Saint Nobody - Slashdot User

Anti-Ebola Drug ZMapp Makes Clean Sweep: 18 of 18 Monkeys Survive Infection 91

Posted by timothy on Friday August 29, 2014 @09:35PM from the not-that-kind-of-monkey-trial dept.

Scientific American reports, based on a study published today in Nature, that ZMapp, the drug that has been used to treat seven patients during the current Ebola epidemic in West Africa, can completely protect monkeys against the virus, research has found. ... The drug — a cocktail of three purified immune proteins, or monoclonal antibodies, that target the Ebola virus — has been given to seven people: two US and three African health-care workers, a British nurse and a Spanish priest. The priest and a Liberian health-care worker who got the drug have since died. There is no way to tell whether ZMapp has been effective in the patients who survived, because they received the drug at different times during the course of their disease and received various levels of medical care. NPR also has an interview with study lead Gary Kobinger, who says that (very cautious) human trials are in the works, and emphasizes the difficulites of producing the drug in quantity.

Islamic State "Laptop of Doom" Hints At Plots Including Bubonic Plague 369

Posted by timothy on Friday August 29, 2014 @07:45PM from the theocrat's-cookbook dept.

Foreign Policy has an in-depth look at the contents of a laptop reportedly seized this year in Syria from a stronghold of the organization now known as the Islamic State, and described as belonging to a Tunisian national ("Muhammed S."). The "hidden documents" folder of the machine, says the report, contained a vast number of documents, including ones describing and justifying biological weapons: The laptop's contents turn out to be a treasure trove of documents that provide ideological justifications for jihadi organizations -- and practical training on how to carry out the Islamic State's deadly campaigns. They include videos of Osama bin Laden, manuals on how to make bombs, instructions for stealing cars, and lessons on how to use disguises in order to avoid getting arrested while traveling from one jihadi hot spot to another. ... The information on the laptop makes clear that its owner is a Tunisian national named Muhammed S. who joined ISIS in Syria and who studied chemistry and physics at two universities in Tunisia's northeast. Even more disturbing is how he planned to use that education: The ISIS laptop contains a 19-page document in Arabic on how to develop biological weapons and how to weaponize the bubonic plague from infected animals. ... "The advantage of biological weapons is that they do not cost a lot of money, while the human casualties can be huge," the document states.

Submission + - How to Disable DirectWrite in Google Chrome (ngohq.com)

Submitted by NGOHQ on Friday August 29, 2014 @07:17PM

NGOHQ writes: The latest version (37) of Google Chrome uses DirectWrite for font rendering on Windows PCs. DirectWrite is a DirectX API made for the purpose of high-quality, resolution-independent text rendering. On paper it sounds great, but some people might not like the new fonts appearance (blurry text on some websites). This guide will show you how to disable DirectWrite.

Comment A few small but significant ones ... (Score 5, Interesting) 635

by timothy on Friday August 29, 2014 @07:14PM (#47787821) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: What Old Technology Can't You Give Up?

- Model M keyboard (I bought several when they were $5 at the Goodwill, including some with US Government stickers or NASA badges; if I knew then what I know now, I'd have loaded up a storage unit with them ...)

- Nano (sure, it's not as old or as rabidly backed as Certain Other Text Editors, but it's so very nice to use ...)

- Logitech Trackball. Unfortunately, the new ones are junk -- they seem to die in a few months. The old ones lasted me several years apiece.

Submission + - Haiku debates kernel switch to Linux... or not. (osnews.com)

Submitted by taikedz on Friday August 29, 2014 @06:33PM

taikedz writes: A very interesting discussion is taking place in the Haiku mailing list. A developer has created a working prototype implementation of the BeOS API layer on top of the Linux kernel, and he is wondering if the project is worth pursuing.

Both 'sides' make a lot of compelling arguments, and it gives a lot of insight into decisions that went into the Haiku project, both past and present.

Comment Oh, come on! You exaggerate ... (Score 1) 266

by timothy on Friday August 29, 2014 @06:28PM (#47787531) Attached to: Drought Inspires a Boom In Pseudoscience, From Rain Machines To 'Water Witches'

It's a groping *or* a rapey scan, usually. You make it sound like there's something unseemly!

Feed Google News Sci Tech: Google Joins the Crowd in Commercial Drone Testing - Businessweek (google.com)

From feed by feedfeeder on Friday August 29, 2014 @06:12PM

Businessweek

Google Joins the Crowd in Commercial Drone Testing
Businessweek
Some big names in U.S. business are plotting a drone-filled future as Google (GOOG), Amazon.com (AMZN), and Walt Disney (DIS) all see disparate but important roles for unmanned vehicles in business. Disney wants to be able to create more spectacular...
Google Takes Amazon Rivalry to the SkiesBloomberg
GoogleX takes to the skies with secret drone projectHamilton Spectator
Google drones look to compete with Amazon's aerial devicesFox News
Wall Street Journal (blog)-Christian Science Monitor-Toowoomba Chronicle
all 608 news articles

Submission + - Dell-Alienware Revamps Area-51 Gaming PC With Unique Trapezoid Chassis Design (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid on Friday August 29, 2014 @05:40PM

MojoKid writes: Dell's enthusiast Alienware brand has always stood out for its unique, other-worldly looks (sometimes good, sometimes, not so good) and there's such a thing as taking things to the next level, this might be it. However, there's more to this refresh than just shock value. It's actually a futuristic aesthetic with a rather purposeful design behind it. Today Alienware gave a sneak peek at their completely redesigned Alienware Area 51 desktop system. This refreshed system is unlike any previous Alienware rig you've seen. With a trapezoidal shape to its chassis, Dell-Alienware says you can place the Area-51 against a wall and not have to worry about thermals getting out of the control. That's because there's a controlled gap and a sharp angle to the chassis that ensures only a small part of the system actually rests near the wall, leaving extra room for hot air to escape up and away. This design also offers users easy access to rear IO ports. Despite the unique design, there's plenty of room for high end components inside. The retooled chassis can swallow up to three 300W double-wide full-length graphics cards. It also brings to the table Intel's latest and greatest Haswell-E in six-core or eight-core options, liquid cooled and nestled into Intel's X99 chipset. No word from Dell on the price but the new Area-51 is slated to start shipping in October.

Submission + - One year later: 20 Lessons Learned as a Professional Programmer. (dotnetdevelopernetwork.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 29, 2014 @05:23PM

An anonymous reader writes: Some really valid information, call them tips and tricks from experience. 20 Lessons learned from a computer science graduate entering into the industry.

Mozilla To Support Public Key Pinning In Firefox 32 90

Posted by Soulskill on Friday August 29, 2014 @04:45PM from the pin-the-key-on-the-fox dept.

Trailrunner7 writes: Mozilla is planning to add support for public-key pinning in its Firefox browser in an upcoming version. In version 32, which would be the next stable version of the browser, Firefox will have key pins for a long list of sites, including many of Mozilla's own sites, all of the sites pinned in Google Chrome and several Twitter sites. Public-key pinning has emerged as an important defense against a variety of attacks, especially man-in-the-middle attacks and the issuance of fraudulent certificates. The function essentially ties a public key, or set of keys, issued by known-good certificate authorities to a given domain. So if a user's browser encounters a site that's presenting a certificate that isn't included in the set of pinned public keys for that domain, it will then reject the connection. The idea is to prevent attackers from using fake certificates in order to intercept secure traffic between a user and the target site.

Submission + - Google Introduce HTML 5.1 Tag to Chrome (datamation.com)

Submitted by darthcamaro on Friday August 29, 2014 @04:22PM

darthcamaro writes: Forget about HTML5, that's already passe — Google is already moving on to HTML5.1 support for the upcoming Chrome 38 release. Currently only a beta, one of the biggest things that web developers will notice is the use of the new "picture" tag which is a container for multiple image sizes/formats. Bottom line is it's a new way to think about the "IMG" tag that has existed since the first HTML spec.

Submission + - Geography Can Be Tough': Canada Trolls Russia For Ukraine Action (npr.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 29, 2014 @04:13PM

An anonymous reader writes: Tensions may be rising between Russian and Canada on the political front, but when it comes to Twitter, the two countries are already engaged in an all-out flame war.

On Wednesday, the Canadian Joint Delegation to NATO lobbed a cheeky tweet in Russia's direction following a Russian military spokesperson's claims that the country's soldiers had "accidentally" crossed the Ukranian border earlier this week.

"Geography can be tough," wrote the Canadian government agency's official Twitter account. "Here's a guide for Russian soldiers who keep getting lost & 'accidentally' entering #Ukraine."

This 'SimCity 4' Region With 107 Million People Took Eight Months of Planning 103

Posted by Soulskill on Friday August 29, 2014 @04:02PM from the go-big-or-go-home dept.

Jason Koebler writes: Peter Richie spent eight months planning and building a megacity in vanilla SimCity 4, and the end result is mind-boggling: 107.7 million people living in one massive, sprawling region (video). "Traffic is a nightmare, both above ground and under," Richie said. "The massive amount of subway lines and subway stations are still congested during all times of the day in all neighborhoods of each and every mega-city in the region. The roadways are clogged at all times, but people still persist in trying to use them."

Submission + - John Walker Dead at 77 (ap.org) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 29, 2014 @03:54PM

An anonymous reader writes: The mastermind behind one of America’s most damaging spy rings has reportedly died. John A. Walker Jr., 77, was sentenced in 1986 to two life terms plus 10 years for selling U.S. secrets to the Soviets as a cryptologist in the Navy and after he retired.

Victor IIIs are unofficially known to the US Navy as the Walker class, since many of the improvements in quieting the boats and in providing them with more effective sensors were the product of the activities of the Walker spy ring.

Robot Printer Brings Documents To Your Desk 64

Posted by Soulskill on Friday August 29, 2014 @03:21PM from the surprised-this-is-a-thing-but-also-surprised-it-wasn't-a-thing-already dept.

mrspoonsi sends this news from the BBC: Fuji Xerox has developed a new robotic printer that can move around a lounge or office to bring documents to the person who printed them. The printer is designed to be used primarily in public places as a way to keep sensitive documents secure. Sensors on the machine prevent it from bumping into people on the way. However, some analysts argued that the idea was not cost effective when compared with other secure printing methods. Fuji Xerox — a joint venture between the two firms — has been testing the printer this month at a business lounge in Tokyo. Each desk in the lounge is given a unique web address from which to print. Users access the address and upload documents to be printed. Once the printer receives the job, it moves to the intended recipient who then has to display a smart card to activate printing.

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