Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
NASA

Submission + - Three tiny exoplanets suggest Solar System not so (nature.com)

Submitted by ananyo
ananyo writes: Adding to its already long roster of firsts, NASA's Kepler spacecraft has found the three smallest extrasolar planets ever detected — all of them smaller than Earth, and the most diminutive no larger than Mars. The newly discoverd trio forms a miniature planetary system orbiting a cool, dim red dwarf star called KOI-961.

Because they are so close to their star, the three exoplanets are too hot to support life. But unlike most previously known exoplanets, the vast majority of which are Jupiter-scale gas giants, all three are thought to be rocky worlds like Earth and the other worlds of the inner Solar System.
Portables

Submission + - Razer Looking To Break Into The Gaming Tablet Mark

Submitted by adeelarshad82
adeelarshad82 writes: Earlier this week Razer introduced Fiona, a tablet in form factor, but a gaming device in controls and a gaming PC in processing power. Running Windows 7 instead of Android, Fiona carries a Core i7 CPU which means it can run games like Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2, and Assassin's Creed: Revelations. And the fact that it includes analog sticks means that shooters and flight games will work well, even without a mouse. Fiona supports Steam, Impulse, and any other digital distribution system that can run on Windows. While it's not a consumer product yet, it's expected to carry a really high price tag.
Apple

Submission + - Apple sued for extortion (theregister.co.uk) 1

Submitted by
walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: "Tablet maker Nuevas Tecnologías y Energías Catalá, the company behind one of Apple's rare court defeats, is now taking the fruity tech titan to court for extortion. . . Apple alleged that the teeny-tiny company's tablet, sold in Spain under the NT-K brand, was a forged iPad, and on that basis convinced custom officials to impound shipments of the rival gear coming into Spain. Those shipments ended up sitting in a warehouse for a year, costing NT-K dearly, and now it wants to see Apple hauled up for extortion as well as recovering some damages"
Science

Submission + - Smaller Than a Dime, Frog Is World's Tiniest Verte (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Drop a dime in the middle of an eastern New Guinea rainforest, and you might squash a newly discovered frog species. Paedophryne amauensis has taken the top spot as the world's smallest vertebrate, with an average adult size of 7.7 millimeters in length, less than half the diameter of a U.S. dime. The new frog species lives in rainforest leaf litter, likely dining on springtails, mites, and ticks. The researchers propose that the repeated evolution of extreme small size in frogs, coupled with their exclusivity to moist habitats, has allowed them to exploit the nooks and crannies in the vegetation of the rainforest floor.
Hardware

Submission + - Raspberry Pi makes the sub-$100 PC a reality (geek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: If you consider the Raspberry Pi offers a computer for $25, that leaves $75 left to purchase a keyboard, mouse, SD card, and display. For a 17-inch display (it’s difficult to actually buy smaller displays now) you can pay anything from $75-$140, but that’s consumer pricing. Buy in bulk, say for a school, and the price for a basic display of that size should fall well below the $75 mark. Now add a wired keyboard and mouse, which can both be picked up for $5 each, and another $5 for an SD card (2GB), and $100 for a complete setup looks achievable. You could save even more money if you find a manufacturer willing to sell smaller displays, say 15-inch, or refurbished ones.

So the reality is, before 2012 is over, $100 complete PC solutions will be filling classrooms and homes around the world, made possible by this $25 credit card-size machine.
Australia

Submission + - Australia's iconic Parkes telescope celebrates 50 (cio.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "It is rare for a piece of scientific equipment to hold a place in a nation’s heart. But ‘The Dish’ — the CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope — has in its 50 years come to come to mean a lot more to Australians that just a complex piece of technology. The telescope is a 64-metre diameter parabolic dish used for radio astronomy, located about 20 kilometres north of the town of Parkes, New South Wales — about 380 kilometres west of Sydney. It even has its place on the Big Screen, immortalised in the 2000 movie, The Dish. Opened on 31 October 1961, the telescope is perhaps best known to Australians for its role in the 1969 moon landing. On 8 and 9 October, the CSIRO will throw open its doors to the Australian public in celebration of its 50th anniversary,"
Security

Submission + - Amazon Bulk-Email Service Could Lure Spammers (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "Amazon Simple Email Service and Amazon Web Services look to be a potent combination for businesses and developers, no matter which side of the law they're on, InfoWorld reports. The newly announced bulk email service, which will enable Amazon customers to send 100 emails for a penny, could prove enticing to those seeking a cheap way to bombard inboxes with spam, malware, and phishing lures. Amazon claims its in-house content filtering technology should assuage anyone thinking SES will be used by scammers. 'Those assurances aren't entirely heartening, though, unless Amazon is way ahead of the curve with content-filtering technology. Email services and software vendors have tried for years to keep spam and other unwanted messages from showing up in users' viewing pane, but the crud keeps slipping through.'"
Censorship

Submission + - US pushes Internet kill switch again (cbsnews.com) 2

Submitted by FutureDomain
FutureDomain writes: Stymied last time, US lawmakers are again pushing a bill that would give the President the ability to shut down "critical" portions of the Internet. Unlike last time however, the new bill would prohibit judicial review of the law, which would also prevent challenges to any abuses of it.

Slashdot Top Deals

UNIX is hot. It's more than hot. It's steaming. It's quicksilver lightning with a laserbeam kicker. -- Michael Jay Tucker

Close