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Comment Re:This this not evolution (Score 2, Insightful) 253

Well, that would not be necessary, Mr. President. It could easily be accomplished with a computer. And a computer could be set and programmed to accept factors from youth, health, sexual fertility, intelligence, and a cross-section of necessary skills. Of course, it would be absolutely vital that our top government and military men be included to foster and impart the required principles of leadership and tradition. Naturally, they would breed prodigiously, eh? There would be much time, and little to do. Ha, ha.

"Now, wouldn't that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned? Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious... service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature."

Comment Re:Needs some background research (Score 1) 38

The 1994 Murray and Cox 'Apollo' is available as a Kindle version for those interested. Not Subtitled - if you try to find the subtitled version it is only in out of print paperback.

From TFA:

"In the movies, a spacecraft launch is often accompanied by bombastic music and the seat-juddering bass of rockets thundering, with shots of flight controllers frantically mashing buttons intercut with shaky-cam special effects of the launch vehicle clawing its way skyward. I asked Sy about what a person actually experienced while sitting at a console during launch, and it turns out that reality, again, is a very different place from fiction."

The author should learn what he's talking about - the room usually shown during launch (particularly during Apollo 13) is the LCC, not MOCR. The LCC is located adjacent to the VAB at Cape Kennedy and controls the testing, checkout, launch, and flight of the vehicle until it clears the tower, at which point the MOCR takes over.

He's also seems unaware that there's any media other than mini-series and fiction... If you're really interested in the MOCR, and wish for a less slack-jawed account, try and find a copy of Murray & Cox's Apollo (sometimes subtitled "Race to the Moon"). (Hard copies are expensive and collectible sadly.) In 1994 was Apollo along with Lovell's Apollo 13 that first actually discussed the MOCR in detail and kicked off the modern wave of more serious and less starry-eyed books about the Apollo Program.

iMac

Submission + - Steve Jobs hinted at Apple's abandonment of optical drives back in 2010 (networkworld.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Apple's newly released iMacs don't come with optical drives standard. Here's why you shouldn't be surprised. Back in 2010, Steve Jobs responded to a customer email regarding Blu-Ray drives and noted that it will be beaten by Internet downloads. "Free, instant gratification and convenience (likely in that order) is what made the downloadable formats take off. And the downloadable movie business is rapidly moving to free (Hulu) or rentals (iTunes) so storing purchased movies or TV shows is not an issue." That said, Apple's decision to forgo Blu-Ray drives and completely remove optical drives altogether has been in the cards for some time now.
The Military

Submission + - Targeting the President's DNA 2

Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The Atlantic reports that experts in genetics and microbiology are convinced we may be only a few years away from the development of advanced, genetic bio-weapons able to target a single human being based on their DNA. The authors paint a scenario of the development of a virus that causes only mild flu in the general population but when the virus crosses paths with cells containing a very specific DNA sequence, the sequence would act as a molecular key to unlock secondary functions that would trigger a fast-acting neuro-destructive disease that produces memory loss and, eventually, death. The requisite equipment including gene sequencers, micro-array scanners, and mass spectrometers now cost over $1 million but on eBay, it can be had for as little as $10,000. According to Ronald Kessler, the author of the 2009 book In the President’s Secret Service, Navy stewards gather bedsheets, drinking glasses, and other objects the president has touched—they are later sanitized or destroyed—in an effort to keep would-be malefactors from obtaining his genetic material. However no amount of Secret Service vigilance can ever fully secure the president’s DNA, because an entire genetic blueprint can now be produced from the information within just a single cell. How to protect the President? The authors propose open-sourcing the president’s genetic information to a select group of security-cleared researchers who could follow in the footsteps of the computer sciences, where “red-team exercises,” are extremely common practices so a similar testing environment could be developed for biological war games. "Advances in biotechnology are radically changing the scientific landscape. We are entering a world where imagination is the only brake on biology," write the authors. "In light of this coming synbio revolution, a wider-ranging relationship between scientists and security organizations—one defined by open exchange, continual collaboration, and crowd-sourced defenses—may prove the only way to protect the president.""

Submission + - Geek Remodel? 3

An anonymous reader writes: What would you do to 'go geek' if you had a major remodel on your hands? My wife and I are re-modeling my in-law's 3000 sq foot single-level house, and we're both very wired, tech-savvy individuals. We will both have offices, as well as TVs in the bedroom and dining room. My question to the community is: What would you do if you had 10-20,000 to spend for this kind of remodel project? What kind of hardware/firmware would you install? I'd love to have a digital 'command center' to run an LCD wall-calendar for the family, and be able to play my PS3 from anywhere in the house (ie, if everyone wants to watch Netflix while I'm in the middle of some Borderlands). What else have geeks done/planned to do? This is a test run for a much, much nicer house down the road, so don't be overly afraid of cost concerns for really great ideas. We will be taking most of the house down to studs, so don't factor demolition into costs. For culinary-minded geeks, I'd love any ideas you have to surprise my wife with cool kitchen gadgets or designs.
Privacy

Submission + - Neal Stephenson Talks REAMDE With Lawyers (boingboing.net)

An anonymous reader writes: From Cory Doctorow over at Boing-Boing:

'Here's a video from a recent U Washington Law School panel discussion with Neal Stephenson regarding his video-game crime-thriller REAMDE. The law school assembled cyber lawyers, security experts from the computer science department, and Stephenson himself, and discussed the real-world implications for the sorts of business, technology, security and crime described in the (excellent) book.'

Government

Submission + - Cash-Strapped States Burdened by Expensive Data Security Breaches (darkreading.com)

CowboyRobot writes: "As budgets are pinched by reduced tax collection, many U.S. states are facing a possibility of not being able to handle the ever-increasing number of data breaches. 70% of state chief information security officers (CISOs) reported a data breach this year, each of which can cost up to $5M in some states. "82 percent of the state CISOs point to phishing and pharming as the top threats to their agencies, a threat they say will continue in 2013, followed by social engineering, increasingly sophisticated malware threats, and mobile devices." The full 2012 Deloitte-National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) Cybersecurity Study is available here (PDF)"
IBM

Submission + - What is the real version number of Windows 8? (ocmodshop.com)

antdude writes: "This seven/7 pages OCModShop article look into the past and the current Windows versions — "Today Microsoft launched its latest version of its iconic Operating System (OS): Windows 8. There have been many version of Windows over the years, and one can't help but wonder what justifies this version number. Microsoft and other technology companies have over-written and re-named their product history before, so we take a good hard look at all the previous operating systems to see if the numbers add up.

Microsoft Windows started as version 1.0 as an add-on to its disk operating system (DOS). The product was a simple graphical user interface (GUI) program that was little more than a visual file manager. Windows 2.0 was released to take advantage of the features offered by Intel’s 286 processor. Windows 3 is the version that really started Microsoft on its current path of success.

All of these versions numbers are very logical and can be easily counted. Where things start to get a little ambiguous is when Windows NT is thrown into the mix..."

Seen on Blue's News."

Your Rights Online

Submission + - Canadian Police Need New Internet Surveillance Tools (www.cbc.ca)

danomac writes: Police agencies in Canada want to have better tools to do online surveillance. Bill C-30 was to include new legislation (specifically Section 34) that would give police access to information without a warrant. This can contain your name, your IP address, and your mobile phone number.

This, of course, creates all sorts of issues with privacy online. The police themselves say they have concerns with Section 34. Apparently the way it is worded it is not just police that can request the information, but any government agent. Would you trust the government with this kind of power?

Programming

Submission + - Does Coding Style Matter?

theodp writes: Over at Smashing Magazine, Nicholas C. Zakas makes the case for Why Coding Style Matters. 'Coding style guides are an important part of writing code as a professional,' Zakas concludes. 'Whether you're writing JavaScript or CSS or any other language, deciding how your code should look is an important part of overall code quality. If you don't already have a style guide for your team or project, it's worth the time to start one.' So, how are coding style guidelines working (or not) in your world?
Security

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: What to do when finding a Security Breach on Shared Hosting 1

An anonymous reader writes: A few months ago i stumbled across an interesting security hole with my webhost, where I was able access any file on the server, including other users. When I called the company they immediately contacted the server team and stated that they will fix the problem that day. Since all you need when calling them is your username, and I was able to list out all 500 usernames of the server, this was rather a large security breach. Which to there credit they did patch the server, not 100% of the way but close enough where moving to a new web host was moved down the 'list' a little.

Jump a head to this week, they experienced server issue, and we requested being moved to a different server. First thing I did was run my test script, and I was able to list out everyone's files again. They only applied the patch to old server. We are now moving off from this web host all together. However I do fear for the thousands of customers that have no clue about this security issue, along with about 10 mins of coding someone could search for the sql connection string and grab the username/password required to access their hosting account.

Whats the best way to handle this type of situation?
Medicine

Submission + - No More Poop Transplants? (sciencemag.org)

sciencehabit writes: A tonic of gut microbes may be the secret recipe for treating a common hospital scourge. Researchers have pinpointed the exact mix of microbes required to cure mice of chronic infection by Clostridium difficile. The hard-to-treat bacterium infects alomst 336,000 in the US each year and causes bloating, pain, & diarrhea. A similar bacterial cocktail may be able to replace the current controversial treatment involving the intake of a healthy person's fecal matter to restore the right balance of microbes in the gut.

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