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Math

Submission + - A Plan to Make All Numbers into Hyperlinks (xconomy.com)

Submitted by
waderoush
waderoush writes: "True Engineering Technology in Cambridge, MA, has an audacious scheme, unveiled today, to turn all numbers into 'truenumbers' that contain built-in information about what units they're in and where they came from. What's a truenumber? The technical answer is that it's a new microformat for quantitative data, like the RSS format for blog posts and the hCalendar format for event data. The plain English answer is that it's a way to standardize the formats of important numbers and link them to authoritative sources — information stored in online 'numberspaces' licensed by True Engineering. See the article for a sample truenumber or go to True Engineering's site to make your own."
Security

Submission + - Data Detailing NYSE Network Exposed

Submitted by
NX-47
NX-47 writes: "Found on Wired:

Sensitive information about the technical infrastructure of the New York Stock Exchange's computer network was left unsecured on a public server for possibly more than a year, Threat Level has learned.

The data, which was removed after Threat Level disclosed the situation to the NYSE, included several directories of files containing logs; server names; IP addresses; lists of hardware; lists of software versions running on the network; and configuration and patch histories, including what patches have not yet been installed. It was all available on a publicly accessible, unprotected FTP server maintained by EMC, a company that sells storage systems and managed services to the NYSE and other companies.

Coming on the heels of the recent revelations of millisecond trading, and this becomes very alarming indeed."

Idle

Submission + - UK space launch set back

Submitted by
BoxRec
BoxRec writes: "Problems have arisen with the latest UK space launch to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. According to a BBC report the 300lb payload of cheese has disappeared from the radar screens somewhere over southern England."
Windows

Submission + - Microsoft's browser ballot hits Vista and XP (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by
Barence
Barence writes: "Microsoft is planning to extend its "browser ballot" screen beyond Windows 7 to all European Vista and XP owners running Internet Explorer. According to Microsoft's submission to the EU, between three and six months after its "browser ballot" proposal has been approved, the screen will be rolled out to Vista and XP users through Windows Update. The update will be labelled either "high priority" or "important" and those users who choose to install it will be presented with a screen offering them a choice of "up to ten browsers". At the screen, users will be able to install a new browser, stick with Internet Explorer or defer the choice — with Windows offering user-defined reminders. Windows 7 owners will be hit with the update on the 22 October, or within two weeks of the EC's decision, depending on which arrives later."
Debian

Submission + - Debian adopts time-based releases

Submitted by
Rogério Brito
Rogério Brito writes: "The Debian Project is well known for having long development cycles, which has, split the opinions of users with those that prefer a stable, reliable release, and those that want newer features (including support for hardware that was sold after the stable version of the distribution). While the development cycles of Debian were mostly driven by the "it's ready when it is ready" philosophy, the project has decided to adopt time-based relases, with the duration of 2 years, freezing the distribution at December of each odd-numbered year and releasing the distribution in the beginning of the next year.

http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090729"
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - SPAM: Games that design themselves

Submitted by
destinyland
destinyland writes: "MIT's Media Lab is building "a game that designs its own AI agents by observing the behavior of humans." Their ultimate goal? "Collective AI-driven agents that can interact and converse with humans without requiring programming or specialists to hand-craft behavior and dialogue." With a similar project underway by a University of California professor, we may soon see radically different games "that can react with human-like adaptability to whatever situation they're thrust into — creating instant drama and never-ending variations in play.""
Link to Original Source
Mozilla

Submission + - HSBC drops Firefox & Safari support (ebrahim.org)

Submitted by
aliebrah
aliebrah writes: "HSBC appears to have dropped support for non-IE browsers for their Verified by Visa service. The official line taken by HSBC is that their entire online platform is "built for Internet Explorer". Other browsers such as Firefox and Safari are unsupported. When asked what Mac users should do, the reply: "use Internet Explorer". How many customers is HSBC going to alienate by this move? By many metrics, Internet Explorer's market share is now below 80% worldwide. That leaves a gaping hole for the remaining 20%+ users who aren't on IE but want to shop online."
Debian

Submission + - * Debian decides to adopt time-based release (debian.org)

Submitted by
zsau
zsau writes: "Debian, well known amongst GNU/Linux distributions as having a long and inconsistent release cycle, has just decided to adopt a two-yearly freeze cycle in the December of every odd year. Although this doesn't mean releases happen every two years or that software will be more up-to-date, it could allow some form of co-ordination with software releasers and other distributions, in addition to improving the release and upgrade process for the Debian Project and their users."
Intel

Submission + - Asus Demos First Intel P55 (extremetech.com)

Submitted by
adeelarshad82
adeelarshad82 writes: "Intel's X58 chipset is the platform of choice for enthusiasts, but Intel serves a heck of a big audience. To please that larger crowd and bring down prices, the company is planning a mainstream iteration of its Nehalem architecture: the P55 chipset. It's designed to work with the forthcoming Lynnfield CPUs, and offers performance close to LGA1366 chips at a much cheaper price. Recently Asus demoed it's first intel P55 chip and released exclusive photos. Asus claims to have run its new boards with engineering samples of the Core i5-750 at a 77 percent overclock, boosting speeds from 2.66 GHz to 4.7 GHz. Asus admits this wasn't necessarily stable, but still--that's fast. And on liquid cooling, the boards reportedly hit speeds of 5.1 GHz."
Space

Submission + - Panel Advises Longer Life for Space Station (reuters.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., July 28 (Reuters) — The United States needs to boost NASA's budget by $1.5 billion to fly the last seven shuttle missions and should extend International Space Station operations through 2020, members of a presidential panel reviewing the U.S. human space program said on Tuesday.

The panel also proposed adding an extra, eighth shuttle flight to help keep the station supplied and narrow an expected five- to seven-year gap between the time the shuttle fleet is retired and a new U.S. spaceship is ready to fly.

A third option would keep the shuttle flying through 2014 as part of a plan to develop a new launch system based on existing shuttle rockets and components.

Reuters : http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSB237881
Security

Submission + - Statistics experts denounce ISP filtering trials (arnnet.com.au)

Submitted by OrangHutan
OrangHutan writes: Australia's ISP filtering trial has roused deep-seated views from all sides of the political spectrum. On the free speech side the trials — which were implemented by the Federal Government to try and block unsavoury/illegal websites through a blacklist and ISP-level filtering technology like Marshal8e6 solutions — have been lambasted through and through as being completely and utterly bunk. But on the other side, several religious groups and family oriented organisations have welcomed it as a great approach to protect kids. But one of the main issues has been the metrics for proving the success of the trials — being undertaken by 9 ISPs including two of the biggest in the country but on an opt-in basis — have not been revealed. In other words there are no goal posts and the methodology for running the trials hasn't been discussed. Now two statistics experts have gone on record as saying the trial's results are unscientific and would never be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Basically it means the federal government has spent $AUD60 million to conduct a trial that has no merit according to the "experts". It should have a fairly big impact for those on the anti-content filtering trial and severely dent the reasoning behind any kind of ISP-level filtering.
Programming

Submission + - How do remote developers meet with eachother? 1

Submitted by grilled-cheese
grilled-cheese writes: As my software company continues to grow, we find it harder to maintain the group consensus on software engineering. This is mostly due to people being out of the office or working abroad. When looking for ways to bring those developers back into normal discussions, what are some of the techniques and technologies that could be employed?
Biotech

New Treatment Trains Immune System To Kill Cancer 62

Posted by kdawson from the going-after-the-root dept.
Al writes "A vaccine in clinical trials at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine triggers the human immune system to attack a faulty protein that's often abundant in colorectal cancer tissue and precancerous tissue. If it works as hoped, it could remove the need for repeated colonoscopies in patients at high risk for developing colorectal cancer. The vaccine has already proven safe in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. It works by spurring the body to manufacture antibodies against the abnormal version of a mucous protein called MUC1. While moderate amounts of the protein are found in the lining of normal intestines, high levels of a defective form of MUC1 are present in about half of advanced adenomas and the majority of colorectal cancers."
Programming

Manager's Schedule vs. Maker's Schedule 274

Posted by CmdrTaco from the gtg-i-have-a-mtg dept.
theodp writes "Ever wonder why you and the boss don't see eye-to-eye on the importance of meetings? Paul Graham explains that there are Maker Schedules (coder) and Manager Schedules (PHB), and the two are very different. With each day neatly cut into one-hour intervals, the Manager Schedule is for bosses and is tailor-made for schmoozing. Unfortunately, it spells disaster for people who make things, like programmers and writers, who generally prefer to use time in units of half a day at least. You can't write or program well in units of an hour, says Graham, since that's barely enough time to get started. So if you fall into the Maker camp, adds Graham, you better hope your boss is smart enough to recognize that you need long chunks of time to work in. How's that working out in your world?" Ironically enough, I have a meeting to attend in three minutes.

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