Comment Bottled air (Score 1) 815
What about selling air in bottles with sticker stating "Regular inhaling of air significantly increases life expectancy".
Comment Why not translate open source applications (Score 2) 214
I do not see the sense in translating closed source games for free. The translation is usable only by the game company, most likely there is a clause somewhere stating the translator loses all rights to his/her work after submitting the translation to the game company.
Surely there are umpteen open source applications needing translation to any language. There the translation also becomes "free", so it can be used in other similar appliations or in other contexts.
Solar Car Speed Record Smashed 72
An anonymous reader writes with word from Australia that "There's a new world record for the fastest solar-powered land vehicle: 88 km/h average speed over one kilometre in a lightweight car that uses about the same power as a toaster." As the article goes on to explain, this solar racer, built last year by students from the University of New South Wales, managed to nab that speed record earlier this month on an Australian navy base airstrip.
Nigerian Email Scam Victim Sues Bank, Loses Appeal 312
reidhellyer writes "From California Litigation Attorney Blog: 'While many victims of the so-called "Nigerian e-mail scam" would be too embarrassed to trumpet that fact, others end up infamous for their victimhood like the appellant in a published opinion of the California Court of Appeal in Riverside. In March 2009, Charles Peters received an email from someone purporting to be a citizen of Malaysia. The e-mail informed Peters that certain third parties in the United States and Canada owed the Malaysian money, but that “they can not transfer the funds to any bank account outside America continent due to their new company policy [sic].” He asked Peters to “assist me in receiving the funds and forward to me.” He offered to pay Peters 12 percent of the money. Peters agreed after apparently negotiating an increase of his fee to 15 percent.'"
Submission + - Euro Comm to cough €12m for copyright infring (theregister.co.uk)
kenshin33 writes:
The European Commission must pay software firm Systran €12 million in damages for infringing its copyright when it asked other companies to work on Systran's software, the EU's General Court has ruled. Systran created a specially adapted version of its Systran-Unix machine translation software for the Commission, calling it EC-Systran Unix, between 1997 and 2002.
That begs the question : if Gouv agency (or any other entity) contracts some software firm to do some work, does this ruling implies that any maintenance should be done the same firm and no one else ??? talk about a nice side effect
Submission + - The Big Questions 7 Social Media Sites Must Answer (techi.com)
ScarlettMadi writes: It was a great 2010 for many social media sites, but as 2011 grows near it seems that there are big questions looming over most of them. Will Digg rebound from the V4 debacle? Can Twitter become "serious business"? Can Tumblr stay up regularly?
Submission + - Will there be Adobe Creative Suite for Linux? (getsatisfaction.com) 1
An anonymous reader writes: Adobe seems to be evaluating a port of (a part) of their Adobe Creative Suite to Linux. At least are Linux users called to express need in a poll at Getsatisfaction.com: http://getsatisfaction.com/adobe/topics/produce_creative_suite_for_linux. This move was triggered by an employee of Adobe as described in this story http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/12/creative-suite-for-linux-an-update/. Apparently Adobe was surprised by the enormous amount of feed back on the question whether Adobe Creative suite should be ported to the Linux platform.
Submission + - Is Going to an Elite College Worth the Cost? (nytimes.com)
Pickens writes: "Jacques Steinberg writes in the NY Times that the sluggish economy and rising costs of college have only intensified questions about whether expensive, prestigious colleges make any difference. Do their graduates make more money? Get into better professional programs? Make better connections? And are they more satisfied with their lives, or at least with their work? Researchers say that alumni of the most selective colleges earn, on average, 40 percent more a year than those who graduated from the least selective public universities, as calculated 10 years after they graduated from and found that “attendance at an elite private college significantly increases the probability of attending graduate school, and more specifically graduate school at a major research university.” But other researchers say the extent to which one takes advantage of the educational offerings of an institution may be more important, in the long run, than how prominently and proudly that institution’s name is being displayed on the back windows of cars in the nation’s wealthiest enclaves. “Everything we know from studying college student experiences and outcomes tells us that there is more variability within schools than between them,” says Alexander C. McCormick. “The quality of that biology major offered at School No. 50? It may exceed that at School No. 5.”"
Submission + - Gmail downgrades session encryption to RC4 1
An anonymous reader writes: Yesterday i noticed that after logging into my Gmail account the encryption was downgraded from AES256 to RC4 128. WTF, google?!
On a side note, disabling all RC4 related entries in your about:config page (Firefox) does re-establish AES.
On a side note, disabling all RC4 related entries in your about:config page (Firefox) does re-establish AES.
Comment Ripoff (Score 1) 98
Supermassive Black Hole Is Thrown Out of Galaxy 167
DarkKnightRadick writes "An undergrad student at the University of Utrecht, Marianne Heida, has found evidence of a supermassive black hole being tossed out of its galaxy. According to the article, the black hole — which has a mass equivalent to one billion suns — is possibly the culmination of two galaxies merging (or colliding, depending on how you like to look at it) and their black holes merging, creating one supermassive beast. The black hole was found using the Chandra Source Catalog (from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory). The direction of the expulsion is also possibly indicative of the direction of rotation of the two black holes as they circled each other before merging."
Open Source Developer Knighted 101
unixfan writes "Georg Greve, developer of Open Document Format and active FOSS developer, has received a knighthood in Germany for his work. From the article: 'Some weeks ago I received news that the embassy in Berne had unsuccessfully been trying to contact me under FSFE's old office address in Zurich. This was a bit odd and unexpected. So you can probably understand my surprise to be told by the embassy upon contacting them that on 18 December 2009 I had been awarded the Cross of Merit on ribbon (Verdienstkreuz am Bande) by the Federal Republic of Germany. As you might expect, my first reaction was one of disbelief. I was, in fact, rather shaken. You could also say shocked. Quick Wikipedia research revealed this to be part of the orders of knighthood, making this a Knight's Cross.'"
Aral Sea May Recover; Dead Sea Needs a Lifeline 131
An anonymous reader writes "It's a tale of two seas. The drying up of the Aral Sea is considered one of the greatest environmental catastrophes in history, but the northern sector of the sea, at least, is showing signs of life. A dam completed in 2005 has increased the North Aral's span by 20 percent, and birds, fish, and people are all returning to the area. Meanwhile, the Dead Sea is still in the midst of precipitous decline, since too much water is being drawn out of the Jordan River for thirsty populations and crops. To keep the sea from shrinking more, scientists are pushing an ambitious scheme called the 'Red-Dead conduit,' which would channel huge amounts of water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. However, the environmental consequences of such a project may be troubling."
New Speed Cameras Catch You From Space 351
A new kind of speed camera that uses satellites to measure average speed over long distances is being tested in Britain. The "Speedspike" system combines plate reading technology with a global positioning satellite receiver to calculate average speed between any two points in the area being monitored. From the article: "Details of the trials are contained in a House of Commons report. The company said in its evidence that the cameras enabled 'number plate capture in all weather conditions, 24 hours a day.' It also referred to the system's 'low cost' and ease of installation." I can't wait to see the episode of MythBusters where they try to avoid getting a speeding ticket from a satellite.
Comment Age is the reason (Score 5, Insightful) 742
Perhaps age difference itself is the reason. Young persons may not like the 20 years older hackers. And old wizened developers may dislike young whippersnappers.
