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Math

Euler's Partition Function Theory Finished 117

Posted by Soulskill from the that-was-quick dept.
universegeek writes "Mathematician Ken Ono, from Emory, has solved a 250-year-old problem: how to exactly and explicitly generate partition numbers. Ono and colleagues were able to finally do this by realizing that the pattern of partition numbers is fractal (PDF). This pattern allowed them to find a finite, algebraic formula, which is like striking oil in mathematics."
Crime

FBI and NYPD Officers Sent On Museum Field Trip 70

Posted by samzenpus from the warrantless-permission-slips dept.
In an attempt to "refresh their sense of inquiry" FBI agents, and NYPD officers are being sent to a course at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Art of Perception hopes to improve an officers' ability to accurately describe what they see during an investigation by studying art. From the article: "Amy Herman, the course leader, said: 'We're getting them off the streets and out of the precincts, and it refreshes their sense of inquiry. They're thinking, "Oh, how am I doing my job," and it forces them to think about how they communicate, and how they see the world around them.' Ms Herman, an art historian, originally developed the course for medical students, but successfully pitched it as a training course to the New York Police Academy."
Piracy

Sony Gets Nasty With PSBreak Buyers 246

Posted by Soulskill from the give-it-a-rest dept.
YokimaSun writes "The war between hackers and Sony over the PlayStation 3 has now taken an even more sinister turn, with Sony going after not just shops but actual buyers of the PSBreak dongle, threatening them with fines of many thousands of Euros and forcing them to sign cease-and-desist letters. It seems Sony will use any means necessary to thwart both homebrew and piracy on the PS3."
United Kingdom

Dogs Can Be Pessimistic 99

Posted by samzenpus from the dog-in-black dept.
Not that it will change anything, but researchers at Bristol University say that your dog might be a gloom-monger. In addition to the downer dogs, the study also found a few that seemed happy no matter how uncaring the world around them was. "We know that people's emotional states affect their judgments and that happy people are more likely to judge an ambiguous situation positively. What our study has shown is that this applies similarly to dogs," said professor Mike Mendl, an author of the study and head of animal welfare and behavior at Bristol University.
Science

Why the First Cowboy To Draw Always Gets Shot 398

Posted by timothy from the more-guns-less-crime dept.
cremeglace writes "Have you ever noticed that the first cowboy to draw his gun in a Hollywood Western is invariably the one to get shot? Nobel-winning physicist Niels Bohr did, once arranging mock duels to test the validity of this cinematic curiosity. Researchers have now confirmed that people indeed move faster if they are reacting, rather than acting first."
NASA

Dying Man Shares Unseen Challenger Video 266

Posted by Soulskill from the new-perspective-on-an-old-tragedy dept.
longacre writes "An amateur video of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion has been made public for the first time. The Florida man who filmed it from his front yard on his new Betamax camcorder turned the tape over to an educational organization a week before he died this past December. The Space Exploration Archive has since published the video into the public domain in time for the 24th anniversary of the catastrophe. Despite being shot from about 70 miles from Cape Canaveral, the shuttle and the explosion can be seen quite clearly. It is unclear why he never shared the footage with NASA or the media. NASA officials say they were not aware of the video, but are interested in examining it now that it has been made available."

Comment Here is the Missing Evidence (Score 1) 342

by lcreech (#30986714) Attached to: UK Gov't Says "No Evidence" IE Is Less Secure

A reply from Walter Snow

"Apple's issued a update to fix a security hole in the fundamental Internet SSL/TSL protocol. There is a SERIOUS problem in the TLS (Transport Layer Security) part of this protocol. The problem is NOT an implementation issue, but a TSL protocol DEFINITION issue.

This SSL/TSL protocol definition issue allows a hacker to become a "man-in-the-middle" who can view and modify all SSL communications between a secure browser client and a secure server. Everyone using the Internet is going to have to address this problem, because all internet financial transactions use the SSL protocol, and the protocol itself must be changed to prevent something called "TLS renegotiation" or else no financial transaction on the Internet is secure or safe. Every software vendor will have to supply a "no-renegotiation" patch for their implementation of SSL, every user browser will also have to be patched, and every business will have to apply the appropriate patch all their servers. Until this is done, any attempt to buy, sell, or move money on the Internet is not secure - and therefore not safe.

This SSL/TSL protocol security gap has been public knowledge ever since 11/05/2009, when it leaked out to the press in the wake of the Iranian government's hack of Twitter, though it had been known to Carnegie Mellon and the Federal US-CERT even earlier (August of 2009). The problem is reported on the Carnegie Mellon CERT and Federal Cybersecurity US-CERT web sites as VU#120541.Software vendors were officially notified of the problem by US-CERT on 11/05/2009.

More of this here: http://www.phonefactor.com/sslgap/ and here http://www.phonefactor.com/blog/implications-twitter-attack-ssl-gap.php by the group that first discovered it last August. Or Google VU#120541 and read the posts.

But here is the kicker - even though it has been known publicly since 11/05/2009, and many responsible vendors like Apple have provided patches for their software, MICROSOFT HAS APPARENTLY NEVER ACKNOWLEDGED THAT THIS VULNERABILITY EVEN EXISTS IN THEIR SOFTWARE. They have not provided a patch, nor have they indicated they are even working on a patch. I found nothing about the problem on the MSDN website except a few user questions about it on community bulletin boards that were NOT responded to (by Microsoft). I found is nothing on Microsoft TechNet either. And of course nothing in any Microsoft Security Bulletins."
Space

Astronomers Discover the Coolest Known Sub-Stellar Body 60

Posted by Soulskill from the miles-davis's-home-planet dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Science Daily reports that using the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii, astronomers have discovered what may be the coolest sub-stellar body ever found outside our own solar system. Too small to be stars and with insufficient mass to maintain hydrogen-burning nuclear fusion reactions in their cores, 'brown dwarfs' have masses smaller than stars but larger than gas giant planets like Jupiter, with an upper limit in between 75 and 80 Jupiter masses. 'This looks like the fourth time in three years that the UKIRT has made a record breaking discovery of the coolest known brown dwarf, with an estimated temperature not far above 200 degrees Celsius,' says Dr. Philip Lucas at the University of Hertfordshire. Due to their low temperature these objects are very faint in visible light, and are detected by their glow at infrared wavelengths. The object known as SDSS1416+13B is in a wide orbit around a somewhat brighter and warmer brown dwarf, SDSS1416+13A, and the pair is located between 15 and 50 light years from the solar system, which is quite close in astronomical terms."

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