) obtained from her by her lawyer that she was not opposed to the lawyer's withdrawal, and waived any hearing on the matter. The court papers submitted by the lawyer (PDF) also indicated that the RIAA was not opposed to the withdrawal — i.e. it graciously consented to Ms. Thomas having no legal representation — but was opposed to any continuance (i.e. the RIAA wants to make sure that Ms. Thomas does not have sufficient time to find other legal representation, or to prepare to handle the trial herself, or to enable new counsel to prepare to handle the trial). Nice of them."
Data Storage

Submission + - G.E.'s Breakthrough Can Put 100 DVDs on a Disc

Submitted by bsharma
bsharma writes: General Electric says it has achieved a breakthrough in digital storage technology that will allow standard-size discs to hold the equivalent of 100 DVDs. The storage advance, which G.E. is announcing on Monday, is just a laboratory success at this stage. The new technology must be made to work in products that can be mass-produced at affordable prices. But optical storage experts and industry analysts who were told of the development said it held the promise of being a big step forward in digital storage with a wide range of potential uses in commercial, scientific and consumer markets. "This could be the next generation of low-cost storage," said Richard Doherty, an analyst at Envisioneering, a technology research firm. The promising work by the G.E. researchers is in the field of holographic storage. Holography is an optical process that stores not only three-dimensional images like the ones placed on many credit cards for security purposes, but the 1's and 0's of digital data as well... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/technology/business-computing/27disk.html?hpw
Earth

Submission + - Scientists Create first Rydberg Molecule

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "German-led scientists say they have observed for the first time a rare molecule, the existence of which has until now only been predicted by theory. A Rydberg molecule is formed through an elusive and extremely weak chemical bond between two atoms. A Rydberg atom is special because it has one electron alone in an outermost orbit — very far, in atomic terms, from its nucleus. Back in 1934 Enrico Fermi predicted that if another atom were to "find" that lone, wandering electron, it might interact with it. "But Fermi never imagined that molecules could be formed," explained Chris Greene, the theoretical physicist from the University of Colorado who first predicted that Rydberg molecules could exist. "We recognised, in our work in the 1970s and 80s, the potential for a sort of forcefield between a Rydberg atom and a groundstate [or normal] atom." The scientists said they observed a Rydberg molecule by super-cooling rubidium molecules to a temperature near absolute zero — minus 273 degrees Celsius. At temperatures very close to absolute zero the "critical distance" of about 100 nanometres between the atoms is reached. The fact that the molecules can be made and seen confirms long-held fundamental atomic theories. "This is a very exciting set of experiments," added Helen Fielding, a physical chemist from University College London. "It shows that this approach is feasible, and it will be interesting to see what other fundamental physics we'll be able to test with it.""

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