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Space

Jupiter-Sized Alien Planet Is Darkest Ever (Barely) Seen 207

Posted by timothy from the none-more-black dept.
thebchuckster writes "The darkest alien world ever spotted by astronomers has been discovered in the outskirts of our galaxy. 'It's darker than the blackest lump of coal, than dark acrylic paint you might paint with. It's bizarre how this huge planet became so absorbent of all the light that hits it,' David Kipping, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics."
Patents

Apple Chief Patent Lawyer Leaves After Android Loss 101

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the we're-all-friends-here dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "PC Magazine reports that Richard Lutton, Apple's current chief patent lawyer, is reportedly leaving the company after failing to block Android manufacturers from using iPhone-like features. 'It's possible that Apple's leadership wants the patent department to become more effective, especially in terms of litigation,' says intellectual property analyst Florian Mueller. 'They are probably disappointed that the first ITC complaint against HTC didn't go too well.' ... In addition Apple is aggressively seeking an injunction on Samsung's flagship Galaxy lineup." Samsung also happens to be displeased with Apple using their former legal counsel.

Comment Re:Wow (Score 1) 397

by el_gordo101 (#36477262) Attached to: Using Crowdsourcing To Identify Vancouver Rioters

No chance to celebrate, no chance to riot. Which didn't stop a Bruins fan from being killed, incidentally, but apparently no one's bothering to cover that. Apparently sports fans being killed in Boston is no longer news, it's just the status quo.

Link please, I had not heard of anyone being killed in Boston. There were some vague rumors of a Bruins fan being killed in Vancouver, but that seems to be unfounded as well. The Boston police did respond in force after the win, which seemed to keep things relatively calm in the city. Calling them jack-booted thugs is a bit over the top. Boston police do not put up with any hooliganism since the Victoria Snelgrove incident in 2004 and will preemptively quell anything of the sort. It seems that the police in Vancouver were ill-prepared, hence the situation getting out of hand so quickly.
Google

Google Redirects Traffic To Avoid Kazakh Demands 169

Posted by samzenpus from the watch-how-you-talk-to-the-google dept.
pbahra writes "Google has rejected attempts by the Kazakh government 'to create borders on the web' and has refused a demand to house servers in the country after an official decree that all Internet domains ending with the domain suffix for Kazakhstan be domestically based. Bill Coughran, Google senior vice president said in his blog that from now on, Google will redirect users that visit google.kz to google.com in Kazakh: 'We find ourselves in a difficult situation: creating borders on the web raises important questions for us not only about network efficiency but also about user privacy and free expression. If we were to operate google.kz only via servers located inside Kazakhstan, we would be helping to create a fractured Internet.' Mr. Coughran said that unfortunately, it would mean that Kazakh users would have a poorer experience as results would no longer be customized for the former Soviet republic."
Mars

Mars Rover Opportunity Surpasses 30km Driving 86

Posted by Soulskill from the still-hasn't-found-a-white-castle dept.
Phoghat sends this quote from Universe Today: "With her most recent drive of 482 feet on June 1, 2011 (Sol 2614), NASA's Opportunity Mars Rover has zoomed past the unimaginable 30 kilometer mark in total odometry since safely landing on Mars nearly seven and one half years ago on Jan 24, 2004. That's 50 times beyond the roughly quarter-mile of roving distance initially foreseen. And Opportunity is still going strong, in good health and has abundant solar power as she continues driving on her ambitious overland trek across the martian plains of Meridiani Planum. She is heading to the giant Endeavour crater, some 22 km in diameter."
ISS

Space Shuttle Endeavour Blasts Off On Final Flight 125

Posted by CmdrTaco from the one-more-for-the-road dept.
Velcroman1 writes "Space shuttle Endeavour rocketed into space Monday morning from Kennedy Space Center, led by mission commander Mark Kelly on the final mission for the youngest vehicle in the space fleet. Over 6 million pounds of thrust from the shuttle's rocket booster carried Endeavour into orbit, at speeds of up to 19,000 miles per hour, for an expected meeting with the International Space Station on Wednesday. 'It's incredible how you can see this machine hurled into space like the fastest fastball ever thrown, going to Mach 25 — 25 times the speed of sound — and it's an incredible race to orbit,' former NASA astronaut Tom Jones said. 'It's one of the greatest physical sensations an human can experience,' he added."
Displays

HDMI Brands Don't Matter 399

Posted by timothy from the but-the-monster-won't-die dept.
adeelarshad82 writes "I'm sure most of us looking for an HDMI cable have been in a situation where a store clerk sidles up, offers to help and points to some of the most expensive HDMI cables — because apparently these are 'superior cables' which we all absolutely need for the best possible home theater experience. Well, as it turns out the claims are, for the vast majority of home theater users, utter rubbish. According to tests ran on five different HDMI cables, ranging in price from less than $5 up to more than $100, HDMI brands really don't matter."
Piracy

No Pirate Bay for Comcast Customers 230

Posted by timothy from the blame-brownian-motion dept.
An anonymous reader writes with a PC World article, according to which "The Pirate Bay is unavailable for customers of Comcast, even as the torrent site remains online for other users. Problems began early Thursday morning, when several Comcast users told TorrentFreak that they were having issues with The Pirate Bay. Commenters at Techland and Engadget are confirming that they can't access the site." Right now, I'm on a Comcast connection in Pennsylvania, and get an "Ooops, could not connect" message when I try to reach The Pirate Bay.
Google

Sergey Brin: Windows Is "Torturing Users" 645

Posted by CmdrTaco from the apple-is-waterboarding-me dept.
jbrodkin writes "Google created Chrome OS because Windows is 'torturing users,' Google co-founder Sergey Brin says. Only about 20% of Google employees use Windows, with the rest on Mac and Linux, and Brin hopes that by next year nearly all Googlers will be using Chromebooks. 'With Microsoft, and other operating system vendors, I think the complexity of managing your computer is really torturing users,' Brin told reporters at Google I/O. 'It's torturing everyone in this room. It's a flawed model fundamentally. Chromebooks are a new model that doesn't put the burden of managing the computer on yourself.' Google claims 75% of business users could be moved from Windows computers to Chrome laptops."
Wireless Networking

EFF Advocates Leaving Wireless Routers Open 686

Posted by CmdrTaco from the sounds-good-to-me dept.
SD-Arcadia writes "We will need a political and technological 'Open Wireless Movement' to reverse the degradation of this indispensable component of the Internet's infrastructure. Part of the task will simply be reminding people that opening their WiFi is the socially responsible thing to do, and explaining that individuals who choose to do so can enjoy the same legal protections against liability as any other Internet access provider."
AI

Predator Outdoes Kinect At Object Recognition 205

Posted by timothy from the think-well-inside-the-box dept.
mikejuk writes "A real breakthough in AI allows a simple video camera and almost any machine to track objects in its view. All you have to do is draw a box around the object you want to track and the software learns what it looks like at different angles and under different lighting conditions as it tracks it. This means no training phase — you show it the object and it tracks it. And it seems to work really well! The really good news is that the software has been released as open source so we can all try it out! This is how AI should work."

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