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Medicine

Bad Science Writer Talks About the Placebo Effect *NSFW* 131

Posted by samzenpus from the I-want-to-believe dept.
The Guardian newspaper's Bad Science columnist Dr. Ben Goldacre does a stand-up routine about medicine, the placebo effect, and the mysteries of the human body at Nerdstock. From a scientific standpoint, I can't accurately say how funny it is because I was told it was great before I saw it.
Privacy

Submission + - ThePirateBay Hackers Website Vanishes (zeropaid.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Yesterday, news was circulating that ThePirateBay was hacked, exposing 4 million users identities. Drew Wilson from ZeroPaid is reporting today that the website that made all of these claims has now vanished and merely redirects users to Google. ThePirateBay did make upgrades, but whether or not that was in direct relationship to the story that hackers broke in to their site isn't clear.

Submission + - Setting Up Linux Public Machines?

Submitted by JJMacey
JJMacey writes: I've been in closed Linux Loop. I've run it forever, made a bunch of converts, and now want to throw a Linux Box into the business center of a hotel. It will be a stand alone Linux machine (running Ubuntu), no server, no MAC, no VMWare, and want to lock this box down to very limited menu, icon options. It will help in dealing with the difficulties of maintaining the Microsoft versions, AdWare, SpyWare, Up-Dates, Virii, etc.

We are dealing w/ the general public, much like a library, I have Googled for the simple, elegant solution, but to no avail.

Has anybody have any ideas?

Thanks in advance for productive replies.
Google

Submission + - Fragmentation Lessons From Sega (rizergames.com)

Submitted by rizer
rizer writes: The fragmentation of Google's Android operating system is a hotly debated topic. But haven't we seen this all before? Mobile games developer, Luke Rogers, takes a look at the reasons behind the Dreamcast's failure and points to the history lessons Google should be paying attention to.

Submission + - USB cupwarmer might steal your data (tarpit.rmc.ca)

Submitted by adaviel
adaviel writes: New Scientist recently reported work by researchers at the Royal Military College of Canada on hardware-based USB trojans. While the concept is not new (I saw a cool demo of an iPod pwning a Mac over Firewire at CanSecWest a few years ago), USB is interesting because of all the goofy "harmless" devices like personal fans, cellphone chargers etc. — an attacker might ask a victim "can I charge my phone on your laptop?", but the "charger" actually emulates a keyboard and headphone, able to execute commands and download data.
Games

More Evidence For Steam Games On Linux 256

Posted by Soulskill from the come-on-valve-spill-the-beans dept.
SheeEttin writes "Back in November 2008, Phoronix reported that Linux libraries appeared in the Left 4 Dead demo, and then in March, Valve announced that Steam and the Source engine were coming to Mac OS X. Now, Phoronix reports that launcher scripts included with the (closed beta) Mac version of Steam include explicit support for launching a Linux version."
Bug

Ubuntu LTS Experiences X.org Memory Leak 320

Posted by timothy from the like-it-when-windows-crashed-more dept.
MonsterTrimble writes "Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Beta 2 is experiencing a major memory leak due to patches for X.org. 'An X.Org Server update that was pushed into the Lucid repository last week has resulted in the system being slower and slower as it is left on, until it reaches a point where the system is no longer usable. ... In order to make the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS deadline, the developers are looking at just reverting three of the patches, which brings the GLX version back to 1.2. Ubuntu developers are now desperate for people willing to test out this updated X.Org Server package so they can determine by this Friday whether to ship it with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS or doing an early SRU (Stable Release Update). Right now this X.Org Server that's being tested is living in the ubuntu-x-swat PPA.'"

Comment Starting to get ridiculous... (Score 5, Interesting) 410

I think that 'Better safe than sorry' is a good way to handle this... however straight after closing the airspace there should have been real tests going on how much ash there actually is. The warnings given by the Volcanic observation center are just based on simulations and there is no middle way between 'ash' and 'no ash' currently.
I totally understand that the airlines are starting to complain - even more when they have to _prove_ themselves that there is no problem with low concentrations.
There hasn't been any weatherballoons or similar testing by the governments right after closing the airspace.
GUI

Flash Builder 4 — Defective By Design? 66

Posted by timothy from the mote-in-your-eye dept.
ApolloX writes "Adobe has released its new version of the Flex Builder, now renamed Flash Builder 4. This version is radically different from previous versions of Flex, introducing the new Spark architecture and theme support. While I am pleased Adobe has finally added support for Eclipse 3.5, I am disappointed with some of the new architecture changes that make doing simple things, such as skinning a button, now quite cumbersome."
Space

Planck Mission Releases Images of Galactic Dust 40

Posted by Soulskill from the break-out-the-galactic-pledge dept.
davecl writes "The Planck satellite has released its first new science images, showing the large scale filamentary structure of cold dust in our own galaxy. This release coincides with the completion of its first survey of the entire sky a couple of weeks ago. There's lots more work to be done, and more observations to be made, before results are ready on the Big Bang, but these images demonstrate Planck's performance and capability. More information is available on the Planck mission blog (which I maintain)."
AMD

Making Sense of CPU and GPU Model Numbers? 555

Posted by kdawson from the drowning-in-a-sea-of-specs dept.
b4dc0d3r writes "How do you make sense of the various model numbers or naming schemes for CPUs, graphics cards, and the related chipsets? All I want is something that will run Oblivion and output full 1080 video to a TV. Last time I built my own computer I just went to Pricewatch, made a few easy choices, and everything came to my door. Do I really have to research the differences among Core i5, Core 2 Duo, Pentium 4, Pentium D, Sempron, Athlon, Phenom ...? And that's just the processor. Is there a reference somewhere? In short, how do you buy a computer these days?"
Piracy

Ubisoft's Authentication Servers Go Down 634

Posted by kdawson from the single-point-of-well-you-know dept.
ZuchinniOne writes "With Ubisoft's fantastically awful new DRM you must be online and logged in to their servers to play the games you buy. Not only was this DRM broken the very first day it was released, but now their authentication servers have failed so absolutely that no-one who legally bought their games can play them. 'At around 8am GMT, people began to complain in the Assassin's Creed 2 forum that they couldn't access the Ubisoft servers and were unable to play their games.' One can only hope that this utter failure will help to stem the tide of bad DRM."
Transportation

Submission + - Open public transport data? (sourceforge.net)

Submitted by ckotso
ckotso writes: After realizing that, contrary to my understanding so far, the data used by the excellent Metro mobile device software is proprietary, I thought it's probably a good idea to create an open database with information of that kind. I started a new project on SourceForge, in the hope that the community can create the data set, then developers will jump in to create great applications using it. Nevertheless, doing some online research after the fact, I realized that there are many suitable standards already (either de facto such as GTFS, or de jure such as NeTEx and IFOPT) and we only miss the process of providing and maintaining the open data. The GTFS Data Exchange is certainly a step to that direction (although the license is unclear), but the content is still too little. How about slashdot-ers writing an email to public transport authorities of their places of residence, and suggest provisioning of open GTFS-based data on this site or at the relevant GTFS page? Or, would it be reasonable to make a petition to Google to open up the GTFS-based data they already have, for more than 445 cities at the moment? Or, is it necessary eventually that the community steps up to create and maintain the data itself?

Submission + - Jury Rules All Table Saws are Unsafe (protoolreviews.com) 2

Submitted by SchlimpyChicken
SchlimpyChicken writes: An editorial over at ProToolReviews.com cites the first case in which a jury essentially ruled that all table saws should include flesh-detection systems. The verdict was in favor of a defendant who lacerated his hands — apparently due to his own misuse of the table saw. The problem is that they ruled negligence based on technology they felt the Ryobi table saw should have had. The similarity seems to open the door for a veritable onslaught of lawsuits like, for example, penalizing any vehicle manufacturer for accidents involving a car not equipped with anti-lock brakes. The article mentioned the now infamous SawStop technology, which was at the heart of the lawsuit and is no stranger to pushing its technology through the judicial system. If mandated, it would put millions of dollars in licensing fees into a single company and raise the price of every table saw — all but eliminating entry-level models.

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