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Submission + - Downwind faster than the wind: Record set (makezine.com)

Submitted by Shawnconna
Shawnconna writes: Can a wind cart travel faster than the wind? A group of makers say Yes!, and Make: Online has published the first in a three-part series on the Blackbird wind cart that just set a record. This is a follow-up on a story in MAKE Volume 11 where Charles Platt built a cart based on a viral video where a guy claimed he'd built a wind-powered vehicle that could travel downwind faster than the windspeed. Charles built one and said it didn't work. Heated debates broke out in forums, on BB, and elsewhere on the Net. In the ensuing time, a number of people have built carts and claimed success, most principally, Rick Cavallaro. He got funding, from Google and JOBY, to build and test a human-piloted cart. They claim success, with multiple sensor systems on board, impartial judges and experts in attendance. The controversy continues. And the 3-part story starts today on Makezine.com.
Security

Submission + - Black Hat: new exploit techniques, Stuxnet insight (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: The Black Hat security conference will kick off in Abu Dhabi on Monday with new information revealed about the Stuxnet malicious software program along with other cutting-edge research.

Tom Parker, director of security consulting services at Securicon, will be among the speakers at the conference, located for the first time in the United Arab Emirates. Parker has taken a deep look at Stuxnet, a piece of malicious software that caused widespread concern because it targeted Siemens SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) systems.

Stuxnet has generated a lot of hype and speculation, including whether it was created by some country's intelligence services as well as varying opinions on its sophistication, Parker said. Much of that speculation, Parker said, has been spawned by a problem facing the computer security community: How can certain malware be attributed to a specific person or group?

At Black Hat, Parker plans to release an open-source tool called "Blackaxon" that analyzes the programming styles of code. Just as authors of books have their own distinct styles and patterns, the same goes for malware authors. His analysis shows that probably at least five different people wrote parts of Stuxnet.

Submission + - Americans Less Healthy but Live Longer than Brits

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Older Americans are less healthy than their English counterparts, but they live as long or even longer than their English peers, according to a new study by researchers from the RAND Corporation and the Institute for Fiscal Studies in London. Researchers found that while Americans aged 55 to 64 have higher rates of chronic diseases than their peers in England, they died at about the same rate. And Americans age 65 and older — while still sicker than their English peers — had a lower death rate than similar people in England, according to findings published in the journal Demography.
Security

MS Adds Security Suite To Update Service, Antivirus Rival Objects 324

Posted by Soulskill from the shades-of-internet-explorer dept.
CWmike writes "Microsoft has started adding Security Essentials to the optional download list seen by US Windows users when they fire up the operating system's update service, and antivirus rivals are crying foul. 'Commercializing Windows Update to distribute other software applications raises significant questions about unfair competition,' Carol Carpenter, a GM at Trend Micro, said on Thursday. 'Windows Update is a de facto extension of Windows, so to begin delivering software tied to updates has us concerned,' she added. 'Windows Update is not a choice for users, and we believe it should not be used this way.' If Windows doesn't detect working security software on the PC, Microsoft adds Security Essentials to the Optional section of Microsoft Update, a superset of the better-known Windows Update, or to Windows Update if it has been configured to also draw downloads from Microsoft Update. Microsoft made a point to say that it was not offering the software via Windows Update, but only through the Microsoft Update service, which also offers patches for new versions of non-operating system software, notably Office and Windows Media Player. But most users won't understand the distinction."
Intel

Submission + - FTC Allows Intel Oak Trail Atom To Ship Sans PCIe (hothardware.com)

Submitted by
MojoKid
MojoKid writes: "When the Federal Trade Commission settled their investigation of Intel, one of the stipulations of the agreement was that Intel would continue to support the PCI Express standard for the next six years. Intel agreed to all the FTC's demands but Intel's upcoming Oak Trail Atom platform presented something of a conundrum. Oak Trail was finalized long before the FTC and Intel began negotiating, which means Santa Clara could've been banned from shipping the platform. However, the FTC and Intel have recently jointly announced an agreement covering Oak Trail that allows Intel to sell the platform without adding PCIe support — for now."

Submission + - 20 Open Films You Can Edit and Redistribute Freely (wordpress.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Open Source Movies, also called Open Content Movies or simply Open Movies are, as the name suggests, movies that enable the end user to view and edit the production materials. Philosophically speaking, Open Movies share the same notion that lies at the heart of open source softwares. However, they are not as popular as open source softwares. As a matter of fact, they are so rare that after a decade of their presence, there are roughly dozens of them available. Apparently, Free/Libre/Open source community, a community that is so proud of itself for producing quality alternatives to proprietary products has failed to realize the importance of open movie movement.

Feed Ars Technica: Combination of Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 2 comingfor free (arstechnica.com)

From feed by feedfeeder

EA is doubling down with its free-to-play strategy, this time with a brand-new Battlefield title that will be "a deep PC shooter featuring signature Battlefield vehicular warfare, sandbox gameplay and intense 32-player online battles."

This won't be any cartoony, casual-friendly game, however. "With its advanced graphics, polished production values, depth and realism, Battlefield Play4Free takes the genre to the next level and is positioned to compete with top console titles," EA announced. The game is coming in spring 2011, although you can now sign up for the closed beta.

Play4Free

The game will be an odd combination of past releases.

Combining the most popular maps from Battlefield 2 with the familiar classes and powerful weapons of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, players have access to 16 vehicles including the Mil Mi-28 attack helicopter, its nemesis the F35 VTOL jet fighter, the massive Russian T-90 main battle tank, and the hard to catch LSV light strike vehicle. Players progress through the game to learn new combat skills, and earn in-game currency to spend on a massive array of devastating weapons and equipment.

We know just about as much as you do at this point, and we think this sounds pretty cool. These games were great fun when they were released, and free is always a great price. The company needs to make money somehow, however, so expect a combination of aesthetic items and in-game buffs making a play for your wallet.

Before you get too excited... has any EA online game lauched without significant problems? Any Battlefield games in particular come out of the gate ready to go?

Read the comments on this post



Submission + - The Next Generation of Tablets (i4u.com)

Submitted by i4u
i4u writes: The first generation of tablets has been pretty thoroughly vetted. We have a handful of WP7 devices, a small avalanche of Android slates and the whispered promises of a webOS tablet in Q1 2011. MeeGo tablets could also end up making a splash in the world market.

So what can we expect from the Second Wave of slate-style computers?
Qualcomm says that "over ten" companies have dual-core Snapdragon tablets in development. Those are likely to show up at CES 2011. January is also expected to bring a rush of new LTE tablets, mostly on Verizon. Samsung expects to see 7" AMOLED tablets hit in 2011. Color E-Ink is expected to arrive before the end of 2010. This will open up the field for a whole new sort of low-cost tablet in 2011.
Will any of the 2nd generation Tablets be able to challenge the iPad and the iPad 2G?
Idle

Submission + - Beware of the Radioactive Bunny! (tri-cityherald.com)

Submitted by richardkelleher
richardkelleher writes: It turns out that the character Anya (Emma Caulfield) had it right in the season 4 episode of Buffy (Fear Itself — IMDB link). Bunny's are scary! According to this article in the Tri-City Herald, a radioactive rabbit has been trapped and killed. They were unable to locate any rabbit droppings in areas of Hanford that are accessible to the public.

"A radioactive rabbit was trapped on the Hanford nuclear reservation, and Washington state health workers have been searching for contaminated rabbit droppings.

The regional director of the Office of Radiation Protection, Earl Fordham, said Thursday that no contaminated droppings have been found in areas accessible to the public.
Medicine

Skin-Tight Bodysuits Could Protect Astronauts From Bone Loss 158

Posted by Soulskill from the wink-wink-you-bet-they-will dept.
jamie passes along a report about research from MIT's Man-Vehicle Laboratory into using "superhero-style" skinsuits to combat the effects of extended stays in microgravity on bone density in astronauts. (Abstract.) Quoting: "Astronauts lose 1 to 2 percent of their bone mass for each month they spend in space. As far back as the Gemini missions, conditioning exercise regimes have been used to slow the rate of bone loss, but a 2001-2004 NASA-sponsored study showed that crew members aboard the International Space Station were still losing up to 2.7 percent of their interior bone material and 1.7 percent of outer hipbone material for each month they spent in space. ... With stirrups that loop around the feet, the elastic gravity skinsuit is purposely cut too short for the astronaut so that it stretches when put on — pulling the wearer's shoulders towards the feet. In normal gravity conditions on Earth, a human's legs bear more weight than the torso. Because the suit's legs stretch more than the torso section, the wearer's legs are subjected to a greater force — replicating gravity effects on Earth." See? Seven of Nine's outfit was inspired by science after all.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft's Silverlight damage control intensifies (infoworld.com)

Submitted by GMGruman
GMGruman writes: Microsoft exec Bob Muglia freaked out Silverlight developers when he suggested Microsoft's rich Internet application (RIA) technology was to be limited to Microsoft's own platforms sch as Windows Phone 7, and that Microsoft would rely on HTML5 to support the very-growing range of devices out there. He also seems to have freaked out Microsoft, so he backpedaled a bit. And this week, more Microsoft executives backpedaled on Muglia's statement, saying Microsoft is committed to Silverlight. But as Paul Krill reports in this InfoWorld story, they agree with Muglia's sentiment that when it comes to supporting the wide universe of devices, HTML5 is the way to go.
Security

Submission + - Evaluating or Testing Utility SCADA Security?

Submitted by EncryptedBit
EncryptedBit writes: I am a local elected official involved in bringing new water and waste water treatment plants online in a small town. The new plants will incorporate SCADA, which can be used to change operational aspects at the plants, up to forcing a shutdown or changing operational parameters. Can any Slashdotters recommend ways to make sure it is secure? Any testing recommendations? The operational engineers are oblivious to security and SCADA is a new factor, so this concerns me. Thanks for any pointers!
Firefox

Firefox 4 Beta For Mobile Now Faster and Sleeker 70

Posted by Soulskill from the almost-like-some-sort-of-fox dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Mozilla has released Beta 2 of Firefox 4 for Mobile. Some notable improvements over the initial beta release include 'reduced memory usage, improved text rendering and a 60% install size reduction on Android (from around 43 MB to 17 MB).' Mozilla also makes mention that 'actions like panning and zooming are faster and smoother, and page load times are reduced from our previous beta. On Android 2.2, we're now around 25% faster on the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark than the stock browser.' A future beta release will enable GL acceleration, which should further improve the performance of the browser."
Math

Scientists Overclock People's Brains 314

Posted by Soulskill from the time-to-install-some-extra-fans dept.
arshadk writes with this excerpt from the BBC about researchers at Oxford University who found that inducing a small current in a subject's parietal lobe boosted their capacity for numerical learning: "The current could not be felt, and had no measurable effect on other brain functions. As it was turned on, the volunteers tried to learn a puzzle which involved substituting numbers for symbols. Those given the current from right to left across the parietal lobe did significantly better when given, compared to those who were given no electrical stimulation. The direction of the current was important — those given stimulation running in the opposite direction, left to right, did markedly worse at these puzzles than those given no current, with their ability matching that of an average six-year-old. The effects were not short-lived, either. When the volunteers whose performance improved was re-tested six months later, the benefits appear to have persisted. There was no wider effect on general maths ability in either group, just on the ability to complete the puzzles learned as the current was applied."

Comment Re:You must have an unusual definition of stupid (Score 1) 16

by Jimmy_Slimmy (#33382804) Attached to: Pondering Pudge's Pending Parting

Pudge must have been beaten like a rented mule when he was a boy. That's how you inculcate the fear which metastasizes later in life into conservatism.

You catch more fish when you use good bait.

inculcate (sic)- there are so many ways...

conservatism?

I am conservative- I both conserve, and recyle. I am liberal- I liberate. As I get later in life, I have noticed change. Liberal, conservative, reactionary, extremist- been there, done that, but there are trends...

peace- for it
justice- for it
the American way- typically against it, cautious about it, or thoughtful about it, and usually seeing that it needs work as of late.

That likely makes me the poster child and bad boy of conservatives and liberals in the country pudge calls home.

As a child, I was only brow-beaten.

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