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Submission + - Hubble turns 25 (hubble25th.org)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: The Hubble Telescope was launched on April 24, 1990, aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery from Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Currently it is flying about 340 miles over the Earth and circling us every 97 minutes

While the telescope itself is not really much to look at, that silver bucket is pure gold for astronomers

Scientists have used that vantage point to make ground-breaking observations about planets, stars, galaxies and to reveal parts of our universe we didn't know existed. The telescope has made more than 1 million observations and astronomers have used Hubble data in more than 12,700 scientific papers, "making it one of the most productive scientific instruments ever built," according to NASA

The truly spectacular images of the cosmo have also led to a scientific bounty that has far exceeded Hubble’s original goals: measuring how fast the universe is expanding; figuring out how galaxies evolve; and studying the gas that lies between galaxies

NASA aims to keep Hubble operating through at least 2020 so that it can overlap with its successor. The James Webb Space Telescope is due to launch in October 2018 and begin observations in mid-2019

The institute is reviewing scientists’ proposals for telescope time and mulling if some projects merit special attention as Hubble nears its end. Typically, the program receives about five requests for every hour of available telescope time

“There’s clearly there’s no lack of things to do with this observatory in its remaining years. The question is what do we do?” Sembach said at a recent American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle

More links @
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04...
http://www.space.com/29148-hub...
http://news.discovery.com/spac...
http://www.skynews.com.au/news...

Submission + - Astronaut snaps epic 'Star Trek' selfie in space (cnet.com)

Submitted by mpicpp
mpicpp writes: Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti pays tribute to a "Star Trek" icon with a cosplay photo in zero gravity.

Captain Kathryn Janeway led the USS Voyager through many harrowing lost-in-space adventures. She was the first female Starfleet captain to take the lead role in a "Trek" series. Janeway is fictional, but she is an inspiration to many women interested in space. European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, the first Italian woman in space, took a moment to celebrate Captain Janeway at around 250 miles above Earth.

Cristoforetti is currently aboard the International Space Station. She tweeted a selfie on April 17 while dressed in a "Star Trek: Voyager"-style red and black uniform with a purple turtleneck. The image shows her pointing a thumb at SpaceX's Dragon supply capsule.

Comment DAB/DAB+ is obsolete already (Score 2) 293

by Z00L00K (#49503221) Attached to: Norway Will Switch Off FM Radio In 2017

In addition to this DAB/DAB+ is obsoleted by internet streaming services.

Of course - it sucks to stream in a car, and the result may be that people won't be able to listen to radio in their cars at all and instead play their MP3s or whatever and miss out on traffic information and other important information.

I just wait for FM to be turned off and then a major event to happen where information is sent on the DAB+ net where nobody listens and then we have a lot of people driving into a closed off area.

Comment Re:add results to a blacklist (Score 1) 276

by Z00L00K (#49503201) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: What Features Would You Like In a Search Engine?

That's an interesting idea, and then we can get rid of all those useless "experts-exchange" links and similar.

What I also would like to have as a feature is the ability to search also for "special" characters. Google today seems to see "+" and a lot of other characters as spacing characters, but sometimes I really want to search for "a+b" as a term.

Submission + - Not drinking enough water has same effect as drink driving (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Having as few as five sips of water an hour while driving is equivalent to being over the drink drive limit. Drivers make more than twice as many mistakes when they are just mildly dehydrated, according to new research.

The study revealed that drivers who had only had 25ml of water an hour made more than double the number of mistakes on the road than those who were hydrated — the same amount as those who have been drink driving.

Submission + - Voting Machines used in Virginia fail security standards. (theguardian.com)

Submitted by amxcoder
amxcoder writes: An investigative Commission released in it's findings that Virginia voting machines that have been in use since 2002 have been found to be seriously lacking security protections from hacking. The Guardian reports that these machines have been found to have multiple sloppy security implementations that could allow these machines to be easily compromised. Some examples given were the use of WEP WiFi encryption with pass-phrases such as 'ABCDE', the use of administrator password 'admin', use of non-patched OS's. Jeremy Epstein, from SRI International, says “You could have broken into one of these with a very small amount of technical assistance...I could teach you how to do it over the phone. It might require an administrator password, but that’s okay, the password is ‘admin’.” Epstein also claims that if the machines had been hacked or tampered with, there would be no evidence of such activity as there are no logs being kept by the machines (another security flaw). Keep in mind that these brand machines were used in at least three presidential elections and were also used in other states for various periods of time.

Comment Re:Give the money to Elon Musk (Score 3, Interesting) 150

by Z00L00K (#49498861) Attached to: Incorrectly Built SLS Welding Machine To Be Rebuilt

Since I'm working in a large organization I have come to realize that the amount of documentation in many projects is huge - often so large that essential key information is masked away, or right out FUBARed.

It's also not uncommon that the customer requirements are "interpreted" by people with no technical knowledge whatsoever and they have a tendency to eradicate information that they think is "too technical", or information that they think drives unnecessary cost. Some people also have a tendency to rename things to a semantic that is to common people fuzzy. Even obfuscation occurs. At the same time documents are filled with a large number of pages listing old or discarded alternatives.

Comment Re:Why the hell ... (Score 3, Interesting) 119

by Z00L00K (#49478273) Attached to: Remote Code Execution Vulnerability Found In Windows HTTP Stack

It's easier that way - no need to be concerned with rights management. You can also get performance benefits from having it as a kernel driver.

But we also see the disadvantages - security holes.

I suspect that this also influences Windows XP, and it's quite interesting that a lot of ATMs and other embedded systems still uses XP.

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