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Submission + - Long Block Data standard finalized

Submitted by

Anonymous

on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @01:47PM

Anonymous writes: "IDEMA has finally released the LBD (Long Block Data) standard. This standard increase the length of the data blocks of each sector from 512 bytes to 4,096 bytes. This is an update that has been requested for some time by the harddrive industry and the development of new harddrives will start immediately. The new standard offers many advantages where the improved reliability and higher transfer rates are the two most obvious. While the reliability is stated to increase as much as ten fold by some manufacturers, the performance improvements are a bit more elusive. Overall improvements include, besides the previous mentioned, shorter maintenance, time for format and more efficient data transfers due to less overhead per block during read and write operations."

Submission + - Blindness - Restoring Vision with Genetic Therapy

Submitted by pizzaman100 on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @01:37PM

pizzaman100 writes: A clinical trial has begun in the UK to to treat blindness by genetically modifying DNA. The same method has already been used to restore vision to dogs. The treatment works by injecting a genetically modified virus into the retina. The virus attacks the cells in the retina in a beneficial way by inserting good DNA into the cells.

According to the article: Robin Ali at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London and colleagues are treating adults and children with Leber's congenital amaurosis (LCA), caused by an abnormality in the RPE65 gene. This gene is important in recycling retinol, a molecule that helps the retina detect light. People with LCA usually lose vision from infancy. Ali's team are inserting healthy copies of RPE65 into cells in the retina, using a viral vector. Previously, dogs with LCA have had their vision restored in this way, allowing them to walk through a maze for the first time without difficulty.

Submission + - Coleman has a Sterling Cycle cooler.

Submitted by

F34nor

on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @01:31PM

F34nor writes: "I for one was very impressed when Coleman introduced a Peltier Thermoelectric Device based cooler back in the 90's. I was deeply conflicted if I should make my beer frosty or tear the thing apart to make a CPU cooler. Now Coleman once again is making the jump from "kind of wacky" science project to tasty beverage in a way that makes me think someone at Coleman listens to just the right amount of Art Bell. The guts are made by a company called Global Cooling based out of the Netherlands. Todd Troutman covered it here, unfortunately the Costco link says no love yet and the manual says it pulls 48w not 24w."

Submission + - Redefining what "dead" is

Submitted by

FlyByPC

on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @01:24PM

FlyByPC writes: "According to a NewsWeek article, oxygen deprivation doesn't necessarily kill patients as much as the resumption of oxygen does. This could bring about new ways of, as TFA puts it, 'treating the dead'.

As Monty Python might say, perhaps some patients really 'aren't dead yet!'"

Submission + - Mathematica 6 launched

Submitted by

Ed Pegg

on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @01:00PM

Ed Pegg writes: "Wolfram Research has just released Mathematica 6. That link, in addition to the usual 'dramatic breakthrough' material, has an amazing flash banner that simultaneously shows a thousand mathematical demonstrations all at once. The animations came from the Wolfram Demonstrations Project, a free service with 1200+ dynamically interactive examples of math, science, and physics (with code). For the product itself, much is new or improved, with built-in math databases, improved visualizations, and more."

Submission + - Partial Hack for Short Key Quantum Cryptography

Submitted by sarkeizen on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @09:53AM

sarkeizen writes: According to nature.com a team of researchers has, for the first time, hacked into a network protected by quantum encryption. . The MIT group was able to entangle a photons polarization with its momentum. Which allowed them to get up to 40% of the information by measuring the particles momentum without significantly disturbing it's polarization. The researchers agreed that this kind of attack, although interested could be rendered useless by increasing the key length.

Submission + - Calls to Close "Copyright Gap", 50 Years T

Submitted by YouTalkinToMe on Tuesday May 01, 2007 @04:12AM

YouTalkinToMe writes: The BBC is reporting that Widows and Orphans (ok, just Widows) are calling to increase the term of Copyright in Britain.

From the story: "The widow of skiffle king Lonnie Donegan has warned that the families of dead music stars could face financial hardship when royalty payments end." Mrs. Donegan continued: "It's not even as though they made us rich. People say I must be a millionaire, but, no. The royalties were just enough to get by."

Mrs. Donegan is joined by Sir Cliff and others who will lose Copyright protection on their performances in the near future. Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL), the UK broadcast royalties collection society, calls the situation "the Copyright Gap", and is lobbying for "harmonization" with songwriters and photographers, meaning Copyright terms of life plus 70 years.

Submission + - Get Sued for Linking to Cingular.com

Submitted by

Desktop Nexus

on Monday April 30, 2007 @04:44PM

Desktop Nexus writes: "The official Terms and Conditions of Cingular now restrict the anchor text you can use to link to Cingular's homepage. Harry Maugans discovered a paragraph of the TOS that states:

You are granted a limited, nonexclusive right to create a hypertext link to the homepage of the Sites, provided such link does not portray Cingular Wireless or any of its products and services in a false, misleading, derogatory, or otherwise defamatory manner. [...] This limited right may be revoked at any time.
I'm sure this is not legally standing, however it is amusing they'd attempt to restrict your links."

Submission + - UPS' Unlabeled Liability Forms: 'Just sign it!'

Submitted by

Rich

on Monday April 30, 2007 @01:47PM

Rich writes: "A popular blogger on LiveJournal recently posted a hilarious but scary story about UPS' very real practices of sending uninformed drivers to people's doors with unmarked damage liability forms after packages are damaged or lost in transit. You sign this form, and you've just accepted responsibility for the loss. I work at a Geek Squad, and they've tried to do this to me at least twice. Another friend of mine was almost put out of business after he absentmindedly signed one of these and ended up having to pay for two of the same $10K item. This is ridiculous, considering that UPS' insurance deductible is tiny, and they're worth more than $45B. Anyway, here it is: UPS' Form of Mystery"

Submission + - Many Guantanamo practices illegal

Submitted by

Cleveguru

on Monday April 30, 2007 @01:25PM

Cleveguru writes: "The U.N. Commission on Human Rights basically states in it's report that the United States isn't fulfilling it's legal obligations under treaties it has signed, and also violates practices of other treaties it has signed. In other words, the United States government is breaking it's own laws. View the Report It's interesting to note that the response from the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. at the end mentions checks and balances! This is just a prime example of when our checks and balances fail to work. In the end, it is the duty of the people to check the government itself as stated in our declaration of independence."

Submission + - Quantum Cryptography Hacked

Submitted by mrbluze on Monday April 30, 2007 @06:45AM

mrbluze writes: Nature reports on a eavesdropping technique developed by researchers at MIT for intercepting quantum-encrypted messages:

To listen in, the team used a quantum-mechanical principle known as entanglement, which can link together two different traits of a particle. Using an optical setup, the team was able to entangle the transmitted photon's polarization with its momentum. The eavesdropper could then measure the momentum in order to get information about the polarization, without affecting the original polarization.
This stuff is beyond me, but I can't wait to read Slashdot's explanation!

Submission + - GnuCash now available for Windows

Submitted by keeblerelf on Monday April 30, 2007 @02:51AM

keeblerelf writes: Open source personal and small-business financial accounting software GnuCash (http://www.gnucash.org/) used to be one of the most difficult programs to install on Linux. If it wasn't included in your distribution of choice, installation probably required compiling and installing around 20 different dependencies... not fun.

Until recently, a Windows version seemed unlikely...

But with beta version 2.1.0, GnuCash is now available in a Windows self-installing executable. I installed it on my wife's Windows laptop yesterday and it seems quite stable for a beta version.

The current stable version (2.0.5) can be installed on Mac OSX using the Fink installer (http://finkproject.org/) or on Debian Linux with "aptitude install gnucash gnucash-docs" (as root of course). GnuCash can also be installed on Ubuntu fairly easily ( http://www.ubuntugeek.com/install-gnucash-financia l-accounting-software-in-ubuntu.html).

GnuCash is a great free program with features that rival its ad-infested, monopoly-owned rivals. Why not try it out?

PS — It looks like now there is a complete suite of open source software that runs on both Windows and Linux. There is OpenOffice.org for an office suite (sans Outlook), Evolution (or Thunderbird with Lightning) for an Outlook replacement, Firefox for a web browser, the GIMP for photo editing, PidginIM for instant messaging (formerly called Gaim, but renamed to avoid a trademark dispute), and now GnuCash for accounting.

If you're thinking about switching to Linux, switching to these applications first could be a great way to prepare yourself and your data for the move.

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