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KDE

Submission + - KDE 4.0 Beta 1 Released 1

Submitted by
mernil
mernil writes: "The KDE Community is happy to announce the immediate availability of the first Beta release for KDE 4.0. This release marks the beginning of the integration process which will bring the powerful new technologies included in the now frozen KDE 4 libraries to the applications."
Power

Submission + - Cooling Your House With Solar Heat

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The German Fraunhofer research institute has created the spin-off company SorTech, which plans to produce air conditioning systems that are run by solar heat. This mind-boggling feat is achieved by a thermo-chemical process called sorption. The technology could help to satisfy the increasing energy consumption used for air conditioning. It seems to be a perfect application for using solar energy: Good efficiency is possible by avoiding a conversion from heat into electricity and back to cooling energy. It also does not need a long term energy storage system, because the energy needed for cooling spikes exactly at the time, when most solar energy is available.
Biotech

Submission + - "Brain Pacemaker" wakes man from vegetativ (reuters.com)

Submitted by Kram_Gunderson
Kram_Gunderson writes: Reuters is reporting that medical researchers have awakened a man from a six-year near-vegetative state using a pacemaker-like device tied to electrodes implanted in the man's brain. The man, who was robbed, beaten, and left for dead in 1999, can now chew his own food, speak with a limited vocabulary, and play cards with his family. The treatment was begun in 2005, and gives hope for recovery to patients in minimally-conscious states.
Google

Submission + - Google to Mobile GMaps: No tiles for you (hacktheday.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Apparently Google doesn't like the idea that their maps service has become so popular. As an example, they asked MGMaps to stop using Google Maps. But since you can enter the url of any map server in MGMaps, here's the hack to get support for Google maps back in: add a custom map type and enter http://mt.google.com/mt for maps or http://kh.google.com/kh?v=20 for satellite imagery.
Networking

Submission + - Mini-ITX Clusters?

Submitted by
HesAnIndieRocker
HesAnIndieRocker writes: "I've recently become interested in experimenting with Linux cluster technologies (databases, distributed file systems, etc) but have been held back by the availability of cheap server hardware. Via's MiniITX C7-based motherboards look very promising, but all of the enclosures I have seen for the platform look like stereo components or traditional PCs. Are there any solutions out there for putting multiple boards in a single box with shared power and space for hard drives, or must the aspiring supercomputer owner build everything themselves? Is there a cluster hobbyist market or are they only built (and priced) for the enterprise?"
Quickies

Submission + - Exercise, caffeine fight skin cancer (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
caffiend666
caffiend666 writes: "The combination of exercise and caffeine increased destruction of precancerous cells that had been damaged by the sun's ultraviolet-B radiation, according to a team of researchers at Rutgers University.... In mice there is a protective effect from both caffeine and voluntary exercise, and when both are provided — not necessarily at the same time — protection is even more than the sum of the two..." All proof that we're doing the right thing by staying indoors and drinking coffee!"
Software

Submission + - Good profiling tools for C/C++ unser un*x?

Submitted by serviscope_minor
serviscope_minor writes: It should be well known to any developer that you should only optimize parts of a program which need optimizing. And the way to find those parts is through profiling. This simplifies one point: profiling is difficult. The obvious way is to enable profiling in the compiler and use gprof, but this has problems. Firstly there is no point in profiling a program without turning on -O3 (or which ever), since this can change the results dramatically. Secondly, -O3 will inline functions which can ruin profiling results by making them far too coarse. Even if it doesn't do this, there is no way of determining which part of a function is taking up all the time. So that brings me to my question: does anyone know of profiling tools which do not suffer from these problems? My platform is C++ (using g++) on Linux.
Space

Submission + - space shuttle cabin leak (yahoo.com)

Submitted by dnormant
dnormant writes: A week before Space Shuttle Endeavour's planned liftoff, NASA was analyzing a cabin leak in the space shuttle Tuesday. The leak was detected over the weekend. NASA thought it fixed the problem by tightening a loose bolt, but testing Monday night confirmed air was still escaping from the crew cabin, said NASA spokeswoman Tracy Young.
Television

Submission + - Censoring our Beloved Cartoons (wired.com)

Submitted by
Luxifer
Luxifer writes: "We all know that shows like the Simpsons and Family guy are screened before they get to air, I am sometimes amazed at what gets past the censors. But what about our childrens' cartoons? Shows like The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and Casper's Scare School? Wired has a story about the writers of these shows and the hoops that they have to jump through just to entertain our kiddies. One show requires that the script is approved by 47 people before it's approved. Another show considers the word 'beseech' to be blasphemous. Personally, I think as long as you're not trying to show Horton Hires a Ho, or Bi-Curious George, you should let the writers have their creative reign. The Flintstones had a lot of content that kids wouldn't get, that's what made it fun for the adults to watch it with their kids."
Toys

Submission + - Open source laser pointer whole building graffiti

Submitted by GAATTC
GAATTC writes: A 60mW laser pointer, camera, laptop, and a 5000 lumen projector are tied together with some open source code to produce the best whole building interactive graffiti ever. A bicycle mounted system consiting of a camera connected to a laptop tracks a laser pointer signal on the side of buildings. A connected projector projects what is drawn in real time with a variety of effects, like the tools available in Photoshop. What a great way to get your political message across without running the risk of getting arrested for property damage.
The Internet

W3C Bars Public From Public Conference 169

Posted by CmdrTaco from the tricky-word-speak dept.
xk0der writes "Danny Weitzner, one of the W3C's policy directors and event co-chair, repeatedly claimed in a follow up telephone conversation that, by "public," the W3C actually means "closed to the public." Weitzner was the person who personally barred my colleague from entering the conference." The story is worth a read- it's very strange. Personally I think this guy is just vying to replace Tony Snow at the White House.

Comment Sacrifices color resolution: is it worth it? (Score 4, Insightful) 184

by chennes (#19519059) Attached to: Kodak Unveils Brighter CMOS Color Filters
Of course, you achieve this increased light sensitivity at the expense of losing 1/4 of your color resolution. Maybe if you want the increased sensitivity it might make more sense to pick up something like the Canon 1D Mk III, which, at least according to Ken Rockwell, gives great results all the way up to ISO 6400. I'd hate to lose 1/4 of my color resolution *all of the time* to get the added sensitivity that I only need for a small fraction of the shots I take.

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