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Education

Tomorrow's Science Heroes? 799

Posted by kdawson from the mister-wizard-reincarnated dept.
An anonymous reader writes "As a kid I was (and still am) heavily influenced by Carl Sagan, and a little later by Stephen Hawking. Now as I have started a family with two kids, currently age 5 and 2, I am wondering who out there is popularizing science. Currently, my wife and I can get the kids excited about the world around them, but I'd like to find someone inspiring from outside the family as they get older. Sure, we'll always have 'Cosmos,' but are there any contemporaries who are trying to bring science into the public view in such a fun and intriguing way? Someone the kids can look up to and be inspired by? Where is the next Science Hero?"
NASA

Buzz Aldrin's Radical Plan For NASA 519

Posted by timothy from the he-was-there-when-it-happened dept.
FleaPlus writes "Apollo 11 astronaut (and MIT Astronautics Sc.D.) Buzz Aldrin suggests a bolder plan for NASA (while still remaining within its budget), which he will present to the White House's Augustine Commission; he sees NASA heading down the wrong path with a 'rehash of what we did 40 years ago' which could derail future exploration and settlement. For the short-term, Aldrin suggests canceling NASA's troubled and increasingly costly Ares I, instead launching manned capsules on commercial Delta IV, Atlas V, and/or SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets. In the medium-term, NASA should return to the moon with an international consortium, with the ultimate goal of commercial lunar exploitation in mind. Aldrin's long term plan includes a 2018 comet flyby, a 2019 manned trip to a near-earth asteroid, a 2025 trip to the Martian moon Phobos, and one-way trips to colonize Mars."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft To Unveil New Search Engine (bloomberg.com)

Submitted by
PL/SQL Guy
PL/SQL Guy writes: "In an effort to stay in the search game, Microsoft will unveil a revamped Internet search engine next week according to people familiar with the company. The new search engine, internally referred to as "Kumo", will sort results into different categories, according to a person given a test version of the program. Kumo uses a "panel on the left side to list the categories, along with past searches and related queries", said the person, who requested anonymity. Microsoft trails Google 8-to-1 in search traffic, a gap that has widened since Microsoft introduced their lackluster home-grown search engine in 2004."
Communications

Submission + - Students required to buy iPhones 2

Submitted by
Norsefire
Norsefire writes: "New incoming freshmen at the University of Missouri School of Journalism are being required to purchase iPhones to enable them to download lectures and to check facts on the internet while reporting from a news scene. After complaints, the school explained that it is requiring "web-enabled, audio-video player" devices, but while Blackberrys and Zunes are acceptable they are "not preferred"."
Power

Energy Star For Servers Falls Short 69

Posted by timothy from the is-there-no-market-for-such-ratings? dept.
tsamsoniw writes "The newly released Energy Star requirements for servers may not prove all too useful for companies shopping for the most energy-efficient machines on the market, InfoWorld reports. For starters, the spec only considers how much power a server consumes when it's idling, rather than gauging energy consumption at various levels of utilization. That's like focusing on how much gas a vehicle consumes at stop lights instead of when it's moving. Also, the spec doesn't care whether a server's processors have one core or multiple cores — even though multi-core servers deliver more work at fewer watts. Though this first version of Energy Star for servers isn't entirely without merit, the EPA needs to refine the spec to make it more meaningful."
Games

Throwing Out the Rulebook For MMOs 245

Posted by Soulskill from the just-as-soon-as-i-collect-these-twenty-wolf-pelts dept.
MMORPG.com's Dana Massey asks about the possibility of throwing out the rulebook for MMOs, suggesting that the next blockbuster title in the genre will be one that ignores many of the features and conventions that have come to be standards over the years. Quoting: "Who said that MMOs require hot bars? Who proclaimed that it's not a proper MMO unless you have quests? Blizzard took a formula that almost all MMOs had been using for years and distilled it down to addictive perfection. Love or hate WoW, it's a polished, polished title. It's no coincidence that on hardcore MMO sites, like this one, WoW is not the most hyped or trafficked game around. It's not that it's bad, but veteran MMO players don't have the same love for it, simply because we've all seen some variation of it before. The WoW community has always been a bit apart from the larger MMO community. Based purely on the number of subscribers, WoW articles should statistically annihilate every other game on this site, but they don't. A huge percentage of people who truly love WoW, I've always believed, do not know or particularly care about this whole world of MMOs out there. They're WoW players and that's it."
Encryption

No Museum Status For UK Home of Enigma Machine 101

Posted by timothy from the but-it-won't-be-a-drive-through-restuarant-until-2012 dept.
hardsix writes "Despite the numerous films, books and plays, celebrating the brilliant achievements of the code-breakers at Bletchley Park, the UK government is still dragging its feet over providing proper support for the site. There has just been a debate in the House of Lords over whether the site should be given similar status to the UK's main WWII museum — the Imperial War Museum. But the government has brushed off the request, claiming that the site has received enough funding recently. However, as was shown by a visit to the site by UK actor, and Twitter-lover Stephen Fry, although devices such as Enigma have been restored many of the huts where the code-breaking work went on are in a bad state and more investment is needed."
PC Games (Games)

Using 1 Gaming Computer For 2 People? 424

Posted by timothy from the quite-a-replacement-ratio dept.
True Vox writes "My fiance and I have recently taken interest in City of Heroes (she's currently got a character on my account). She's got a cute little netbook, but nothing nearly powerful enough for a 5-year-old MMORPG, let alone if we take interest in Champions Online! I am reticent to buy a new gaming computer simply for what amounts to a passing phase. Has anyone had any experience using one computer to control two monitors with two sets of input devices (e.g. two keyboards and two mice, or one keyboard, one mouse, and a 360 gamepad, perhaps)? I have seen one solution that might work, but not much information from users that I can find. In short, does anyone have any experience with setups like this?"
Government

US Federal Government Launches Data.gov 109

Posted by timothy from the selective-reporting dept.
Elastic Vapor writes "I'm happy to announce that the US Federal Government earlier today launched the new Data.Gov website. The primary goal of Data.Gov is to improve access to Federal data and expand creative use of those data beyond the walls of government by encouraging innovative ideas (e.g., web applications). Data.gov strives to make government more transparent and is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. The openness derived from Data.gov will strengthen the Nation's democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government." I hope the data reported will be impartially selected, honestly gathered, clearly explained, and perfectly accurate. Perhaps they could start with inspiration from the Concord Coalition's National Debt Counter.
Operating Systems

Living Free With Linux, Round 2 936

Posted by timothy from the once-you-go-apt dept.
bsk_cw writes "About a month ago, in Living free with Linux: 2 weeks without Windows, Preston Gralla wrote about what life was like for a long-time Windows user trying to live with Linux. His main problems came when he tried to install or update software. Loads of people responded with advice — so he went back and tried again. Here's what he learned, and what did and didn't work for him."

Comment Re:CueCat! (Score 1) 264

by NegativeK (#22541498) Attached to: Linux At the Point of Sale
Sure! I can't see using a cat shaped scanner in a business setting, but it'd be good for development and personal use. Of course, there's no way I'd actually _pay_ for one of those hideous failed dot-com relics.
Linux Business

Submission + - Linux at the Point of Sale 1

Submitted by
NegativeK
NegativeK writes: "I work at a local comic and games shop, and I've been kicking around what it would take to implement a barcode scanner and more detailed inventory control. Currently, the setup is a low-tech register that tracks general areas of sales: new comics, ccgs, Games Workshop, rpgs, etc.

Assuming the actual register stays, what resources are out there for a barcode implementation? FOSS on Linux, the ability to use a cheap scanner, datamining, and output in a useful format (OpenOffice spreadsheet?) are all requirements. The idea hasn't been pitched to the shop owner yet, so ease of use is probably more important than anything — but breaking out the programming books to work on parts isn't out of the question for me."

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