Comment SDO near real-time images (Score 4, Informative) 39
The NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) will be providing near real-time images/movies at http://cometison.gsfc.nasa.gov/ on Nov 28 between 12:45 pm and 1:00 pm ET (1745 - 1900 UT)
Comment Re:Not the first room temperature maser (Score 1) 102
Can hydrogen masers amplify any frequency? I admit I know next to nothing about them, but I was under the impression they could only amplify at the resonant frequency of hydrogen (e.g. see http://tf.nist.gov/general/enc-h.htm)?
Comment Re:Unfortunate Reality of Being a Linux User (Score 1) 518
I would agree that torrents are usually faster. But in this case, I doubt it. Did you actually try downloading from any of those links? I just did, and it stayed steady at 2.7MB/s for the 2 minutes during which I ran it (I cancelled it because I already have a copy). Chrome estimated 17 minutes (total) to finish (for a ~3.1 GB file).
Not many torrents are going to be that fast, I think. You also don't have to worry about malware in the image, or BS copyright violation notices.
Comment Re:Unfortunate Reality of Being a Linux User (Score 2) 518
Why torrent an ISO when you can download official ISOs from Microsoft?
See:
Some alternate languages here:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/download-windows-7-iso-official-32-bit-and-64-bit-direct-download-links/
Comment Toastmasters (Score 1) 291
If you're serious -- try to find a local Toastmasters club.
Comment Re:Why not post link to NASA website? (Score 2) 56
The LRO page has both videos
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/vid-tour.html/
Fuck you ITWorld author for not linking back to the source
Comment BuyVM not selling? (Re:VPSes) (Score 1) 225
I just tried to buy a VPS and for every offering I get the error "We are currently out of stock on this item...". Too many clients?
Comment Re:Still takes forever to "Rebuild the Font Cache" (Score 1) 299
Let's say that's true (i.e. font cache is corrupted on crash).
1) Sounds like a bug to me. File a bug report? (after gathering evidence, of course)
2) Possible workaround: Make a known-good copy of the font cache (on Windows it's %APPDATA%\vlc, I believe). Restore it after a VLC crash (before launching VLC again)
Comment WTF /.? (Score 3, Insightful) 66
45 comments, perhaps 3 of which that aren't jokes or AC trolls.
I guess I'll spend my time at reddit r/askscience instead!
If you want to make your own high-res movies of these kinds of events, get JHelioviewer
Comment don't let me down /. ... (Score 1) 1
All of the solar weather stories on
If you want to make your own high-res movies of these kinds of events, get JHelioviewer
Or if you're lazy, low-res in 6 wavelengths (ok, 5 wavelengths and one magnetogram)
Submission + - Forced to decrypt harddrive (cnet.com) 6
A Commentor writes: "I guess to balance the good news with the Supreme Court ruling on GPS, a judge in Colorado had ordered a defendant to decrypt their hard drive. Apparently, the government doesn't have the technology to break the PGP encryption."
Submission + - Hackers manipulated railway computers, TSA memo sa (nextgov.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Hackers, possibly from abroad, executed an attack on a Northwest rail company's computers that disrupted railway signals for two days in December, according to a government memo recapping outreach with the transportation sector during the emergency.
Submission + - Biggest solar shot since 1995 is Earth-bound (networkworld.com) 1
coondoggie writes: "Seems not a week goes by without s big solar flare erupts sending the Earth a massive shot of solar wind, radiation and electromagnetic pulses capable of damaging satellites, GPS and electronics — but this week the blast is large — the largest since 1995, NASA said.
According to spaceweather.com: This morning, Jan. 23rd, the big sunspot 1402 erupted, producing a long-duration M9-class solar flare. The explosion's M9-ranking puts it on the threshold of being an X-flare, the most powerful kind. Solar protons accelerated by this M9-class solar flare are streaming past Earth. On the NOAA scale of radiation storms, this one ranks S3, which means it could, e.g., cause isolated reboots of computers onboard Earth-orbiting satellites and interfere with polar radio communications."
According to spaceweather.com: This morning, Jan. 23rd, the big sunspot 1402 erupted, producing a long-duration M9-class solar flare. The explosion's M9-ranking puts it on the threshold of being an X-flare, the most powerful kind. Solar protons accelerated by this M9-class solar flare are streaming past Earth. On the NOAA scale of radiation storms, this one ranks S3, which means it could, e.g., cause isolated reboots of computers onboard Earth-orbiting satellites and interfere with polar radio communications."
Submission + - Sun Blasts Another CME at Earth and Mars (discovery.com)
astroengine writes: "On Friday, the sun hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) at our planet that sparked a strong geomagnetic storm and beautiful aurorae at high latitudes. Late on Sunday (EST), the sun unleashed yet another Earth-bound CME after an M9 flare erupted over a particularly active sunspot region — the CME is expected to hit Earth on Tuesday and Mars on Wednesday. This series of flares and CMEs have ignited the strongest period of solar storms since 2005, according to an NOAA space weather advisory."
Comment Re:These things were too successful. (Score 1) 110
OK, that's fair, I wasn't clear. Obviously the guards should be able to operate the functions required for their job.
I was trying to say that you can't assume malicious software doesn't exist on your network; i.e. you cannot leave out basic security controls just because the thing is on a ostensibly private network. No software should be able to open a door by, say, sending a simple ASCII string on the right port (I've seen that kind of stupid crap in other software). Why not specify that you need two-factor authentication to open a door? That would at least prevent attacks any kindergartner could perform.
I was trying to say that you can't assume malicious software doesn't exist on your network; i.e. you cannot leave out basic security controls just because the thing is on a ostensibly private network. No software should be able to open a door by, say, sending a simple ASCII string on the right port (I've seen that kind of stupid crap in other software). Why not specify that you need two-factor authentication to open a door? That would at least prevent attacks any kindergartner could perform.
