akerasi - Slashdot User

Submission + - NASA Asteroid Capture Mission to Be Proposed in 2014 Budget (yahoo.com)

Submitted by

MarkWhittington

on Friday March 29, 2013 @01:11PM

MarkWhittington writes: "Included in President Obama's 2014 budget request will be a $100 million line item for NASA for a mission to capture and bring an asteroid to a high orbit around the moon where it will be explored by asteroinauts. Whether the $2.6 billion mission is a replacement or a supplement to the president's planned human mission to an asteroid is unclear. The proposal was first developed by the Keck Institite in April, 2012 and has achieved new impetus due to the meteor incident over Russia and new fears of killer asteroids."

Bitcoin Currency Surpasses 20 National Currencies In Total Value 583

Posted by samzenpus on Friday March 29, 2013 @01:11PM from the fake-money dept.

Velcroman1 writes "More than $1 billion worth of bitcoins now circulate on the web – an amount that exceeds the value of the entire currency stock of small countries like Liberia, Bhutan, and 18 other countries. Bitcoin is in high demand right now — each bitcoin currently sells for more than $90 U.S. — which bitcoin insiders say is because of world events that have shaken confidence in government-issued currencies. 'Because of what's going on in Cyprus and Europe, people are trying to pull their money out of banks there,' said Tony Gallippi, the CEO BitPay.com, which enables businesses to easily accept bitcoins as payment. 'So they buy gold, they put it under the mattress, or they buy bitcoin,' Gallippi said."

Submission + - Sprint, SoftBank to U.S. Congress: "We won't use Chinese equipment for our netwo (mindofthegeek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29, 2013 @12:39PM

An anonymous reader writes: "Sprint and Japanese-owned SoftBank are currently undergoing regulatory approval for the merger of the two telecom giants. However, amidst growing concerns in Washington over Chinese hacking of US information systems, the House intelligence committee has raised concerns over the use of network equipment manufactured by China based companies Huawei and ZTE. Currently Sprint’s Wi-Max network, operated by Clearwire, uses Huawei equipment which the House believes could pose a potential security threat if continued to be used for network expansion or operation. However, it appears that both Sprint and SoftBank are taking these concerns seriously, as according to a report by The Verge, both companies have vowed to not use any Chinese equipment in their network infrastructure. Furthermore, Sprint has gone on further to promise to replace existing Huawei equipment in an effort to show good faith to the regulatory bodies." ( zu)

Biological Computer Created at Stanford 89

Posted by samzenpus on Friday March 29, 2013 @12:31PM from the meat-machine dept.

sciencehabit writes "For the first time, synthetic biologists have created a genetic device that mimics one of the widgets on which all of modern electronics is based, the three-terminal transistor. Like standard electronic transistors, the new biological transistor is expected to work in many different biological circuit designs. This should make it easier for scientists to program cells to do everything from monitor pollutants and the progression of disease to turning on the output of medicines and biofuels."

ZFS Hits an Important Milestone, Version 0.6.1 Released 99

Posted by samzenpus on Friday March 29, 2013 @12:10PM from the brand-new dept.

sfcrazy writes "ZFS on Linux has reached what Brian Behlendorf calls an important milestone with the official 0.6.1 release. Version 0.6.1 not only brings the usual bug fixes but also introduces a new property called 'snapdev.' Brian explains, 'The snapdev property was introduced to control the visibility of zvol snapshot devices and may be set to either visible or hidden. When set to hidden, which is the default, zvol snapshot devices will not be created under /dev/. To gain access to these devices the property must be set to visible. This behavior is analogous to the existing snapdir property.'"

Security Fix Leads To PostgreSQL Lock Down 100

Posted by samzenpus on Friday March 29, 2013 @11:49AM from the shut-it-down dept.

hypnosec writes "The developers of the PostgreSQL have announced that they are locking down access to the PostgreSQL repositories to only committers while a fix for a "sufficiently bad" security issue applied. The lock down is temporary and will be lifted once the next release is available. The core committee has announced that they 'apologize in advance for any disruption' adding that 'It seems necessary in this instance, however.'"

Submission + - It's in the algorithm: Extremely tight races in Major League Baseball 2013 (networkworld.com)

Submitted by

coondoggie

on Friday March 29, 2013 @11:46AM

coondoggie writes: "Perhaps not surprisingly parity is coming to Major League Baseball this season if you believe the mathematical analysis of a researcher at New Jersey's science and technology university, NJIT. NJIT Associate Professor and Associate Dean Bruce Bukiet used what he called "mathematical analysis" to compute the number of regular season games each Major League Baseball team should win. In a nutshell, Bukiet 's model computes the probability of a team with given hitters, bench, starting pitcher, lineup, relievers and home field advantage winning a game against another team."

Submission + - Bitcoin currency surpasses 20 national currencies in value (foxnews.com) 1

Submitted by Velcroman1 on Friday March 29, 2013 @11:45AM

Velcroman1 writes: More than $1 billion dollars worth of bitcoins now circulate on the web – an amount that exceeds the value of the entire currency stock of small countries like Liberia, Bhutan, and 18 other countries. Bitcoin is in high demand right now — each bitcoin currently sells for more than $90 U.S. dollars — which bitcoin insiders say is because of world events that have shaken confidence in government-issued currencies. “Because of what's going on in Cyprus and Europe, people are trying to pull their money out of banks there,” said Tony Gallippi, the CEO “BitPay.com,” which enables businesses to easily accept bitcoins as payment. “So they buy gold, they put it under the mattress, or they buy bitcoin,” Gallippi said.

Submission + - Your Code May Work, But It Still Might Suck (smartbear.com)

Submitted by

Esther Schindler

on Friday March 29, 2013 @11:43AM

Esther Schindler writes: "Has no body ever described your code for its "exceptional beauty," which is how the Doom source code has been described. Wouldn’t you like to learn that someone praised the software you wrote in that manner? In Your Code May Work, But It Still Might Suck, Andy Patrizio looks at the significance of keeping your code clean and making it literature, not gibberish. Because you cannot take the attitude that “No one will see it.”

With, I should mention, some active suggestions, which you may or may not agree with. Such as:
Part of the Doom 3 code "beauty" was its minimal use of comments. The teachers find that comments are often used as compensation for poor code.

When he teaches, Makarowski forces students to use common-sense variable names and common-sense module names. “And I am not a commentator. There seems to be an anti-commenting movement a few pros are on. A few well-placed comments can make a program easy to modify and easy to improve.” Think of the poor schnook taking your place, when you move on to greater glory. "That's why you name variables with common-sense names and use comment codes to place enlightenment on what you have done."
"

Submission + - ZFS hits an important milestone, version 0.6.1 released (muktware.com)

Submitted by sfcrazy on Friday March 29, 2013 @10:56AM

sfcrazy writes: ZFS on Linux has reached what Brian Behlendorf calls an important milestone with the official 0.6.1 release. Version 0.6.1 not only brings the usual bug fixes but also introduces a new property called 'snapdev'. Brian explains, "The 'snapdev' property was introduced to control the visibility of zvol snapshot devices and may be set to either 'visible' or 'hidden'. When set to 'hidden', which is the default, zvol snapshot devices will not be created under /dev/. To gain access to these devices the property must be set to 'visible' This behavior is analogous to the existing 'snapdir' property.

Submission + - A Computer Inside a Cell (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit on Friday March 29, 2013 @10:42AM

sciencehabit writes: For the first time, synthetic biologists have created a genetic device that mimics one of the widgets on which all of modern electronics is based, the three-terminal transistor. Like standard electronic transistors, the new biological transistor is expected to work in many different biological circuit designs. Together with other advances in crafting genetic circuitry, that should make it easier for scientists to program cells to do everything from monitor pollutants and the progression of disease to turning on the output of medicines and biofuels.

Submission + - PostgreSQL Repositories Locked Down as Security Vulnerability Gets Fixed (paritynews.com)

Submitted by hypnosec on Friday March 29, 2013 @10:35AM

hypnosec writes: PostgreSQL database has a ‘sufficiently bad’ security vulnerability because of which its developers have announced that they have locked down access to database’s repositories while they are fixing the issue. Developers have also revealed that the lock down is only temporary and during this phase committers will have access to the repositories. The reason for the lockdown is to ensure that malicious users don’t work out an exploit by monitoring the changes to the source code while it is being implemented to fix the flaw. The lockdown is definitely an exceptional one and the core committee has announced that they "apologize in advance for any disruption" adding that "It seems necessary in this instance, however".

Laser Fusion's Brightest Hope 115

Posted by samzenpus on Friday March 29, 2013 @05:36AM from the coming-together dept.

First time accepted submitter szotz writes "The National Ignition Facility has one foot in national defense and another in the future of commercial energy generation. That makes understanding the basic justification for the facility, which boasts the world's most powerful laser system, more than a little tricky. This article in IEEE Spectrum looks at NIF's recent missed deadline, what scientists think it will take for the facility to live up to its middle name, and all of the controversy and uncertainty that comes from a project that aspires to jumpstart commercial fusion energy but that also does a lot of classified work. NIF's national defense work is often glossed over in the press. This article pulls in some more detail and, in some cases, some very serious criticism. Physicist Richard Garwin, one of the designers of the hydrogen bomb, doesn't mince words. When it comes to nuclear weapons, he says in the article, '[NIF] has no relevance at all to primaries. It doesn't do a good job of mimicking secondaries...it validates the codes in regions that are not relevant to nuclear weapons.'"

Roku Finally Gets a 2D Menu System 80

Posted by samzenpus on Friday March 29, 2013 @04:06AM from the new-look dept.

DeviceGuru writes "Many of us have griped for years about Roku's retro one-dimensional user interface. Finally, in conjunction with the release of the new Roku 3 model, the Linux-based media streaming player is getting a two-dimensional facelift, making it quicker and easier to access favorite channels and find new ones. Current Roku users, who will now begin suffering from UI-envy, will be glad to learn that Roku plans to push out a firmware update next month to many earlier models, including the Roku LT, Roku HD (model 2500R), Roku 2 HD, Roku 2 XD, Roku 2 XS, and Roku Streaming Stick. A short demo of the new 2D Roku menu system is available in this YouTube video."

Gartner Says 3D Printers Will Cost Less Than $2,000 By 2016 170

Posted by samzenpus on Friday March 29, 2013 @12:25AM from the get-you-one dept.

colinneagle writes "Widespread adoption of 3D printing technology may not be that far away, according to a Gartner report predicting that enterprise-class 3D printers will be available for less than $2,000 by 2016. 3D printers are already in use among many businesses, from manufacturing to pharmaceuticals to consumers goods, and have generated a diverse set of use cases. As a result, the capabilities of the technology have evolved to meet customer needs, and will continue to develop to target those in additional markets, Gartner says."

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