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Submission + - Ammonia Leak Alarm on the ISS Forces Evacuation of US Side, Crew Safe

Submitted by BabelBuilder
BabelBuilder writes: A possible ammonia leak aboard the ISS this morning caused the crew to evacuate the US side of the station. All crew aboard the station is safe. According to Universe Today, "NASA says that an alarm sounded in the US segment at about 4 a.m. EST. indicating a possible ammonia leak. As a result, all six Expedition 42 astronauts and cosmonauts evacuated the US segment." NASA thinks the alarm triggered by the ammonia leak might be a false alarm, but is going over their data.

Submission + - Man Saves Wife's Sight by 3D Printing Her Tumor (makezine.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Michael Balzer, a former software engineer and Air Force technical instructor, found himself unsatisfied with a doctor's diagnosis of a small tumor behind his wife's left eye. Balzer had recently become proficient at creating 3D models, so he asked the doctor for the raw medical imaging data and took a look himself. In addition to correcting a later misdiagnosis, Balzer 3D printed models of his wife's cranium and helped neurosurgeons plan a procedure to remove the tumor, instead of waiting to see how it developed, like previous doctors had recommended. During the procedure, surgeons found the tumor was beginning to entangle her optic nerve, and even a six-month wait would have had dire consequences for her eyesight.

Medical researchers like Dr. Michael Patton believe this sort of prototyping will become "the new normal" in a very short time. "What you can now do through 3D printing is like what you’re able to do in the software world: Rapid iteration, fail fast, get something to market quickly. You can print the prototypes, and then you can print out model organs on which to test the products. You can potentially obviate the need for some animal studies, and you can do this proof of concept before extensive patient trials are conducted.

Submission + - Where Cellular Networks Don't Exist, People Are Building Their Own (wired.com)

Submitted by TechCurmudgeon
TechCurmudgeon writes: According to a story at Wired.com towns in Mexico unserved by the nation's telecom monopoly are taking matters in their own hands with the help of a non-profit and open source technology:

Strategically ignored by Mexico’s major telecoms, Yaee is putting itself on the mobile communications grid with the help of a Oaxaca-based telecommunications non-profit called Rhizomatica. A locally-made tower is the backbone of Yaee’s first cellular network. The town's network is composed of two antennas and an open-source base station from a Canadian company called NuRAN. Once Yaee gets the tower installed and the network online, it’s 500 citizens will, for the first time, be able to make cell phone calls from home, and for cheaper rates than almost anywhere else in Mexico.

Submission + - New Rules on Oil and Gas Industry's Methane Emissions (nytimes.com)

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: In President Obama’s latest move using executive authority to tackle climate change, administration officials will announce plans this week to impose new regulations on the oil and gas industry’s emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, according to a person familiar with Mr. Obama’s plans. The administration’s goal is to cut methane emissions from oil and gas production by up to 45 percent by 2025 from the levels recorded in 2012.

The Environmental Protection Agency will issue the proposed regulations this summer, and final regulations by 2016, according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the administration had asked the person not to speak about the plan. The White House declined to comment on the effort.

Environmental advocates have long urged the Obama administration to target methane emissions, and the rules would be the first to do so. Most of the planet-warming greenhouse gas pollution in the United States comes from carbon dioxide, which is produced by burning coal, oil and natural gas. Methane, which leaks from oil and gas wells, accounts for just 9 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas pollution — but it is over 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, so even small amounts of it can have a big impact on global warming.

Comment Re:Lots of love for Python (Score 1) 264

by tyroneking (#48809849) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Linux Database GUI Application Development?

Tryton is pretty good true enough - Odoo (from which it was forked, when Odoo was called something else) is also pretty fancy. But I think the distinction between client-server and web-based is overblown these days, the browser+javascript+html5 is pretty much the client side of things, just easier to deploy.

Comment Biased, but... (Score 4, Informative) 264

by tyroneking (#48804883) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Linux Database GUI Application Development?

I'm biased towards Python - and the following suggestions have nice UIs but they are web-based - so please forgive me in advance ;)

After years working in Siebel (UI dev tools, transparent database interface, etc) moved over to Linux dev and was stuck for a while - finally settled on Flask (http://flask.pocoo.org/) a Python micro-framework, which is light (i.e. not as incomprehensible as Django ;) but comes with a lot of functionality if you need it. Jump in. Here's a good guide that mixes in Bootstrap to make a very appealing UI - http://flaskbook.com/

Alternatively, go all ERP with lots of built in business functionality and nice UI features and try ERP Next (https://erpnext.com/) - which I'm looking at right now. It has some poor documentation, but the dev guide for the underlying framework (Frappe) is pretty clear (e.g. https://frappe.io/developers/g...) and looks less scary.

Comment Re:FOSS solution available (Score 3, Informative) 60

by tyroneking (#48424687) Attached to: BitTorrent Unveils Sync 2.0

In fact SyncThing has recently de-merged with Pulse and is now back on it's own (see https://discourse.syncthing.ne...). Probably a good thing because Pulse is part of ind.ie (https://ind.ie/about/) which is a little too off-beat, even for me.

That being said, there's also Git-Annex Assistant (many people - on HN - swear by it, but I can never get it to work), Syncany, Filement, Sparkleshare - all decent sync solutions - though I think all lack the encryption & simple setup of BTSync.

I always end up with Unison + SSH.

Submission + - Intel reveals prototype DRAM using 25 times less energy at 4x latency (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: At Taipei Innovation Day director of Intel Labs Wang Wen-hann has revealed new prototype DRAM which Intel has developed over the last four years in association with Japan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute. The new modules offer four times the latency and use 25 times less energy than current standards. The unnamed technology promises huge benefits either in increased computing power or significantly longer battery life if used in mobile devices. Intel have not made public how these savings have been achieved.

Submission + - Amnesty releases anti-spying program for activists 1

Submitted by mrspoonsi
mrspoonsi writes: Amnesty International has released a program that can spot spying software used by governments to monitor activists and political opponents. The Detekt software was needed as standard anti-virus programs often missed spying software, it said. Amnesty said many governments used sophisticated spying tools that could grab images from webcams or listen via microphones to monitor people. Karl Zetterlund, a senior researcher at security firm Sentor, said the needs of law enforcement were understandably different to those of the average cyberthief. "Criminals are mainly interested in information that can somehow generate money. Law enforcement spyware may only need to collect a few pieces of identifying information, such as a net address, from the computer," he said. "Generally, policeware may be better at hiding, as normal malware often aims for strength in numbers and spreading is more important than passing under the radar." There had also been cases in the past, he said, when computer security companies collaborated with governments to ignore spyware they found planted on machines.

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