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Submission + - Mammal Successful Before Dinosaur Extinction (canada.com)

Submitted by eternaldoctorwho
eternaldoctorwho writes: New evidence has been uncovered that suggests mammals were widely successful at least 20 million years before dinosaurs went extinct in the K-T asteroid impact. A recently published study in Nature by paleontologist Greg Wilson of the University of Washington reveals that multituberculates (a class of mice-like mammals named for the shape of their teeth) became abundant at the same time as the rise of flowering plants. So what did finally wipe out this now-extinct class of "multis"? University of Chicago paleontologist Zhe-Xi Luo has the answer, "You could say multituberculates were a good match against the dinosaurs, but they were no match for the rodents."

Submission + - Location stolen iPad insufficient for warrant for Dutch Authorities (google.com)

Submitted by lbalbalba
lbalbalba writes: A location message send from a stolen iPad by an anti-theft application, turns out to be insufficient 'evidence' to issue a search warrant for the Dutch authorities. A Dutch man reported his iPad as stolen to the Dutch authorities last month. Despite the fact that the rightful owner was able to locate his iPad within hours of the theft, thanks to the anti-theft application he had installed, the Dutch authorities did not issue a warrant to perform a search. According to the prosecutors, a search warrant is 'a very heavy measure', that should only be used when there is 'sufficient suspicion'. The theft report by the owner was viewed as 'no objective evidence' in the case.
Medicine

Submission + - Thousands of side-effects from mixing meds revealed (nature.com)

Submitted by ananyo
ananyo writes: An algorithm designed by US scientists to trawl through a plethora of drug interactions has yielded thousands of previously unknown side effects caused by taking drugs in combination (http://www.nature.com/news/drug-data-reveal-sneaky-side-effects-1.10220). The work provides a way to sort through the hundreds of thousands of 'adverse events' reported to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) each year.
The researchers developed an algorithm that would match data from each drug-exposed patient to a nonexposed control patient with the same condition. The approach automatically corrected for several known sources of bias, including those linked to gender, age and disease.
The team then used this method to compile a database of 1,332 drugs and possible side effects that were not listed on the labels for those drugs. The algorithm came up with an average of 329 previously unknown adverse events for each drug — far surpassing the average of 69 side effects listed on most drug labels.

Submission + - Dutch Telecom KPN Phone Systems Hacked

Submitted by lbalbalba
lbalbalba writes: Dutch Telecom company KPN-Telecom phone system had been hacked about a month ago. They didnt notify the authorities up about a week after discovering the break-in. The hack was made possible because the telecom didnt apply security updates, supposedly for years.The hackers had access to, and copied, about 16GB of private costumers data. According to the telecom, in theory the worst-case scenario would have been that thge hackers had been able to disable all telephone calls for all of it's customers: including the inability to call emergency service '211' (the equivalent of 911). What makes this interesting is the fact that all dutch telecoms are required by law to enable people to call emergency service '112' at all times.

Original story (In dutch)
http://nos.nl/artikel/339192-hoogste-alarmfase-na-hack-kpn.html

Google translation of dutch story:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=nl&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fnos.nl%2Fartikel%2F339192-hoogste-alarmfase-na-hack-kpn.html

Comment Re:Sounds like the PHP dev team... (Score 1) 334

by lbalbalba (#37248610) Attached to: Updated: Mozilla Community Contributor Departs Over Bug Handling
The problem was integrating the PHP plugin (nsapi ?) on Netscape/iPlanet webserver on AIX. Not the most common set up, I agree, but it was claimed to be 'supported'. Yea, I looked at the backtraces myself, but since im not a dev I couldnt get much useful info out of it, apart from the fact that the backtrace looked exactly the same over different versions of PHP. If there were specific requirements of using libfoo.so.14 instead of libfoo.so.15, then the devs could have made an effort to point me in that direction, instead of just saying over and over: 'oh, you are using an outdated version of PHP now, 3 months after you submitted your last backtrace. Now go do it again with the newest release'. Which then got the exact same results. And even if it would have 'obviously' been a problem with my compiler/linker/debugger (GCC on AIX), then it would have been helpful if the devs would have given me suggestions on what else to try besides: 'use the latest php version', even though the code that core dumped hasnt changed in eons. PHP devs suck.

Comment Sounds like the PHP dev team... (Score 3, Informative) 334

by lbalbalba (#37245052) Attached to: Updated: Mozilla Community Contributor Departs Over Bug Handling
Sadly, I have had similar experiences with PHP where my web server dumped core the moment the php module was loaded by the web server. I faithfully reproduced the issue, and included back traces in the reports, for over 8 months long with god knows how many different versions of PHP. The results were always the same, and every time a developer finally got around to looking at the bug report, they simply said: "you are running an old version of PHP, please retry with the latest version.". After zillions of retry's of different PHP versions with the exact same backtrace, I decided to give up and stated so in the bug report. The bug was then closed as 'BOGUS'.
Firefox

Microsoft Exploits Firefox 4 Uproar, Beats IE Drum 315

Posted by Soulskill from the trying-to-take-advantage dept.
CWmike writes "A Microsoft executive late Thursday used the furor over Mozilla's decision to curtail support for Firefox 4 to plead the case for Internet Explorer in the enterprise. 'I think I speak for everyone on the IE team when I say we'd like the opportunity to win back your business,' Ari Bixhorn, director of IE at Microsoft, said in a post on his personal blog. 'We've got a great solution for corporate customers with both IE8 and IE9, and believe we could help you address the challenges you're currently facing.' Bixhorn addressed his open letter to the manager of workplace and mobility in the office of IBM's CIO, John Walicki, who, along with others, had voiced their displeasure with Mozilla's decision to retire Firefox 4 from security support. In a comment appended to a blog maintained by Michael Kaply, a consultant who specializes in customizing Firefox, Walicki called Mozilla's decision to end security support for Firefox 4 a 'kick in the stomach.'"
IBM

IBM Did Not Invent the Personal Computer 293

Posted by timothy from the you-help-one-just-one-reich dept.
theodp writes "As IBM gives itself a self-congratulatory pat on the back as it celebrates its 100th anniversary, Robert X. Cringely wants to set the record straight: 'IBM didn't invent the personal computer', writes Cringely, 'but they don't know that.' Claiming to have done so, he adds, soils the legacy of Ed Roberts and pisses off all real geeks in the process. Throwing Big Blue a bone, Cringely is willing to give IBM credit for 'having helped automate the Third Reich'."

Comment Re:The Alternative (Score 1) 838

by lbalbalba (#36443186) Attached to: Terry Pratchett Considers Assisted Suicide

What about the other people that are involved? It wasn't too long ago that some selfish asshole jumped from a bridge into rush-hour traffic near where I live, traumatizing dozens of people in the process.

Uhhmmm... That sorta was part of my point. That it would be way better to legalize 'physician assisted suicide at home', rather than forcing people to do horrific things like that. Both for them and the other people involved.

Comment Re:Religious Politics (Score 1) 838

by lbalbalba (#36441510) Attached to: Terry Pratchett Considers Assisted Suicide

Religion is the only legitimate basis for politics. All laws force some smaller group to do what a larger group thinks is 'moral'. I challenge you to define the term 'human rights' without reference to either law or morality. There is no such thing.

By that reasoning, 'religion' is just a way to let some larger group do what a smaller group thinks. Nothing more than that.

Comment The Alternative (Score 1) 838

by lbalbalba (#36441300) Attached to: Terry Pratchett Considers Assisted Suicide
The alternative to legal assisted suicide, and a 'mild death' of course, is a 'wild death': people jumping from buildings and in front of trains in order to end their lives. As long as it is at the specific request of the person itself, as long as it is voluntary, I am pro.

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