Comment Cloud Atlas (Score 1) 647
One of the potentially great scifi movies of 2012. Read the book by David Mitchell before the movie is out.
Comment NASA Space Center (Score 1) 363
NASA Space Center in Houston. See a Saturn V rocket and Mission control and several other marvels of wonders.
Comment Re:doodle (Score 1) 241
absolutely, I found that since I use a keyboard all the time I stopped doodling.
Doodling gets my creative juices flowing, so now I have a pen and paper at hand just to doodle.
Submission + - Obi-Wan Kenobi is dead (galacticempiretimes.com)
klaasb writes: CORUSCANT — Obi-Wan Kenobi, the mastermind of some of the most devastating attacks on the Galactic Empire and the most hunted man in the galaxy, was killed in a firefight with Imperial forces near Alderaan, Darth Vader announced on Sunday.
Submission + - Supercomputers Crack Sixty-Trillionth Binary Digit (energy.gov) 1
Dr.Who writes: According to http://blog.energy.gov/blog/2011/04/28/supercomputers-crack-sixty-trillionth-binary-digit-pi-squared, "a value of Pi to 40 digits would be more than enough to compute the circumference of the Milky Way galaxy to an error less than the size of a proton." The article goes on to cite use of computationally complex algorithms to detect errors in computer hardware.
The article references a blog http://experimentalmath.info/blog/2011/03/Pi-goes-on-forever/ which has more background.
Disclaimers: I attended graduate school at U.C. Berkley. I am presently employed by a software company that sells an infrastructure product named PI.
The article references a blog http://experimentalmath.info/blog/2011/03/Pi-goes-on-forever/ which has more background.
Disclaimers: I attended graduate school at U.C. Berkley. I am presently employed by a software company that sells an infrastructure product named PI.
Submission + - The Densest Planet In The Universe (So Far) (ibtimes.com)
RedEaredSlider writes: Astronomers have found what may be the biggest rocky planet in the neighborhood.
The planet is called 55 Cancri e. It is 60 percent larger than the Earth, eight times as massive and orbits its star so fast that an entire year passes in less than a day.
It is about 8.57 times the mass of Earth, plus or minus about 0.64 Earth masses. That gives a density of about 10.9 grams per cubic centimeter, twice that of Earth, which averages about 5.5 grams. The surface gravity would be about 2.7 times that of Earth, comparable to what one would feel at the cloud tops of Jupiter.
The planet is called 55 Cancri e. It is 60 percent larger than the Earth, eight times as massive and orbits its star so fast that an entire year passes in less than a day.
It is about 8.57 times the mass of Earth, plus or minus about 0.64 Earth masses. That gives a density of about 10.9 grams per cubic centimeter, twice that of Earth, which averages about 5.5 grams. The surface gravity would be about 2.7 times that of Earth, comparable to what one would feel at the cloud tops of Jupiter.
Rupert Murdoch Publishes North Korean Flash Games 186
eldavojohn writes "You might recall back in June when it was noted that North Korea was developing and exporting flash games. Now, the isolated nation state is apparently home to some game developers that are being published by a subsidiary of News Corp. (The games include Big Lebowski Bowling and Men In Black). Nosotek Joint Venture Company is treading on thin ice in the eyes of a few academics and specialists that claim the Fox News owner is 'working against US policy.' Concerns grow over the potential influx of cash, creating better programmers that are then leveraged into cyberwarfare capabilities. Nosotek said that 'training them to do games can't bring any harm.' The company asserts its innocence, though details on how much of the games were developed in North Korea are sparse. While one of the poorest nations in the world could clearly use the money, it remains to be seen if hardliner opponents like the United States will treat Nosotek (and parent company News Corp.) as if they're fostering the development of computer programmers inside the DPRK. The United Nations only stipulates that cash exchanged with companies in the DPRK cannot go to companies and businesses associated with military weaponry or the arms trade. Would you feel differently about Big Lebowski Bowling if you knew it was created in North Korea?"
Woman's Nude Pics End Up Online After Call To Tech Support 197
Tara Fitzgerald couldn't find the nude pictures she planned on sending to her boyfriend, but instead of just taking more, she decided to see if a Dell tech support call could fix her problem. Apparently the tech support guy found them. Unfortunately, he then put them up on a site called "bitchtara."
The Puzzle of Japanese Web Design 242
I'm Not There (1956) writes "Jeffrey Zeldman brings up the interesting issue of the paradox between Japan's strong cultural preference for simplicity in design, contrasted with the complexity of Japanese websites. The post invites you to study several sites, each more crowded than the last. 'It is odd that in Japan, land of world-leading minimalism in the traditional arts and design, Web users and skilled Web design practitioners believe more is more.'"
Sun's Dark Companion 'Nemesis' Not So Likely 306
TravisTR passes along a story about the death of Nemesis. "The data that once suggested the Sun is orbited by a distant dark companion now raises even more questions... The periodicity [of mass extinctions] is a matter of some controversy among paleobiologists but there is a growing consensus that something of enormous destructive power happens every 26 or 27 million years. The question is what? ... another idea first put forward in the 1980s is that the Sun has a distant dark companion called Nemesis that sweeps through the Oort cloud every 27 million years or so, sending a deadly shower of comets our way. ... [Researchers] have brought together a massive set of extinction data from the last 500 million years, a period that is twice as long as anybody else has studied. And their analysis shows an excess of extinctions every 27 million years, with a confidence level of 99%. That's a clear, sharp signal over a huge length of time. At first glance, you'd think it clearly backs the idea that a distant dark object orbits the Sun every 27 million years. But ironically, the accuracy and regularity of these events is actually evidence against Nemesis' existence."
When Telemarketers Harass Telecoms Companies 234
farnz writes "Andrews & Arnold, a small telecoms company in the UK, have recently been hit with an outbreak of illegal junk calls. Unlike larger firms, they've come up with an innovative response — assign 4 million numbers to play recordings to the telemarketers, put them on the UK's Do-Not-Call list and see what happens. Thus far, the record is over 3 minutes before a telemarketer works out what's going on." The sound quality (and the satisfying humor) of the recording gets better as it goes on.
Submission + - Is this the future of computer control? (pcauthority.com.au)
An anonymous reader writes: Working with Stephen Spielberg on the movie Minority Report, John Underkoffler developed what is a now widely recognized as a science fiction standard — the motion controlled computer interface. While the IT industry has been working on such systems for years, Underkoffler's idea is real — it's called g-speak and he demonstrates it in this fascinating video. He also demonstrates how it could be useful, using his hands to manipulate a 3D architectural CAD drawing and introducing the concept of the "luminous room". Underkoffler has grand visions of seeing this technology in laptops, desktop computers and even microwaves and TVs.
Submission + - The Muppets' 1967 IBM sales films (technologizer.com) 2
harrymcc writes: Forty-three years ago, before most people had ever heard of the Muppets, IBM contracted with Jim Henson for a series of short films that it used to educate and entertain its sales staff. These little-known movies--some of which feature cutting-edge office automation equipment such as very early word-processing systems--remain fresh, funny, and surprisingly irreverent. And one of them features the first appearance of the Cookie Monster, who got his big break on Sesame Street a couple of years later.
Why Overheard Cell Phone Chats Are Annoying 344
__roo writes "American researchers think they have found the answer to the question of why overhearing cell phone chats are annoying. According to scientists at Cornell University, when only half of the conversation is overheard, it drains more attention and concentration than when overhearing two people talking. According to one researcher, 'We have less control to move away our attention from half a conversation (or halfalogue) than when listening to a dialogue. Since halfalogues really are more distracting and you can't tune them out, this could explain why people are irritated.' Their study will be published in the journal Psychological Science."
