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Linux

Submission + - Nvidia loses huge order due to binary blob (phoronix.com)

Submitted by
David Gerard
David Gerard writes: "Phoronix reports: The Chinese, who also developed the Loongson MIPS CPU, were looking to order at least ten million graphics processors. The problem is that the GeForce/Quadro driver from NVIDIA is only available for Linux x86 and x86_64 architectures, not MIPS or even ARM (only the Tegra driver is for ARMv7). NVIDIA refused to release the source-code to their high-performance feature-complete cross-platform driver to the Chinese, and it would cost them millions of dollars to port the code-base, so they went to AMD for their GPU order."
Space

Submission + - What Struck Earth in 775? (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: In 775 C.E., while Charlemagne was ruling his Frankish kingdom, something mysterious struck Earth. An analysis of the rings of two Japanese cedar trees reveals that from 774 to 775 C.E., the atmospheric level of radioactive carbon-14 jumped by 1.2%. This indicates that cosmic rays—high-speed, charged particles from space—bombarded our planet and converted some atmospheric nitrogen-14 into carbon-14. The scientists argue against two logical suspects: solar flares are too weak to do the job, and no supernova explosion was seen at the time, nor do any nearby supernova remnants date back to Charlemagne's time. So the cause remains a mystery, but whatever it was, something similar could presumably strike again.
Space

Submission + - Virgin Galactic's suborbital spacecraft gets FAA blessing (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "Space tourism company Virgin Galactic today said its spacecraft developer has been granted an experimental launch permit from the Federal Aviation Administration to begin rocket-powered testing of its spaceships. With the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation permit, Scaled Composites and its SpaceShipTwo craft will be able to test the aerodynamic performance of the spacecraft with the full weight of the rocket motor system on board. Integration of key rocket motor components, already underway will continue into the autumn."
Google

Submission + - Sergey Brin Demos Google Glasses Prototype (hothardware.com)

Submitted by
MojoKid
MojoKid writes: "Folks have been clamoring for more on Google's Project Glass and Sergey Brin--one of the co-founders of Google is now burying himself in the R&D department associated with its development. Recently Brin appeared on “The Gavin Newsom Show” on The Current with the prototype glasses perched on his face. The visit was actually a bit awkward as you can see in the video, as it’s a lot of Brin and Newsom describing what they’re seeing via the glasses with no visual for the audience. However, Brin dropped a bomb when he stated that he’d like to have the glasses out as early as next year."
Space

Submission + - Soviet moon lander discovered water on moon in 1976 (tech-stew.com)

Submitted by
techfun89
techfun89 writes: "Luna-24 was the last Soviet mission to the moon. It returned to Earth with water-rich rock samples from beneath the lunar surface only to be ignored by the West. New research uncovers this story from obscurity.

Arlin Crotts, a professor in the Department of Astronomy of Columbia University in New York City found that the Soviets found evidence of water in the 1970s, in particular the Luna-24 sample-return mission. During this mission the Soviets drilled 2 meters into the lunar surface and extracted 300 grams of rock then returned to Earth. This was an impressive feat for its time. Analysis showed the rock was made up of 0.1 percent water. This result was published in 1978 to the Russian journal Geokhimiia. There was an English version but wasn't widely read in the West."

Submission + - New search engine Million Short showcases Web's supporting cast (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: For some common types of search queries, top results tend to come from a relatively limited pool of websites — the LinkedIns, Wikipedias and Amazons of the world. But what if you could simply excise the top 10, 100, or even 1 million sites on the Web from your search results? Sanjay Arora, the founder of Web technology think tank Exponential Labs, was curious. He wrote the first version of Million Short in a single late-night session several weeks ago. "It's like a different Internet. It's the Web through a different lens," the creator says.
NASA

Submission + - Intelsat Signs Launch Contract with SpaceX (spacex.com)

Submitted by jamstar7
jamstar7 writes: Following the success of the Falcon9/Dragon resupply test to the ISS comes the following announcement:

Washington, DC / Hawthorne, CA May 29, 2012 — Today, Intelsat, the world's leading provider of satellite services, and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), the world's fastest growing space launch company, announced the first commercial contract for the Falcon Heavy rocket.

"SpaceX is very proud to have the confidence of Intelsat, a leader in the satellite communication services industry," said Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer. "The Falcon Heavy has more than twice the power of the next largest rocket in the world. With this new vehicle, SpaceX launch systems now cover the entire spectrum of the launch needs for commercial, civil and national security customers."

As of yet, the Falcon Heavy hasn't flown, but all the parts have been tested. Essentially an upgunned Falcon 9 with strapon boosters, the Heavy has lift capability second only to the Saturn 5. Already scheduled for 4 Falcon Heavy launches for the US Air Force this year, the Intelsat contract represents the true dawn of the commercial space age.

Submission + - What to use for secure remote backup?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I am looking for a simple, secure remote backup service for my business, which runs on Linux. There are a couple of options I have come across. Both Cyphertite and Sugaroak, which are zero-knowledge, encrypted, compressed, and deduplicated services, seem to offer what I am looking for. I do not want to use any type of service that does not have an open source client, as my paranoia level is pretty high. Would it just be easier to grab cheap colocation somewhere, encrypt the data myself, and use rsync and scripts to manage my backups?

Submission + - Skydiver imitates Rocky the Flying Squirrel (sky.com)

Submitted by ColdWetDog
ColdWetDog writes: British stuntman Gary Conway whose professional credits include stunts in Harry Potter and Batman films became the first skydiver to land safely without the aid of a parachute.

Mr. Conway leapt 2,400ft from a helicopter while wearing a specially made "wing suit" and swooped towards a "runway" of 18,600 cardboard boxes in an field near Oxfordshire, England.

Five seconds before he hit the target he flared his suit to decrease his descent and glide angle before plunging into the boxes to break his fall.

Definitely a gutsy move. Not a bright one, but gutsy.
Government

Submission + - Obama To Agencies: Optimize Web Content For Mobile (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
CWmike
CWmike writes: "President Barack Obama has ordered all major government agencies to make two key services available on mobile phones within a year, in an effort to embrace a growing trend toward Web surfing on mobile devices. Obama, in a directive issued Wednesday, also ordered federal agencies to create websites to report on their mobile progress. The websites are due within 90 days. Innovators in the private sector and the government have used the Internet and powerful computers to improve customer service, but 'it is time for the federal government to do more,' Obama said in the memo. 'For far too long, the American people have been forced to navigate a labyrinth of information across different government programs in order to find the services they need.'"

Submission + - RIAA Claims Losses In Excess Of World's Wealth (businessinsider.com) 6

Submitted by bonch
bonch writes: Prior to setting with Limewire earlier this month, the RIAA had pressed for a $72 trillion verdict, greater than the $60 trillion of combined wealth on Earth. The RIAA arrived at the figure by multiplying $150,000 for each download of 11,000 songs, a figure federal Judge Kimba Wood called "absurd". No word on how much of the money would have gone back to the artists.
Linux

Submission + - Nmap 6 Released! (nmap.org)

Submitted by
Chankey Pathak
Chankey Pathak writes: "The Nmap Project is pleased to announce the immediate, free availability of the Nmap Security Scanner version 6.00 from http://nmap.org/. It is the product of almost three years of work, 3,924 code commits, and more than a dozen point releases since the big Nmap 5 release in July 2009. Nmap 6 includes a more powerful Nmap Scripting Engine, 289 new scripts, better web scanning, full IPv6 support, the Nping packet prober, faster scans, and much more!"
Earth

Submission + - NASA's Hansen Calls Out Obama on Climate Change

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Dr James Hansen, director of the Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who first made warnings about climate change in the 1980s, writes in the NY Times that he was troubled to read a recent interview with President Obama in Rolling Stone in which he said that Canada would exploit the oil in its vast tar sands reserves “regardless of what we do.” According to Hansen "Canada’s tar sands, deposits of sand saturated with bitumen, contain twice the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by global oil use in our entire history. If we were to fully exploit this new oil source, and continue to burn our conventional oil, gas and coal supplies, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eventually would reach levels higher than in the Pliocene era, more than 2.5 million years ago, when sea level was at least 50 feet higher than it is now." Hansen says that instead of placing a rising fee on carbon emissions to make fossil fuels pay their true costs, leveling the energy playing field, the world’s governments are forcing the public to subsidize fossil fuels with hundreds of billions of dollars per year. "President Obama speaks of a “planet in peril,” but he does not provide the leadership needed to change the world’s course. Our leaders must speak candidly to the public — which yearns for open, honest discussion — explaining that our continued technological leadership and economic well-being demand a reasoned change of our energy course.""
Linux

Submission + - Open Source Multi-user Password Management

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I work in a network environment that requiring multiple people have access to numerous Wireless Access Keys, iTunes/iCloud accounts/passwords, hardware appliance logins, etc.

Attempting to replace the ever popular "protected" excel spreadsheet that exists in almost every network with all usernames and passwords just waiting to be discovered.

Are there any open source, multi-user, secure and preferably Linux based password management tools that the slashdot community would recommend?
Facebook

Submission + - Facebook Co-Founder Saverin Gives Up U.S. Citizenship Before IPO

Submitted by parallel_prankster
parallel_prankster writes: Bloomberg reports that Eduardo Saverin, the billionaire co- founder of Facebook Inc. (FB), renounced his U.S. citizenship before an initial public offering that values the social network at as much as $96 billion, a move that may reduce his tax bill.
Facebook plans to raise as much as $11.8 billion through the IPO, the biggest in history for an Internet company. Saverin’s stake is about 4 percent, according to the website Who Owns Facebook. At the high end of the IPO valuation, that would be worth about $3.84 billion. Saverin, 30, joins a growing number of people giving up U.S. citizenship, a move that can trim their tax liabilities in that country.
Saverin won’t escape all U.S. taxes. Americans who give up their citizenship owe what is effectively an exit tax on the capital gains from their stock holdings, even if they don’t sell the shares, said Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, director of the international tax program at the University of Michigan’s law school. For tax purposes, the IRS treats the stock as if it has been sold.

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