Babylon Rocker - Slashdot User

Submission + - TSA seized a travel blogger's laptop (huffingtonpost.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 31, 2009 @01:23AM

An anonymous reader writes: This morning two black sedans with TSA special agents came to the Connecticut home of blogger Steven Frischling and walked out with his laptop computer. They promised to return it, but later claimed that there were "bad sectors" on the drive.
The agents were looking for the anonymous source who leaked a TSA Security Directive which advised airlines to restrict passengers from getting out of their seats, concealing their hands, or accessing carry-on luggage an hour before landing.

Submission + - TSA Subpoenas Bloggers over New Security Directive

Submitted by

Hugh Pickens

on Thursday December 31, 2009 @12:58AM

Hugh Pickens writes: "The NY Times reports that TSA special agents have served subpoenas to travel bloggers Steve Frischling and Chris Elliott demanding that they reveal who leaked a TSA directive outlining new screening measures that went into effect the same day as the Detroit airliner incident. Frischling said he met with two TSA special agents for about three hours and was forced to hand over his laptop computer after the agents threatened to interfere with his contract to write a blog for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines if he didn't cooperate and provide the name of the person who leaked the memo outlining new security measures that would be apparent to the traveling public. ''It literally showed up in my box,'' Frischling told The Associated Press. ''I do not know who it came from.'' Frischling says he provided the agents a signed statement to that effect. The leaked directive included measures such as screening at boarding gates, patting down the upper legs and torso, physically inspecting all travelers' belongings, looking carefully at syringes with powders and liquids, requiring that passengers remain in their seats one hour before landing, and disabling all onboard communications systems, including what is provided by the airline. In a December 29 posting on his blog, Elliott said he had told the TSA agents at his house that he would call his lawyer and get back to them."

Comment Re:Characters were not always 8-bit (Score 2, Interesting) 442

by Babylon Rocker on Monday December 28, 2009 @05:30PM (#30575952) Attached to: HDD Manufacturers Moving To 4096-Byte Sectors

It was even worse than that on the PDP-10s.... The operating system used both SIXBIT characters and 7-bit ASCII characters using variable-length bit-field instructions (36 bit words => 5 chars and 1 bit left over).

Submission + - Germans Break the Speed of Light

Submitted by Crash McBang on Thursday August 16, 2007 @05:26PM

Crash McBang writes: From the article:

A pair of German physicists claim to have broken the speed of light — an achievement that would undermine our entire understanding of space and time.

Personally, I can't wait to get home before I leave...

Submission + - Lightspeed broken? (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by jmorris42 on Thursday August 16, 2007 @04:30PM

jmorris42 writes: Some crafty German scientists think they have broken the speed of light according to a story in the Daily Telegraph. Don't bet the rent money on this leading to Warp Drive just yet, for now it is just some odd behaviour of microwaves.

Submission + - German Scientists Claim Speed of Light Broken (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by inb4bel-air on Thursday August 16, 2007 @07:35AM

inb4bel-air writes: A duo of German scientists claim they have successfully observed faster-than-light travel. In a lab experiment investigating quantum tunneling, they claim a photon was able to travel through an 'uncrossable barrier' formed between two prisms as far apart as three feet. Their postulation is that the passing through of this barrier is proof the photon exceeded light-speed during its trip. The article does not mention how they were able to determine the 'instantaneous' arrival of the photon on the other side.

Submission + - Could Time Travel Actually Be Possible? (sky.com)

Submitted by Xaide on Thursday August 16, 2007 @05:15AM

Xaide writes: Two German physicists now claim to have forced light to overcome its own speed limit using the strange phenomenon known as quantum tunnelling. The research, published in the new Scientist magazine, involved an experiment in which microwave photons, energetic packets of light, appeared to travel "instantaneously" between two prisms forming the halves of a cube placed a meter apart. When the prisms were placed together, photons fired at one edge passed straight through them, as expected. After they were moved apart, most of the photons reflected off the first prism they encountered and were picked up by a detector. But a few photons appeared to "tunnel" through the gap separating them as if the prisms were still held together. Although these photons had travelled a longer distance, they arrived at their detector at exactly the same time as the reflected photons. In effect, they seemed to have travelled faster than light.

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