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Submission + - Flowchart Guides Readers Through 100 Best SF Books

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Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "T. N. Tobias writes that over the summer, over 60,000 people voted at NPR to select the top 100 science fiction and fantasy books of all time. The result? A list of 100 books with a wide range of styles, little context, and absolutely no pithy commentary to help readers actually choose something to read from it. Now SF Signal has come to the rescue with a 3800 x 2300 flowchart with over 325 decision points to help you find the perfect SF or Fantasy book to meet your tastes. Don't like to scroll? There's an interactive version that let's you answer a series of questions to find the perfect SF book."
Security

Building a Better 'Anonymous?' 119

Posted by CmdrTaco from the start-by-photocopying-drivers-licenses dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A hacktivism panel at the DefCon hacker convention was conspicuously missing its star member Aaron Barr, who dropped out under legal pressure from his former company HBGary Federal, debated how Anonymous could channel its efforts for the greater good. Members of Anon attending the discussion chimed in, too."

Comment Re:So what (Score 1) 840

by jpbelang (#34616260) Attached to: Assange Secret Swedish Police Report Leaked

If you screw a woman in some countries without their father's approval beforehand it is rape.

And I would think they would have tons of trouble having you extradited from the U.S. or the U.K. Not that this has anything to do with the case at hand.

Comment Maybe, mabe not... (Score 3, Insightful) 97

by jpbelang (#33975450) Attached to: Physicists Discover Universal "Wet-Dog Shake" Rule

I don't know how seriously the scientist took this research.

But I do remember that Richard Feynman wrote a paper on the wobbling movement of a spinning plate. He did this because he was depressed and had scientific writer's block. And nobody would deny the importance of his later work.

Science is science. If what they find is correct in the scientific sense, it really doesn't bother me too much.

I'd be worried if scientists started really competing for the Ig Nobel prizes. But I doubt that they ever will :-).
NASA

Dying Man Shares Unseen Challenger Video 266

Posted by Soulskill from the new-perspective-on-an-old-tragedy dept.
longacre writes "An amateur video of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion has been made public for the first time. The Florida man who filmed it from his front yard on his new Betamax camcorder turned the tape over to an educational organization a week before he died this past December. The Space Exploration Archive has since published the video into the public domain in time for the 24th anniversary of the catastrophe. Despite being shot from about 70 miles from Cape Canaveral, the shuttle and the explosion can be seen quite clearly. It is unclear why he never shared the footage with NASA or the media. NASA officials say they were not aware of the video, but are interested in examining it now that it has been made available."
PlayStation (Games)

PS3 Hacked? 296

Posted by Soulskill from the another-one-bites-the-dust dept.
Several readers have sent word that George Hotz (a.k.a. geohot), the hacker best known for unlocking Apple's iPhone, says he has now hacked the PlayStation 3. From his blog post: "I have read/write access to the entire system memory, and HV level access to the processor. In other words, I have hacked the PS3. The rest is just software. And reversing. I have a lot of reversing ahead of me, as I now have dumps of LV0 and LV1. I've also dumped the NAND without removing it or a modchip. 3 years, 2 months, 11 days...that's a pretty secure system. ... As far as the exploit goes, I'm not revealing it yet. The theory isn't really patchable, but they can make implementations much harder. Also, for obvious reasons I can't post dumps. I'm hoping to find the decryption keys and post them, but they may be embedded in hardware. Hopefully keys are setup like the iPhone's KBAG."
Games

Pirates as a Marketplace 214

Posted by Soulskill from the marrrrrrrket-share dept.
John Riccitiello, the CEO of Electronic Arts, made some revealing comments in an interview with Kotaku about how the company's attitudes are shifting with regard to software piracy. Quoting: "Some of the people buying this DLC are not people who bought the game in a new shrink-wrapped box. That could be seen as a dark cloud, a mass of gamers who play a game without contributing a penny to EA. But around that cloud Riccitiello identified a silver lining: 'There's a sizable pirate market and a sizable second sale market and we want to try to generate revenue in that marketplace,' he said, pointing to DLC as a way to do it. The EA boss would prefer people bought their games, of course. 'I don't think anybody should pirate anything,' he said. 'I believe in the artistry of the people who build [the games industry.] I profoundly believe that. And when you steal from us, you steal from them. Having said that, there's a lot of people who do.' So encourage those pirates to pay for something, he figures. Riccitiello explained that EA's download services aren't perfect at distinguishing between used copies of games and pirated copies. As a result, he suggested, EA sells DLC to both communities of gamers. And that's how a pirate can turn into a paying customer."
Programming

The State of Ruby VMs — Ruby Renaissance 89

Posted by Soulskill from the take-your-pick dept.
igrigorik writes "In the short span of just a couple of years, the Ruby VM space has evolved to more than just a handful of choices: MRI, JRuby, IronRuby, MacRuby, Rubinius, MagLev, REE and BlueRuby. Four of these VMs will hit 1.0 status in the upcoming year and will open up entirely new possibilities for the language — Mac apps via MacRuby, Ruby in the browser via Silverlight, object persistence via Smalltalk VM, and so forth. This article takes a detailed look at the past year, the progress of each project, and where the community is heading. It's an exciting time to be a Rubyist."

Comment Re:Are you sure about that? (Score 2, Informative) 337

by jpbelang (#25818425) Attached to: Ted Stevens Loses Senate Re-Election Bid

You stopped quoting when if gets interesting.

By party and region

Note : "Southern", as used in this section, refers to members of Congress from the eleven states that made up the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War. "Northern" refers to members from the other 39 states, regardless of the geographic location of those states.

The original House version:

        * Southern Democrats: 7-87 (7%-93%)
        * Southern Republicans: 0-10 (0%-100%)

        * Northern Democrats: 145-9 (94%-6%)
        * Northern Republicans: 138-24 (85%-15%)

The Senate version:

        * Southern Democrats: 1-20 (5%-95%) (only Senator Ralph Yarborough of Texas voted in favor)
        * Southern Republicans: 0-1 (0%-100%) (this was Senator John Tower of Texas)
        * Northern Democrats: 45-1 (98%-2%) (only Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia opposed the measure)
        * Northern Republicans: 27-5 (84%-16%) (Senators Bourke Hickenlooper of Iowa, Barry Goldwater of Arizona, Edwin L. Mechem of New Mexico, Milward L. Simpson of Wyoming, and Norris H. Cotton of New Hampshire opposed the measure)
Science

The World's Nine Largest Science Projects 89

Posted by samzenpus from the my-science-is-bigger-than-yours dept.
JBG667 writes "Nice overview of the 9 largest science projects currently ongoing. Some of the usual suspects are on the list including CERN, Space Elevator, Space Station, etc. As well as some lesser known including a 3,000-foot-tall 'Solar tower,' the ANTARES underwater neutrino detecting array, and more. Nice read for science buffs."
NASA

NASA Launches Satellite To Monitor Oceans 55

Posted by Soulskill from the space-post-coast-to-coast dept.
On Friday, NASA launched the Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason 2 satellite into orbit to begin a detailed study of ocean currents, sea-surface height, and surface topology. Scientists hope to use the data gathered by Jason 2 in order to better understand weather patterns and global warming. Further details about the mission objectives (PDF) are also available. Quoting NASA's press release: "Combining ocean current and heat storage data is key to understanding global climate variations. OSTM/Jason 2's expected lifetime of at least three years will extend into the next decade the continuous record of these data started in 1992 by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, or CNES, with the TOPEX/Poseidon mission. The data collection was continued by the two agencies on Jason 1 in 2001. Compared with Jason 1 measurements, OSTM/Jason 2 will have substantially increased accuracy and provide data to within 25 kilometers (15 miles) of coastlines, nearly 50 percent closer to shore than in the past."
Math

Submission + - Fractals and society in Africa

Submitted by jpbelang
jpbelang writes: Came across this talk by ethno-mathematician Ron Eglash about how many aspects of african culture (social, architectural, religious) are fractal in nature.

Feed Fertell male / female fertility test hits US shelves (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Anyone who's a fan of ABC's Lost knows the perils of going to a doctor for help getting pregnant: because the doc doesn't want to tell your husband -- who's employed by your violent, mob-tied father -- that he's infertile for fear of his life, he'll be forced to lie and initiate a series of events that can only end up with you stranded on an uncharted island full of polar bears and hostile natives. Well the folks at Genosis Inc. are sick and tired of family planning-related plane crashes, and have just received FDA approval for a product that should put an end to these senseless tragedies once and for all: the Fertell home fertility test. Capable of detecting both the concentration of motile sperm as well as a hormone which indicates egg quality, Fertell promises to give fairly accurate results for both him and her in under a half-hour -- and though it's not being publicized as a substitute for "professional evaluations," it will at least save a few men like Hank Hill the embarrassment of having to discuss their narrow urethras. The Fertell kit should be available immediately at your favorite local drug store or black-market pharmacy, priced at an even hundred bucks.

[Via Medgadget]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Feed Conception Date Affects Baby's Future Academic Achievement (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
The time of year in which a child is conceived influences future academic achievement according to research from the Indiana University School of Medicine. Test results from over 1.6 million students in Indiana show that children conceived June through August scored less well than other children.

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