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Government

Submission + - NSA targeting domestic computer systems (cnet.com)

Submitted by
Presto Vivace
Presto Vivace writes: "The National Security Agency's Perfect Citizen program hunts for vulnerabilities in "large-scale" utilities, including power grid and gas pipeline controllers, new documents from EPIC show.

The NSA's so-called Perfect Citizen program conducts "vulnerability exploration and research" against the computerized controllers that control "large-scale" utilities including power grids and natural gas pipelines, the documents show. The program is scheduled to continue through at least September 2014.

Perfect Citizen? Who thinks up these names?"
Technology

Submission + - Samsung reaches milestone for 14nm technology (pcmag.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Samsung announced a milestone on its development of 14nm manufacturing semiconductors, claiming that it offers major advantages to system-on-chip devices using in consumer electronic products (especially lower power). They recently taped out a Cortex-A7 processor with this technology, calling it a significant milestone for the fabless ecosystem.

Comment Short story reference ... any help here? (Score 1) 658

by BenBoy (#41501197) Attached to: If I had a time machine, I would first visit...
... darn it, can't remember ... a short story, about a guy exiled to the past. The point was made, (rather didactically, if I recall correctly), that nobody's going to be happy at any distance, temporally, from what he's used to. The future's incomprehensible, and the past more awful than we recall in the rose-tinted rear-view mirror. Ended, I think, with a recurring bit about a guy just trying to get home to ... Nagasaki? Hiroshima?

Comment Arduino (Score 1) 423

by BenBoy (#41283835) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Best Computer For a 7-Year Old?
Surprised that in so many pages of comments this isn't coming up more often. You can buy a whole lot of kit for 300 bucks, and it's got blinkenlights. Or, for that matter, any of a zillion SoC demo kits. Think outside the (beige) box ...
Science

Submission + - Species multiply as Earth heats up (nature.com)

Submitted by
DevotedSkeptic
DevotedSkeptic writes: "Rather than kicking off the expected cycles of extinction, periods of warming in Earth's history were accompanied by increased biodiversity, according to a report published this week. But this does not mean that the mass extinctions that are taking place today, with Earth warming at an unprecedented rate, will be reversed in future.

Researchers examined the number of known families of marine invertebrates, as well as sea-surface temperatures, over the course of 540 million years of Earth's history. They found that when temperatures were high, so was biodiversity. When temperatures fell, biodiversity also declined.

The results contradict previous work, including findings from lead author Peter Mayhew's group, that reported an inverse correlation between high temperatures and biodiversity.

The reason for the about-face, says Mayhew, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of York, UK, is that the earlier work measured fossil diversity by tallying the first and last appearances of each group of species, then assuming that the creatures existed only during the intervening years. This might sound logical, but overlooks the fact that some geological periods are better studied than others.

To correct this, the new study looked only at the well-sampled periods. And, instead of interpolating organisms' presence from origination and extinction dates, it merely tallied species groups present during each period.

Even so, given that climate change is generally viewed as disruptive, Mayhew admits it was a "big surprise" to find that eras of warming were accompanied by increases in biodiversity. The work also provided a solution to another puzzle, Mayhew says. Tropical ecosystems are known to be Earth's most diverse, and the tropics would be expected to expand during warm eras. Yet in the past these eras were thought to be species-poor compared with cooler ones. The new results resolve that contradiction.

Warming produces both extinctions and originations, and in the past the originations of new species have outstripped the loss of old ones, says Mayhew. But this does not mean that today's climate change will be beneficial.

"The rate of change is very important," Mayhew says. For diversity to rise, he explains, new species need to evolve. And that takes between thousands and millions of years — much slower than the rate at which extinctions are likely to occur with today's rapid change."
Ubuntu

Submission + - World's first Linux Ultrabook ships (pcworld.com)

Submitted by
Rozzin
Rozzin writes: "Everyone here has heard of Dell's `Project Sputnik', but a little manufacturer of strictly Linux computers in California appears to have beat them to the punch: PCWorld reports that ZaReason has started shipping the world's first Linux Ultrabook. And they've somehow managed to fit 16 GB of RAM and two solid-state drives inside, along with a 6-hour battery and 14" display. CEO Cathy Malmrose explains: "It's one of my pet peeves that the world's most robust, high-end software is so often housed in low-end, unappealing machines or, worse, tweaked to work on machines that were built for Windows. Our goal is to build hardware that more aptly matches the high-end aspects of FOSS"."
Moon

Submission + - Nuclear Powered LEDs Are Key to a Permanent Moon Base 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Bruce Dorminey writes that the nearside of the Moon will never resemble your Granddad’s back forty, but agriculture remains the key to living and working off-world and nuclear-powered state of the art LED technology is what will drive photosynthesis so necessary to provide both food and oxygen for future lunar colonists. Future long-term lunar residents will need to grow their food either in sub-lunar lava tubes or in greenhouses shielded with several meters of lunar surface regolith because the moon is regularly exposed to lethal doses of cosmic rays, solar coronal mass ejections and x-flares, "not to mention micro-meteorites that would be enough to wreck anyone’s corn." Cary Mitchell, a plant biologist at Purdue University, says that as lunar light sources, LEDs, powered by Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTG), not unlike the one powering the current Mars Science lab, would be cool, solid state and robust; lasting 50,000 hours at least, or some five times longer than conventional horticultural light sources. Mitchell and Gioia Massa have tested several cultivars of strawberries and found one variety, named Seascape, which seems to meet the requirements for becoming a space crop. "We're trying to think of the whole system — growing food, preparing it and getting rid of the waste," says Massa. "Strawberries are easy to prepare and there's little waste." LEDs will also allow growers to tailor their light spectrum to manipulate and maximize certain plant attributes, thereby increasing a plant’s given nutraceutical content. “For us, it’s not just sticking a plant under an LED,” says Kevin Folta, a horticulturalist at the University of Florida who conducts research in off-world farming. “It’s telling the plant how to grow by controlling the quantities and colors of lights we deliver. That’s a huge advantage in a lunar setting where you want lots of leaves on your lettuce.”"
Iphone

Submission + - Why is sharing your timetable harder than shearing a sheep? (studybreakapp.com)

Submitted by
StudyBreak!
StudyBreak! writes: "Hi from Sydney, Australia.
It’s back to school season again. New schedules, new timetables, new friends, new experiences. Fun right?
Except the part where you want to share your timetable with your friends!
And while we might be a long way away down here, even we could see there had to be a better way!

That's why we put together Study Break! for iPhone, with a nice Aussie twist.
Instead of sharing all the boring bits of your schedule, it automagically highlights all the free time you share with your friends.
You will know who is free on campus (and be able to meet up for a cheeky beer).

We tested it on our Prime Minister, Julia, so we know it's very simple to use.

  Fill in your schedule in seconds with just a swipe!
  Invite your friends to share their schedule via Facebook
  Scroll through your day to see what friends share the same free time as you
  Start a conversation using chat with one or a group of your friends!
  Need to change your schedule? No problem. Change with a swipe and all of your friends know!

This video shows the app in action! http://youtu.be/QBaJJyx8SAk

For more information visit studybreakapp.com
For high res visuals and press release visit studybreakapp.com/assets

Download Study Break! from the App Store here : http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/study-break!/id554101660?ls=1&mt=8

We are also on Facebook and Twitter @studybreakapp

Please note: We will not be responsible for missed classes or failed exams that result from spending too much time with your friends!"
News

Submission + - Iran, North Korea Team Up To Fight Malware Like Stuxnet, Flame

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: At the start of this month, news broke that Iran and North Korea have strengthened their ties, specifically by signing a number of cooperation agreements on science and technology. The two states signed the pact on Saturday, declaring that it represented a united front against Western powers. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, told Kim Yong Nam, North Korea’s ceremonial head of state, the two countries have common enemies and aligned goals. On Monday, security firm F-Secure weighed in on the discussion. The company believes Iran and North Korea may be interested in collaborating against government-sponsored malware attacks such as Duqu, Flame, and Stuxnet.

Comment only one? (Score 1) 1365

by BenBoy (#40915737) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: What's the Most Depressing Sci-fi You've Ever Read?
Ward Moore: Bring the Jubilee, or Greener than you Think. In the latter, the world is brought to an end by a feckless fool, in the former, one man's world is ended when he fouls up a critical historical event and winds up creating an alternate. Tucker's Year of the Quiet Sun, a very lonely ending. Greg Bear's Forge of God gave me actual nightmares over a period of weeks. The utter inevitability of the ending of the world (the Neutronium/Anti-neutronium timer) gave me the notion of what it'd be like to have untreatable cancer.

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