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Comment Re:Ignorance is diverse as well as widespread (Score 1) 1038

by wbtittle (#27184239) Attached to: US Adults Fail Basic Science Literacy

Which only proves that event those educated can be baffled by Bull#*@). Skeptics don't close their minds to any of the things stated, they just realize that its nonsense. James Randi repeatedly tries to expose such concepts as Feng Shui, Astrology, etc with double blind tests. People who are in the fields though DO NOT WANT double blind tests because nothing shows up.

Nothing wrong with massage, but it is also subject to the same idiocies as Feng Shui.

The magic though is that people will pay you more if you do make them believe. I don't blame you for believing. It probably keeps food on your table. That is the number one rule that should never be forgotten.
Security

Submission + - OS X Leopard firewall flawed 1

Submitted by cycoj
cycoj writes: German IT magazine Heise takes a look at the new OS X Leopard firewall. They find it flawed. When setting access to specific services and programs for example to only allow SSH access, they found that a manually started service was still accessible. From the article:

"So the first step after starting Leopard should be to activate the firewall. The obvious choice to do so is the option to "Set access to specific services and programs", which promises more control over network traffic. Mac OS X automatically enters all shared resources set up by the user, such as "Remote login" for SSH servers, into the list of accessable resources.

However, initial functional testing quickly dispels any feeling of improved security. A service started for testing purposes was able to be addressed from outside without any difficulty. The firewall records this occurrence."

Even with the firewall set to "Block all incoming connections" ports to netbios, ntp and other services were still open.

"Specifically these results mean that users can't rely on the firewall. Even if users select "Block all incoming connections," potential attackers can continue to communicate with system services such as the time server and possibly with the NetBIOS name server."
The Media

Submission + - NBC supports killing

Submitted by
Moses48
Moses48 writes: "Disclaimer: I am NOT accusing NBC of consciously supporting or aiding killers. (They'd have to be smart enough to realize what they were doing.)"

Feed Royal Astronomical Society Gold Medal Winner Backs Link Between Greenhouse Gases (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
Professor Nigel Weiss, 2007 winner of the Royal Astronomical Society Gold medal, will rebut claims that a fall in solar activity could cancel out the effects of man-made global warming. He described how solar activity was an important factor in past climate change but that current global warming is very much driven by human activity, specifically the emission of greenhouse gases.

Feed Dying Sun-like Stars Leave Whirlpools In Their Wake (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
Astronomers based at Jodrell Bank Observatory have found evidence that giant whirlpools form in the wake of stars as they move through clouds in interstellar space. Scientists used the COBRA supercomputer to simulate in three-dimensions the movement of a dying star through surrounding interstellar gas. At the end of their life, Sun-sized stars lose their grip on their outer layers and as much as half of their mass drifts off into space.
HP

HP Stops Selling Printers, Starts Selling Prints 346

Posted by Zonk from the does-this-mean-i-get-a-free-printer dept.
An anonymous reader writes "HP has launched a new line of business printers but there's a big catch — you won't be able to buy one. For the first time in history, the company will make customers purchase printing services, rather than the product itself. At its biggest printer launch since the LaserJet in 1984, HP's new business-class Edgeline printers will only be available through a managed services contract. Pricing will be per page, depending on the quality of the printout. Edgeline technology is said to be so ink-efficient that if HP were to sell these printers, they would never match the money they make from consumables (cartridges etc) now."
Businesses

Submission + - A transforming chair for every derrière

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Has the new Transformers movie spawned an invention? A chair called Trey was launched yesterday on Treychair.com. The chair is unique, or as they put it, "more than a chair," because it allows users to sit however they want... at a desk, sideways, backwards, on the floor, etc. It can be used as a normal desk chair and then it can be transformed into a floor rocker where the bottom becomes a laptop desk, side table, or ottoman. The chair appears to have multiple patents pending, so it's possible that no this is the first chair to ever have these functions. Looks like a great idea!
Privacy

Submission + - Thumbprint required to buy a car in Southern CA

Submitted by
saccade.com
saccade.com writes: "Here's an insidious use of biometrics: A southern California car dealership actually refuses to sell you a car unless you submit your thumbprint. From the posting:

The dealership claimed that the fingerprinting was for my protection. To make sure I'm really who I say I am, and haven't just stolen someone's social security number.

But I don't get it. How does that work? No one's checking to make sure the fingerprint I leave matches the one on file with the DMV. There's no forensics expert on staff. And I don't have data on this but I feel pretty certain that any car thief worth his salt probably already has more than one set of prints on file.
...
Dollar Rent-A-Car tried fingerprinting their customers for a while. They gave up after realizing that it had no effect on fraud or theft. Simply, treating your customers like felons is bad for business.
"
Operating Systems

ReactOS Revealed 280

Posted by kdawson from the waiting-for-a-reaction dept.
reactosfanboy writes "DRM Hacker Alex Ionescu explained the internals of ReactOS in a recent talk. Ionescu indicates that ReactOS is nearly 100% binary and API compatible with the Windows 2003 kernel, and that they are aiming for full Vista compatibility. Ionescu attempted to demonstrate ReactOS but only succeeded in installing it after two BSoDs. This alone should make it clear that ReactOS is still not ready for prime time." In what may be a red flag for Microsoft's lawyers, ReactOS is described as "an environment identical to Windows, both visually and internally." Here are slides from Ionescu's talk (PDF), which might prove more useful than the video offered in various forms at over 450 MB.
Privacy

Residential Wi-Fi Mapping Database Revealed 167

Posted by kdawson from the X-ICBM dept.
Talaria writes "An enormous database of home wifi routers and their locations has been revealed after the Internet Patrol did some digging following AOL's recent announcement of their new "Near Me" service, which allows AIM users to see which of their instant messenger buddies are geographically near them. The database, containing the unique IDs of more than 16 million wireless routers and their locations, has been compiled by AOL partner Skyhook Wireless, which claims to have mapped the majority of residences in the U.S. and Canada."
Input Devices

Submission + - GPS coming to a digicam near you?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Digital photo review website Imaging-Resource has posted an interesting article on some new GPS technology they encountered at the annual PMA trade show here in the US. Particularly interesting is the two-part video interview they did with a company rep from NXP software, a Philips spinoff that's the developer of the system. (The interviewer and company guy get pretty far into the technical nitty-gritty, it makes interesting listening if you're inclined that way.)

What's unique about NXP's approach is that it splits the GPS position-determining processing into several parts, letting the mobile part be very tiny and low-power (they say as small as a 5x5mm package once in full production, and only about 20 millijoules per position fix). As they note, in digital cameras, it doesn't tell you where you are, but rather where you've been, since the actual position calculation is done after the fact, back on a PC or laptop. (But in a cell phone with internet access, that limitation could go away.)

Besides the fact that this seems likely to appear in a significant number of digicams relatively soon (a year, maybe two at the most), there also seem to be some scary possibilities here for keeping track of where people go, whether they want to be tracked or not: Even the proof-of-concept "reference design" the company was showing was only the size of a credit card, and so could easily be concealed inside a purse or briefcase without the user's knowledge. The power drain is low enough that it could run for days (weeks?) on a single coin cell. So it could make it possible to know everywhere someone has been for weeks at a time, to within a precision of a few meters, at very little cost.

It also isn't hard to imagine the technology showing up in court cases, to establish alibis: "See, this picture of me was taken in New York, at the same time the murder was being committed in Chicago." — And naturally, photos with hacked GPS data in them could be used to establish false alibis, or to otherwise make it appear someone was other than where they actually were.

GPS has been around for ages now, but the prospect of shrinking it to 5x5mm and running for months on a single battery opens a lot of interesting and potentially scary opportunities...
Power

Hummer Greener Than Prius? 920

Posted by kdawson from the buy-a-Scion-xB dept.
An anonymous reader sends in a story from Central Connecticut State University, claiming that a Prius takes more energy to manufacture than a Hummer — 50% more. In addition, the article claims that the Prius costs $3.25 per mile over its expected lifespan of 100,000 miles compared to $1.95 per mile for the Hummer. The article gets its data from a study by CNW Marketing called Dust to Dust, which is an attempt to account for all the costs of vehicles, from manufacture through operation through repair and disposal. The $3.25/mile cost quoted for the Prius is the 2005 number; for 2006 it is $2.87. This improvement pulled the Prius below the straight industry average — all the other hybrids are still above that average. And the Hummer is not listed at all for 2006. Update: 03/21 00:44 GMT by J : You might want to take those figures with a grain of salt; I don't think anyone's seen the supporting data. Read on for details.

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