Submission + - Things To Do After installing Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (sudobits.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Getting started with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS!
Submission + - Kindle Fire takes over 50% of Android tablet market (examiner.com)
An anonymous reader writes: From the article:
"ComScore released new data today suggesting that the Amazon Kindle Fire currently holds 50% market share of the Android tablet market. The official mark is sitting at 54.4% total share for the device. The other devices figures were: The Galaxy Tab series: 15.4%, Xoom: 7.0%, Transformer: 6.3%, Toshiba AT100: 5.7%, and the Acer Picasso: 4.3%. The Kindle Fire's market share increased by about 15% in February, while the only tablet to gain any ground at all was the Asus Transformer, which increased by only 0.1%."
"ComScore released new data today suggesting that the Amazon Kindle Fire currently holds 50% market share of the Android tablet market. The official mark is sitting at 54.4% total share for the device. The other devices figures were: The Galaxy Tab series: 15.4%, Xoom: 7.0%, Transformer: 6.3%, Toshiba AT100: 5.7%, and the Acer Picasso: 4.3%. The Kindle Fire's market share increased by about 15% in February, while the only tablet to gain any ground at all was the Asus Transformer, which increased by only 0.1%."
Submission + - BOLD plan to find Mars life for cheap (tech-stew.com)
techfun89 writes: "There is a BOLD new plan for detecting signs of microbial life on Mars. The nickname is BOLD, which stands for Biological Oxidant and Life Detection Initiative, would be a follow-up to the 1976 Mars Viking life-detection experiments.
"We have much better technology that we could use," says BOLD lead scientist Dirk Schulze-Makuch, with Washington State University. He elaborates, "Our idea is to make a relatively cheap mission and go more directly to characterize and solve the big question about the soil properties on Mars and life detection."
To help figure out the life-detection mystery, Schulze-Makuch and his colleagues would fly a set of six pyramid-shaped probes that would crash land, pointy end down, so they embed themselves four to eight inches into the soil. One of the instruments includes a sensor that can detect a single molecule of DNA or other nucleotide."
"We have much better technology that we could use," says BOLD lead scientist Dirk Schulze-Makuch, with Washington State University. He elaborates, "Our idea is to make a relatively cheap mission and go more directly to characterize and solve the big question about the soil properties on Mars and life detection."
To help figure out the life-detection mystery, Schulze-Makuch and his colleagues would fly a set of six pyramid-shaped probes that would crash land, pointy end down, so they embed themselves four to eight inches into the soil. One of the instruments includes a sensor that can detect a single molecule of DNA or other nucleotide."
Submission + - Nordic Countries Dominate in Internet Penetration (graphoftheweek.org)
dezert1 writes: "Old habits die hard for the Vikings, apparently. From Erik the Red founding the first Norse settlement in Greenland to his son Leif discovering the Americas five hundred years before Columbus, these people tend to be quite ambitious. In the present day, they are leading the world in internet penetration with around 90% of their population online."
Submission + - Intel acquires Cray Inc. (patexia.com) 1
ericjones12398 writes: "Intel recently acquires supercomputing leader Cray Inc. to acquire certain assets related to its high-performance computing (HPC) interconnect program. This acquisition indicates an Intel's increasing interest in supercomputing and overcoming the exaflop barrier."
Submission + - Unintended Consequences of the Prometheus Decision (patentlyo.com)
An anonymous reader writes: In the case Mayo v. Prometheus recently covered on Slashdot, the Supreme Court ruled that patents 'based on laws of nature' are not valid. In a scathing 5 part series San Francisco IP Lawyer Robert R. Sachs attacks both the reasoning and the prose of the Supreme Court opinion. As evidence of the decision's potency, several patents have already been invalidated by the Prometheus decision in the month since it came out. For my personal take, I am a graduate student doing biomedical research. After finding a new compound allowing early diagnosis of a disease where the only diagnostic test is symptomatic, I was advised by our legal counsel not to attempt patenting the compound until further court rulings clarify Prometheus. As a result, my compound may never see publication. At the very least my publication will be delayed significantly. It seems that if Prometheus is applied broadly, the only way to profit off of these sort of discoveries will be through trade secrets: a major step backwards for scientific progress.
Submission + - Manufacturer Installed Backdoor Found in RuggedCom Devices (wired.com)
Kadagan AU writes: "A Canadian company that makes equipment and software for critical industrial control systems planted a backdoor login account in its flagship operating system, according to a security researcher, potentially allowing attackers to access the devices online."
Submission + - MIT Researchers Find a Way to Make Glass that's Anti-fogging, Self-cleaning and (scienceworldreport.com)
An anonymous reader writes: One of the most instantly recognizable features of glass is the way it reflects light. But a new way of creating surface textures on glass, developed by researchers at MIT, virtually eliminates reflections, producing glass that is almost unrecognizable because of its absence of glare — and whose surface causes water droplets to bounce right off, like tiny rubber balls.
Submission + - CISPA Bill Obliterates Privacy Laws with Blank Check of Privacy Invasion (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: "At present, the government's ability to share data on its citizens is fairly restricted, insomuch as the various agencies must demonstrate cause and need. This has created a somewhat byzantine network of guidelines and laws that must be followed — a morass of red tape that CISPA is intended to cut through. One of the bill's key passages is a provision that gives private companies the right to share cybersecurity data with each other and with the government "notwithstanding any other provision of law." The problem with this sort of blank check clause is that, even if the people who write the law have only good intentions, it provides substantial legal cover to others who might not. Further, the core problem with most of the proposed amendments to the bill thus far isn't that they don't provide necessary protections, it's that they seek to bind the length of time the government can keep the data it gathers, or the sorts of people it can't collect data on, rather than protecting citizens as a whole. One proposed amendment, for example, would make it illegal to monitor protestors — but not other groups. It's not hard to see how those seeking to abuse the law could find a workaround — a "protestor" is just a quick arrest away from being considered a "possible criminal risk.""
Submission + - Drone drops GPS, navigation by vision alone. (suasnews.com)
garymortimer writes: "This technology, developed in the Autonomous Systems Laboratory at ETH Zurich, has two weighty advantages compared with GPS-based flying robots. First, it works both in the open air and in enclosed spaces. The second is that the flying robots can navigate where GPS fails; for example, due to the density of buildings. The camera-based technology allows for a more accurate positioning of the aircraft than is possible with GPS, explains the project coordinator, Davide Scaramuzza. Depending on the environment, GPS errors can be as great as 70 metres — much too imprecise when several flying robots are in close proximity to each other in the air."
Submission + - Codename, Theming Update Announced for Ubuntu 12.10 (arstechnica.com)
benfrog writes: "In a blog post, Mark Shuttleworth announced some changes for Ubuntu 12.10 (due in October), including the code name (Quantal Quetzal--no, really) and a theme update. Some other more meaningful announcements include a focus on the cloud in the server version and the lack of a transition from Upstart to systemd."
Submission + - Cold fusion experiment replicated in Italian university (leopoldopirelli.it) 2
An anonymous reader writes: Slashdot readers are familiar with the alleged cold fusion reactor developed by Italian inventor Andrea Rossi in recent months. While none of the demonstrations performed by Rossi have really managed to convince the international scientific community, the Leopoldo Pirelli university in Italy has announced it has developed a LENR reactor design all of their own, and plans to freely publish all details of the experiment in the upcoming day, as well as proposing to lend their prototype to scientists interested in validating their results. Several companies have also said they have developed LENR reactors of their own, and provide far more details on the process than Andrea Rossi did. What do Slashdot readers think ? is LENR/Cold fusion a scam or the next energy breakthrough ? and if it is real, what would be the implications for society and the world in general ?
IDEs With VIM Text Editing Capability? 193
An anonymous reader writes "I am currently looking to move from text editing with vim to a full fledged IDE with gdb integration, integrated command line, etc. Extending VIM with these capabilities is a mortal sin, so I am looking for a linux based GUI IDE. I do not want to give up the efficient text editing capabilities of VIM though. How do I have my cake and eat it too?"
Nuclear Subs 'Collide In Ocean' 622
Jantastic noted a BBC report saying "A Royal Navy nuclear submarine was involved in a collision with a French nuclear sub in the middle of the Atlantic. It is understood HMS Vanguard and Le Triomphant were badly damaged in the crash earlier this month. Despite being equipped with sonar, it seems neither vessel spotted the other, the BBC's Caroline Wyatt said."
Sea Sponge Extract Conquers Resistant Bacteria 132
Science News has an article on research into a compound found in a particular kind of sea sponge that seems to have the ability to restore antibiotics' effectiveness against resistant bacteria. The hope is that, since the compound is not itself deadly or even harmful to bacteria, it may skew the antibiotic-bacteria arms race in our favor. "Chemical analyses of the sponge's chemical defense factory pointed to a compound called algeferin. Biofilms, communities of bacteria notoriously resistant to antibiotics, dissolved when treated with fragments of the algeferin molecule. And new biofilms did not form. So far, the algeferin offshoot has, in the lab, successfully treated bacteria that cause whooping cough, ear infections, septicemia and food poisoning. The compound also works on... [MRSA] infections, which wreak havoc in hospitals. 'We have yet to find one that doesn't work,' says [one of the researchers]."
