doombringerltx - Slashdot User

Submission + - Japan launches lunar orbiter mission Friday

Submitted by

Sooner Boomer

on Friday September 14, 2007 @01:25AM

Sooner Boomer writes: "Japan launched its first lunar probe on Friday, nicknamed Kaguya after a fairy-tale princess, in the latest move in a new race with China, India and the United States to explore the moon. The rocket carrying the three-metric ton orbiter took off into blue skies, leaving a huge trail of vapor over the tiny island of Tanegashima, about 1,000 km (620 miles) south of Tokyo, at 10:31 a.m. (9:31 p.m. EDT) as it headed out over the Pacific Ocean. The mission consists of a main orbiter and two baby satellites equipped with 14 observation instruments designed to examine surface terrain, gravity and other features for clues on the origin and evolution of the moon. Read the article or see Japanese Space Agency home page (in English) China has plans to launch an orbiter later this year, with unmaanned rover lander mission scheduled for 2010. India and the US also have orbiter missions scheduled for next year."

Submission + - Ted Stevens' Home Raided

Submitted by el_munkie on Monday July 30, 2007 @07:15PM

el_munkie writes: It appears that the home of Senator Ted Stevens is in the process of being raided by the FBI and the IRS. According to the article, a remodeling project at Stevens' home and the involvement of Veco, an oil company, are the focus of the raid.

Submission + - Microsoft "Hell-Bent" on Advertising Reven (com.com)

Submitted by

Xenographic

on Saturday July 28, 2007 @01:24PM

Xenographic writes: "According to a statement made by Steve Ballmer at Microsoft's Financial Analysts Day, "We are hell-bent and determined to allocate the talent, the resources, the money, the innovation to absolutely become a powerhouse in the ad business." Presumably, that's what they plan to use their now patented "Mother of All Adware" system for. How long until we need an adblock extension for Windows itself?"

Submission + - Microsoft Windows 7 coming in 2010

Submitted by morpheus83 on Thursday July 26, 2007 @01:46AM

morpheus83 writes: Just as Vista's gaining ground, Microsoft has officially released some information about next version of Windows operating system. Internally they are calling it Windows 7 and it's expected to be developed in three years. Windows Seven is being developed for both consumer and business segments and will come in 32- and 64-bit flavors. Microsoft is also thinking of extending Windows Seven with subscription-based services.

Submission + - MPAA: Plagarism good, Piracy bad? 1

Submitted by BillGatesLoveChild on Thursday July 26, 2007 @12:11AM

BillGatesLoveChild writes: The MPAA is fast to complain about their Intellectual Property being violated, but have no qualms about violating the Intellectual Property of others. The SMH reports another case of a Hollywood Studio plagarizing a film as their own. Adam Sandler's I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007) is a tale of two firemen who pretend to be gay to get domestic partner benefits. Curiously Paul Hogan's Strange Bedfellows (2004) made three years earlier, is also a tale of two firemen who pretend to be gay to get domestic partner benefits. Universal Studios issued a statement claiming "the similarities are purely coincidental". The producers of "Strange Bedfellows" are amused but not convinced.

This isn't the first time, with similar accusations being made against Spielberg's Julie Newmar (1995) vs Priscilla (1994) and Eddie Murphy's "Coming to America" which the courts found was stolen from writer Art Buchwald. Add to that "Hollywood Accounting" fleecing artists (The Forest Gump movie didn't pay the author a cent in royalties), the Record Industry doing the same and the MPAA itself caught yet unrepentant for pirating movies. Before The Senate rushes off to do their bidding, shouldn't the MPAA and RIAA be ordered to clean up their own houses?

Submission + - Harry Potter and a Goblin's Take on Copyright (scienceaddiction.com)

Submitted by

DevanJedi

on Wednesday July 25, 2007 @10:13PM

DevanJedi writes: "Here's a passage from page 517 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows : (Ron's brother Bill is warning Harry against trusting a goblin Griphook.) "You don't understand, Harry, nobody could understand unless they have lived with goblins. To a goblin, the rightful and true master of any object is the maker, not the purchaser. All goblin-made objects are, in goblin eyes, rightfully theirs. [...] They have, however, great difficulty with the idea of goblin-made objects passing from wizard to wizard. [...] They consider our habit of keeping goblin-made objects, passing them from wizard to wizard without further payment, little more than theft." These goblins sound like our friendly neighborhood MPAA/RIAA lawyers!"

Submission + - Are Mobile Phone Masts Responsible For Illness?

Submitted by drewmoney on Wednesday July 25, 2007 @08:55PM

drewmoney writes: According to a major UK study, symptoms of illness caused by mobile phone masts is "all in the mind".

Excerpts from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6914492.stm

Dozens of people who believed the masts triggered symptoms such as anxiety, nausea and tiredness could not detect if signals were on or off in trials.

However, the Environmental Health Perspectives study stressed people were nonetheless suffering "real symptoms".

Campaign group Mast Sanity "http://www.mastsanity.org/" said the results were skewed as 12 people in the trials dropped out because of illness.

Submission + - Pope: Creation vs. evolution clash an 'absurdity' (msn.com)

Submitted by

RobertinXinyang

on Wednesday July 25, 2007 @08:33PM

RobertinXinyang writes: "The Pope has spoken out on both the issue of creation v. evolution and on the issue of the environment. Of course, many slashdot readers are such bigots that thtt will have to watch that their jerking knees do not hit their, foaming with ignorant hate, mouths when the pope is even mentioned; however, the facts are that a lot of people do listed to him. If the number of people who listen to him were taken as a sole concern, his comments are relevant.
"Pope Benedict XVI said the debate raging in some countries — particularly the United States and his native Germany — between creationism and evolution was an "absurdity," saying that evolution can coexist with faith... This clash is an absurdity because on one hand there is much scientific proof in favor of evolution, which appears as a reality that we must see and which enriches our understanding of life and being as such... Benedict also said the human race must listen to "the voice of the Earth" or risk destroying its very existence... We all see that today man can destroy the foundation of his existence, his Earth... We cannot simply do what we want with this Earth of ours, with what has been entrusted to us," said the pope."

Submission + - VIA to compete with AMD and Intel @ 1333Mhz bus (techreport.com)

Submitted by

athloi

on Wednesday July 25, 2007 @05:56PM

athloi writes: "According to a report by DigiTimes, VIA plans to introduce a brand new processor architecture in the first quarter of 2008. The architecture will materialize in a processor core code-named Isaiah, which will feature 64-bit support, 65nm process technology, 1MB of L2 cache, a 1333MHz bus, as well as virtualization and ECC memory support. http://www.techreport.com/onearticle.x/12933"

Submission + - Replacing Silicone with Pencil Graphite

Submitted by

Late-Eight

on Tuesday July 24, 2007 @05:55AM

Late-Eight writes: "A key discovery at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute could help advance the role of graphene as a possible heir to copper and silicon in nanoelectronics. Researchers believe graphene's extremely efficient conductive properties can be exploited for use in nanoelectronics.

Graphene, a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon, eluded scientists for years but was finally made in the laboratory in 2004 with the help of everyday, store-bough items. This research is an important first step, For developing a way to mass produce metallic graphene that could one day replace copper as the primary interconnect material on nearly all computer chips."

Submission + - 11 corporate anthems to die for - Network World (networkworld.com)

Submitted by

sumj

on Thursday July 19, 2007 @10:07PM

sumj writes: "http://www.networkworld.com/slideshows/2007/071907 -top-corporate-anthems.html"

Submission + - iPhone/Yahoo mail security vulnerability (isode.com)

Submitted by

Will Sheward

on Thursday July 19, 2007 @07:13PM

Will Sheward writes: "Whilst trying to figure out how the iPhone was doing it's 'push' email with Yahoo (it seems it doesn't — but that's another story) we came across another security flaw. The iPhone authenticates with Yahoo using a private protocol called XYMPKI, used in conjunction with IMAP. Yahoo do not provide a general IMAP service — they use IMAP only for iPhone access. Although the iPhone supports TLS (Transport Layer Security) Yahoo! IMAP doesn't, which can lead to a replay attack. Anyone able to eavesdrop on the authentication exchange, such as when using any open (public or private) wi-fi service, can easily gain full access to the user's email account until the user changes their password. We would advise against using the Yahoo service with an iPhone, because of this security risk. Full details here"

Submission + - Solar Cells Could Be Produced with Inkjet Printers

Submitted by

Late-Eight

on Thursday July 19, 2007 @03:54PM

Late-Eight writes: "From Science Daily: Researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) have developed an inexpensive solar cell that can be painted or printed on flexible plastic sheets. "The process is simple," said lead researcher and author Somenath Mitra, PhD, professor and acting chair of NJIT's Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences. "Someday homeowners will even be able to print sheets of these solar cells with inexpensive home-based inkjet printers. Consumers can then slap the finished product on a wall, roof or billboard to create their own power stations.""

Submission + - 10th Annual AUV Competition Results

Submitted by

UFgatorSean

on Monday July 16, 2007 @05:02PM

UFgatorSean writes: "The tenth annual international Autonomous Underwater Vehicle competition was held in San Diego this past weekend. For the first time in the history of the competition, the University of Florida has accomplished a three-peat. The appropriately named SubjuGator swam by the competition by completing five tasks: navigating through a validation gate, docking with a simulated sea-mine, dropping markers into a bin while following a segmented pipeline, locating an acoutic pinger, and retrieving a simulated treasure. All tasks were completed in a single run with the vehicle submerged and with no human interaction. Of interest to the slashdot community is the fact that while most teams continue to use open source, the SubjuGator used the new Misrosoft Robotics Studio software framework, and ran Windows XP Professional on a 3.5" embedded computer."

Submission + - What You Know, Just Ain't So: Facts vs. Beliefs (functionalisminaction.com)

Submitted by

IConrad01

on Monday July 16, 2007 @01:02PM

IConrad01 writes: "Functionalism In Action: What You Know — It Just Ain't So: Why Facts Can't Win Arguments is a commentary by a technophile libertarian (yours truly) attempting to further document the connection between deeply held beliefs and the inability of those with hard facts to contradict those beliefs."

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