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Math

Busting the MythBusters' Yawn Experiment 397

Posted by kdawson from the it's-not-the-company-it's-the-hour dept.
markmcb writes "Most everyone knows and loves the MythBusters, two guys who attempt to set the story straight on things people just take for granted. Well, maybe everyone except Brandon Hansen, who has offered them a taste of their own medicine as he busts the MythBusters' improper use of statistics in their experiment to determine whether yawning is contagious. While the article maintains that the contagion of yawns is still a possibility, Hansen is clearly giving the MythBusters no credit for proving such a claim, 'not with a correlation coefficient of .045835.'"
Biotech

Submission + - Medical Devices to get Unified USB Format

Submitted by entrepreneur.md
entrepreneur.md writes: Medgadget.com is reporting that the USB-IF is developing an industry standard USB format to expedite the integration of various medical technologies: "The USB Implementers Forum, Inc. (USB-IF) today announced the formation of the Personal Healthcare Device Working Group. The group's initial goal is to define a USB Personal Healthcare Device Class specification. The new specification will enable health-related devices, such as blood pressure cuffs and exercise watches, to connect via USB to consumer electronic products, such as PCs and health appliances. Interoperability of health-related devices and consumer electronic products will facilitate the communication between patient and doctor, individual and fitness coach, or elderly person and a remote caregiver."
Games

Submission + - Sony Cuts PSP Prices

Submitted by CHaN_316
CHaN_316 writes: Sony has announced that they will cut the price of the Playstation Portable (PSP) from $199.99USD to $169.99USD. The move is intended to better compete against the Nintendo DS. The article reports, "In February, Nintendo's DS outsold every other console in the U.S., with about 485,000 total units sold. The prices of the DS vary among online and brick-and-mortar retailers, but a consumer can usually expect to pay from $130 to $160." This is the first price cut of the PSP since its launch in March 2005. Now when are we going to see a PS3 price cut?
Windows

Submission + - Vista loophole allows for cheap install

Submitted by
PetManimal
PetManimal writes: "A loophole in Vista's activation scheme that lets users install an upgrade version of Vista on Linux machines and save up to $140 is spreading over the Internet and causing Microsoft a fair amount of embarrassment. The trick involves installing Vista twice but not entering the product key the first time, which effectively fools Vista into upgrading itself. While most home users are unlikely to try this, it may appeal to some PC DIYers and other power users:

The type of person most likely to benefit from this workaround are power users and hobbyists who own multiple computers running Windows as well as Linux and Mac OS X. Indeed, one concrete scenario would be someone with a used PC that's just one or two years old running either Linux or OS X who decides to convert it to Vista and buys the upgrade version of the OS to do so.
According to the last article, Microsoft is aware of the scheme and says it violates the Vista EULA."
Security

Submission + - Crooked Exec Wrestles to Retrieve Smoking Laptop

Submitted by
darkreadingman
darkreadingman writes: "First-person account of how a penetration testing company caught an executive stealing data from his company. After discovering that the pen testers were making off with his laptop, this executive attacked two security experts, wrestled his laptop away, and tried to delete the incriminating data before the guards arrived. A real lesson in what happens when insiders are caught red-handed, with the smoking gun (or in this case, a smoking laptop) in their hands. http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=117 531&WT.svl=column1_1"
Education

Gaming Skills Directly Linked to Surgical Skills 54

Posted by Zonk from the all-that-trauma-center-paid-off dept.
Orinthe writes "According to Reuters, a new study involving 33 surgeons at a New York hospital shows 'a strong correlation between video game skills and a surgeon's capabilities'. A statement by the senior author of the study even suggests the use of video games as a training tool for surgeons. Another of the study's authors cautions parents to curb excessive gaming, however: 'spending that much time playing video games is not going to help their child's chances of getting into medical school'."
Announcements

Submission + - The Sky is Falling

Submitted by Chicken Little
Chicken Little writes: The sky is falling... in about 29 years. FTA "Circle your calendar. April 13th, 2036 could be a really, really bad day on planet Earth. A group of astronauts and engineers warns that an asteroid may pass uncomfortably close to Earth that day. The chances it will actually hit are just one in 45,000, but even at those odds, the scientists warn, the United Nations should consider a response."
The Internet

Submission + - Viacom to license content to Joost

Submitted by CUatTHEFINISH
CUatTHEFINISH writes: Media conglomerate Viacom is expected to announce a licensing deal with Joost, a new Internet service that specializes in commercial video content. The anticipated deal, which follows the recent collapse of similar talks between Viacom and YouTube parent Google, involves licensing hundreds of hours of programming from Viacom cable networks such as MTV, Comedy Central and Spike as well as movies made by its Paramount studios.
Data Storage

Google Releases Paper on Disk Reliability 267

Posted by Zonk from the fun-saturday-night-reading dept.
oski4410 writes "The Google engineers just published a paper on Failure Trends in a Large Disk Drive Population. Based on a study of 100,000 disk drives over 5 years they find some interesting stuff. To quote from the abstract: 'Our analysis identifies several parameters from the drive's self monitoring facility (SMART) that correlate highly with failures. Despite this high correlation, we conclude that models based on SMART parameters alone are unlikely to be useful for predicting individual drive failures. Surprisingly, we found that temperature and activity levels were much less correlated with drive failures than previously reported.'"
AMD

Submission + - AMD: "Barcelona" 40% faster than "Clov

Submitted by Dysfnctnl85
Dysfnctnl85 writes: AMD is claiming that the launch of their Barcelona chipset will represent a shift in focus for the company from price to performance. A ZDNet Blog cites that the 65nm Clovertown will be available later this year and "rather concentrate on price, AMD are instead emphasizing performance." Also from the blog: "Intel is eager to claw back some of the server market share from AMD, and this is where Clovertown comes in. Clovertown is the codename for Intel's latest quad-core Xeon 5300 line. The Xeon 5300 line will represent excellent value for money since Intel plans on pricing them the same as its dual core Xeon 5100 processors. That could make things tough for AMD."
Encryption

Submission + - AACS says hack can be contained

Submitted by Bart
Bart writes: Ars Technica reports that the AACS Licensing Authiroty is doing some damage control today on the AACS hack that effects both Blu-ray and HD DVD (previous /. coverage). From the article, "The statement was firm in expressing the viewpoint that this attack is not a wholesale attack on AACS, nor does it represent a serious threat to AACS. 'Instead,' the statement reads, 'it illustrates the need for all AACS licensees to follow the Compliance and Robustness Rules set forth in the AACS license agreements to help ensure that product implementations are not compromised.'" The group thinks that the attack can be thrwarted, and while Ars seems to aggree, they suspect another hack will soon follow.

Cox May replace its own DVRs with TiVos 223

Posted by Hemos from the eat-a-box dept.
Controlio writes "According to a posting by user BrettStah on the TiVo Community Forums, Cox Cable is currently circulating a survey to gauge customer's interest in TiVo services. From the survey, 'While Cox currently offers its own DVR service, the Cox DVR may soon be powered by TiVo, and include the features that TiVo owners have come to expect. If Cox were to offer digital cable service with a TiVo branded DVR for about the same price as you are currently paying for satellite service each month, how likely would you be to switch from satellite TV to Cox cable that featured this TiVo branded DVR service?'"

Microsoft May Delay Windows Vista Again 482

Posted by Zonk from the redux-redux dept.
UltimaGuy writes to mention a Reuters report, stating that Vista may be delayed again, this time by up to three months. From the article: " The research note, released to clients [by the Gartner Group] on Monday, said the new Windows Vista operating system is too complex to be able to meet Microsoft's targeted November release for volume license customers and January launch for retail consumers. A Microsoft spokeswoman said the company disagreed with the Gartner report and it was still on track to meet its launch dates."

It Does Little and Not Very Well 318

Posted by Hemos from the unfortunante-path dept.
wiredog writes "A Washington Post (frryyy) review of the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, a handheld Linux device. The reviewer complains about the lack of keyboard, poor WiFi implementation, outdated software, non-standard memory card, and almost as many crashes as an unpatched Win98 install."

Oracle and PostgreSQL Debate 330

Posted by Zonk from the warring-dbas dept.
Mark Brunelli writes DBAs are talking about the merits of the open source PostgreSQL database management system (DBMS) as compared to Oracle - and their opinions truly run the gamut. DBAs responding to the interview said they liked the low cost and ease of use of the open source database, while others said that Oracle's rich feature cannot be ignored. Still others talked about how well the two systems play together. According to one DBA, a gateway product from Oracle would be a welcome offering."

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