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NASA

Boeing Shows Off First Commercial Spacecraft 114

coondoggie writes "Boeing today released the first public glimpse of the commercial spacecraft it is working on under an $18 million contract with NASA. Boeing's Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 can hold seven crew and will be bigger than Apollo but smaller than NASA's Orion, and be able to launch on a variety of different rockets, including Atlas, Delta and Falcon.The company envisions the spacecraft supporting the International Space Station and future Bigelow Aerospace Orbital Space Complex systems. Bigelow is building what it calls 'expandable habitats,' that which are inflatable spacecraft would act as large, less costly space stations."
Canada

Might Shatner Boldly Lead Canada As Governor? 318

just fiddling around writes "Now that Michaëlle Jean is approaching the end of her customary five-year post as Governor General of Canada, the rumor mill has started on who Prime Minister Steven Harper will propose to the Queen in her stead. According to the CBC, the short list includes Captain Kirk, actor William Shatner. It seems that acting can lead to the highest offices in places other than California."
Image

Jordanian Mayor Angry Over "Alien Invasion" Prank 217

krou writes "Jordanian mayor Mohammed Mleihan has taken a dim view of local newspaper Al-Ghad's April Fools prank, which saw a front page story claiming that 'flying saucers flown by 3m (10ft) creatures had landed in the desert town of Jafr.' The paper claimed that communication networks had gone down, and people were fleeing the area. The mayor called the local security authorities, who combed the area, but they were unable to find any evidence of the aliens. Mr Mleihan is now considering suing because of the distress it caused to residents: 'Students didn't go to school, their parents were frightened and I almost evacuated the town's 13,000 residents. People were scared that aliens would attack them.'" I guess they've never heard of Orson Welles in Jordan.
Networking

1Gbps Optical Wireless Network Might Replace Wi-Fi 200

Mark.JUK writes "Pennsylvania State University has developed a new method of indoor Optical Wireless network that does not require a line-of-sight and runs at speeds of 1Gbps+. The system uses a high-powered laser diode — a device that converts electricity into light — as the optical transmitter and an avalanche photo diode — a device that converts light to electricity — as the receiver. The light bounces off the walls and is picked up by the receiver. Traditional radio frequency systems (Wi-Fi , WiMAX etc.) do not require line of sight transmission, but can pass through some substances and so present a security problem. Light, in a room without windows, will not escape the room, improving security."

Comment Re:what stimulus package? (Score 5, Insightful) 187

You conclusion does not follow. Just because Republicans didn't vote for it (in the House, not in the Senate) doesn't mean that no Republican pork was added. They knew it would pass and in committee they DEFINITELY added their own pet projects to the bill under the guise of "improving it so that they could possibly support it". However, when it came down to the *political* aspect of actually voting for the bill, they chose to make a partisan statement rather than follow up on their previous talk of "possibly supporting it with these changes" (i.e., their pork that was added). Whatever, it's just politics, and almost none of what the Republicans have said publicly about both the bill itself and their own intentions has ended up being true. For the record, considering the size of the bill, there is an incredibly small amount of actual pork in it. But you'd have to actually look at some of the provisions to understand, rather than parroting big-mouthed right-wing pundits.
GUI

Submission + - Xfce 4.4.0 Released

linux pickle writes: The long awaited 4.4 version of the Xfce desktop environment has been released by the Xfce Team. In this version, Xfce has undergone a major revamp and has been improved in many areas. XFFM, Xfce's original file manager has been removed in favor of Thunar, a modern but lightweight replacement. The window manager now has built-in support for transparency and has undergone some major themability improvements and the panel plugin system has been reworked, making it much more stable overall. A visual tour is available here and the release is available for download here.
It's funny.  Laugh.

Submission + - How much is your life worth?

rstuart writes: Nicael, a 24 year old male from the coastal town of Wollongong, Australia, is auctioning his life on ebay. From the item description "This auction is for a New Life in the coastal town of Wollongong, Australia of a 24 year old male....Please note winning bidder does not receive ownership of the following: Degrees/qualifications, Drivers License, Passport, Future Inheritance, Formal/Legal Identity". It appears the auction is genuine but the motives, not so much. The winner must agree to have their experiences recorded and later released in a documentary. Will wonders never cease?
Desktops (Apple)

Submission + - Slick PC hardware - is it finally available?

knipknap writes: "A long time ago I asked about the state of stylish hardware for PC users. There were not many options available two years ago, but since then, the situation seems to have improved a bit. There are now at least some devices to choose from. But those cases all host MiniITX boards — is this hardware really ready for desktop use? Would graphical effects, like the ones you get with XGL, run smoothly on such a device? Can it be done fanlessly?"
The Internet

Submission + - Krak demands money from blogger who linked to them

Paul O'Flaherty writes: "Krak.dk, a danish company has demanded that a blogger pay them 5625 DKK (about 940 USD) because he linked to their site. This was not hotlinking. It was a direct link to page. They have a "no deep linking" policy hidden away in the copyright section of their help pages. But no mention of it anywhere else on the site.


Per Kaarup, a good friend of mine who has been running a Danish WordPress blog about his two dogs received an letter from Krak.dk stating that they were going to charge him 5625 DKK (about 940 USD) because he linked to their site.

Per, for the last two years, has had a link in the footer of his web page, and on his contact page, to a page on Krak.dk which displayed his home. This page has a small copyright notice on the map section of the page itself stating in Danish that it is copyright and you can’t use it.

Per was not using the map, he was directly linking to the page on which it is displayed, and the page itself is much more than just the map.


How long before other sites start doing this?. Full story."
Handhelds

Submission + - iPhone to Use XScale Processor

Tony Dennis writes: While there is much uncertainty surrounding the new iPhone, another piece of the puzzle has been solved: the iPhone will use the XScale processor. Dario Bucci, Intel's CEO of the Italian operations, stated in an interview with Il Sole 24 Ore, a local paper, Apple has turned to Marvell [Italian] to power their revolutionary cell phone. With this being the case, did Intel give up on the XScale architecture a little too quickly?

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