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Comment Bogus headline, interesting content (Score 1) 1

The article refers to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu... (paywalled) which is an update on http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pm... (open access) Contrary to the above headline, it reports that II-Spectrin N-terminal fragment (SNTF) is a blood biomarker for mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI), **not** that it is a cause.

Submission + - Stars Travelling Close to Light Speed Could Spread Life Through the Universe

Submitted by KentuckyFC
KentuckyFC writes: Stars in the Milky Way typically travel at a few hundred kilometres per second relative to their peers. But in recent years, astronomers have found a dozen or so "hypervelocity stars" travelling at up to 1000 kilometres per second, fast enough to escape our galaxy entirely. And they have observed stars orbiting the supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy travelling at least an order of magnitude faster than this, albeit while gravitationally bound. Now a pair of astrophysicists have discovered a mechanism that would free these stars, sending them rocketing into intergalactic space at speeds in excess of 100,000 kilometres per second. That's more than a third of the speed of light. They calculate that there should be about 100,000 of these stars in every cubic gigaparsec of space and that the next generation of space telescopes will be sensitive to spot them. That's interesting because these stars will be cosmological messengers that can tell us about the conditions in other parts of the universe when they formed. And because these stars can travel across much of the observable universe throughout their lifetimes, they could also be responsible for spreading life throughout the cosmos.

Submission + - BlackBerry clears hurdle for voice crypto acquisition (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by angry tapir
angry tapir writes: BlackBerry is now free to integrate German security vendor Secusmart's voice encryption technology in its smartphones and software, after the German government approved its acquisition of the company. BlackBerry CEO John Chen still wants his company to be the first choice of CIOs that want nothing but the best security as he works to turn around the company's fortunes.

Submission + - Philae May Have Grazed Crater Rim (esa.int)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The European Space Agency is gradually sorting through the data collected during the brief windows Philae was alive and transmitting on the surface of a comet. Analysis of that data has provided another interesting clue about what happened to the probe as it bounced across the comet's surface. According to results from the on-board magnetometer, immediately after the first touchdown, the lander's spin rate increased somewhat. It continued to spin for about 36 minutes until another event dramatically changed its spin rate. This suggests it collided with something, because there was no corresponding vertical deceleration to indicate it had landed once more. Scientists think Philae likely grazed the rim of a crater with one of its landing legs. 65 minutes later, it landed again, and bounced to its final resting place just a few minutes later. The ESA's article has some interesting graphs showing how the data changed as the lander progressed through these different events.

Submission + - Oracle finally release Java MSI file. 1

Submitted by nosfucious
nosfucious writes: Oracle Corporation, one of the largest software companies and leading supplier of database and enterprise software quietly started shipping a MSI version of their Java Runtime (https://www.java.com/en/download/help/msi_install.xml). Java is the worlds leading software security vulnerability and keeping up with the frequent patches of nearly a job in itself. Added to this is the very corporate (read: Window on a large scale) unfriendly EXE packaging of the Java RTE. Sysadmins around the world should be rejoicing. However, nothing from Oracle is free. MSI versions of Java are only available to those with Java SE Advanced (and other similar products). Given that urgency and frequency of Java updates, what can be done to force Oracle release MSI versions publicly (and thereby reduce impact of their own bugs and improve Sysadmin sanity).

Submission + - Single Pixel Camera Takes Images Through Breast Tissue 1

Submitted by KentuckyFC
KentuckyFC writes: Single pixel cameras are currently turning photography on its head. They work by recording lots of exposures of a scene through a randomising media such as frosted glass. Although seemingly random, these exposures are correlated because the light all comes from the same scene. So its possible to number crunch the image data looking for this correlation and then use it to reassemble the original image. Physicists have been using this technique, called ghost imaging, for several years to make high resolution images, 3D photos and even 3D movies. Now one group has replaced the randomising medium with breast tissue from a chicken. They've then used the single pixel technique to take clear pictures of an object hidden inside the breast tissue. The potential for medical imaging is clear. Curiously, this technique has a long history dating back to the 19th century when Victorian doctors would look for testicular cancer by holding a candle behind the scrotum and looking for suspicious shadows. The new technique should be more comfortable.

Submission + - Dolby Pimping Bogus Speaker Technology To Justify Licensing Fee? (audioholics.com)

Submitted by Tica2
Tica2 writes: Dolby is claiming you can place their specialized speakers on top of your existing speakers to bounce sound off the ceiling to create height sound for their new Atmos format. However leading experts agree that the Dolby tech behind it is bogus and nothing more than a means for them to justify charging manufacturers a licensing fee. What do you think?

Submission + - ReactOS inches closer to becoming true Windows XP clone (New Shell and NTFS) (reactos.org) 3

Submitted by jeditobe
jeditobe writes: So finally the new ReactOS Explorer has arrived!

The new ReactOS Explorer is much more compatible, stable, and comes with more features than the current (and now old) explorer. We expect it to be a big quality jump in terms of usability, and the rockstar feature of the upcoming 0.4 release. Just keep reading to discover more about it!

ReactOS is an open source operating system designed to be compatible with Windows XP (and later) apps. It’s been in development for nearly two decades (it actually predates Windows 2000 and grew out of a project called FreeWin95) and it’s still very much a work in progress.

ReactOS was most recently talked about for one of its developers coming up with an open-source AMD SI ISA compatible GPU design while the latest accomplishments from this open-source developer group has came to light.

The developers also unveiled two interesting milestones last mounth. First, ReactOS can now read files from NTFS volumes on a hard drive. Pierre Schweitzer of ReactOS shared, "ReactOS now supports reading files from NTFS volume. This was a long awaited feature people were asking for." A new ReactOS ISO re-spin is now available containing this support. [http://reboot.pro/topic/20149-ntfs-now-supported-in-reactos-livecd/]

Second, ReactOS 0.3.17 was released with an early build of NTVDM, a tool that adds support for 16-bit Windows apps for folks that want to run legacy software.

Also huge bunch of font problems was fixed making possible to run without problems Gimp, Wireshark [https://jira.reactos.org/browse/CORE-4657], Java, Winrar and IntelliJ IDEA [https://jira.reactos.org/browse/CORE-8525].

Comment Newlink's license invalid? (Score 1) 70

by LeadSongDog (#48467137) Attached to: Canada's Ebola Vaccine Nets Millions For Tiny US Biotech Firm
It would seem from http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/e... last week's coverage that Newlink had already violated the terms of their license. Seems like they sat on it as long as possible, then sublicensed to Merck. At this point though, who cares about the lousy $50M, they should just get on with producing the fricking stuff while testing in parallel.

Submission + - The Schizophrenic Programmer Who Built an OS to Talk to God

Submitted by rossgneumann
rossgneumann writes: Terry Davis, a schizophrenic programmer, has spent 10 years building an operating system to talk to God. He’s done this work because God told him to. According to the TempleOS charter, it is "God’s official temple. Just like Solomon's temple, this is a community focal point where offerings are made and God's oracle is consulted." God also told Davis that 640x480, 16-color graphics "is a covenant like circumcision," making it easier for children to make drawings for God.

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