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Math

Submission + - Patterns in Lottery Numbers (omninerd.com)

Submitted by
markmcb
markmcb writes: "Most everyone is familiar with the concept of the lottery, i.e., random numbers are selected and people guess what they will be for a cash prize. But how random are the numbers? Matt Vea has conducted a pattern analysis of the MegaMillions lottery, which recently offered a sum of $370M (USD) to the winner. Matt shows that the lottery isn't as random as it may seem and that there are 'better' choices than others to be made when selecting numbers. From the article, 'A single dollar in MegaMillions purchases a 1 in 175,711,536 chance of landing the jackpot ... a player stands a mildly better chance of winning a partial prize through the selection of weighted numbers.'"
Math

Submission + - One Way Escrowing Taxes/Insurance Can Be Good (omninerd.com)

Submitted by
uriah923
uriah923 writes: "With the recent hoop-dee-doo in the housing industry, banks are taking more steps to remove the risk from home loans. One of these is to offer a loan interest rate discount in return for the borrower guaranteeing they will escrow taxes and insurance. In this article, Brandon Hansen performed an economical analysis of whether or not accepting this offer is advisable from the borrower's perspective. If you're thinking of buying a house or are in the process somewhere, consider this an essential part of your stay-informed-so-I-don't-get-taken-to-the-cleaners activities."
Space

Hole in Asteroid Belt Reveals Extinction Asteroid 175

Posted by samzenpus from the it's-the-big-one dept.
eldavojohn writes "Further evidence for the asteroid mass extinction theory has been discovered as a break in the main asteroid belt of our solar system. From the article, "A joint U.S.-Czech team from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and Charles University in Prague suggests that the parent object of asteroid (298) Baptistina disrupted when it was hit by another large asteroid, creating numerous large fragments that would later create the Chicxulub crater on the Yucatan Peninsula as well as the prominent Tycho crater found on the Moon.""
Censorship

Submission + - Student arrested for writing essay

Submitted by
mcgrew
mcgrew writes: "The Chicago Tribune reports that an eighteen year old straight A Cary-Grove High School student was arrested for writing a "disturbing" essay. From the Trib:

Allen Lee, an 18-year-old straight-A student at Cary-Grove High School, was arrested Tuesday near his home and charged with disorderly conduct for an essay police described as violently disturbing but not directed toward any specific person or location.
So much for freedom of speech in the US."
Math

Submission + - Busting the MythBusters' Yawn Experiment

Submitted by
markmcb
markmcb writes: "Most everyone knows and loves the MythBusters, two guys who attempt to set the story straight on so many things people just take for granted. Well, everyone except Brandon Hansen, who has offered them a taste of their own medicine as he busts the MythBusters' improper use of statistics in their experiment to show yawning is contagious. While the article maintains it is still possible yawns are contagious, the author makes it clear that he's not giving the MythBusters any credit for proving such a claim, 'not with a correlation coefficient of .045835.'"
The Matrix

Submission + - How the Internet is currently distributed

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A study has been published by IPligence.com on how the Internet is distributed across the entire world. The study reveals the differences between the most and least developed countries and compares the human populated world with the eye invisible Internet super structure giving a fantastic overview.
Censorship

Submission + - Man Kept Off Flight Because of Book

Submitted by
bossesjoe
bossesjoe writes: "A man was stopped from boarding his flight from Philadelphia to Phoenix when a random luggage search revealed a copy of Hayduke Lives! by Edward Abbey. The book prominently features a bomber on the cover holding sticks of dynamite and was enough for the security officials to detain him. Later he was also told because he purchased his ticket on September 11th, 2001 (even though it was before the attacks) and because of his expired driver's license (which was not expired) that could not take the flight. After purchasing another ticket for a later date he again detained and searched but was allowed to pass through security forty five minutes after being cleared. Is this what airport security has come to?"
User Journal

Journal Journal: Screwed Via Small Print 3

Journal by gbulmash
Seems that EULA's aren't the only places companies try to screw you. A big source of consumer losses are sites that autorenew subscriptions. They get you signed up and then a month or a year later, after you've forgotten about them, the charge shows up on your credit card or PayPal account. This isn't just porn sites, but sites that seem otherwise legitimate. Some understand that the fight over the refund and the angry ex-customer aren't worth the hassle and will process the cancellation of
Censorship

Submission + - SQL-Ledger Relicensed, Community Gagged

Submitted by
Ashley Gittins
Ashley Gittins writes: "Users of the popular accounting package SQL-Ledger are being kept in the dark about a recent license change. Two weeks ago a new version of the software was released but along with it came the silent change of license from GPLv2 to the "SQL-Ledger Open Source License" — presumably in an effort to prevent future forks like LedgerSMB. As it turns out, the author is making deliberate attempts to prevent the community from finding out about the license change. All posts to the SQL-Ledger mailing lists asking about the license change are being censored and direct questions to the author are going unanswered. This behaviour is not a first for this particular project, and is part of the reason for the original LedgerSMB fork. So, does a project maintainer have an ethical obligation to notify his or her community of a license change? What about a legal obligation?"
Security

Submission + - Top 12 Operating Systems Vulnerability Summary

Submitted by
markmcb
markmcb writes: "Have you ever wondered how vulnerable your computer is from the first bit you write to the hard drive all the way until you have a fully patched system? If so, Matthew Vea has posted a concise summary of security strengths and shortcomings for twelve of the major operating systems of 2006/2007. In his summary, Matt tests each OS with widely available tools like nmap and Nessus, and notes responses at install, pre-patch, and post-patch times for each system. After the tedious job is done, he produces results that will make both the Apple and Windows communities cringe with regards to security. From the article, 'As far as "straight-out-of-box" conditions go, both Microsoft's Windows and Apple's OS X are ripe with remotely accessible vulnerabilities. ... The UNIX and Linux variants present a much more robust exterior to the outside. Even when the pre-configured server binaries are enabled, each [Linux] system generally maintained its integrity against remote attacks.'"
Space

Submission + - Spaceport America Takes Off

Submitted by
SeaDour
SeaDour writes: "Spaceport America, being built north of Las Cruces, New Mexico, is finally becoming a reality and is set to become the world's first commercial spaceport. Governor Bill Richardson recently secured 33 million dollars from the state legislature for the final design, and a proposed 0.25% sales tax increase in Dona Ana County, where the facility is to be constructed, is expected to bring an additional 6.5 million dollars per year (if approved by voters next week). Richard Branson, the head of upstart Virgin Galactic, on Monday agreed to lease the facility for 27.5 million dollars over twenty years. If all continues to go as planned, SpaceShipTwo will make its first suborbital joy ride in two to three years."
Operating Systems

Submission + - Will cell phones need DST patching?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: With the impending daylight savings time shift on March 11th, are cel phone carriers and manufactureres providing updates for their devices? Palm and RIM have both released updates for their devices, but what about J2ME based phones? Pretty much every phone on the market includes J2ME, as well as limited calendaring functions. Is there anyway to update these? Will carriers "push" out necessary updates? or are consumers stuck scouring the web for this type of information?
Privacy

Submission + - Getting out

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: The United States of America as well as several other countries claimed to be the "most free" of countries have recently been imposing draconian legislation- some would say Fascist or Orwellian. If the trend continues, some people will be looking to get out of the country to keep their privacy and freedom. That leaves a question- where should they go?
Businesses

Submission + - Whatever happened to superconductors?

Submitted by
AltGrendel
AltGrendel writes: "Jonathan Fildes of the BBC wrote that 'In 1987, Ronald Reagan declared that the US was about to enter an incredible new era of technology. Levitating high-speed trains, super-efficient power generators and ultra-powerful supercomputers would become commonplace thanks to a new breed of materials known as high temperature superconductors (HTSC). "The breakthroughs in superconductivity bring us to the threshold of a new age," said the president. "It's our task to herald in that new age with a rush."

But 20 years on, the new world does not seem to have arrived. So what happened?'

He shares what he found in this article."

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