Comment Re:sysadmins uniquely qualified (Score 1) 78
So will the lack of satellite connectivity for over 12 hrs per day.
Comment Re:And they're hiring. (Score 1) 78
Been there, done that, loved it.
Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory At South Pole 78
Scryer writes "Construction of the Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory was completed on 18 Dec at the South Pole. It's now the world's largest neutrino detector, with 5,160 optical sensors on 86 strings embedded two kilometers below the National Science Foundation's Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. It has been gathering data since construction started, and will be fully operational after the last strings freeze in March 2011."
Comment The missing question? (Score 2, Funny) 245
Question 0: How do you set up a website to survive the Slashdot effect?
Submission + - Windows XP Dips; IE9 Leads Beta; Chrome Continues! (tech18.com)
An anonymous reader writes: October Market Share is out by Net Applications and Stat Counter. Microsoft XP dips below 60%, IE9 started leading Beta market with Chrome running on
Submission + - Google Sues The US For Only Considering Microsoft (techdirt.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Late last week, Google sued the US government for putting out a Request For Quotation for the messaging needs of the Department of the Interior that specified only Microsoft solutions would be considered. Google apparently had spent plenty of time talking to DOI officials to understand their needs and make sure they had a solution ready to go — and were promised that there wasn't a deal already in place with Microsoft... and then the RFQ came out. Google protested, but the protest was dismissed, with the claim that Google was "not an interested party."
Oxford Expands Library With 153 Miles of Shelves 130
Oxford University's Bodleian Library has purchased a huge £26m warehouse to give a proper home to over 6 million books and 1.2 million maps. The Library has been housing the collection in a salt mine, and plans on transferring the manuscripts over the next year. "The BSF will prove a long-awaited solution to the space problem that has long challenged the Bodleian," said its head librarian Dr Sarah Thomas. "We have been running out of space since the 1970s and the situation has become increasingly desperate in the last few years." The 153 miles of new shelf space will only be enough for the next 20 years however because of the library's historic entitlement to a copy of every volume published in the UK.
Firefighters Let House Burn Because Owner Didn't Pay Fee 2058
Dthief writes "From MSNBC: 'Firefighters in rural Tennessee let a home burn to the ground last week because the homeowner hadn't paid a $75 fee. Gene Cranick of Obion County and his family lost all of their possessions in the Sept. 29 fire, along with three dogs and a cat. "They could have been saved if they had put water on it, but they didn't do it," Cranick told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. The fire started when the Cranicks' grandson was burning trash near the family home. As it grew out of control, the Cranicks called 911, but the fire department from the nearby city of South Fulton would not respond.'"
Cryptome Hacked; All Files Deleted 170
eldavojohn writes "Over the weekend, the whistle blowing site Cryptome was hacked and vandalized, resulting in all 54,000 files being deleted and two days worth of submissions lost. Cryptome reported that its EarthLink e-mail account was compromised in ways unknown, and once the attacker was inside there, they were able to request a new password from the administration console for Cryptome at their hosting provider, Network Solutions. Once the attacker had that password, they deleted the ~7 GB of data that Cryptome hosted in around 54,000 files. Cryptome was able to eventually restore the site, as they keep backups ready for cases like this and stated that they 'do not trust our ISP, email provider and officials to tell the truth or protect us.'"
Microsoft IE Browser Share Dips Below 50% 297
alphadogg writes "Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which has dominated the Web browser market since blowing by Netscape in the late 1990s, last month fell below the 50% market share level for the first time in years. IE's share of the worldwide market fell to 49.87% in September, down from 51.3% in August and 58.4% a year ago. It is followed by Firefox, which increased its share slightly from 30.09% to 31.5% and Google Chrome, which grabbed 11.54% share, more than triple its September 2009 share, according to market watcher StatCounter."
Why the World Is Running Out of Helium 475
jamie writes "The US National Helium Reserve stores a billion cubic meters of helium, half the world supply, in an old natural gasfield. The array of pipes and mines runs 200 miles from Texas to Kansas. In the name of deficit reduction, we're selling it all off for cheap. Physics professor and Nobel laureate Robert Richardson says: 'In 1996, the US Congress decided to sell off the strategic reserve and the consequence was that the market was swelled with cheap helium because its price was not determined by the market. The motivation was to sell it all by 2015. The basic problem is that helium is too cheap. The Earth is 4.7 billion years old and it has taken that long to accumulate our helium reserves, which we will dissipate in about 100 years. One generation does not have the right to determine availability forever.' Another view is The Impact of Selling the Federal Helium Reserve, the government study from 10 years ago that suggested the government's price would end up being over market value by 25% — but cautioned that this was based on the assumption that demand would grow slowly, and urged periodic reviews of the state of the industry."
Submission + - How to Pour Champagne Like a Scientist (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit writes: What's the best way to keep your bubbly bubbly? Keep the champagne bottle tilted and the temperature low. Researchers compared the dissolved carbon dioxide content of champagne poured into the middle of an upright glass to the same champagne poured down the side of a glass held at an angle. The contents of the tipped glass were about 8% fizzier than those of the upright glass, the team reports, and carbon dioxide loss decreased as temperatures dropped. Though the findings may seem obvious, this is the first time they've been shown chemically.
Comment Re:So it's possible after all... (Score 1) 98
I worked in the same building in 03/04 and 05/06, though the last few months it was just to clear stuff before they demolished it. The commute from my room upstairs was nice and short - a bonus.
As cramped as it was, it was still great to work there.
Comment Re:Remote, But Not Remotest (Score 1) 98
Having done so several times, yes, between about late-October/early-November and mid-February, you can "just fly" to the South Pole. The trip can take as little as 5 days, but 8-10 days is more ordinary. I've been around for periods in the summer where nothing came and went from McMurdo (the logistics hub at the coast, and one node on the trip) for 10 days in a row (and that's not the record).
So for 1/3 of the year, you can get on a succession of airplanes and, weather permitting, get to the Pole in 1-2 weeks. For 2/3 of the year, it's a major, major undertaking to get there (try landing a plane at -85F in the dark... they did that in April, 2001; the other "mid-winter rescues" were after the sun was up but before the regular summer season started).
Even once you are there, it's not exactly a stroll in the park - the data center is a hike out from the main station (15 minutes when it's light, a lot longer in the dark). Yes, we walk. In the winter it gets too cold for weeks at a time to safely operate machinery (below -60F it had better be important, below -85F it had better be an emergency).
Comment Re:Muons, not neutrinos (Score 3, Informative) 165
Not all the neutrinos, just nearly all. The moon is large enough to catch a statistically discernible (to IceCube) amount of neutrinos, casting a "neutrino shadow" on the Earth.
